Matthew 10:24-39
Her face was pale as she approached the back door after the worship service…
- I could see she was upset…her normally vivacious eyes were frozen.
- The congregation had just concluded the service by singing a stirring rendition of Martin Luther’s well-known hymn…A Mighty Fortress is Our God.
- The congregation’s spirits were high.
- But not for her…I asked: Are you all right?
- No…not really…she replied.
- I have been singing that hymn for most of my life. But for the first time…I noticed a phrase that I had never noticed before. It is the line…The body they may kill…God’s truth abideth still…Pastor…I didn’t expect to hear something like that in church.
[Note: in our hymnal…Evangelical Lutheran Worship…we have replaced that line with expanded language: Were they to take our house…Goods…honor…child or spouse…Though life be wrenched away…They cannot win the day. The Kingdom’s ours forever! ]
Anyway…it is a stark line…it lingers from Reformation days long ago when doctrinal matters were a matter of life and death.
- Throughout church history…there have been scores of controversies woven through its tapestry.
- Christian people have disagreed over the meaning of Bible verses.
- Factions have formed as some folks discerned differing theological themes and then fought over them.
- And sometimes those controversies were internal battles within church walls.
Whenever the followers of Jesus took the Gospel to new places…
- They often encountered pushback…opposition and even threats on their lives.
- The commandments to love God above all else and love neighbor as self…have been fighting words in some places.
In the Acts of the Apostles…saints died by swords or stoning.
- The apostle Paul often found himself in danger for preaching the good news of God…living the Gospel can be risky business.
Jesus declared…in our text…A disciple is not above the teacher.
- Simply put…whatever happened to Jesus could happen to those who follow him.
- Jesus treated all people with dignity and paid the price for it.
- He told the truth and was condemned as a result.
- Completely committed to God’s ways…he made enemies and they took his life away.
- When we live as one of Jesus’ disciples…we will not be exempt from pain or suffering for our faith.
Ingrid Arneson Rasmussen…a pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis…was handcuffed and arrested in January for kneeling in the middle of a road at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
- Along with about 100 other clergy members…she was protesting at a site used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…
- To dispatch immigrants and asylum-seekers to detention centers around the country during Operation Metro Surge…
- A three-month escalation in ICE enforcement in the area.
Lori Wise participated in a No Kings rally in York…Pennsylvania…in March.
- Drawn to the rally with other members of Zion Lutheran Church in York…she was protesting for personal reasons.
- She had watched her adopted son…an immigrant…struggle while growing up in the United States.
- She uses her voice now because she believes civic leaders have emboldened cruelty toward immigrants.
Ingrid and Lori have been called to action by faith.
- They carry on a long tradition of Lutheran activism rooted in Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors.
- Their action is a natural extension of the ways ELCA congregations have been caring for their communities for years.
Rooted in the Protestant Reformation…the Lutheran faith has been expressed through civic activism throughout its history.
- Protests against slavery in the United States were organized in the1830s by the Frankean Synod and Daniel Alexander Payne…
- The first African American admitted to a Lutheran seminary.
- A resolution at the 1862 General Synod denounced slavery.
- In the following decades…Lutherans supported and welcomed waves of immigrants as they arrived in the United States.
- They were also part of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
Retired ELCA pastor…Joseph Ellwanger…rallied with others in Milwaukee…
- On the Sunday after Easter to protest the detention of a Muslim man…
- Who had lived and worked in the United States legally for more than 30 years.
- Joseph said: As long as there is injustice we must stand up against it…
- Love of neighbor requires that we stand up for fair and just treatment of our neighbor…
- And everyone is our neighbor…And especially everyone in need. … This is part of living the gospel.
To paraphrase Martin Luther’s hymn…bodies they did kill.
- And yet…even in these conflicted times…is not the Gospel proclaimed in word and deed?
- Yes…it is…as the rest of Luther’s hymn lyric declares…God’s truth abideth still.
What is the message of truth to be proclaimed from the rooftops?
- What is the secret to be disclosed?
- Simply this: all of us matter to God.
- Each life has infinite value…no exceptions.
- Our value comes from the God who created us in the divine image and numbered the hairs on our heads.
There is nothing that the world can do that is able to eradicate the Gospel…
- Or destroy God’s loving and watchful care over the faithful.
- The world can forbid the expression of Jesus love…
- And enforce it by throwing those who bear witness to the kingdom in jail…
- But nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered…and nothing secret that will not become known (Matt. 10:26).
The world can even kill those who serve the Gospel…but the murderers are not to be ultimately feared.
- They may have momentary power over bodily life…
- But they have no power over the soul…only God has that.
- Only God is to be feared…and God…who counts the hairs on our heads…
- Only God does not fail to note even the falling of a single common sparrow…
- Only God can be trusted to treasure those who serve the kingdom (Matthew 10:28-31).
Love like that is a mystery…a holy gracious mystery.
- We bow before the all-powerful God who announces a strange dominion that will outlive our human weaknesses.
- God’s curious kingdom comes with the declaration that all of us are worthy of it.
- His Good News cannot be hidden.
- That secret is disclosed for all to hear.
No matter what happens…in life or death…we never need to be afraid.
- Not now…never…we are God’s people.
- Nothing can snatch us away from the One who numbers the hairs on our heads.
- And God will finish what we cannot.