Liberation

The Rev. Thomas M. Murphy

The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

September 6, 2020

Year A, Proper 18: The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Exodus 12:1-14

Psalm 149

Romans 13:8-14

Matthew 18:15-20

Liberation

At first glance, today’s Old Testament and Gospel lessons don’t seem to have much to do with each other.

We began with the Passover story, remembering this central event in the history of Israel, when the God of Liberation begins to set the people free from bondage in Egypt.

And in the Gospel of Matthew, we heard Jesus offer a plan for what to do when one member of the church sins against another.

But, hopefully not confusing matters, I want to begin with another story - one of my favorite gospel stories, found in both the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, with a few little differences.

            Since we’ve been reading Matthew, I’ll describe his version of the story.

            Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem and for the third time Jesus tells his friends and closest followers what is going to happen to him in the capital city: he will be handed over and condemned to death, he will be mocked and flogged and crucified, and on the third day he will be raised.

            How to react to all of this?

            Like Peter last week, we might miss the essential news about rising to new life on the third day, and instead we would probably focus on the suffering, and, like Peter, we might even try to turn Jesus away from this path, hoping that the Lord would avoid such a terrible fate.     

Out of love and loyalty, we might even pledge to do everything in our power to prevent this prediction from coming true.

Now, a better reaction might be to simply remain silent, trying to absorb, trying to reflect on, everything Jesus has said.

But, I know many of you pretty well, so I doubt that any of us would see this prediction as an opportunity to jockey for a prime position in Jesus’ kingdom.

But, that’s exactly what happens.

Matthew tells us that the mother of James and John kneels before Jesus and says, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one in your left, in your kingdom.”

Jesus responds that they are asking for a life of suffering but in the end those prominent places in the kingdom are not his to give.

And then comes my favorite part: the other ten disciples hear this little exchange and they get angry with James and John.

I love this. It’s so human, right?

And, so typical of the disciples!

The disciples have been with Jesus for a while now, traveling from place to place, enjoying a front row seat for his teaching and healing, hearing and puzzling over all of the mysterious and challenging parables, and yet they still don’t understand that the ways of the world are not the ways of the kingdom – the ways of the kingdom are not the ways of the world. In the kingdom, it doesn’t matter where you sit – and, in fact, it’s probably better to be in the back.

Jesus calls them together and says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you.”

“It will not be so among you.”

It’s important for us to remember that in the days of Jesus’ earthly lifetime, back during the first century, the Romans lorded it over Israel and the entire Mediterranean world.

There was no real concept of human rights or the inherent dignity of every human being.

Instead, the always-practical Romans preferred to let local leaders remain in place, so long as they collected the hefty taxes that were sent to Rome, and if they kept order. If taxes were not collected and if order was not maintained, everyone knew the Romans were perfectly willing to unleash great cruelty to remind everyone of who was in charge.

Crucifixion was a common occurrence.

So, there was certainly law and order, but not exactly peace.

This was the delicate and dangerous reality for the leaders of Israel and that’s why when they heard people hailing Jesus as “King of the Jews,” they knew they had to put a stop to this right away, or risk the wrath of Rome.

Jesus always offers a way very different from what’s on offer from the world. He says to the disciples and to us:

“It will not be so among you.”

So, how should it be among us?

Among the four evangelists, it’s only Matthew who offers us a detailed and practical map to show us how we are to follow the way of Jesus together as community, as the church.

As we heard, Jesus lays out a plan for what to do when one member of the church sins against another.

First, go and speak to the person alone.

If that doesn’t work, take one or two others with you.

If that doesn’t work, tell the church.

And, if that doesn’t work, Jesus says, “Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Jesus liberates us from the world’s hard way of shame and quick judgment and cruelty.

Jesus, who is with us whenever we gather, liberates us – offers us a way that is patient and slow and kind, always ready to offer forgiveness, always holding out for reconciliation and healing.

And, even the business at the end about the offender being “as a Gentile and a tax collector” – on the one hand it sounds like they are to be cast out, but on the other hand at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Risen Christ sends out his disciples to the ends of the earth, charged with sharing the Good News with everybody, including, yes Gentiles and tax collectors and all the outsiders who are especially loved by Jesus.

Today, the Roman Empire is long gone.

And, fortunately, especially over the last century, people all around the world have agreed upon a clear vision of universal human rights, though, as you can see by just glancing at the news, we continue to fall far short of those lofty ideals.

Far too often the way of the world – the way of our country – the way of our state – is the way of shame and quick judgment and cruelty.

I was glad that so many of our parishioners – along with something like 2,000 other people - attended the New Jersey Together action on Zoom on Monday evening.

I thought it was very well done with a lot of information presented clearly and effectively, and some of our state’s most powerful elected officials at least saying all the right things.

Probably at least some people went into the action thinking that, you know, New Jersey, it’s a northeastern state, it must be a pretty progressive place – especially in comparison to more “backward” parts of the country.

And yet, it turns out that we have incredibly deep and cruel inequities here in supposedly progressive New Jersey.

For example, the median wealth for white families in New Jersey is $352,000 – the highest in the country, while median Black wealth is $6,100 and median Hispanic wealth is $7,300.

In New Jersey, currently 300,000 eligible drivers have their licenses suspended for failure to pay a fine or failure to appear in court – and we know that a license suspension often plunges people into a downward spiral of debt, unemployment, and worse.

And, I don’t even have to tell you about the wide racial disparities when it comes to who gets arrested and imprisoned in our state.

We’re not quite the Roman Empire, but still, even after all this time, so often the way of the world is the way of shame and quick judgment and cruelty.

But, just as in the days of old, the God of Liberation is at work – opening our eyes to see the many injustices all around us – helping us to recognize the many ways that people are virtually enslaved today - and calling us to be part of the great liberation.

So, maybe today’s Old Testament and Gospel lessons do share a common theme, after all.

Liberation

Jesus gives us a roadmap to making the church a place of forgiveness and reconciliation, a place where, as St. Paul writes, we owe nothing but love.

The church should be liberated from the ways of the world.

But, that’s not all.

 Jesus also sends out his disciples, sends us out, giving us the responsibility of helping with God’s holy work of liberation, to offer the world a different way, to use tools like New Jersey Together to set people free from what enslaves them today, doing our part to make the world a place of forgiveness and reconciliation and love.

May it be so.