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Delivered at the United Church of Jaffrey
September 3rd, 2017
Romans 12:9-21 | Matthew 16:21-28
Hear again the words of the Apostle Paul:
Let love be genuine;
hate what is evil,
hold fast to what is good;
love one another with brotherly affection;
outdo one another in showing honor.
I watched a video that I found on the internet.
It’s an amateur video made with a cell phone.
The field of vision swings and jerks back and forth, and the sound breaks open abruptly, and at full volume from my laptop.
People yelling.
The sound of rushing water.
An ominous dark sky.
In the middle of the frame, there is a car – a large suburban, sunk to its windows in what looks like a wide river.
It looks like a wide river, but it’s not.
This wide expanse of rushing water is not a river.
It’s a road – or at least, it used to be a road.
People are running through the water.
There is a feeling of fearful urgency…
Someone off camera yells “Go, Go, Go!”
And group of people splash out into the water.
They take hands, forming a human chain.
The people in the foreground are up to their ankles in the rushing water, and as the line extends out toward the car, the people are soon submerged up to their chests.
The video zooms in on the car.
The group of men who have reached the car are trying to pry the door of the car open.
At last they succeed.
An elderly man is lifted out of the car.
Two men form a cradle with their arms and move the elderly man though the water and up to safety.
Let love be genuine;
hate what is evil,
hold fast to what is good;
love one another with brotherly affection;
outdo one another in showing honor.
*
I found the video I just described on a website called BuzzFeedNews.
It was under the headline:
15 Moments From The Houston Flooding Devastation That Will Remind You The World Isn’t All Bad (link)
This is the narrative that we have been hearing this week.
We’ve been seeing terrifying pictures and footage of streams overtopping their banks
Of cars and houses sitting abandoned.
Satellite before-and-after pictures of towns submerged in floodwaters.
But we’ve also been seeing resilience.
Fortitude.
Generosity.
Courage.
Good will.
The BuzzFeedNews headline sums up the narrative.
Houston is devastated… but the world isn’t all bad.
Because people are good.
The President, who spent part of the day yesterday visiting a shelter in the affected area, was heard to say:
“As tough as this was, it’s been a wonderful thing.”
A wonderful thing?
Really?
I’m not sure I agree with that.
But I see what he’s saying.
He’s responding to – and helping to create – the narrative.
It is an empowering narrative that goes like this…
We are strong.
Bad things happen.
But we won’t be broken.
When crisis hits, we rise to the occasion…
Showing our true colors.
We come together
We work together
To save lives.
It’s a wonderful thing.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, says Paul…
weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another;
do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;
*
Paul seems to be on board with this week’s narrative.
His message is a social one.
He is writing to an early Christian community that has been established in Rome, and he is offering them some guidelines on how to act in a way that is in keeping with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
It is good advice.
Live in harmony with one another.
OK – but how?
Paul suggests acting in a manner that is aware of, and reflects back, the emotions and sensibilities of others:
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
But the apostle does not leave it at that.
He builds a social ethic into his teaching, saying:
do not be haughty… associate with the lowly;
In other words:
Be aware of how others feel, and act accordingly. But, in case you get too big for your britches, only hang out with people who need your help.
Paul’s advice is a bit like last week’s narrative.
People are best when they are helping others.
Danger brings out empathy.
When, all of a sudden, a flood makes us all lowly…
We all begin to see each other in a new way…
We start to Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Paul might have been the off-camera voice in that video – the one who yelled “Go go go!”
Paul’s was a social ethic.
Associate with the lowly.
Form a human chain.
Open the car door
Cradle the elderly man.
Bring him to safety.
Paul would have been on board with this week’s narrative.
But what about Jesus?
Would he?
*
This morning’s lesson from the gospel according to Matthew is a difficult one.
Paul’s message was a social message.
It was a letter giving advice to an early Christian community in Rome.
Jesus’ words, on the other hand, are not comforting words of advice.
These are challenging words.
These are spiritually demanding words.
First Jesus foretells his own death. He predicts that he will be executed and that he will be raised on the third day after his death.
But Peter, who believes that his teacher is the Messiah that the Jewish people have been anticipating for generations, cannot believe what he is hearing.
No way, says Peter.
Peter is thinking: “The Messiah is the chosen one of God. The Messiah is the King of the Jews – come to save us from our enemies. The Messiah is not supposed to die. That’s not part of the narrative!”
You can sympathize with Peter.
I do.
But Jesus doesn’t.
Jesus responds harshly. He says “Get behind me Satan.”
This is not my favorite moment in the Gospels.
I don’t like it when Jesus says things that seem out of character.
And I doubt this passage is what Paul had in mind either, when he advised his Roman followers to love one another with brotherly affection; and to
outdo one another in showing honor.
And why is Jesus so bent out of shape anyway?
Peter, after all, is just expressing concern.
Jesus takes some pains to explain.
“…you are not on the side of God, but of men,” he says. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Jesus explains… but what does his explanation mean?
whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it
What does that mean?
This message – whatever it means – is different from Paul’s social message.
Rejoice when others rejoice
Is very different from
Lose your life for my sake.
One is a message of empathy.
The other is a message of self-sacrifice.
*
Paul’s message, and Jesus’ message are, in a way, the two messages of church.
When I think of church – when I try to be a minister in this church – I believe it is my job to create community by speaking words of comfort…
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep!
And when I think of church – when I try to be a minister in this church – I believe it is my job to create community by speaking words that challenge…
whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Remember the message I gave at the Easter sunrise?
Just as we worship God in broad daylight, under the rising sun, so too, the slaves of the American south worshipped God in the dark of the night in lonely hush harbors.
Christ is broken on the cross.
But the story does not end in death.
On the third day the story continues — in life.
In church, there is comfort and there is challenge, because in life there is comfort and there is challenge.
Christianity exists within this tension.
To be a Christian community, is to know the comfort offered by God’s love, and to accept the challenge posed by discipleship.
*
In conclusion, I return, as I am wont to do – to the beginning, and I think about that video.
I think about the human chain of people, clutching each others hands, moving out into the perilous water.
I think of the voice off camera urging people on.
Go Go Go!
In a way, this voice is the voice of Paul and the voice of Jesus.
The voice that says “Go Go Go”
Is saying: “Let’s do this together.”
Rejoice with those who rejoice
Weep with those who weep
Form a human chain.
Save lives with those who save lives.
And the voice that says Go Go Go
Also says:
This is more important than your life.
When you are willing to give up your life
To save a life
You are saving your life.
This challenging voice – Jesus’ voice – speaks an undeniable truth.
It is the truth of this week.
The truth of Houston.
whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Amen.