Sunday, July 2, 2023

Fifth Sunday in Pentecost
Jeremiah 28:5-9
Psalm 119:153-160
Romans 7:1-13
Matthew 10:34-42

He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

I don’t really follow sports, but it is impossible sometimes to ignore the events surrounding a local sports team. Here in San Antonio, that team is the professional basketball team called the Spurs. We’ve had fantastic players that have led us to seasons of victory. It is fun to watch a city after their favorite sports team has won a championship. The people in the city respond with such pride and celebration. They give the athletes the honor due and embrace them with great love and adoration. The people of that city rejoice with their team and claim the victory as their own. Though they do not get to display the trophy on their mantle or wear an expensive gold and diamond ring, the fans receive a great reward for their loyalty.

True fans will love the team even in times of struggle, which of course come. For the Spurs, the season of greatness has been followed by a season of losses because the best players all retired at the same time. They have been going through a period of rebuilding, trying to find players to make a team like the one that was so successful. One of the advantages of having a losing year in professional basketball is that the team gets first pick at those players who want to join the league. This happened for the Spurs this year and they have come out of the draft with Victor Wembanyama. The seven-foot-five-inch Wemby (as he is known) is expected to be one of the greatest of all times. His height alone gives him an advantage, but he is proving himself to be a great player. He has room to grow, which is an asset because then he is willing to learn and grow with his teammates. The reason the Spurs were so great in those former days was because they had a team, not just one incredible player. If Wemby can be the foundation of such a team, the Spurs can be great again. The reward will be great for everyone: Wemby, the team, and the city who can celebrate with their Spurs again.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus said that whoever receives a prophet or a righteous man will receive a reward. I’m not sure what that reward will be, especially as we look at the life of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. No one received Jeremiah because he spoke words that no one wanted to hear. God guided him into a life of rejection and persecution.

At the time of today’s Old Testament lesson, Jeremiah was wearing a yoke like an oxen would wear; it was a symbol of political submission. Jeremiah told the people that they should submit themselves to the Babylonians and he stood as an example to them with the yoke around his neck. Hananiah was a prophet preaching a much different message, a message that promised that the yoke of the Babylonians would be broken, and they would be free. To make his point, Hananiah took Jeremiah’s yoke and broke it, not only showing the power of his message against the Babylonians, but also showing that Jeremiah’s power over the people was broken.

At first sight, this passage seems very hopeful. Jeremiah was excited about the idea of peace for Israel. “Amen!” he answered Hananiah’s prophesy, but he followed with a warning by reminding them that all the prophets before had prophesied about war, evil, and pestilence. Who wouldn’t prefer Hananiah’s prophecy? Peace means that the people would no longer be oppressed and held as slaves. They would be restored to their homeland and the king would rule again. This is a message filled with hope because it promised peace. The people preferred Hananiah as their prophet because he spoke a message they wanted to hear. They rejected Jeremiah because everything he said contradicted the warm fuzzies of peace and good news that came from others. Hananiah made his point with the dramatic gesture of breaking the yoke to show the power of his message against the Babylonians and to show that Jeremiah’s power over the people was broken. Jeremiah walked away.

There are many people who claim to be prophets of God, speaking “Thus says the Lord” with self-imposed authority. They speak a message that the people want to hear and reap the rewards of their pleasure. If anyone doubts their authority, they prove their power by some grand gesture, gaining the trust of the people who would rather hear his word above those of a weeping prophet. The one who contradicts these so-called prophets with words about sin and calls of repentance are condemned and rejected, just like Jeremiah.

Jeremiah did not fight Hananiah. He agreed with the prophet’s words, saying “Amen, I hope this will be.” After all, Jeremiah did not want to be a prophet. He cursed the day he was born. He wanted to give up. But Jeremiah was compelled by God to speak the truth that the people did not want to hear. He seemed to agree with Hananiah’s prophecy, but he reminded the people that a prophet’s words must come true for the prophet to be speaking from God’s mouth. When peace came, Hananiah would be proven to be a prophet from God which would have been a relief to Jeremiah. After all, who wants to be the prophet who speaks only bad news to the people?

