“Courage in the Struggle”

That’s some uplifting scripture reading, huh?  “There will be great earthquakes, and …famines and plagues; and … they will arrest you and persecute you…and they will put … you to death.”  All I can say is, it’s a very good thing we had our new members profess their faith and join the church before we read this Gospel text.  Maybe we shouldn’t have let anyone from our Confirmation Class even come to church today, because these words of Jesus sound more like a threat than a promise:  “¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name.”  Welcome to Christianity.  Welcome to the church.

You know, we love to sing “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” but in a spirit of full disclosure we probably should add one verse: “We’ll Know We Are Christians By Their Hate.”  That’s why we call it “Confirmation” – which literally means “with strength” – because when we confirm our youth, when they join the church, we try to fortify them for the future, so we lay hands on them and pray for them to receive the power of the Holy Spirit as protection and blessing.  The truth is we all need that strength from the Lord – perhaps in these hard times more than ever.  We all need the courage that comes from God when we profess our faith.  As Jesus says, persecution does give us opportunity to testify – to tell our faith stories – and for God to speak to the world through us.

But most of us don’t do that very willingly.  I don’t start my day by asking God to let me be a witness to the Gospel – or to be a martyr, the Greek word μαρτύριον (martyrion) in v. 13 that we translate as “witness.”  Who seeks martyrdom?  Brian Stoffregen, who writes for CrossMarks Christian Resources, quotes a recent Hagar the Horrible comic as he writes about today’s text.  It seems Hagar is preparing his troops for war with his most inspiring battlefield speech.  So Hagar raises his voice and shouts, “This is the moment we've been waiting for, men! The moment we do battle with the enemy! Is everyone here?”  All they all shout back, "YES!"  So Hagar continues: "Okay men – repeat after me. 'I am a Viking Warrior!'"  "I AM A VIKING WARRIOR!" they shout back.  So Hagar keeps going: "And I will fight to the death for what I believe!"  That’s when the men shut up.  In the next frame of the cartoon, they’re all just standing there silent, looking down at their feet.  So in the next frame Hagar asks: "Okay, why aren't you repeating after me?!"  And in the end, one small Viking voice speaks up: "Hagar, um, Hagar, perhaps we could change that to 'and I will fight hard for what I believe…until it's time for dinner'?"

Do we look that “Monty Python” ridiculous to God sometimes, I wonder?  We’re in good company at least – not just with Hagar’s men, but with the first disciples of Jesus.  I mean, think about it for a minute – Luke’s Gospel begins with the angel Gabriel saying to this young girl Mary “the Lord is with you…be not afraid” (Luke 1:28, 30) and this brave teenager says “yes” to bearing the Christ child out of wedlock, even at the risk of her own life.  But then Luke’s Gospel ends with chapter 24 and the risen Christ appearing at the seaside and we read that those big, strong fisher-disciples were terrified, shaking with fear.  You’d think by the END of the story, they might have known better.  Jesus might have wondered the same thing, considering those same disciples had seen him do some amazing and miraculous things in his lifetime, and at least a couple of them had visited his empty tomb.  They were witnesses to his resurrection and to the power of God to conquer even the grave.  It’s no wonder Jesus doesn’t say “Be not afraid!”  But he asks, “Why are you so afraid?”  Still, seeing their fear, he doesn’t condemn them for it.  Instead he promises to send the gift of the Holy Spirit to comfort them and strengthen them for the future. 

It still takes courage to say “yes” to living in the presence of Christ.  And yet, the promise Jesus gives is that the Holy Spirit will provide us the wisdom and courage it takes to speak up in the struggle for justice and peace.  It still takes courage to get up in the morning looking for ways to proclaim God’s love to this broken, messed-up world we live in.  And yet, we’re facing far easier times than the persecuted early church of Luke’s day – when Christians literally could be stoned to death – and still, half the time we are afraid even to speak up at a dinner party for the love of Jesus, to stand up for the Christian faith in casual conversation at our workplace or in school.  From beginning to end, Luke’s Gospel encourages us to “be not afraid” and yet we still sometimes cower with fear at the slightest risk of provoking any hint of conflict on the subject of religion.  That’s why it’s so important that we Christians continue to share our faith stories – because in the telling and retelling, we find more courage for the struggle.

