Good morning, would you pray with me?
Father, we pray that you would open up our hearts and our minds to hear from you.
Would you speak to us now through your word?
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
It's easy to assume that when great or important things happen in the world,
they happen because of exceptional people who, by a kind of abundance of talent or sheer force of will,
simply make things happen.
I remember when I visited Rome years ago, and I went to see the Sistine Chapel
where Michelangelo painted these incredible frescoes of the biblical narrative on the ceiling.
And when you look at them, it is easy to think of Michelangelo's accomplishment
as this sort of preordained work of genius.
But what people often forget is that when the Pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel,
Michelangelo was not interested.
In fact, he didn't think of himself as a painter.
He thought of himself as a sculptor.
And he was so overwhelmed at the thought of this task that he fled from Rome to Florence,
and it took two years before he actually began to commence the work.
And that was under the insistence of the Pope.
And so the Sistine Chapel only happened because somebody made Michelangelo do it.
Or think of Abraham Lincoln.
I was not getting choked up at the thought of Abraham Lincoln there.
Many regard Lincoln as the greatest of all American presidents,
and it's natural to think that what he accomplished was the result of sheer political talent
or this sort of force of vision.
But when historians rate presidents on things like conflict avoidance or people-pleasing,
Lincoln is off the charts.
He's right there at the very top.
He devoted hours each day to holding office hours with citizens.
He pardoned deserters in the Civil War.
He agonized for six months over whether he should actually free the slaves
before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Or think of Martin Luther King, Jr., who only wanted to be a pastor
and eventually a college president but not a civil rights leader.
But after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of a bus,
an association was formed to launch a bus boycott,
and one of the attendees nominated King to be president of that little association.
And King later wrote,
It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to think it through.
It's probable that if I had, I would have declined the nomination.
King described himself as possessed by fear when he had to start giving speeches to the community.
And his most famous speech, his I Have a Dream speech that he delivered in 1963,
only occurred because a colleague proposed that Dr. King should be the closing speaker of the March on Washington,
and that colleague gathered a coalition of other leaders to advocate on King's behalf.
We love to tell stories about heroes, about larger-than-life figures who make an impact on the world
because of their talent and their drive,
but the reality is that the way that most people impact the world,
including those that we look up to the most,
is often far more complex.
As Church of the Advent moves closer,
we're not there yet,
but moves closer to purchasing a building in the center of the city,
again, hasn't happened yet, we need to keep praying,
the prospect of a permanent church home
has many of us thinking about
what kind of long-term impact
we as a church want to have on the city.
Last week, I had the chance to drive by the outside of the church that we're hoping to buy.
Anybody else done any drive-by viewings?
And I found myself looking not just at the building,
but looking at everything that surrounds it.
The neighborhood streets that are stacked with row houses,
with thousands of people living in them.
The charter school across the street that is serving at-risk kids in our city.
Some of the homeless, or what appear to be people who are homeless,
sitting on the sidewalks just a few streets away.
And standing outside the church,
I found myself wondering,
how should we be thinking about mission in our city?
As we move, hopefully, into a new neighborhood.
Being new kids on the block,
but hopefully being there for a long time.
What should be our mindset?
And if we believe that impact isn't accomplished
simply because talented, driven people show up to make things happen,
how does effective mission occur?
And in particular, how does effective mission occur through the church?
And our gospel lesson from this morning's lectionary readings,
I think, has much to teach us about that.
We are in Matthew chapter 10 this morning,
but I want us to take a moment to think back to our lectionary readings
from the past two weeks from Matthew chapter 9.
And we might think about Matthew chapter 9
as something like a Jesus highlight film.
The chapter is packed with him,
performing one miracle after another,
from one scene to the next.
The chapter opens with Jesus healing a paralytic,
which is right before he invites Matthew to be one of his disciples.
In the next scene, Jesus is being asked to heal a ruler's daughter,
but before he can even get to the man's house,
another woman touches him along the way,
touches the hem of his garment, and he heals her.
And then when Jesus finally gets to the house of the ruler,
the daughter has now died, so Jesus brings her back to life.