Unfortunately, we learn quickly in chapter 28 that Hananiah is a false prophet. “Listen, Hananiah! Yahweh has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie.” He might have broken a yoke of wood, but God responded to the grand gesture by placing an unbreakable yoke of iron on Israel. While a yoke of wood is a yoke of submission, the yoke of iron was symbolic of servitude. The people could have lived in quiet submission to the Babylonians for a season, but because of Hananiah’s arrogance and their rejection of the truth, they would live as slaves to Babylon. Hananiah prophesied restoration within two years, but he died just two months later.

We can’t assume that a message of peace is a false message or that one who speaks of peace is a false prophet. However, we are reminded by this passage that something that sounds hopeful is not always the way to peace. Sometimes God has something else in mind like a lesson to be learned, a call for repentance, or a chance for transformation and change. We want the warm fuzzies now, the message that promises good things ahead. We might just need a season of something we don’t want to bring us to the place God intends us to be.

I’m not quite sure what Jesus meant when He talked about the reward of a prophet. The biblical prophets who spoke of God according to God’s Word received rejection and persecution. And yet, they followed their calling with the assurance that they would receive the blessing of God. The reward is not necessarily something found in this life or this world, it is found in the promise of what will be. Just like Jeremiah’s call to submission would eventually lead again to freedom for Israel, so too our willingness to submit to God’s will even when we do not want it will lead to something better. Those who receive a prophet might have to experience a time of struggle, but they will have the assurance of the promise which is given to the prophet.

I’m not quite sure what reward a righteous man will receive. As a matter of fact, the righteous ones often suffer the same rejection and persecution that the prophets receive. The righteous ones are the ones who refuse to take advantage of others for their personal benefit. The righteous ones are those who end up as door mats and ladder rungs for the people willing to do anything to get ahead. The righteous ones do not boast of their greatness but quietly live as God has called them to live, in a relationship with Him. Those who receive the righteous will not gain anything but a deeper and stronger relationship with God.

To receive a prophet and a righteous man means receiving a reward, but not a trophy or ring. The reward is a stronger and more personal relationship with the God to whom they are bound. This is more valuable than any trophy or ring, it is an eternal gift, one that will last forever. Receiving the prophet and righteous man is a manifestation of the faith which God gives, the faith which saves. The reward, the assurance of true faith, is priceless.

Isn’t it amazing that a priceless gift such as eternal life takes so little to earn? Wemby will have to work and play well to prove his worth. He will have to work with the other players to build a winning team to earn his trophy and ring. The people of our city are excited about the possibility, but we won’t know for months, or even years, if he was really the answer to make the team great again.

Jesus said, “Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward.” We need only give a glass of cold water to a child in the name of God’s servants to keep that which God has promised. And yet, even this is too hard for us to do without God’s help. We cannot give a glass of cold water to a child in the name of a disciple without faith. We cannot serve God in this way without believing in the promise that is already assured through the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. To receive a prophet or a righteous man takes faith, and only God can give that gift. He is faithful. We can’t lose what He has promised, and so we live in trust.

As is true of many of the Psalms, Psalm 119 was written by a poet who was suffering. There are indications through the one hundred and seventy-six verses that he had some sort of disease that threatened his life and that he was oppressed by enemies. The crescendo of his cries to God comes in the final stanzas, including the one for this week. The psalmist begged God to see his suffering and to save him. It is clear from the beginning of the psalm that the poet loved God’s law and was as obedient as possible, and he used his obedience as the basis for his cries for help. This is not to say that he thought he deserved God’s help because he kept the law perfectly, but his obedience was the manifestation of his faith and trust in God. God promised His help to those who believe, and the psalmist was reminding God of His promises.

The psalmist knew God’s divine word, His promises, and knew that God is faithful. He compared himself to those who did not know God’s promises. Despite their persecution, the psalmist did not turn away from God. The psalmist was seeking new life and trusted that God will be true to His Word. Our greatest enemy is our own inability to be true to God, but we can trust that He will save us according to His promise. When we see our failure through the Law, we see most clearly that our only hope is in God’s grace.

