July 5,
2020 Sermon Matthew 11: 16-30 Rev.
Peter Hofstra
On this fourth of July weekend,
imagine the following. The United States
became a Christian nation, a deliberately self-identifying religious
entity. I am not going to try and figure
out the politics of it or what triggered it, only that it has happened. I want us to consider that today because of
the voices that we hear in the political landscape that are calling for just
such a thing to happen.
What would that look like? Religious means testing to run for
office? Enforced prayer in school, with
subtle or not so subtle pressure brought to those who refused? Would democracy even survive? Every person of means or ego or prophetic
intent would stand up in the name of Jesus and claim “their way” is the way of
Jesus, and everyone else should follow it.
It is only the Pope, to my knowledge, who has the single-handed control
over a Christian denomination. And for
those of you who may remember the election of John F. Kennedy, that would not
fly in this country.
Trying to get the Church in America
together to decide how to run the nation as “Christian” has been nagging at me
since I started reflecting on the lectionary passage for this week. Consider the first few verses, Jesus tells
us,
11:16 "But to what will I compare this generation? It
is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
11:17 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you
did not mourn.'
11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a
demon';
11:19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton
and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'
I have
watched meetings of our own denomination fall into this kind of arguing, like
kids doing the “yes” “no” “yes” “no” debate.
Don’t you love those? Or it
becomes a game of insults. John the
Baptist was an ascetic, he lived a personally conservative way of life, and
they called him a demon. Jesus came and
ate with everyone, and they called him a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of
sinners.
That would be the political rancor
of a Christian nation. There would be so
much infighting, interpreting this, declaring that orthodox, excommunicating
one another, condemning everyone else to hell who disagreed. Can you imagine it?
Why this imagination game? Well, the last few weeks, we have been
talking about Jesus preparing his disciples to go out into the world to share
the message of Jesus Christ. But
evangelizing has a very deliberate connotation to it, believe in Jesus or
else…hell. If Christianity was truly in
control of this nation, how long would it take before there were efforts to
press conversion? Before non-Christian
communities were side-lined. Before
Christian-type things were made compulsory?
That certainly does NOT mean that
people can be “made” to believe. Look
what Jesus says next:
' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
20 Then he began to reproach the cities in which
most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. 21‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down
to Hades.
For if the deeds of power done in you had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24But I tell you that on the day of judgement it
will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’
First, if
you have the printouts, you will notice that these verses, except for the first
phrase “yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds”, are not in the same font as the
rest. That is because the lectionary
passage leaves them out. But they are
integral to this passage.
Because
in these verses, Jesus is talking about wielding the power of God to change
hearts and minds. “He began to reproach
the cities where most of his deeds of power had been done, because they refused
to repent.” Jesus was not exercising
political power or using legal means or the pressure of conformity or the fear
of hell to try and convince people.
No,
these are deeds of power, healings, casting out of demons, raising the dead,
comb the gospels for the miracles of Jesus and this is what the people were
witnessing. And they rejected
Jesus.
To
make his point, Jesus compares these cities to Tyre and Sidon, to Sodom itself,
the most accursed cities in the Old Testament, saying that these deeds were
sufficient and more for “those people” to have come to God, that these most
evil cities in the Scriptures will have it more tolerable before God’s
judgement than those who openly reject Jesus’ power. But to see Jesus, to see the deeds, to hear
the call to repent, and to reject it, that is when Jesus uses the language of
hell “you will be brought down to Hades”.
The worst cities will find it more tolerable than those who receive the
knowledge and wisdom of Jesus and deliberately turn their backs on it.
For
a “Christian” nation, that means that people are not going to believe just
because you tell them to believe. They
did not believe when Jesus was in their faith with miracles to back him
up. They are not going to believe
because you tell them to. And they are
sure not going to believe if you try and compel them to. And evangelizing in the name of Jesus where
you say “Jesus or Hell” is a form of compulsion.
So
then, what are we supposed to do? It is
like Jesus is praying a prayer just for us in verses 25 and 26,
At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the
intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your
gracious will.