And then in the final two scenes,
two blind men approach Jesus, followed by another man with a demon,
and he heals them all.
Now, by the end of Matthew chapter 9,
you could just stop the story,
mic drop, and Matthew 9 would be an inspirational success story
with climactic music at the end.
Jesus on a mission.
Jesus impacting the world.
But that would not be the full account.
Because in nearly every single scene in Matthew 9,
Jesus is faced with trouble and difficulty and complaints.
He's teaching, he's healing,
and you would think that everyone would be happy about it, right?
But they're not.
So the chapter opens with Jesus healing the paralytic man,
and the paralytic man is happy,
but the religious officials are not.
And they tell Jesus,
would you please stop announcing to people
that their sins are forgiven when you heal them?
And when Jesus calls Matthew,
Matthew's pretty happy,
but maybe just a little surprised.
And everyone else is upset
that Jesus is overthrowing social conventions
to eat with sinners and tax collectors.
And when Jesus brings the daughters,
the ruler's daughter back to life,
the family is filled with gratitude,
but everyone else who's gathered there
mocks Jesus for his clearly mistaken analysis
that she is merely asleep.
And then when Jesus frees a man from demonic oppression,
rather than celebrating with the man,
those in power question Jesus' motives
and accuse him of using demonic powers
to accomplish such deeds.
In other words, Jesus,
the incarnate Son of God,
going from village to village,
doing amazing stuff,
in nearly every case,
gets decidedly mixed reactions.
People like some parts of his ministry,
but not other parts.
Some want the miracle,
but not the teaching.
Others want the healing,
but not on this day,
or in that way,
or for that person.
Jesus brings a holistic mission
in both word and deed,
and it is never,
never a slam dunk success.
Jesus' mission is always embedded
in difficulty, misunderstanding,
and resistance.
And now,
in our passage from this morning's reading
in Matthew 10,
Jesus warns his disciples
that their ministry
is going to get exactly the same reaction
as his ministry.
He's commissioned them
to do what he's been doing,
teaching and preaching the kingdom of God,
healing the sick,
casting out demons,
and then after commissioning them,
he says in Matthew 10, verse 16,
Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep
in the midst of wolves,
so be wise as serpents
and innocent as doves.
Beware of men,
for they will deliver you over to courts
and flog you in their synagogues,
and you will be dragged before governors
and kings for my sake.
And then in verse 24,
he goes on to say,
A disciple is not above his teacher,
nor a servant above his master.
If they have called the master
of the house Beelzebul,
which is what the Jews refer to as Satan,
how much more will they malign
those of his household?
I want to take seriously
what Jesus is saying here,
that kingdom ministry always occurs
in the midst of resistance and difficulty,
and that what Jesus faced in his ministry
will be faced by those who follow him.
And I want us to reflect for a moment
on what it might mean for us
and for our mission as a church.
And I'd like for us to notice two things.
First, our human tendency
is to want to approach mission
from a position of strength
and effectiveness.
We spend most of our working lives
oriented around competency and success.
But Jesus seems to assume
that when it comes to kingdom mission,
not only is it going to be marked by difficulty
rather than immediate outward success,
but also that true effectiveness
will come from a power
that is beyond our own abilities.
Jesus tells his disciples,
I am sending you out as sheep
in the midst of wolves.
To be a sheep
is to be in a position of powerlessness,
not conquest.
As Woody Allen once said,
the lion may lie down with the lamb,
but the lamb won't get much sleep.
Jesus says his followers
will be delivered over to courts
and dragged before governors.
Now that may literally happen
in some places or in some eras.
It certainly did for the disciples
and in the early church,
and it happens in other parts
of the world today.
But the reality is that
in any era
and in all places,
we can be assured
that kingdom mission
will come into conflict
with systems of power
that oppose that mission.
Not too long ago,
I was sitting down
with the executive director
of one of the largest
faith-based affordable housing
organizations here in Washington, D.C.
and he was describing to me
their newest efforts
to provide affordable housing
specifically for returning citizens.
People have been released from prison
and are now returning home
to the district,
often after years of being away.
