George
Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, once performed a rather strange
procedure on a wasp. The wasp was enjoying jam left on Orwell’s dinner plate.
The writer carefully picked up his dinner knife and proceeded to cut the wasp
in half. He then watched in amazement as the wasp, unaffected, continued to
suck on the jam. Only when it attempted to fly did the wasp discover that it
had sustained a lethal wound.
Many
in our day, as Orwell observed of his own contemporaries, live like the
truncated wasp. Existence comes down to so much “sucking jam.”
Roots are close to the surface; lives lack depth. Many of us, like that wasp,
are half instead of whole. No deep sense of purpose pervades our days,
permeating our lives with meaning, or urging us into the future. We “get by”
and “make do.”
In
this situation lies precisely what the church offers that psychotherapy cannot.
Faith is a flight plan for life, while psychotherapy is about mid-point
corrections. Psychotherapy can help people adjust and make changes; faith
engages the ultimate human issues of meaning and purpose and destiny. Jesus’
invitation to “take up the cross” is his formula for meaning,
purpose, and destiny.
All
of Matthew chapter 10 is one long discourse; Jesus talking to his disciples. He
tells them to take up their cross; that they will have to loose their lives if
they want to truly find life, that they will be hated, just as he is hated;
that they will be the cause of family strife; that they will be like sheep
among wolves.
It
sounds like a lousy plan to me, but there it is, “pick up your cross.” This is
the place where one usually makes a comment like, “we would expect something
easy and pleasurable, but instead we get the course and difficult.” But I
am not sure that is true, I don’t know if we really expect great callings to be
callings to the easy and pleasurable. In fact, I think we know better.
People
whom we number among history’s greatest are all people who overcame great odds
and accomplished in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Whether it be fighting
for civil rights, exploration, conquest, religious transformation, political
leadership, or even artists, writers, and great mathematicians: such people we
admire did not have it easy. Their roads were hard.
We
know that steel is made hard and strong in the searing furnace. We know humans
need challenges and difficulties, or else there is no growth, no creativity,
and no strength. This does not mean everyone looks for challenges and
difficulties. And humans will always think of paradise as a place where there
are no worries, no difficulties, and no work – but I think we know that without
effort and exertion, there can be no greatness.
So
does it really surprise us when the Messiah of God calls on us to “pick up a
cross” instead of “sit down on a couch”? I don’t think we find it
surprising at all. That doesn’t mean we want a cross. But it doesn’t surprise
us. No person or people have ever been called to greatness by being invited to
walk an easy road.
Chapter
10 of Matthew is a discourse of Jesus to his disciples. But it is context
specific. Jesus is commissioning and sending them away to preach, teach, and
evangelize. These are their marching orders. They are being prepared for the
hardships they will have to face. It is important to realize that evangelism is
the context, because evangelism is something we don’t do very well anymore.
If
we have found something that gives our lives depth and meaning, it will be
difficult to keep quiet about it. But if it is easy to keep quiet about our
faith, perhaps it is because we are like the wasp on George Orwell’s plate,
quietly, or busily, eating jam not realizing we are only half of what we could
be.
Fewer
and fewer Christians are willing to witness to their faith with words. A lot of
people will say that we should witness to our faith with our actions; “actions
speak louder than words!” This is true
and extremely important. But often we say this as an excuse; we don’t want to
witness to our faith with words, so we say we are doing it with actions.
“Actions speak louder than words!” Oh how convenient for us.
In
the gospel lesson today Jesus says, ”What I say to you in the dark, tell in
the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.” God
did not give us the good news to be hoarded in secret, or to be hidden in good
deeds left un-interpreted.
Some
people, and I think a lot of Disciples folks are like this, we have a deep
distaste for being seen as self-satisfied, spiritual bullies, consigning the
whole world to hell unless they take up with us. We have an image, and so does
everyone else, of a pushy, judgmental, my way or the highway Christian. We run
from that image. We don't want to be identified with that image. But we run so
far from it, that the gospel leaves with us.
But
we are called to speak the truth that has been given to us with integrity,
sharing the stories of Jesus and his words, the calling he gives to the world,
offering Christ’s wisdom and witnessing to the power of the risen Christ in our
lives. It does not have to be judgmental, everyone is free to embrace the gifts
we have been given that are offered to others also – free to wrestle with them
or even to reject them outright.
But
if this is going to be so awkward for us, and possibly offensive to others,
wouldn’t it be more polite simply to stay quiet and to assume that if someone
needs to hear about Christ, they will come to a church building? No, no, and
again No. We have heard God’s promise, a promise that can change the whole of
creation.
People
are hungry for a word of such abundant health and wholeness. Many, unlike the
wasp on Orwell’s plate, know they are not whole and would like to be. We cannot
tell from looking at someone whether she or he has heard the good news or not.
And maybe the only understanding of Christianity that they know exists is that
brand from which we too are running! Thus, we need to offer the true bread from
heaven, and offer it openly and radiantly, to “proclaim it from the
housetops,” because witness is part of the vocation we accepted at baptism.
We
are commissioned to witness to others, so that they might hear the word of life
and its divine power may begin to inspire greater life within them. However, we
witness also for ourselves, not in a self-serving way, but as a way by which we
continually offer ourselves to God for
transformation. We witness “in the light … proclaiming from the housetops”
because by acknowledging and naming publicly the power by which we act – God’s
power – we are strengthened in our alignment with the character of God.
If
we are content to be quiet, we should wonder if our lack of passion isn’t an
indicator that we haven’t yet found it ourselves. Perhaps the truncated wasp
isn’t our neighbor, perhaps it is us: sucking jam off the plate of the church,
not realizing that we are severed. And when it comes time to fly, it is we who
will be surprised.
Something to think about. Amen.