Faith and Fear - June 25, 2023
I had a Pastoral Care professor, who was raising a teenager at the time, say in of our classes – you know, I’m learning, that if you can handle whiplash, you can handle raising a teenager. One day they need you desperately, the next, they want nothing to do with you. I always thought that was good advice. It’s appro pos for the gospel text from Matthew 10:26-39 this morning. If you can handle a bit of whiplash, you can handle this text.
Jesus speaks to the disciples:
Don’t you know even the hairs on your head are counted?
Don’t you know that not a sparrow falls from the sky without God’s knowing? Aren’t you of more value than they?
In what amounts to the very next verse, whiplash coming, we then read,
“Yet if anyone, you included, denies me before others, I’ll deny them before my Father. I’ve come not to bring peace to this world, but a sword.”
The juxtaposition is jarring. And the threat, downright terrifying and conditional. If you cross me, I’ll cross you. If you deny me, I’ll deny you. If you threaten me, I’ll threaten you. The contract is if/then – and you make the first move.
Indeed, many read these texts as if they were the gospel, skimming past the first section of value and identity. Isn’t it troubling how deeply fear and faith are connected together?
I often believe that what we read in the text says more about us than it does about the text itself. If you’re looking for patriarchy – you can find it in this text written 2000 years ago. If you’re looking for sexism, you can find it. If you’re looking for judgment and clear lines drawn between insiders and outsiders, you’ll find it! And honestly, you can build your faith on these things and call them Biblical. Many do. The fact is that these things are Biblical. You can’t hide these parts or pretend patriarchy, sexism, and tribalism don’t exist in the scriptures. The issue in my opinion, is not whether these are part of a Biblical worldview, but rather, whether ascribing to faith in Christ means adhering to a 1st-century worldview. In my opinion, it’s no surprise that we need to make some sharp distinctions.
Getting back to the text, I want to deal with this sort of if/then, cause/effect, deny me, I’ll deny you way of seeing things.
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I don’t know about you, but I can fall into what Katie and I call, tit for tat thinking. I come by it through the way of my upbringing. In the family of my childhood, we practiced what I now call, a chess match of judgment. If I do something nice for you, you need to be equally grateful and demonstrate that properly, or willing to do something for me in return. If you don’t follow this quid pro quo, there will be hell to pay! If you are kind to me, you will receive kindness. If you are rude to me, you will receive rudeness, if you give 50%, I’ll give 50%. If you give less, I’ll give less. I mirror your emotions. In other words, not very healthy!
So, is this what Jesus is admonishing his disciples with before their departure? A conditional contract that hinges on their upholding their allegiance to Jesus? If you, then I… We generally call this tit-for-tat thinking.
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Tit-for-tat thinking or feeling, I have learned, can be devastating. It is devastating both in its toxicity and in its devilish way of seeming entirely just, an appropriate response given the input.
So, how do good relationships function? They articulate what they need within the context and assumption of mutual love and support.
Brené Brown shares in a recent interview a practice she has with her partner. The practice moves them past a 50-50, tit-for-tat approach to life.
In the interview, Brené contends that a “50-50 partnership” is, in her words, nonsense. She shares that when either she or her spouse comes home from work, they assess their emotional and physical energy. Seeing that the kids need food, the kitchen is a disaster, there’s no food in the fridge, and everyone needs something. Brene’s spouse, for instance, will confess that he has 20 to give. Brené then assesses her energy and spirit. There are times, I say, you know what, I have 80 to give. I got this. We make it to 100. There are other times of course when I’ll say to him, Babe, I have 10 to give. If he does not have the other 90 to give, then we sit down and figure out how a combined 50 will work that day. We let some things go, children eat oatmeal, and we don’t make it to the children’s practice or rehearsal. But we never assume that each will always bring 50.
The point, my friends, is not to make sure that things are fair or equal, keeping a tally in your mind of who has done what. The point is not to then preserve that tally, recording how much more you’ve given or walking on eggshells if you’ve only given 30% the past day or so. Rather, mutual support is the covenant. The burdens and responsibilities are shared within the context of love and trust.
Yet Matthew 10 says, If you deny me, I’ll deny you. You get what you give! Oh, and remember, they may kill the body, but God can kill the soul. This equation has a power balance – and you’re on the wrong side. So, be careful, be afraid…Oh, and have faith! Enjoy! It’s about being thankful anyways! (said with sarcasm). Is this the message of God in Christ? For many, the answer is yes – and they are ready to build faith on what is a 1st-century apocalyptic Jewish understanding.