One of the leading predictors
of whether or not
returning citizens
will be able to rebuild their life
or will re-offend
and return to prison
is whether or not
they can find a place to live.
And often,
they have burned
so many bridges,
he told me,
that they no longer have
family or friends
to stay with
and they need a place
to call home.
But he described to me
the powerful interests,
the economic forces,
the real estate development objectives
that must be overcome
to create such housing.
Now, these powerful barriers
were not erected
by people with evil intentions
or by people
who don't want
returning citizens
to have affordable housing.
And it's not to say
that economics
and real estate interests
don't matter.
It's simply to say
that such barriers
reflect something
that the Apostle Paul
calls in Ephesians
principalities and powers.
Nameless, faceless systems
take on a life of their own,
and even if it wasn't
originally intended,
they act as barriers
to human flourishing.
And it can feel overwhelming
to come up
against these forces,
making you simply
want to give up
or not even try.
Systems,
by their very nature,
encourage passivity.
How do we resist them?
Not from a posture
of conquest,
Jesus says.
We should, of course,
be wise as servants,
Jesus allows.
We should be smart
and thoughtful
and strategic.
But Jesus is also clear
that overcoming
such systems
will not ultimately
be the result
of our own competence.
Instead,
Jesus says in verse 19,
when you are standing
before those in power
and seemingly
at your weakest,
it is at that moment
that what you are to say
will be given to you.
The spirit of your father
speaking through you.
Have you ever had
an experience
when you were given
something
that was beyond you?
Perhaps it was
the right words
at just the right moment.
Perhaps it was
kindness that was
beyond yourself
in the face
of mistreatment.
Perhaps it was strength
to bear something
farther than you could
bear on your own.
Being given something
from the outside
is what life
in the kingdom
is about.
That something
from the outside
inside,
that power
is available
to us.
And our lives
over time
should increasingly
be marked
by an expectation
of
and a reliance
on that power.
as we consider
the prospect
of moving
into a new
neighborhood,
a new era
as a church,
we should remember
that authentic ministry
is never a conquering
crusade.
If Jesus'
ministry
and the experience
of the early church
is any guide,
authentic mission
will almost always
be marked
by difficulty.
in his commentary
on Matthew
chapter 10,
the New Testament
scholar
Dale Bruner
writes that
it is almost
as though
Jesus expects
saving mission
to occur
more often
through bad
things
than through good.
Why is that?
perhaps in part
because in the life
of the church
and in our own
personal lives,
difficulty
and trouble
create
pathways
to reliance
on the Lord.
It is primarily
through difficulty
that we learn
that our strength,
our power,
our competency
is inadequate.
it is through trials
that we learn
humility.
There are some
mountains
that we
just cannot
climb.
And as we
begin to experience
the Lord
providing
what we need,
those experiences
become
part of our
witness.
The Lord
did this,
not me,
not us.
So the first
thing to notice
in Jesus'
teaching on
mission
is that it
almost always
occurs in the
midst of
difficulty
and any
lasting success
will be the
result of
God's power
and not our
competency.
The second
thing I'd like
us to notice
briefly,
however,
is the greatest
barrier
to living out
our mission
and that
barrier
is fear.
We
instinctively
fear
difficulty.
In fact,
sometimes the
fear of
potential
difficulty
is even
worse than
the experience
of difficulty
itself.
Our human
nature is
wired to
seek safety
and protection
and comfort
and to
avoid at
any cost
the prospect
of pain
or trouble.
And thus,
fear may act
as a barrier
to mission,
especially if
we've just
heard Jesus
himself promise
that mission
is going to
be accompanied
by pain
and trouble.
That fear
may show up
in different
ways.
We might
fear that
the comfort
and predictability
of our lives
might be
disrupted
by certain
forms of
ministry.
We might
fear getting
overwhelmed by
taking on
problems that
we know
little about.
We might
fear the
personal
journey that
we would
need to
go on
in order
to live
out some
of the
things that
God has
put in
our hearts
and the
changes that
might require.