We’d rather not see sin for what it is. We don’t want to think that we are sinners; this is why so many Christians ignore the reality of our sinful nature. We want to hear God’s promises but refuse to believe in God’s wrath. We want to experience God’s grace but reject any thought that God might use the consequences of our sin to turn us to Himself. God was sending Israel to Babylon because they had failed to live up to His expectations. It was a time set aside for them to fall on their knees in humble submission to Him. They didn’t want to hear it. We are just like them; we’d rather hear the warm fuzzies; the word “sin” has been removed from too many Christian voices. God is love, which is true, but He is also holy and just. He demands obedience.

Will obedience save us? No. Christ has saved us. He died and we die through faith and baptism in Him to be raised to new life. We are set free from the law and made captive to the Word, which is Christ. We are not capable of being perfect on our own; our flesh is weak and perishable. Christ saves us and calls us to a new life, a life of new obedience, not to the law, but to Him. He is the fulfillment of God’s law; we dwell in Him, and we live for Him.

People in Jeremiah’s day knew what they wanted. They wanted to be free from Nebuchadnezzar, not so that they could live according to God’s Word, but so they could do what they wanted. They were willing to hear anything that made them feel good. Hananiah gave them what they wanted: words of peace. He was tickling their ears with talk of hope, claiming to be speaking on God’s behalf. Who doesn’t want to hear words of peace and hope? We do, of course. Even Jeremiah said, “Amen!” The prophecy sounded good to their ears, and so they ignored the bad news to embrace Hananiah’s good news.

Today’s false prophets continue to make the people believe lies; they make grand gestures, but their word is not truly from God. God responds as He did to Hananiah. Though we may not be made slaves to an oppressive nation, we are made slaves to the sin we refuse to let go. We are made slaves to our desires and suffer the consequences of the lives we have chosen to live.

Read the whole tenth chapter of Matthew and you will see Jesus’ words in context. What was He doing? What was He teaching? What was He saying to the disciples? He was sending them out on their first missionary journey. He divided them two by two. I imagine that He chose those pairs carefully so that they would complement each other. He sent them only to the Israelites, giving them the opportunity to learn how to tell people about the Kingdom of God among those with similar heritage, language, and expectations. He told them not to take anything with them, to rely on the graciousness and mercy of those to whom they were sent. They were to find a home in each town that welcomed them and to share God’s peace in that place. Jesus warned them it wouldn’t be easy. In last week’s lectionary, Jesus told them to be on their guard. Their own people would reject them; even brothers would betray brothers. He told them that they should expect to be persecuted because the world would persecute Him. They will be rejected, just as He would be rejected.

Jesus continued these warnings in today’s Gospel lesson. Life in Christ will not be all peace. He was speaking to the disciples, but also to us today, advising us that our faith will separate us from even those we love. It makes us wonder, “What will I do if someone I love rejects my faith?” I suppose some of my readers already know. Can we stand for Christ when faced with opposing expectations from those we love? Jesus made it very clear in last week’s Gospel text: “Deny me and I will deny you.” (Matthew 10:33) That’s what God did to the people in Jeremiah’s day. They rejected the true prophet, and they suffered the consequences. They chased after the warm fuzzies and ended up suffering an greater punishment for their disobedience. They ignored God’s word and became bound to something far worse.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul clearly differentiates between the Law and sin. The law is not sin, but with the law we become aware of the sinful behaviors that harm others and ourselves. When we hear the commandment, “Thou shalt not lie,” we realize that we are sinning every time we tell an untruth, a partial truth, or keep the truth hidden. Paul uses the law of covetousness in this passage. He wrote that before the law we did not know what it meant to covet something, but when we heard the law, we learned that it is wrong to desire something which is not ours. The law about coveting is not sin, but it opens our eyes to the truth that our desires go against God’s intention for our lives.

