Grace Overcomes

Reverend Philip Stringer

Matthew 10:24-39

LET US PRAY: O merciful Father in Heaven: You give the knowledge of your saving help -- a comfort to your people. Feed our hearts with your Holy Word, and make our hearts instruments of your glory, today and all days. AMEN

I was seated in the front, passenger seat of a police car. It was near the beginning of our shift — around midnight — and the police officer with whom I was riding that night had pulled into a parking lot. I had been the chaplain for the police department for less than a year, and I had discovered that being accepted by police officers was a tough nut to crack. For the first six months, I rode with only one officer — not because he wanted me there but because the shift sergeant ordered him to take me along. Eventually, our conversations became less wooden — and his arms-length interactions with me started to become more personal — less defensive. The chaplain program was new — established by the chief and thrust upon them. Suddenly, there I was in their world — a preacher whom they didn’t ask for or want — with little training — someone they were now supposed to babysit because the chief ordered them to.

Steve must have drawn the short straw or done something to upset the sergeant, because now he was the one who had to take me along. After about 6 months there was an occasion when Steve was involved in a scuffle with a suspect who was resisting arrest — and he was having a hard time with it so I decided to jump into the fray and help subdue the man. He must have told the other officers about it, because suddenly, things changed — at the briefing before the next shift, before the sergeant assigned me to ride with Steve, another officer spoke out, “I’ll take the chaplain tonight.” Suddenly, nearly all of the officers had taken a turn with me. I was “in.”

So here I was with one of these officers — either the first or second time I had ridden with him — and he pulled into a parking lot, put the car in park and handed me the newspaper. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to see. He pointed to a story about some act of violence somewhere in the world. I still wasn’t sure why he was showing it to me.

“If God is so good,” he asked, “how can God allow this?”

It is a question that has been asked in all of our hearts at one time or another — and our Scripture texts for today take the questions even further — because we have heard passages today that not only point out the trouble of conflict — but state that the Word of God actually BRINGS ABOUT conflict and division.

Jeremiah laments that the message from God that he proclaims to the people makes them turn against him and treat him as an enemy.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples that the message they proclaim will tear families apart, will result in them being hated, and that failure to be perfect will lead to judgment before God.

The word, “gospel,” means “good news,” but it is hard to see anything good about the message today.

It’s no wonder that the police officers were bewildered with my presence. This idealistic preacher who thinks that we should all just turn the other cheek and that being gentle and loving will make everything all right — when he sees the world that they live in every night, he’ll turn and run. They thought that the God I believed in is incompatible with the world they saw every night.

Are Christians joyful people — or are they sad, depressed, angry? We know the answer is supposed to be joyful. But so often, what we hear from Christians are words of condemnation and rejection and anger. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” but in today’s reading we heard him say that he didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword!

There is no question that the words from Jesus in today’s reading are troubling. Clearly, he spoke them in order to shock the disciples — but there IS good news in our texts today.

The word of God that we hear today is actually FULL of good news — because what is proclaimed to us is not that God creates conflict, but that God’s grace overcomes it.

Because Jesus does not CREATE conflict and suffering — it is the opposition to Jesus that is the cause of these things.

That is subtle — and may seem like splitting hairs — but it is actually quite important.

Jesus does not CREATE conflict and suffering — it is the opposition to Jesus that is the cause of these things. And what Jesus proclaims is that when opposition to God’s word rises up, ultimately, it is the will of God that prevails.

Imagine that it is as if the truth is a great, massive, beautiful diamond — and that what is evil in the world is like a baseball bat that tries to smash it. The baseball bat will lose every time. All the bashing and shattering of wood in the world won’t change the reality that diamonds are stronger than bats. It is a tragedy to see the smashing — to hear the banging — but in a world where everybody is swinging a bat, the diamond of God’s will must be raised up if people are to see that bats just don’t win.

Jeremiah began to have an inkling about this — he knew the will of God would prevail, but he still saw the end as destroying his enemies.

What Jesus proclaims is that the true beauty of the diamond is that after all of the bats have smashed themselves against it, what remains is God’s will. And the will of God is that all things be reconciled in Christ.

When Jesus was beaten down by human sin — when the evil in the world did its worst to him — when Jesus was beaten to death by the baseball bats of the human heart — He rose again.

What Jesus tells his disciples — and us — is not to fear the world. The world can do terrible things — and does do terrible things — but we are part of something that is greater than even the worst that this world can do.

Don’t be afraid.

In our Second Reading for today, Paul writes about the power of God’s grace to overcome all that would separate us from the love of God.

What this means for you and me in our daily lives is twofold:

First is the message — the encouragement — “do not be afraid”

And second — be more than people who talk about God’s grace — be instruments of God’s grace by working for peace and justice — by saying “yes” to that which builds up, and “no” to that which tears down.

In our current climate of division and decline of many things we have cherished, it would be easy to be cynical — to just throw our hands up and walk away. But our scripture texts for today encourage us with the Good News of God’s grace. Do not worry — in fact — rise up and shine with the light of God’s love.

Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Don’t speak and act as if the love of God has not set you free. You have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. So live the life you have been given in Jesus — proclaim the good news. Live the good news.

AMEN