Into The Midst of Wolves

Sunday, June 12th, 2005
Pentecost +4
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 9:35-10:23

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that town. 16 ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

It’s been an interesting week. In part really, events over the last 48 hours, but in many ways, it’s been a memorable week.

As I’m sure most of you know, I will be flying out of Richmond in the morning to spend most of the day tomorrow traveling, but the following 10 days working on the Mission for Romualda, in Chimalhuacan, outside Mexico City.

When I first turned to the passage for this morning, it triggered the thought that maybe, just maybe, this morning was to be about what it means for me to be stepping out of what has become my ‘comfort zone’ in terms of ministry experience, and step out into something new, something untested, something … that I can get my hands dirty with -- LITERALLY.

You need to know something about me – something ELSE about me. As the time for this flight approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about … mortality. About how fragile life is and about how many things could go wrong.

Friday, Leslie and I had just finished lunch, and while she went to pick up the kids from school, I drove on home to work on preparations for the upcoming time away. As I came down route 3, just up here at the bottom of the dip, where Foley Neck Rd. comes out, I saw a white van stuck in the ditch between the Queen’s driveway and our cemetery road, nose down. A woman was pushing against the front, while the driver of the van was trying to gun it out of the ditch. I came on down to this closer entrance, and turned back down the road and pulled in behind the other woman’s car and began to help. To make a long story short, we didn’t get very far. Just a few minutes later, a couple (the Balls) in a pickup truck pulled in and got out. They pulled a big chain out of the bed of the pickup and within a few minutes had managed to pull the minivan out of the ditch.

Somewhere along in there I had called Soozin to ask her if she was in a place where she could bring their small pickup to do the same thing, and after we got it out, I got back on the phone standing on the side of the road to let her know that she didn’t need to come. As my call was connecting, I heard a fairly loud “whump”, and looked to my left, towards Foley Neck, and saw a full-size white ford pickup barreling down on me, having slammed across the ditch with one of it’s wheels, just in time to take two quick steps back and let it pass in front of me by what seemed like just a few inches.

The truck kept going and ran down into the ditch that runs along route 3 in front of the cemetery, and finally came to a stop about 30 or 40 feet up the rise towards the parsonage. I ran up to the driver’s side to see if HE was okay, and as I did, the man’s wife stepped out of the passenger side, while he squeezed out of the driver’s side door – it was hard to open, since there wasn’t much room for him to open it with the truck kind of settled down in the ditch as it was.

It turned out that they were just returning from a dialysis session, and the man had suffered some momentary spell that kept him from driving the truck as it came down the incline towards Foley Neck. The husband of the couple that stopped to help with the minivan got in the truck and drove them the rest of the way home. I followed and then brought him back to his wife and their truck. We said our goodbyes and thank you’s and went on about our respective ways, but it was probably a good half hour if not a little longer before my heart settled down to a normal rhythm.

Then yesterday afternoon, I got a call from the ER over at Riverside Tappahannock, asking that I come over to interpret for a man who was involved in a single car accident up in Westmoreland County. There were 4 men in the car, heading from Manassas to Westmoreland State Park for an afternoon of fishing and relaxing by the water, when the car drifted off the side of the road onto some gravel, the driver overcorrected, and spun the car around, and ended up slamming into a tree on the other side of the road. The man in the front passenger seat was thrown part of the way out of the car and was caught between the car and the tree and was pronounced dead at the scene.

It would have been a normal workday for him, but the bricklayers he assisted had gone on a drinking binge on Friday night, and didn’t report to work yesterday morning, so they decided to take advantage of the unexpected day off to come down to the water and do a little fishing.

The man I was called to interpret for was the dead man’s brother. Within a few minutes of arriving at the hospital, I had to tell him that his brother had not survived the accident.

In a split second, the day had gone from being a relaxed getaway to a family tragedy.

Some of you may know Teresa Williams, from Beale Memorial, Hutt Williams’ wife. She was third on the scene, and stopped to help and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening with the two younger men – both at the scene of the accident and at the ER in Tappahannock.