As Paul described it, sin took advantage of the law, causing the one who heard the law to covet all the more. He wrote, “For apart from the law, sin is dead.” He went on to say, “I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.”

The Law is not deadly. The Law is given to us so that we will live as God intended us to live. “Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.” The commandments, as we hear in the psalm for today, deliver us from the wicked ones and preserve our lives. But once we hear the law, we become slaves to sin. The law then shows us through death that we are sinners, and thus separated from God our Father. It turns us to Him, so that we might be saved.

We’d rather ignore the Law because it shows us the truth of our sinfulness. Yet, without the Law, we’ll never know our need for Christ. Without it we’ll never look to God for salvation. Sometimes God has something else in mind: a lesson learned, a call for repentance, a chance for transformation and change. We want the warm fuzzies now, the message that promises good things ahead. We might need a season of something we don’t want to bring us to the place God intends us to be. Submission to Babylon was what Israel needed, but when the people rejected Jeremiah, they got something worse. Through Jesus Christ, God has set us free from everything that keeps us from living as He intends, but we have to hear His Word and trust that He is doing what is right. When we reject or ignore His Word calling us to humble submission, we find ourselves enslaved to something worse.

The world has expectations, and it is easy for us to follow the voices that say what we want to hear. But those voices yoke us in ways we would never expect. It makes us slaves to sin. This is hard language because the reality of slavery is very painful for so many in our world, not only from the stories of the past but also the reality of the present. Children are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. There are those who do not realize they are slaves addicted to drugs and alcohol. Many are slaves to work or leisure activities. We are slaves to our opinions, to politics, to government, and even to our churches. We don’t have to be yoked to anything because Jesus Christ has set us free.

Jesus has called us to set aside everything in this world, including those things and people we love the most. We are to put God first. God has called us to live as He created us to live, obedient to His Word and according to His law. We are to trust that He is in control even when things don’t seem to be going as we think they should. He knows what we do not know. He knows what He has to do. It won’t be warm fuzzies; it will be hard, piercing, dividing. It may include rejection and persecution, suffering and pain. It might even mean physical death. But it won’t mean the grave. Christ has saved us for eternal life, and we are yoked to Him forever. We won’t lose what God has promised because He is faithful.

God denied those in the story from Jeremiah who did not heed Him. The Old Testament lesson is a picture of what Jesus meant when He said that He would deny us if we denied Him. He denies us when we continue to reject the reality of sin in our lives. We think we are free because we are doing what we want, how we want it. But we are slaves. This slavery is caused by our decision making. We are burdened by debt because we covet that bigger house or that brand new car. We choose to buy things beyond our means. We set unrealistic goals and become slaves to the wrong priorities and expectations. When we are God’s slaves, we experience the freedom that comes with good choices and right priorities. To put God in front of everything is freedom. To put everything ahead of God is slavery to sin.

We have been set free, no longer a slave to sin but given the power to willingly serve the Lord. We are still slaves, but we are welcomed by a Master that will treat us well. As slaves to sin, we are bound to suffer the consequences; as slaves to righteousness, we will receive the fruit of His grace. As we live in His household, we grow closer to our Master and are transformed—sanctified—into the kind of servant He has ordained us to be. We won’t experience peace by following the words of the false prophets. We’ll only know peace when we fall to our knees in humble submission to Him. This means giving up everything to follow Jesus, to die to self so that we can live in Him.

We are also reminded that though the gift is free it isn’t cheap. Life in Christ is not easy. It is not perfect. It is filled with unexpected difficulties and costs. We might be persecuted, even by our family. We might lose our jobs. We might lose our friends. We might even have to follow Jesus into martyrdom. The blood of many Christians over the past two thousand years, including today, testifies to this truth. We want to listen to those prophets crying peace because we want to hold on to our lives. But their peace is not real. Jesus has taught us that when we lose our life for Him, taking up His cross, we will experience true peace. This season may not be what we hope it will be, but when we trust in God’s grace and believe in Jesus, we’ll experience the greatest reward of all: eternal life with Him forever.