The truth we proclaim each Sunday – as we remember the first Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus – is you can’t ever kill the love of God. You can intimidate it with fear, but the power of love always conquers fear.  What made all those firefighters go UP the stairs of the flaming twin towers but the power of that perfect and holy love that casts out all fear?  We can be so grateful that we received not just one but two EMTs into membership at our first service – one who just finished her training to be a volunteer firefighter.  They know, just as many of our veterans know, how when times are the toughest God gives the courage to go on.  I loved this story from the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, when this one doctor who was passing by climbed up into the rubble of the collapsed double-decker Cypress Freeway in Oakland. He stayed there in a nearly flattened, smoking car to rescue a boy who was trapped under the body of his crushed mother.  Either the doctor wasn’t a Christian, or if he was, he forgot to mention it on TV.  But I think that makes the faith story he shared even more miraculous.  He said, and he sounded genuinely surprised at himself, “I don’t know why I stayed.  I’m no hero.  But something weird just came over me, and no force on earth could have gotten me to leave that boy behind.”  God gave him the chance to be a witness to the power of love to conquer fear.

Most of the heroism that I believe God inspires in us is much less dramatic, but is even more important – because it happens not once in a lifetime but once or twice a day.  We don’t have to literally risk a martyr’s death to find everyday ways to bear witness to our faith.  I will never forget how much my mother impressed me when I was in college and she found the courage to drive to Chapel Hill and march with me against the KKK.  Before that I don’t think I’d ever given her credit for having done anything much more brave in the name of Christ than trying a new jello salad recipe the night before the church picnic.  But not only did she come to the march, when some of my hippie atheist friends asked her why was there, she said it was because it’s what Christians do.  She shared her faith openly and I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of her – and she inspired me to take the risk of naming my faith more often too.  You know it’s not easy to speak up and claim the name of Christian when non-believers are busy lumping all Christians together with those who preach hate and intolerance.  But that’s why it’s so important that we do – the world needs us mild-mannered, reasonable Christians to rely upon God’s wisdom to give us courage to speak up in the struggle for justice and peace. 

So if we’ve seen the power of God’s love in action, why are we so tempted to think somehow we won’t qualify to receive the gifts of wisdom and courage that the Holy Spirit has to offer?  Any hero will tell you that real courage is not being unafraid; it’s being afraid and doing it anyway.  We need to face the struggles of our lives with the confidence that if we do, God will give us opportunities to share our faith and inspire others. 

What are the struggles of your life?  I look around me right here in this church and see friends with terrible illness, and their families.  God has given them the courage to go through treatment, and to hope and pray for healing.  I look around me right here in this church and see friends suffering from horrible conditions on the job either having the courage to quit in this bad economy – or boldly praying for God to change the hearts of their persecutors in the workplace.  I look around me right here in this church and see friends out of work for more than a year and still getting up in the morning to look for jobs – I see others who are taking bold risks and trying out new careers.  I look around me right here in this church and see friends who’ve taken cuts in salary and still are finding ways to actually increase their giving to the church, because in these hard times, they’ve told me they’ve realized more than ever how important it is to keep the light of hope burning in our meetinghouse.  I look around me right here in this church and see friends going out on mission trips into unfamiliar territory, or just buying a gift for someone in need – BEFORE being sure they have enough money to cover their own Christmas list.  I look around me right here in this church and see friends who’ve lost a spouse to death or divorce having the courage to struggle on alone, or even to fall in love again.  I look around me right here in this church and see friends joining a church full of strangers, a 253-year-old church of cranky New England pilgrims, in faith and hope that together God will continue to do that miraculous work only God can do – to strengthen us with courage for the struggle.

Who’ll join me in saying, “I am a Pilgrim Warrior!”  “I am a Pilgrim Warrior!”  “And I will fight to the death for what I believe.”  “And I will fight to the death for what I believe.”  Amen!  Thanks be to God for this Good News. 

 

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Luke 21:5-19

⁵When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” ⁷They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” ⁸And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. ⁹“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. ¹²“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls.