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Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
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Sermon Preached at
Cathedral Church of St. Paul
On the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul
The Rev’d Vicki K. Hesse
June 24, 2018
Lord, you know that we love you. Teach us to follow you. Amen
Today
is the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul.
The
selected readings weave together
a
theme about implications of obedience to God
And God’s
faithfulness to us.
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer famously wrote about the “cost of discipleship[1]”
in a
book by the same name, reminding us
that when
Jesus called the disciples,
their response
was obedience, not a confession of faith.
“Because
it was Jesus the Christ,
who had
(and has) the authority to call and to demand obedience…”
Beginning
with Ezekiel,
one of
the prophets hanging out with
the
people of Israel during the Babylonian captivity…
Ezekiel
proclaimed The Lord’s assurance
to
search for and seek out scattered sheep.
Ezekiel
speaks the voice of God who
rescues,
gathers, feeds, heals, strengthens, and is faithful.
That’s God’s
part.
And
for the people, Ezekiel and his contemporaries Daniel and Jeremiah,
They preached
obedience,
reminding
people to keep the covenant of mutual faithfulness.
Daniel’s
story illustrates the cost.
(As my colleague Fr. Lawson[2]
writes, )
“Daniel
didn’t want to get political.
All he
was trying to do,
while
living as an exile from Israel in the heart of the Babylonian Empire,
was to
live his life obedient to God.
He
wasn’t trying to make a statement,
just
trying to live his life
and
say his prayers
and be
obedient to what God was commanding him to do.”
But
when the empire, in the form of Nebuchadnezzar,
told
him not to do what God commanded[3],
Daniel
resisted. This got him thrown into the lion’s den.
The
readings continue with St. Paul’s 2nd letter of Timothy.
What
we know about St. Paul is this:
didn’t
really want to get political either.
All he
was trying to do,
while
living as a Jew with Roman citizenship,
was to
live his life in obedience to God.
St.
Paul proclaimed God’s message of love and
urged
followers of The Way
to
persist and to encourage others in their faith.
In
this letter, followers are taught
to pray
for those in authority, so that all may live lives in peace.
Paul
knew the cost of his obedience,
“…already
being poured out as a libation,
the
time of my departure has come,
I
fought the fight, finished the race, kept the faith.”
Further,
in Saint Paul’s later letter to the people of Rome,
he
urged the community to pray for and
to
obey civil authorities while hating what is evil,
holding
fast to what is good,
loving
one another with mutual affection AND
extending
hospitality to strangers.
Saint Paul
really did not want to rock the imperial boat.
His
obedience to the law of faith
brought
him in conflict with the law of the empire.
That
led him to his martyrdom:
his
death bore witness to
the
kingdom of God against
the
kingdoms of this world
that try
to assume God’s rightful place as Lord of all.
The Gospel
portrays St. Peter.
Peter
really didn’t want to get political.
All he
was trying to do,
while
living as an exile from Israel in the heart of the Roman Empire
was to
follow the instructions of Jesus: Feed my sheep. Tend my lambs.
He
wasn’t trying to make a statement,
just
trying to live his life and care for God’s people entrusted to him.
But
when the empire tried to tell him
not to do
what God had commanded him to do,
he
resisted and it got him crucified.
Throughout
Holy Scripture there are stories
about staying
faithful
in the
face of powers and principalities that demand we obey them
and not
the commandments of our Lord.
It’s
there from the first stories in Genesis,
o
taught to help the captive people of Israel to
resist the Babylonian empire
-
through the passion and
crucifixion of Jesus Christ at the hands of Pontius Pilate
-
to the last book of Revelation,
written to help the early Christian community resist Roman empire orders to
cease and desist their way of life
Holy
Scripture, see, can be read
as a
guide for keeping one’s life focused on and obedient to God,
for
those of us
not
trying to make a statement,
but
trying to live joyful lives, to raise children, to care for parents and
for
those of us
who
are unwilling to compromise obedience to God
to
appease an empire making competing claims on our allegiance.
Which
brings us to today. How do we experience
competing
claims on our allegiance?
You
read the news, you have heard the stories:
There
are more than 2,300 children[4]
forcibly
separated from their parents
while
crossing the Southwest border recently.
These
children are being housed across the US,
in
shelters and temporary housing.
Neither
parents nor children know where each other are,
nor
when, how, or if they will be reunited.
And
while the President did sign an executive order
meant
to end the separation of new families at the border,
it
does nothing to address the plight
of
those already in housing due to the “zero-tolerance” policy.
Churches
and faith communities have condemned this violation
of the
rights of children.
And,
despite what the Attorney General has said,
Holy
Scripture is clear about how to treat those who seek refuge.
From
Deuteronomy to Isaiah, from Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
from
Paul’s letter to the Romans to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25,
God commends
faithful people to remember
we
were once aliens,
that
God loves the stranger
and so
we welcome people different from us and people who are outcast.
Jesus
demands obedience to welcoming the stranger
and
caring for the vulnerable.
In
ordinary times,
we
welcome, with expansive love, those on the margins.
We try
to live our lives, work our jobs
share
meals to those who are hungry,
give
coats to those who are cold,
provide
air-conditioning to those who are over-heated,
care
for the sick and those in need.
In
ordinary times we are obedient to God,
doing
our part in God’s kingdom, because God is love!
These
times are not normal.
I
wonder, with a broken heart,
how can
we stay obedient to God’s call for expansive hospitality
and
welcome those seeking refuge
when
our government does not welcome but
closes
the door and tears apart families
before
they get a hearing on the legality of their refugee status?
How can
we care for the alien, the vulnerable, the children,
when
they are put in detention centers?
What
can we do when empire tells us
not to
do what God commanded us to do?
That’s
the cost of obedience. The cost is bearing the anger.
We can
resist. We can cry out. We can do our part to stop it.
We can
share what Holy Scripture guides us to do: remain obedient to Jesus.
I
don’t know where this resistance will lead.
I hope change.
For
Daniel, resistance led to a lion’s den.
For
Saint Peter and for Saint Paul, resistance led to their execution.
And
for us who believe in the resurrection over death,
Whether
death of self or ego or embarrassment ….
our
resistance will bring resurrection and will change something.
We
don’t want to get political.
We
just want to follow Jesus because we, too, love him.
Feed
my sheep, tend my lambs, he says.
And,
“follow me,” he says.
Because
…. when faced with this dilemma, God has to win.
Love has
to win. Or our faith doesn’t matter.
The
good news today is that God in Jesus
pours
into us the courage of SS Peter and Paul,
who
resisted with their faith and in their witness.
As we
resist, keep your eye on Jesus,
meeting
him in strangers, in guests, in those different from us.
Know
you are not alone.
Together,
we have the loving, liberating, life-giving
good
news of God’s love in Jesus who feeds us breakfast,
who guides
us to resist and to do our part to make God’s dream a reality.
It is
not easy being obedient to God.
It is
not comfortable resisting.
Being
part of the Jesus movement means
that
just as Peter and Paul bore witness in their times
to the
love of God in the face of empire,
we can
too, in our way.
For the
same God who loves you more than you will know
will
redeem you through Jesus and
will strengthen
your faith every step of the way.
As we
give thanks to God today for SS Peter and Paul,
we
praise God for those in every generation
whom
Christ has been honored.
We
pray that we may have that same grace
to
glorify Christ in our own day.
Amen
[1]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, pages 57-58
[2] Portions inspired by a social media
post by the Rev. Daniel Lawson on June 18, 2018
[3] Chapter 6 of the book of Daniel
[4] Cited at the New York Times online at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/21/us/where-are-the-border-children.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news on June 21, 2018
