St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
August 18, 2013
Year C, Proper 15:
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
Much More Than Nice
In
a couple of months we’ll begin confirmation class for our youth, eighth grade
and up.
I’ve
found that confirmation class is always an interesting – and often moving
experience.
It’s
great to be with young people as, maybe for the first time, they begin
exploring their faith in an adult way. I try to encourage them to really think
about what they believe – to look for how God has been active in their lives –
to ask some of the big questions of life – and begin to answer those questions
for themselves.
One
of the exercises I always do early on in confirmation class is to ask what
words they would use to describe Jesus.
Sometimes
the answers are a little more, um, casual, than I would probably use – things
like “awesome dude” or “cool guy.” But true enough.
And
sometimes kids will throw out some religious language like “messiah” or “Son of
God” or “Savior.” Of course, those are all perfectly fine and correct, right?
But,
I have mixed feelings about what’s maybe the most common word I’ve heard used
to describe Jesus: “nice.” Jesus is nice.
There’s
nothing exactly wrong with that, I guess. And I think it reflects the way many
of our kids and, if we’re honest, many of us think about Jesus and our faith.
I
think often our faith basically comes down to this: Jesus was a nice man who
lived a long time ago. He taught people to be nice to each other. This nice man
was, for some reason, killed. But, everything ends up OK because he rose from
the dead. And now Jesus wants us to be nice like he was so that when we die
we’ll be in heaven with him and all the other nice people.
Now,
don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with niceness. I know that we all try
to be nice, though sometimes we fall short. And the world would be a much
better place if people would just be nice to each other.
But,
Jesus was about much more than niceness.
The
first disciples didn’t give up their lives and follow Jesus because he was
nice. People still don’t give up their lives and follow Jesus because he was
nice.
The
political and religious powers didn’t arrest Jesus and kill Jesus because he
was nice.
No,
Jesus was about much more than niceness.
And
we hear some of that much more than niceness in today’s harsh-sounding gospel
reading. Jesus says,
“I
came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”
“Do
you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but
rather division!”
Not
such nice words from Jesus.
Jesus
knows that his much more than nice message will set the world on fire. Jesus
knows that his much more than nice message will divide people – will even divide
fathers against sons, mothers against daughters.
Throughout
his life and ministry, Jesus brought us the much more than nice message that we
are to love our neighbors as our selves, and we are to love even our enemies – to
especially love our enemies.
Jesus
brings us the much more than nice message that we are to turn the other cheek
and to give up what we have for those in need.
Jesus
brings us the much more than nice message that God has a special love for the
poor, for the humble, for the despairing, for the outcast and for the despised
– that God has a special love for exactly the kinds of people that usually we
really don’t want to hang around with.
Jesus
brings the much more than nice message that God’s kingdom of justice and
righteousness has arrived and begun – and it’s going to upset and anger a lot
of people, especially the leaders of the world’s kingdoms – the Caesars, the
Pilates, the high priests, the rich, the powerful – the people who like things
just the way they are, thank you very much.
God’s
kingdom of justice and righteousness has arrived and begun and it’s going to
upset and anger a lot of people - the people who are willing to fight and even
kill the innocent – who are willing even to kill the Son of God – who are
willing to do whatever it takes to keep things just the way they are.
Jesus
knows that his much more than nice message will set the world on fire. Jesus
knows that his much more than nice message will divide people – will sometimes
even divide fathers against sons, mothers against daughters.
Now,
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather avoid all this trouble and just
be nice.
But,
if we’re going to be faithful followers of Jesus, with God’s help we’re going
to have to be much more than nice.
And
we have so many examples of faithful Christians past and present who took up
Jesus’ much more than nice message and who gave away their lives in loving
service to God and to their sisters and brothers.
As
the author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, “Therefore, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight
and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race
that it is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our
faith…”
This
past Wednesday the church remembered and celebrated a remarkable member of that
cloud of witnesses, Jonathan Myrick Daniels.
Daniels
was an Episcopal seminarian studying in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the
most intense days of the 1960s civil rights movement. As a white man living
comfortably in the North, he could have just been nice and discussed with his
friends and classmates, al of them shaking their heads about how terrible it
was the way some white Southerners were treating black people.
Jon
Daniels could have just been nice and maybe sent a check, a little donation, to
some civil rights organization.
Jon
Daniels could have just been nice and maybe attended a march or a protest in
the relative safety of Boston or Cambridge.
Jon
Daniels could have just been nice and even traveled to the South, joined a
march or a protest for a day or two, and then returned home, satisfied that he
had done his bit for freedom and equality.
But,
instead, in March of 1965, when Martin Luther King Jr. called for students to
come to the South – to come to Selma, Alabama and join in the march to
Montgomery, Jon Daniels left the safety and comfort of the seminary and
relocated to Selma, where he lived with a local African-American family.
He
did the much more than nice work of bringing black people into a whites-only
Episcopal church in Selma. He protested and boycotted. And, on August 13, he
and a few others were arrested in a small Alabama town.
After
their release on Friday, August 20th, four of them tried to enter a local store
to buy a cold drink. A white man with a shotgun met them at the door. He told
them to leave or be shot. After a brief confrontation, he aimed the gun at one
of the four, a teenage black girl named Ruby Sales.
Jonathan
Daniels then did something much, much more than nice, pushing Ruby out of the
way and taking the blast of the shotgun himself. He was killed instantly.
The
story of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, seminarian and martyr, and the stories of so
many other faithful Christians in that “cloud of witnesses” is a powerful
reminder that that, with God’s help, it really is possible for us to run with
perseverance the race that is set before us. It really is possible to follow in
the steps of that “awesome dude” and “cool guy.” It really is possible to follow in the steps of Jesus.
But,
we’re going to have to be much more than nice.
Following
Jesus means that right here in Jersey City, we love our neighbors as
ourselves, we love even our enemies – we especially love our enemies.
Following
Jesus means that right now in Jersey City, we turn the other cheek and
to give up what we have for those in need.
Following
Jesus means that right here in Jersey City, we proclaim that God has a
special love for the poor, for the humble, for the despairing, for the outcast
and for the despised – that God has a special love for exactly the kinds of
people that we really don’t want to hang around with.
Following
Jesus means that right now in Jersey City, we announce that God’s
kingdom of justice and righteousness has arrived and begun.
Following
Jesus means that right here in Jersey City, with God’s help, we’re going to
have to be much more than nice.
May
it be so.
Amen.
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