*****

Jesus chose twelve apostles, and then he sent them out to do work. This work was not religious in the sense of leading people to prayer and good works, but it was very religious nonetheless. The apostles were charged with changing people’s lives, removing the obstacles that kept people from living full lives. They were told to cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the leprous, expel demons. Their task, in other words, was to make a difference in people’s lives.

*****
Teresa was on the scene within seconds of the accident. I was called at about 4:15, left the house about 10 minutes later, and arrived at the hospital a few minutes before 5. It was about 5:15 when I was telling Juan that Polo didn’t make it. We left the hospital with the three men about 9 O’clock and drove the Garner’s Produce stand to meet up with Juan’s son Juan, HIS wife, the driver’s wife and a couple of other family members and friends who’d come down.

As we stood there in the dark, going over what was going to happen over the next few hours, and recapping the care instructions for Juan’s broken wrist, there were tears of both relief and sorrow. The younger people were all friends of Polo, the man who’d died, leaving a wife and 2 children back in Mexico. There was a palpable sense of relief, of course, in that THEY had been able to basically walk away from the accident with hardly a scratch.

In the course of the afternoon I’d had a chance to answer the men’s questions about who I was and what I was doing there. At the end of the evening Jorge, the driver, came up to Teresa and me, away from the others, and tried to express his thanks to us for what we’d done.

*****

What difference does our practice of Christianity make in the lives of people? Are the suffering and dying better off because we follow Christ? Are the hungry and homeless finding their lives improved because we follow Christ? Do children have a brighter future because we follow Christ?

It’s still early, but in the lives of those three men, I would venture to guess that what they saw in Teresa’s presence and manner, her joking and loving, and caring and hugging and crying … is going to make a huge impact on them. It is not for me to say what impact I might have had on them.

As we began to say goodbye, I explained to the rest of the family that I was a Pastor, and I asked them if it would be okay if we prayed together before they got on the road. As we stood between the cars and prayed, and cried and hugged I realized that though we may live our lives as unto God in a daily routine, it is in the times of tragedy and despair that we can make that light shine oh so much more brightly.

Let’s pray.

Love and Sacrifice


Sunday, June 5th, 2005
Pentecost 3
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Hosea 5:15-6:6, Matthew 9:9-13

Hosea 5:15-6:6

15I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: 1"Come, let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. 1After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth." 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. 5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Matthew 9:9-13

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ 12But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

Yesterday, while driving up to Fredericksburg, I was listening to a program on National Public Radio out of Washington, and the program was ‘This American Life.” The program has a format that is infinitely variable. The producers apparently ask for people to tape their stories – the stories of their American lives – and send them in.

Yesterday’s was by a woman who had been raised in the Christian faith, and was visited one day by a couple of Mormon missionaries. In the course of their visit, she began to realize that some of the things they believed seemed a little “different”. That prompted her to begin to dig a little deeper into her own faith, her own scriptures.

Over the course of several months of attending Bible Studies led by her parish priest, the woman became less and less impressed with the stories of the Bible. As they delved into the New Testament, she began to find things in the life and words of Jesus that didn’t match the Jesus she grew up loving.

By the end of the piece, she came to the point of discounting scripture altogether, as well as the notion of God.

It was a terribly sad thing to listen to.

The truth of the matter is that there are parts of scripture that are difficult, to put it mildly. I think that’s why there has been such a controversy between people who WILL NOT take those passages literally and people who WILL NOT take the Bible as ANYTHING BUT literally.

Both sides of the issue have extreme and not-so-extreme proponents. I don’t really want to get into a discussion about inerrancy – a word that is nowhere in scripture and a term that the writers of scripture made no claim to. So let’s just leave it at this: there are passages of scripture over which we will disagree. Any two people in this room this morning, however much alike they think they may be, will most likely be able to find something in here (hold up the Bible) over which they disagree.

