14th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: John 6:56-69, Ephesians 6:10-20, Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18
Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Beloved, what if I told you, that the Gospel can lead you to difficulty? That it can interrupt, upend, radicalize our world views for the sake of the Reign of God? The Gospel is hope, it is as Peter declared, the proclamation that contains the words of eternal life. But it can also be difficult. There is no shortage of difficulty in the Gospel-life. As the Ephesians writer confirms, we struggle heavily against all kinds of spiritual conflicts. When we become fellow travelers with Jesus of Nazareth, He takes us to unexpected places and subverts our expectations about true life at every turn, and in that dynamic we will have struggles. His Gospel way is not easy. We see it in our reading today from John, Jesus was rejected by many because of His teaching, and He was even willing to endure the rejection of those closest to Him for the sake of the Reign of God when He asks Peter that heartbreaking question: “Do you also wish to go away?” Being a Christian is not about evading difficulty, it is more about how you confront your difficulty when you realize what it is your struggling for and more importantly, Who is beside you until the end in that goal. Perhaps, with our eyes set on Jesus, our problems may actually be smaller than we had first perceived. But it is also true, that following this Jesus of Nazareth, will cause us problems too. He could get you into trouble for His sake. And it is not on the basis of standing on the side of any one debate, it is not necessarily about having the right arguments. But perhaps when those words of Jesus that are Spirit and Life, tell you to love mightily, to have mercy deeper than the oceans, to prophesy justice as the Reign of God demands, the world may not take that too kindly. For the life of Jesus subverted the world views of His society, it stretched the limits of what people could accept. It made life sometimes more difficult. Thus the Gospel-life depends on a hanging on tightly to Jesus, as He leads us to the realization of God’s Reign in our midst, as Peter learned to do when He acknowledges that Jesus has the words of eternal life.

I read recently in the Boston Globe about First Church in Somerville, a UCC congregation. The church, alongside partner organizations, are trying to open a 26-bed homeless shelter in the church’s premises, replacing an older smaller one just around the area. The congregants of the church are convinced that in this time of crisis in housing and homelessness, they have a religious calling through the command of Jesus to use their church building in that manner. Case in point, as followers of Jesus we try to put our efforts where our mouths are, and thus accept the hard teachings of Jesus and tend to those who are the most needy with a compassion that is not bounded by our own anxieties and scruples. We try to be what we receive, the Body of Christ, as we say here before receiving Communion. But to follow the hard teaching of Jesus can make us open to rejection. Because of this act, the church was sued by the church’s residential neighbors, alleging that “the project did not serve a religious purpose, and moreover that they are exploiting state laws to put a new shelter where it does not belong and otherwise would not be allowed.” The lawyer on that side has even argued the church is opening a shelter for monetary gain to pay the bills. One neighbor said the following about the church: “They believe in the idea that Christianity says they should be helping the homeless, which is fine….but aren’t you supposed to love your neighbors as well?” Now it’s getting very interesting, for this case is now trying to define what Christians believe and how they express that belief. To be clear, I do not have a solution to the dilemma that this news article shines upon, even less to the wider crisis. But if we are talking about what Christians believe, if we are talking about if it’s a religious purpose to tend the homeless, if we even have to ask the question: “Who is my neighbor?”. Then the response is unequivocal, especially in line with the mood of today’s readings: Jesus calls us to follow Him in ways that often can be uncomfortable, He makes us head towards situations where we don’t want to be in, to serve those we don’t want to see, the unloved and despised, to be in contact with the full reality of this life of ours, sufferings and joys together. To love like He loves, the walls and fences we put around ourselves need to be torn down. Sin, in the words of a Jesuit priest I read some time ago, can be a refusal to be bothered, to be bothered to love. That hesitancy to love in the manner of Jesus, can lead Jesus to ask us who listen to Him: “Do you also wish to go away?” And if our response is like Peter’s, “Lord Only You have the words of eternal life”, then we learn to be bothered to act in such a way that reflects we worship Him and receive our salvation from Him. To love these words of spirit and life, to act like this church in Somerville, to be even a little bit reckless for the sake of love and mercy, full of Holy Spirit fire, then indeed, the Reign of God does not stop at the rejection of those around us. We proceed with trust against these difficulties with a barrier-breaking, body-bothering love and mercy, because it has been revealed to us that God is present exactly there.

Now do not think God sends us to these difficulties with nothing in our hands. We are not left to our own devices, completely vulnerable. If we have any resource to confront the struggles we face it is because in Christ, God has made the way possible, even if we don’t see it at first glance. There is this great gospel song I’ve been listening to this week titled “He’s Preparing Me”, sung by Daryl Coley, considered the best male vocalist in the genre. The song says: “He’s preparing me for something, I cannot handle right now, He’s making me ready Just because He cares, (He’s providing me with what I’ll need) To carry out the next matter in my life”. And indeed, through Christ, God has given us the words and tools to face the problems and those to come, especially those that are way above our heads, that we know we can’t handle alone, God reminds us of His promise to be with us always. The author of Ephesians so clearly sets the checklist of things provided to withstand the struggles and rejections we face: “take up the whole armor of God, belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness, lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace, take the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit”. I’m sure there is some modern analogue to these items, but basically the author wants us to know that we have the equipment so to speak to face up against difficulty. It is not a matter only of your own capabilities. By eating up this life of Christ that gives us spirit and life, you are being prepared with all that is necessary to stand fast, you are being made ready on the things that matter most, having a clear view of the powers we must endure, the hard heartedness, the apathy, the malice that possesses our society at times. We are given the often-difficult Gospel of Jesus Christ, the shape and words of a life that reminds the caught up world of the love of God that is willing to go into the gritty aspects of life, endure and rise again with new life according to God’ desire. So do not be troubled by the difficulty, Christ vests us with His life, death, resurrection, a hope and love that overcomes death and all the powers of this world. We only need to focus on the One whose words give such precious fruit. We only need to pray in the spirit with every supplication for the growth of such fruit in us and beyond, so that we may proclaim and act boldly, in line with the reign of God that is always breaking in against all the limits the world builds up.

Let us pray:
Lord God, you invite us to a difficult but amazing life of spirit and life. A life that is not limited by our sin, but rather unleashed by Your love and mercy to do abundant life-giving things we would never even imagine. Prepare us well to meet the struggles, vest us with truth, faith, righteousness, peace, joy, and spirit to withstand the troubles. We give you thanks for Your providence and guidance, O Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen.