Found Difficult and Not Tried

PROPERS:          PROPER 24, YEAR A  

TEXT:                MATTHEW 22:15 - 22

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2023.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The essential theme of the Gospel is a radically different life from the reality the world chooses today.

 

            This week has been a yo-yo for sermon writing.

 

            I had originally planned to suggest that this gospel lesson would have been better placed around April 15.  And I wanted to mention that what the Pharisees were looking for was a one-armed economist like Harry Truman was seeking – someone who could not say “on the other hand.”

 

            But it was not to be. Events intervened.  And they cried out for the light of the gospel.

 

            It is safe to say that Jesus lived in a difficult time. His tiny nation – Israel – had been dominated by stronger foreign powers for centuries. At one point, it was the Babylonians. Later, it was the Greeks. And then came the Romans.

 

            The Babylonians and Romans laid waste to the holy city of Jerusalem, razing it to the ground, with blood running in the streets.  The Greeks committed religious abominations which prompted an uprising of the people.

 

            Jesus preached a radically different way of life. But as transformative as it was… as much as it has touched lives in the last 2,000 years… it did not change his part of the world. We continue to recreate earlier events.

 

            New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote a column this week that mentioned the craziness of that part of the world. He retold the story behind the Syrian use of Hamas Rules.  Hamas Rules was grounded in a 1982 rebellion against Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. The rebellion began in the Syrian town of Hama. When Assad took revenge – on his own people – he destroyed the town, killed 20,000 people, and then bulldozed the town as flat as the surrounding desert.

 

            Today’s Middle East is not that different.  And it was not different in Jesus’ day. Despite what Jesus taught and lived, it is still eye for an eye, or worse. It is a world of violence and recriminations.  It is like Hitler’s quest for German living space – lebensraum -- which prompted his attack on Poland in 1939.

 

            Mahatma Gandhi once said that if the world lives according to an eye for an eye,” the entire world will be blind.”

 

We live in a broken world, as events in Israel in the last two weeks have shown us.  And despite the example of Jesus, we are not getting better.

 

            The example of Jesus is seen in his life and death. Instead of rebelling or leading an insurrection, he walked to the cross.  He was true to his word, and he gave himself freely.

 

            Down the through the centuries, we have seen those who took him at his word. The thousands of martyrs in ancient days, such as Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Stephen, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Cyprian.

 

            More recently, we have the examples of Janani Luwum of Uganda, Oscar Romero of El Salvador, and Martin Luther King of the United States.  All sought right and truth without resorting to violence.

 

            In our lifetime, we’ve even seen others – such as Gandhi – take up non-violence and suffering as their chosen path.

 

            What do we say to a world that is ruled by might and by violence? As the trite saying goes, “What would Jesus do?” We seldom answer that question with accuracy.

 

            To be sure, there are times we must act against the principals of Jesus. Sometimes the evil on the other side is too great.  But it should always be viewed as a tragedy – as an example of seeking to right a broken world.

 

Jesus’ response was to go to the cross. His early followers did not rebel. They took up their crosses and followed him.

 

            Our three-year lectionary, from all four gospels, gives us good snapshots of gospel scenes. But with the exception of late Lent and Holy Week we do not see the main thrust of Jesus’ teaching – the role of righteous suffering; of turning the other cheek.

 

            G. K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult and left untried.”

 

            How do we resolve this morass in which our world finds itself?  I do not know.  But this is a world of sin, just like Jesus’ day, and the light of the gospel shines in the darkness.