So my question to us this morning is painted with a broad brush: what is the overall theme of what we call the Bible, our Holy Scriptures? If you were asked to name the recurring theme of the Bible, what would you say?

Is it judgment? Is it the wrath of God? Is it genocide? Is it justification for slavery, or fraud, or rape, or the killing of women, children and babies, much less men? I’m asking because we can find each of those in the Bible.

We can talk all around them, and we can interpret them in figurative ways, we can dig into them and find the kernel of truth that still applies today on some conceptual level, and set aside the actual facts involved, sometimes. We can talk about differing cultures and changes in the understanding of the way the world works, and all kinds of things, but after all that is said and done, we still have the text. We still have the words. We still have the context and the passage, and the language that spells out on the face of it what becomes for us such a difficult thing to deal with.

So I guess my first question leads to this question: what is our Christian faith about? Is it about knowing the Bible inside and out? Is it about understanding it all? About being able to interpret it all? Is it about having all the answers?

I think Jesus was saying no.

Human nature hasn’t changed much at all, if any, in the two thousand years since Jesus walked among us. As we’ve seen in other passages on other occasions, Jesus was constantly dealing with people wanting to attain … whatever you want to call it – salvation, righteousness, redemption, holiness, by DOING something. At the time, it was meeting the letter of the law – following every jot and tittle and meeting the requirements of righteousness by offering sacrifices – animals, birds, grain, whatever.

Paul Colbert, an Episcopal Priest who serves two Filipino congregations in Las Vegas, says it this way:

Sacrifice is linked to judgment and correcting wrongs. At root, our theology shows us that while we were created good, we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Reconciliation with God is needed to restore our relationship. The ways and means of that reconciliation are what continue to trip us up and often lead us further astray.

Biblical sacrifice of animals or other offerings was intended to be atonement to restore broken relationships, restoring justice and righteousness. Those of us in a modern or post-modern mindset balk at this concept as outmoded and too bloody. We also use the word "sacrifice" in different ways in our language, ranging from the traditional sense, to a voluntary yielding of something we value, to forcing someone else to yield what they value. With disagreements rampant in the church, various factions appear ready to sacrifice the opposing point of view or party. Ignoring Paul's description of us all being part of the body, we would sacrifice a limb thinking it has caused us to sin.

For Christians, the death of Jesus on the cross is the sacrifice that restores our relationship with God. Too often we have a hard time accepting that gift to us and continue to try and make our own sacrifices to earn favor with God. By accepting that gift of love and mercy, we can continue to act with love and mercy in our own lives. We can accept the godly judgment that comes our way, knowing that the mercy of Christ has restored the relationship.

We as humans are fundamentally uncomfortable with not knowing. How many times have you heard, or even had the thought yourself – after having had some diagnostic testing done – the test was easy, it’s the not knowing – the waiting – that is hard.

We would much rather choose to DO something – occupy ourselves – fill our days with busyness – even business that is in an altogether Holy endeavor, than to sit down and heed the words of Jesus to “go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy (or steadfast love in Hosea), not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.”

Let’s break that down: when Jesus quotes the passage from Hosea, he is quoting God’s words – God is the one that is saying “I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice”. God didn’t say “I require that in order to commune with me you maintain yourselves pure by doing thus and such, that you not eat pork, that you not walk more than so many feet on a given Sabbath, that you cook your foods ‘this’ way, that you do not touch people who’ve done this and this and that … “ No. None of that. God uses a relational term. God wants our steadfast love. He just finished saying that the love he WAS getting from the people of Judah was “like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.” God loves us, and wants us to love back just as strongly – just as steadfastly.

So where does that leave Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

When we give up the idea that we can somehow attain that communion by SHOWING God how righteous we’ve been, or we are … by SHOWING God all the good we’ve done … we’ve missed the point. God wants our hearts to be fired by God’s love for us – and our love for God. God wants us to BE children of his. That’s all. Not that God wants us to STOP doing stuff – things get DONE that way – but God wants us to understand that he wants our hearts more, he wants us to BE in relationship with him MORE.

Let’s pray.