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I’d like to offer a few thoughts as a way of interpreting Jesus’ threats, first putting them in their historical context and then reading them alongside other scriptures that outline God’s mission.
First, it’s worth mentioning that the vast majority of historical scholars conclude that Jesus was what is called an apocalyptic Jew. He was steeped in what is called, 2nd Temple Jewish Apocalypticism. For our historical savants, 2nd Temple Judaism is the period that runs from the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple to its destruction in 70 CE, approximately 500 years. During this time, particularly during roughly 150 BCE, Jerusalem and Judaism were under siege! They were under brutal occupation, sackings of the temple and city, the apostate Greek King, Antiochus IV who sacrificed a pig in the temple’s altar and killed thousands of Jewish people to assert dominance in the region. Antiochus III and IV’s reign was incredibly brutal, troubling for all Jewish people, and helped foment what became a Jewish apocalypticism. What is apocalypticism and why are you bothering me with it on Sunday morning?
Apocalypticism is the belief that a judgment day is imminent, a battle between good and evil is happening, God or God’s messenger will bring judgment, often metaphorically with a sword, and that these are the final days, the last days, or what some call the end times! These themes influence Jesus’ worldview and teaching. They are the backdrop for understanding Jesus’ words and worldview. Hear our passage in the light of this worldview and things become clear, “I have come to set father against son and daughter against mother. I have come not to bring peace, but the sword.” The question that divides churches today (pun intended) is whether you can follow Jesus without adhering to a Jewish apocalyptic worldview. Another way to phrase this is whether the worldview of Jesus within 2nd Temple Jewish apocalypticism is the message of God. Can you separate the two or are they so intertwined that they can’t be pulled apart?
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It’s interesting to ask the question, what do we highlight in the Bible? Which portions do we read with emphasis? Which parts do we highlight? As an aside, no one highlights the whole thing no matter what they say. See Rachel Held Evans – now deceased, God rest her soul, Year of Biblical Womanhood. The parts we highlight say as much about us as they do the culture from which they come.
Just about 10 days ago, the Southern Baptists further restricted women’s leadership in the church. They doubled down on a previous vote that stipulated, “women may not be pastors” to “women may hold no authority, whether pastor or elder” in the church. The vote was an overwhelming majority. Al Mohler, president of So. Baptist Seminary wrote, “It’s a matter of biblical commitment to scriptural authority.” And to some degree, Al is correct. Sexism is the assumption within 1st-century Greco-Roman culture. It’s the assumption within documents representing a faith that is at once attempting to distinguish itself from contemporary culture and fit within it. Sexism, patriarchy, and chauvinism are quite naturally an assumption within the text. They are indeed biblical…and if your commitment to Christ is through adherence to a hybrid 1st-century Greco-Roman/Jewish Apocalyptic worldview that declares the world is ending, women have no place over men, a spiritual war is waging between light and dark, slaves obey your masters, wives obey your husbands, and women must not speak in church, then you can uphold all kinds of ills that maintain white men in power. The question that we as churches must address is which parts of the Bible are culturally bound and which have meaning beyond their acculturated context. In other words, what scriptures will we highlight?
Oh, and just to be clear, in case you were wondering, we are not Southern Baptist. At this church, women, men, trans, and queer, belong in this pulpit. Your story connected with God’s imagination matter! We want to be a part of it, hear it from this place.
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Going back to Matthew 10 if you deny me, I will deny you, I hope that we can see beyond the apocalyptic worldview to the message of God’s forgiveness.
We know that Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, does deny him before others. On the night of Jesus’ arrest and the eve of Jesus’ murder, Peter rejects even knowing Jesus before three different witnesses, the cock crows, and Peter flees.
Jesus, however, decides to build his church on this rock!
And in the Gospel of John, Jesus calls Peter back
It’s the message of the Prodigal Son, the thief on the cross, and the sinners with whom Jesus dines.
Do you love me, Peter? Lord, you know I do. Then feed my sheep.
Peter is restored. The message of redemption moves in and then out.
In scripture as in life, you will find what you’re looking for. The question we ask is which verses are you highlighting and why?