Your Mountain is Waiting
This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Bemus Point, NY. The gospel text is Matthew 10:24-39.
When perusing portions of the Bible, it is a natural tendency for us to simply focus on the particular passage we have read. If we do that in Matthew's gospel, it looks like Jesus talks to the disciples many times about many things. However, we are still in the section where he is preparing his disciples for their work of spreading the gospel in his absence. Jesus here connects love of God, which results in following Christ, giving us life abundant.
Every family has secrets, don’t they? There is the long-perpetuated family narrative of a situation. Then, much later, you find out what really happened. I’ve found this in my own family. The teenage children tell you they are doing such and such with their friends that evening. It’s late. It’s past their curfew. Where are they? Then there’s a phone call. Everything is fine. No need to worry, you’re told. But you know there is more going on here than what they’re telling you. Then, when they’re all grown up, they tell you what was really happening.
My son, Christian, was not much more than a toddler. He could not keep any information at all to himself. When we were living near Bethlehem, we found a much better location and situation for what became the Friendship Center for Muslim university students. As we were talking around the dinner table, about moving just a couple of streets away, we repeatedly told Christian not to say anything to our landladies until we were ready to tell them. What does Christian do? The very next time he sees them, he blurts out that we are going to move! The ladies were beside themselves, and we had to do some damage control. That is, this secret was only for a brief period of time, not a lifelong never tell anyone kind of situation.
The secrets Jesus is talking about are the divine secrets of the kingdom of God. These we are not to keep to ourselves. This is the good news of what it is to live the Christ-life, and then to share it with others. People who are unacquainted with Jesus will not listen to theology, but they will hear your stories. They will see how you live your life. Isn’t that what Jesus did with outsiders? He healed them and told them parables, stories about God’s goodness and care.
It’s finally summer! And it’s June, the time for weddings, for declarations and promises of love throughout life. Jesus speaks of the Father’s love for his people. God cares for sparrows and if God cares for them, how much more does he care for his children. Do you hear these tender words, “And even the hairs of your head are all counted?” (v. 30). God notices even the details of our lives. Such is God’s love for us.
After speaking of the Father’s love for us, Jesus continues to talk about our response to that love. Who or what will be the center of our lives? Is it the children with their crazy schedules and impending demands upon our time? Is it the pull between our work lives and our home lives, what our employers want and what our family needs, never mind the rest our bodies crave. And then the church wants what? There are times we feel like there is not enough of us to go around. It’s time to prioritize.
We can look at God and the Christian life as one choice among the many things clambering for our attention, or we can look at life like a bicycle wheel. Christ is in the center, the essence of our lives. All the various things we do for need and for pleasure are the spokes that emanate from the hub of our lives, Christ. Jesus is not saying we’re unworthy of him if we love our families, only if love of family supplants love of him.
Loving God morphs into a lifestyle of following Jesus. And that’s not easy. It involves taking up the cross. That means death to selfish desires. Over the centuries of church history, it has meant physical death at times. This is part and parcel of being a follower, a witness of Christ. In the New Testament, the word for witness is marteria, from which the word “martyr” is derived.
Sundaysandseasons.com explains, “Jesus warns his disciples that their ministry in his name will meet with opposition. However, he assures them that they need not fear, for the truth will come to light. Life is found in Christ.” Jesus is not promising his followers that everything will be sweetness and light. His assurance to them is that life is in Christ. He will be with them and us, which is why we are given the Holy Spirit at our baptisms.
Following Jesus brings us to all kinds of interesting places, meeting different people, doing things we could never imagine. As an adult, with two small children, I went with my first husband to the Middle East, to Bethlehem. It was here that Christian told the secret. We were there for six and a half years. There were many culture shocks and adjustments to our lives there as witnesses for Jesus.
You may be following Christ in your work, in school, in retirement. If we are open, we will find God leading us in so many ways. You have difficulty moving? Use your phone to call people to encourage them. Send cards and other greetings.
Life, abundantly so, is something Jesus promises his followers. “The two primary meanings here are the earthly life (animate life… ‘physical life’) and the inner life (…that transcends the earthly life, sometimes called ‘the soul’). The fact that the Greek term can have both meanings creates in this verse both a paradox and a wordplay” (Notes, The New English Translation). So, if it sounds confusing, that’s because it is.
Is Jesus referring to physical life? Yes. Is this about our spiritual lives, eternal life that continues after we die? Yes. “…the one who willingly gives up earthly, physical life to follow Jesus (‘loses his life because of me’) will ultimately find one’s ‘soul’…John’s Gospel speaks of ‘guarding one’s ‘soul’ for eternal life’” (John 12:25) (NET notes).
In these last two verses, everything comes together, as Jesus declares discipleship’s benefits, “…those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” “Before the God who is at once gracious and transcendent, we ‘lose’ our lives and discover the true life in following the way of Jesus the crucified Son” (Sundaysandseasons.com). This is true, abundant life, that scratches the itch you feel inside as you read or hear God’s word.
In the words of Lutheran author, Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, “So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!” (Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!).
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