Christians are called to testify to what we know to be
true, but we like to shrink from responsibilities that bring discomfort. The truth
can confront lies that may be swirling around families, churches, and
nations intended to keep the boat from rocking.
I knew a pastor once who said she welcomed conflict
because it brought light and clarity. Amen to that! A sigh runs through the
crowd when the elephant has been named or the divergent perspectives on an
issue are aired. And we can welcome the consequences of truth revealed when we are
standing on sure ground: the place God gives us as in baptism, the identity as
children of God.
The sword cuts through nonsense as well as falsehood.
Baptism mends the brokenness.
Matthew 10:24-39
Jesus sends out the Twelve to
announce and enact the good news that the kingdom of heaven is near. His
instructions concerning the mission of the Twelve launch the “Mission
Discourse.”
. . . Having just told the
disciples that they will be persecuted “because of my name” (v 22), Jesus tells
them that the student should not expect to receive better treatment than the
teacher nor the slave better than the master did. Three times the disciples are
urged not to “be afraid.” At worst, their treatment can mean death. But a worse
fate awaits those who deny the message: the destruction of both body and soul
in Gehenna (the New Testament image of hell as the burning garbage pit in the
Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem).
In spite of being the prince of
peace, Jesus has not come to bring peace but a sword of division. Even families
will turn against one another because of him. This is not his intention, but it
is the consequence of hostile resistance to the Gospel. Matthew's Gospel is
written after persecution of Christians has begun. Following Jesus touches off
conflict between people who were once as close as families. We see this
happening in the world today when people convert to Christianity. – Frank C.
Senn
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Jeremiah's fifth personal lament. .
. was chosen to correlate with the Gospel reading, which speaks of the
persecution that the Twelve will experience on their mission. Because Jeremiah
preached God's word of doom in Judah, which clung to God's promise in the
Davidic covenant (though without a corresponding obedience), he was ridiculed
and abused. Here he complains to God that God has “enticed” and “overpowered”
him (literally “seduced” and “raped”), forcing him to deliver a message he
personally did not like. He was made a “laughingstock” because he had to shout
out, “Violence and destruction!” He prays that a violent God will pay back his
violent enemies with violence. Like psalms of lament, this lament of Jeremiah
ends with praise of God for delivering his prophet from his enemies.
To be a bearer of God's word means
to suffer rejection. This is tricky. It has been said that the offense of God's
word should not be confused with the possible offensiveness of the preacher.
Yet, as the example of Jeremiah shows, the message cannot always be separated
from the messenger. The offense of the message makes the messenger offensive. –
Frank C. Senn
Romans 6:1b-11
Writing to a church he did not
found, Paul could not have assumed what the Roman church understood about
baptism. The congregation was both gentile and Jewish. Gentile believers might
have believed that baptism effected a mystical union with the deity along the
lines of a mystery religion. Jewish believers might have regarded baptism as a
turning point in one's life. Paul has deftly combined both views: baptism joins
one to Christ and marks a turning point in one's life. – Frank C. Senn
Frank C. Senn, an
ELCA pastor who served Immanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston, Illinois, from
1990-2013, has also taught liturgy courses at a number of seminaries and
divinity schools and published thirteen books mostly on the history of the
liturgy.
Homily Service 41, no. 3 (2008): 63-74.
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