June 22, 2008

Christianity is Not a Popularity Contest

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Matthew 10: 24-39

Opening Illustration

How are Christians to react to adversity?

Jesus sends his disciples out ahead of him to prepare the towns where he will be ministering.

Gives them lots of instructions. Sounds like advice given to the church Matthew was associated with.

First situation – Disciples should expect to be treated poorly because religious leaders treated Jesus poorly.

Disciples should not be afraid, even if threatened with bodily harm.

They should fear God, who can give out eternal punishment.

They should speak out boldly about kingdom of God. God will honor that after they die.

Second situation – Family conflict related to God’s calling.

Their families may discourage them from following their call.
Call to follow Jesus may result in family divisions. Disciples should not abandon their calling in order to keep family unity and peace.

Family Values? Didn’t we just celebrate Father’s Day?

This teaching sounds intense. Does the Christian life today really require you to risk your life and suffer persecution? Not in this country.

Will most people be forced to choose between following Jesus and being loyal to their families? Not at all. Christianity is understood as family values here.

Does this passage have any use in our own context? What are the parallels we can draw and learn from?

First: There are social consequences to identifying yourself as a Christian. My experience in high school.

People are going to do and say whatever they will and you can’t control their actions.

Jesus promises that in the end justice will prevail. God will vindicate people who are ridiculed for following Jesus.

Sense in Matthew that God is watching over everything. People may interpret religious faith as a weakness, but God values us.

Second: We cannot let our family friendly concept of religious faith eclipse God’s command for us to be in mission.

Being in mission is not something you do when you’re done meeting all of your family obligations.

It’s also not an excuse to neglect your family obligations.

We are told to model God’s love as we live out our family obligations.

The mystic theologian Howard Thurman in his book Jesus and the Disinherited speaks to this issue of fear and how we counter fear as we seek to minister and do the work of God in our lives.
He writes, "To the child of God, a scale of values becomes available by which men are measured and their true significance determined. Even the threat of violence with the possibility of death that it carries is recognized for what it is: merely the threat of violence with a death potential.
Such a man recognizes that death cannot possibly be the worst thing in the world. There are some things that are worse than death. To deny one's own integrity or personality in the presence of the human challenge is one of these things."

Jesus is saying to the disciples and Jesus says to us, "Do not be afraid of that which you can see, but be afraid of the One who has eternal control over you." It is a radical reorientation of how we understand persecution, but it is also an invitation to a radical reorientation of our perception of peace.

Being a follower of Jesus is not a path to popularity. There are social consequences; there are family consequences; there are career implications.

But Jesus also calls us to do as much for his kingdom while we have the time. The disciples expected Jesus to come back before they even finished telling everyone in Israel about Jesus.

We may not see things the way they do these days, but we are aware that life is short, and that our mission is to use the time we have to impact the people around us for God’s kingdom, even if it makes us unpopular.