There's a
psychologist named
Julie Norum
who has
studied
strategies for
handling fear
in different
scenarios.
One strategy
she calls
strategic
optimism.
Strategic
optimists
look at
something fearful
and they
do their
best to
ignore the
bad things
that might
happen and
instead focus
their attention
on best
case scenarios.
But another
approach she
describes is
what we might
call strategic
pessimism.
Strategic
pessimists
imagine certain
scenarios and
then they
purposefully
consider the
worst that
might happen.
When they have
to give a speech
they imagine
themselves not
only doing a
poor job giving
the speech but
tripping on the
stage and then
forgetting all
their lines.
Now most
people assume
it's better to
be a strategic
optimist.
But in fact
her studies
show that if
approached in
the right way
strategic pessimism
can sometimes
result in better
outcomes.
Because when
fear begins to
creep in
rather than
denying what
we fear or
pretending it's
not there or
looking away
only at best
case scenarios
one way to
diminish its
power is to
lean into the
fear to sit
with it and to
consider the
other side of
even the worst
happening.
And I wonder
when he begins
addressing his
disciples fear as
they head out
into mission.
If Jesus might
be employing a
bit of strategic
pessimism.
He says to his
disciples when you
go out to do
kingdom ministry
you're going to
run into trouble
just expected.
But he doesn't
stop there.
Rather than offer
false encouragement
he goes on to
say in verse 28
and you don't even
need to fear those
who are going to
kill you.
There is nothing
to suggest that
the disciples had
up until that
moment even been
considering that
possibility.
And so perhaps it
raised new questions
in their mind that
they didn't have
moments before.
But now having
presented the very
worst case scenario
having leaned fully
into the ultimate
fear of every
person including
his disciples that
my very life might
be at risk.
Jesus is ready to
provide a different
way of thinking.
He says you don't
need to fear because
God your heavenly
father is actively
and personally
caring for you.
Even the very hairs
on your head are
numbered.
He says in verse
29 not even a
sparrow can fall to
the ground apart
from your father.
One of the biggest
lies that we
believe and what
ultimately leads us
to live in fear
is the belief that
not only does God
not notice
sparrows,
God is not
watching out for me.
God doesn't have my
best interests at heart.
And if I am going
to be safe
and happy
in this world
it is up to me
to make that happen.
And we live in fear
of anything
that might threaten
those efforts.
And on one level
this is entirely
rational
because the world
on its own
is not a safe place.
Jesus says that
people in power
brother may harm us.
He says that even
family members
may betray us.
Brother will deliver
brother over to death.
He says
even those
who are close
to us
might hurt us.
But what Jesus
is teaching here
and one of the
most radical things
that we can learn
is that even
amidst the very
worst things
in the world
we are not
outside of God's care.
A sparrow
cannot fall
to the ground
Jesus says
apart from the
Father.
The hard
but ultimately
comforting truth
is that there
is nothing
that happens
in this life
that is outside
of God's
providential
care.
this does not
mean that God
is somehow
behind the bad
things that happen
to us
that come as
the result
of living
in a fallen
world.
But the mystery
of God's providence
is that he is able
to take
anything
that happens
in our lives
and use it
for our good
and for his
good purposes.
we are safe
with God.
And the more
deeply that we
are able to
take that in
the more
possible it
is for us
to live
free of the
fear that
drives us
to arrange
our lives
in ways that
are apart
from God.
And the more
freedom
we will find
to live
our lives
as on a
mission.
And thus
we might ask
ourselves
as a church
as we think
about our
mission in
this city
if we were
to trust
God's power
and not our
own competence
if we were
to accept
the difficulty
and troubles
that are the
norm
and if we
were to
increasingly
live free
from fear
what does
God want
to do
through Church
of the
Advent?
And we
might ask
the same
question
of ourselves
personally.
How might
I allow
the difficulties
the barriers
the mountains
in my life
that I cannot
climb
to lead me
into greater
reliance
on the Lord?
how might
I lean
into my
fears
and welcome
God's care?
And how
might I
follow Jesus
into the
world
more fully
relying
on the power
of the Holy
Spirit?
Amen.