Sunday Sermon - The Rev Joshua Daniel, PH D

[00:00:00] Speaker A: To Matthew. [00:00:01] Speaker B: Glory to you, Lord Christ [00:00:07] Speaker A: Jesus said to the twelve apostles, a disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master. It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Bezeble, how much more will they malign those of his household? So have no fear of them. For nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, yet not one of will fall to the ground apart from your father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it. And those who lose their life for my sake will find it. The Gospel of the Lord. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Praise to you, Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and redeemer. Amen. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Children ages 3 to 10 are welcome to leave right now and go with [00:03:14] Speaker B: Adeline for story time. Well, speaking of your mind wandering in church, sometimes my mind wanders in church. I don't know if anybody else has this problem or if it's just me, but just in case your mind was slipping just a bit during those readings, you missed a couple doozies. The two hair raising stories today, both about families, one about Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, about a family breaking up. One of those stories that the more you know about it, the more complicated it gets. The other comes directly from Jesus. He tells his disciples that he came not to bring peace But a sword not to unite families, but divide them. These are the stories we get on Father's Day. All right, Jesus, we're jumping in. Okay. I'll say that family, in fairness, comes up a lot in scripture, and I think it's partly true, because family just comes up a lot in life. The idea of family is one of the most traditional ways we have of defining who we are. It's something at the very core of how many of us make it through the world. If I'm really trying to get to know someone that I've recently met, there are a couple basic puzzle pieces I try to map out. Where are you from? What's your family connections? Parents, children, who's alive? How old? Where do they live? But defining family, defining family isn't always easy. Families are sometimes about blood relationships, about who's connected to who by birth. But just as frequently, family is about who we've chosen to be with, who we're married to, who we've committed to living life through. We do lots of weird defining here. One of my favorites is when people claim to be related to historic, famous figures like George Washington. The thing about that is if you're going to say you're related to George Washington, you're also related to about. Of the entire American population, which means you're related to people who've, like, committed terrible crimes and people who like pineapple on their pizza. You know, like really shady characters. When my family gets together, the way that we often define ourselves is by remembering the funniest stories we have on each other. We remember the time when we had Thanksgiving five hours late because someone, no need to say who, forgot to turn on the oven, grew up in Arkansas, and my mom's sister and her family lived in Colorado. Several summers we traveled by car to visit them. For one of those trips, my mom had packed several trash bags of old clothes to take to my younger cousins. But in the middle of Kansas, we realized that my dad had packed the actual bags of trash. And like, I cannot tell you how years we've spent laughing at that. We took random bags of trash 400 miles and then dumped them in Dodge City, Kansas. You know, that happened. This is often how we define ourselves. When weddings go off the rails, when a relative says something equal parts embarrassing, hilarious, and rude, we define ourselves as a family. Sometimes when we travel together through great moments of pain and loss, there are different pictures of family, and we see them also in the Bible. Jesus, for instance, talks about family all the time. Today we hear him saying something startling about families that he has come to divide them. Not peace, but the sword. But at other times, we see Jesus fiercely defending families. Jesus upholds the commandment to honor father and mother as one of the most important aspects of faith. He does both. He upholds traditional values of the family and at the same time upends some of those traditional values. Paying close attention to these verses, I'd say what holds them together is Jesus singular care for those people in our midst who are vulnerable and in need of special attention. In his time, there was an unnerving trend for adult children to abandon their responsibilities of care for their aging parents. And even worse than that, some people used those teachings about honoring your father and mother to justify doing the reverse. No, Jesus said, God never gives you an excuse to be negligent to the poor and the needy in your midst. Rather, just the opposite. God calls us to seek them out, to look with new eyes of compassion and mercy. But Jesus also speaks in radical ways about family. He was often in conflict with his own family. There are a few famous incidents when Jesus family tries to hold him back or redirect him when they ask him to tone it down a bit. I'm in sympathy. One of these times it was with Mary. I'm in sympathy with Mary here. The knives were out for Jesus very early on in his ministry. And I sympathize with Mary not wanting to see her son get murdered. This is why Jesus says that he has no family except for those who are willing to do the will of God. Far from asking us to accept only traditional views of family, Jesus tells us that our true family is defined by anyone, by anyone who's willing to do good. True family is defined only by those not just related by birth, but rather connected to our true family of goodness, to anyone who loves goodness. And what is goodness here? Jesus echoes what we find in the prophet Micah. Micah says it clearly and directly. He is told you, o mortal, what is good? What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly? What is goodness? It is loving kindness, walking humbly, doing justice. This is in part what has led us to call this group of people our church, a family. What binds us together? What brings us here? This morning we gather to worship God, to proclaim our hope, to offer up our grief and sadness through music and prayer, to ground ourselves once a week in these deeper truths and mysteries. And this is also why Jesus speaks severely. Sometimes there are forces out there that try to convince us that what we're doing here this morning isn't worth it. That try to lure us away from paths of mercy and peace. There are forces out there that suggest that some families that don't look traditional, that aren't cookie cutter images, aren't really families at all. That some families don't deserve compassion and mercy. When religious and political authorities in Jesus time use the Bible to advocate ideas like this, this is when Jes Most often loses it. Using the word of God to distort the fundamental message of God. Attempting to turn us away from compassion to ugliness, from love to hate. Jesus responds with intensity. He uses words that intend to to shake us out of complacency. Words that demand our attention and focus. Jesus says, I have not come to bring peace, but the sword come not to set. I've come to set a man against his father. Keep watch. Listen, pray. It's as if Jesus says, many will use my words to lead you down another path. Be vigilant. The way of love, the way of compassion. These ways of living are hard. And the temptation to think that we are justified in giving up on them or that somehow they don't really apply to everyone. We will face that temptation in new ways again and again and again. Okay, let me try to just speak as plainly as I can here. Defining what a family is is hard in part because being a family is hard. Your own family think of things that have put strain on it. Big life decisions where two family members see the right answer in different ways. In a family of three children, this never happens at our house. When one family member struggles with doing what they know is right, with keeping promises, with drug abuse. Family is easy in the moment and very hard over time. The same is true for church. To knock us out of complacency, Jesus uses extreme language. Value nothing over the way of love. Even the most traditional things like who you're related to. Brother, sister, mother. We can use these things to justify by committing acts we know are wrong. But the way of love, Finding a lost family member and forgiving them, holding our children tightly, praying together, seeking out those in need of compassion. Do not put these things off. Fight for them. Guard them fiercely. Do not equivocate. Risk much. Be willing to offend in these things. Live exuberantly. Do not put off today getting yourself back to the way of love. Today. Ask for forgiveness today. Ask for help today. Give your life over to the great mystery and power of God. Amen.