I read
this and I feel like one who is reasonably intelligent, maybe picked up a
little wisdom along the way, and Jesus is thanking his Father in heaven for
hiding these things from us. What is
hidden from us? Why the deeds of power
don’t seem to work to change people’s hearts and minds. Why the “fear-threat” response of going to
hell isn’t going to do any better.
Rather, it is the will of God that we see something different here.
Verse 27 is a divine waterfall, all
things of the Father have been handed to the Son and the Son passes them along
to those he chooses, again, this lays down the reality that Jesus does not do
this on his own authority, but that this is ALL God. It is as if Jesus is saying “Truly truly I
say to you”, the marker that something important is to follow, but with the
direct appeal to God’s power, this is even more important to pay attention to,
vss. 28-30:
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
It is like
Jesus’ version of what is written on the Statue of Liberty,
“Give me Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The
wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost
to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
This is just part of what Emma Lazarus wrote in her poem “The
New Colossus”, for the Statue.
How
different is that from what the “Christian nation” would look like that is
being described in political debates right now?
So what did
Jesus do? Jesus died for us and rose for
us to grant us the free gift of salvation.
It is rest for the soul and rest for the body. That is the message that the disciples are
called upon to carry out. That is the
message we are called on to carry out.
This goes back to the ‘cold cup of water given to a child’ from last
week’s passage.
So
evangelism becomes how we identify the burdens causing the weariness in our
brothers and sisters. Could be as simple
as cold water. But it is fundamentally
different from what the imagined “Christian nation” would look like. And it is fundamentally different from the
“Jesus or Hell” model of evangelism. As
I read these words, as I meditate on them, I believe that we are reaching out
to people for whom hell already exists, on this earth, and that we have a power
behind us to relieve their burdens.
It is being
active in immigrant relief ministries rather than building a wall “in Jesus
Name”. It is taking the lead in actively
modeling the proven methods that will reduce the spread of the Corona virus
rather than fighting the science and the things that work because “we don’t
want to”. It is recognizing that white
culture in this nation is privileged and has a very different existence from
the cultures of people of different colors.
It is helping to provide food to those who have fallen behind in the present
economy, to those students for whom their school meals were the only true
nourishment they were able to receive.
It is about supporting the programs and the efforts at all levels of
society to help people help themselves, yes, even with cash assistance.
As I read
back over this paragraph, I see a consistent thread running through it. It could be said, “Pastor, you are
systemically attacking the President, his policies, and his political agenda.” To that, I would reply that the President
also claims the mantle of Christianity as the foundation of who he is and what
he does and I would like to place his agenda side by side with this one. Those would be two very different foundations
for what a Christian nation would look like.
Now, I don’t
want a Christian nation. Look at
history, look at the present day, consider the nations that have integrated a
specific religious nature into their structure.
It leads to suppression of ‘non-believers’, condemnation of ‘heretics’,
and, at the very least, a requirement to provide lip service to the faith in
charge to be able to participate in the cultural and political life of the
nation. In the present world, most
examples draw from the faith of Islam.
But there are movements toward Buddhist and Hindu nationalism in other
nations, as well as the movement for declaring ourselves a Christian
nation.
But I must
tell you, the history of Christianity as a national identifier is one that is
filled with blood. That is not what
Jesus wants.
Rather, on
this July 4th weekend, I want us to celebrate a nation that allows
us the freedom to do the work of Christ, to let others know that Jesus is
gentle and humble of heart, not a judge who will condemn those who wrongly
believe, that he brings rest for the soul, not eternal damnation for the
soul. We do not have to look far to see
where we can touch lives with the blessings we have received. We don’t have to wait for some overarching
‘power’ of Christianity to clear the way for doing the Lord’s work.
In fact,
there is more to be done to touch the lives of others who are damaged by,
condemned by, cast out from, and abused by that ‘authoritative’ way of
church. There are plenty of people whose
lives were judged to be ‘sinful’ and cast out by their own fellowships. There are entire communities of people who
are side-lined and under-classed because they don’t meet the standards of the
dominant culture and are wanting.
That is
where we need to be, so that we can share the truth of Jesus, that he will
truly give us rest.
Amen.
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