Luke 21:5-19
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
At one time I believed that it was enough to present a good and persuasive argument, after which all those who hear it would happily change their beliefs to my beliefs. I could not have been more wrong! People do not change their beliefs no matter how persuasive an argument. For example, look at our current politics, for the most part, people refuse to hear any negative facts about the politicians that they support and when they do hear a persuasive argument, they find a way to justify their own different beliefs, ignore the argument or forgive the errant politician. Why would I expect church beliefs be any different? I’ve learned that the best approach to those who do not believe as we do, is to simply say, “this is what I believe”, and to then follow it up with a simple statement of belief. The best we can ever expect is that those to whom we offer our beliefs will give us the time and actually listen to what we have to say, maybe consider them. When questions follow and, on those occasions, when agreement is stated, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit has been with us, guiding our words and opening the hearts of those to whom we reached out to.
Sharing the good news of Jesus is not easy and Jesus made it clear that many of his faithful will be treated poorly and may be handed over to those who disagree with us; in Jesus day and in the centuries that followed, that meant arrests, sometimes torture and sometimes execution. Jesus was not one to sugarcoat the possibilities. And in China, in some Muslim countries, in parts of India, and other places throughout the world such dangers still exist for those who openly share their faith in Jesus Christ. Even in this country today, good Christians risk the disdain and even violence for speaking out in a public way with the message of Jesus’ love for the poor, the stranger, the persecuted and those treated unjustly. Jesus made it clear that we may in fact be hated, all because of Jesus name, and our attempts to remain faithful to Jesus’ example. Part of the reason for this is that, in Christ, we are a people who are not bound by political, national, racial, language and other barriers. As the Body of Christ, as Christians, as the People of God our loyalties go to Jesus, first and foremost. Our political and national loyalties, our loyalties to the Lutheran denomination, our sports loyalties, our congregational loyalties, our school loyalties, our loyalties to our friends, all of these, take a back seat to our dedication to the love and will of Jesus Christ.
Again, while the Lord will honor us for our loyalty to his will and love, we cannot expect to be treated by those who oppose us with the same love, Jesus’ love, that we offer to them. The picture painted by Jesus and lived out by so many throughout history, is not a pretty picture! It suggests that we will not be able to enjoy much of this life. In some parts of the world and for some people this may be true, but not so in our country; here we are free (for the most part) to express of faith and love without fear of repercussions. As for the expectation of the Lord for us, in the eyes of our Lord, the only freedom, not afforded us, is the freedom to ignore those who suffer of our world. We are expected, as the beneficiaries of God’s love in Jesus, to share that love liberally and stand firm against those who would look to restrict and endanger the lives of those who suffer in our world. I want to address some of these situations, but I see two problem with, for example, my publicly standing against the way that the children of people attempting to immigrate to our country (illegally) are separated from their parents and placed in cage-like enclosures: first I do not have the answer to providing better treatment, though I know there must be a better way; second I do not look forward to the hostile response from those who (I believe) are afraid of what the immigrants might do if freed to enter our country. How do we love as Jesus loved? How do we love, when we are afraid, when we do not know how, when we do not ourselves have the power to make things better, when the laws keep us from helping?
That is just one of the issues facing us here in the United States. Then there is the question of how do we get guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, criminals and those who are a part of hate groups. And there is also the question of how we can make good medical care, quality education and other basic resources available to everyone. When was it, that such issues became political issues, rather than human issues? Jesus did not teach us to ignore the needs of the poor, displaced, the under employed, the sick, the confused and those who are different from us. The Gospels are full of stories about healings, feedings, building relationships with people of all stations of life, including the lowest of the low and the biggest of sinners. As a pastor, it is not my job to tell you which political party you should belong to, or which political candidate you should support, so I will not. As a Christian I know that there is good and bad is every party and in every candidate. The fact is they, no matter how powerful or successful will stand in judgment before the Lord; they will all, you and me included, be confronted for the evil that we do and be asked to profess our faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ. Strange thing, we are all subject to God’s judgment and will all be offered Jesus’ forgiveness, earned for us by his death on the cross. I can’t say that I fully understand the generosity of Jesus’ love and forgiveness, but I am thankful for it.
I guess, it all comes down to Jesus doing what our politicians do not do, what we as a society fail to demand, what we as individuals fall short of doing, and that is treating everyone in a humane manner. I heard a story this past week of a man in Houston by the name of Rambo. Actually the character Rambo from the movie of that name was drawn from his military service in Vietnam. After returning to Houston he struck oil and became very rich, but lived as a survivalist. Well, he got sick, cancer; being told there was no cure he went to church and something made him look at life differently. He decided to help everyone who asked for help; he even helped an individual known for not truly needing such help; when asked why he helped her, he said life was too short to worry about people’s motives; he would leave that to God. In the short time we have in this life be generous, help when you can, be humane.