Sermon for August 14

Pentecost 10-C

8/14/22 St. John

Luke 12:4-56

 

Today the prophet Jeremiah is trying to light a fire under the people of Israel and it’s not working real great. This is about 600 years before Jesus’ time, and the kings of Israel are not doing a good job in general; they are false shepherds, wolves tearing at the flock as Jesus might say. And now even bigger trouble is coming. They are surrounded the Assyrians and the Babylonians  and the Egyptians, three powerful empires, and Jeremiah has been trying to warn them saying there’s going to be big trouble, we are in for a world of hurt and we need to face it.

 

But nobody wants to hear it. They would rather hear good news from the false prophets who tell them that everything is going to be fine.  I mean,who doesn’t want to be told everything is fine – it’s a human tendency. That’s why real prophet become martyrs?

 

Today Lord is telling the people again that the true prophet, Jeremiah, speaks a word from God that is not easy, not comfortable, but it is true. It’s like a fire God says and it’s gonna burn. But they need to hear it because it’s true. It’s going to break Israel like a hammer breaks rocks. But they have to hear it because it’s the truth.

 

And it was true: in spite of the Jeremiah’s prophecy Israel continued to be steamrolled by the Assyrians, Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians, Jerusalem was torn down,  the people taken into captivity. Things only got better for the when all these empires around them ate each other up, which Jeremiah also prophesied, the people got to come home again.

 

I’m telling all this history, as best I can to point out that all this suffering became a key part of the story of the redemption of the people of Israel. For some reason it was part of God’s plan for salvation. Their chosen-ness did not mean they weren’t going to suffer. In fact, their redemption would come through suffering.

 

I have to admit, it is a little bit ironic that in last Sunday’s readings, God’s word to the people was “Do not be afraid.” Today the word would seem to be in Jeremiah and our gospel reading “Be afraid!” because there is going to be trouble.

 

So we have quickly pivoted to the time to acknowledge and face some of the pain that come as a part of our lives of faith, not to lose hope, but a challenge to more mature and deeper understanding of our call. And we know that there are some preachers, whole swaths of Christians, who believe that salvation means success and happiness and stability in our lives.

 

In today’s Gospel reading we see Jesus confront that kind of thinking, using similar language to Jeremiah: Do not think I came to bring peace to the earth, not but I tell you, rather, division. I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

 

Jesus is on his to Jerusalem and he knows great agony awaits him and his disciples. And he calls his disciples’ are called to take up their crosses too, to find their redemption through the cross as well.

 

And when I talk about finding redemption through suffering I’m not talking about some weird idea that we should bring pain on ourselves or others. That has been a trap that the church has fallen into over the ages. But just that every life does have suffering, it just comes to us without trying, in fact every life ends in death. I don’t know why God designed it that but we can’t escape it. What the cross shows us though that God is willing to suffer; to be Emmanuel, God with us, among us, in us, to show that suffering and death are not the end of the story. And that’s why Jesus tells us and we can tell our children not to be afraid. But we have to pass through the fire.

 

Thanks to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we have term for that and it’s called “The Cost of Discipleship.” You remember, Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and a seminary professor in German in the 30’s. Seeing what was happening to the Jews and Roma and LGBTQ people and others he raised a warning. He was a prophet like Jeremiah and even Jesus the ultimate prophet. Bonhoeffer said of course God’s grace is free – but it’s not cheap. And he said to turn our backs on their others’ suffering and still think we are ok with God was “cheap grace.” No, grace is costly. And costly grace means we bear not only our own but one another’s burdens, we suffer and sacrifice not for no reason but because of the sacrifice Christ made for us.

 

That word is a burning fire Jesus came with; not the peace of looking around and saying I’m ok with God I don’t have to suffer, even if these guys do. That’s cheap grace. Bonhoeffer, by the way, live his faith by working as a spy for the allies and even participating in plot to assassinate Hitler. He ended up in a concentration camp and was executed. The fate of a prophet. A martyr for the sake of the gospel.

 

The good news, of course, is that through all the suffering, the groans of all creation as Paul says, that are inevitable, there awaits peace and joy and unity with   God.

 

And in the meantime, as our reading from Hebrews tells us, we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witness,” a mystical body of saints who have been on this journey and are cheering us on as we run the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.