Reputations and Freedom

Ezekiel 2:1-5

God said to me: “O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”

Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes, to you enthroned in the heavens. As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to you, O Lord our God, until you show us your mercy. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt, too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

I know a man in Christ who was for ten years ago caught up to the third heaven -whether in the body or out of it I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise -whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows - and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Mark 6:1-13

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the bother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff - no bread, no bag, no money in their belts - but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you, and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

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This past week I spent six days at Vanderkamp for the Hudson/Mohawk Conference's Annual Senior High summer camp. We got together the same time as the confirmation camp, which was a lot of high-energy fun, and while the junior high students spent the week with their leaders learning about the liturgical year, we spent our week with the high schoolers talking about hard conversations and how to handle a variety of expectations from family, friends, school, and self. We talked about big issues like racism, and about personal struggles like living with divorced parents. It was a heavy week, and full of fun and tears. 

I wonder what Jesus would have been like as a teen at this sort of camp week. Day after day sharing what it’s like to be Joseph’s step-son, Mary’s illegitimate kid. Was he teased for not knowing really who his father was? Had he been picked on for being non-violent while the other kids got into scuffles? Was he incredibly sensitive or one of a crowd of troublemakers? We don’t have those stories in our scriptures, but we do have the story today of what it was like when he went back home to those people who saw him grow up, when he tried to work with the people who had known him as a kid, when their limited imaginations about who he might grow up to be got in the way of their knowing him as he was. It’s a common thing, to think we know all there is to other people out of one or two experiences, or only a small handful of favorite stories. We do the same thing over and over when it comes to being in relationship with God, too.

But then he sends out his disciples, a relatively unknown bunch of folks who have no widely-known reputations to speak of, no credentials, no extra bags, or bread, or money, only the gift of each other and the authority to cast out unclean spirits. These wandering pairs - I imagine them looking a bit like Mormon door-to-door missionaries in dirty old tunics - “cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” They were completely dependent on the hospitality of those whose towns they entered. For all appearances, they were powerless, yet they had been given the command to go, and so they went. They had walked with Jesus and saw what he did, they also saw him rejected in his own hometown, and Jesus passed the baton on to them for picking up the work he was doing. Because the work to be done was more important than his reputation.

What kind of reputation does the church have these days, I wonder? What sort of expectations? I met a woman a couple of weeks ago and in letting her know I’m part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, she got caught up on that first word: “Evangelical.” She saw my piercings and tattoos and heard me talk about Grace, and then was really confused that I consider myself to be evangelical, because there is a different sort of reputation that comes with that label now than when we first picked it up. It’s a sad day when we have to say ‘our church is different because it welcomes all sorts of people,’ because that implies there are churches that don’t do that. But what is the church if not sanctuary? What is the church if not hospitality and welcome? That was one of the constant themes of Senior High Camp this past week, that the kids from all over the map - kids into sports, kids into Dungeons and Dragons, kids into fashion, kids into music, kids into complicated mathematical equations and magic tricks… - kids from all sorts of groups were able to be themselves together and be celebrated for who they are. And we kept reminding them, that this is what camp is about. But it’s bigger than camp. Just like it’s bigger than our congregation here. Just like it’s bigger than this fourth of July holiday weekend.

We’ve got a great American dream to celebrate, a theme of freedom to embrace, but it’s far bigger than just what’s here on our shores. America has all sorts of reputations, depending on where you are and who you ask, but on the 4th of July we focus on that stand we took over two hundred years ago, that official document proclaiming “all men are created equal,” though it did not free the slaves. A document which in effect would have had all of us hanged for treason if our Revolution had not ended the way that it did. It was huge, it was risky, it was flawed because people built it. The Declaration of Independence still set forth a precedent for breaking away from abuses of power. 

To quote: “…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”  

Then the Declaration goes on to list the grievances against King George, which are many, and some of which sound a lot like grievances minorities have voiced among us lately. We wrote a good document, we got off to a rocky start, we’re still struggling to live up to the ideals which led us to fight for a separation in the first place, but even this great experiment is too small.

“Liberty and Justice for all” is supposed to mean for all, but we get mixed up, we get scared, we get hurt and hurt others in return, both on a personal level and on a bigger scale. It’s a wonderful dream, this freedom, and a lot of people have sacrificed their lives for it, but it’s not going to be finally accomplished by our own power and reputation. We take steps, forward and back, to work for it the best we know how, and we are still learning, still moving, still working, to realize what freedom really can be when it is truly freedom for all. Some of us do that by serving in the military. Some of us do that by working in education or by volunteering at the food pantry. 

But here’s the tricky part: freedom for all means even freedom for our enemies. We cannot live in a free world if we continue to kill and oppress and fear one another. This is where God’s reputation hangs on the line. In God’s everlasting kingdom, the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself. But death is the threat we hold over one another’s heads, isn’t it? Death is the thing that we use to finalize punishment on those we deem worst sinners of all. Death is the threat that pushes us to our limits when we get cornered. Death is common to all that lives, yet we do celebrate our national heroes in song when we claim that they “loved liberty more than life,” and that, my friends, that is the freedom of which we sing when we sing of Jesus. Liberty and Justice for each and every living being, freedom and life for every plant, tree, bird, and person who has ever lived. 

There has too long been this false reputation for God, that God is somehow always only angry and demanding and vengeful, and when it comes to injustice that is exactly the image the prophets conjure up. When it comes to seeing creation destroying itself over wealth and honor and consumerism, that is exactly the way we must learn to hear God railing against the powers of destruction and slavery. But when it comes to loving this world, in all of its shattered state, our God would rather die than kill. That is made most clear on the cross, where Jesus, who is our God in flesh, submits to our punishments, so that we can see what kind of world we are making. Once that door is open, once that death has dissolved into life, once we are honest about our failures, healing can begin, freedom can begin.

As the apostle Paul wrote in this morning’s reading: “God said to me “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” It is true for all of us. Every fear, every weakness, is what we celebrate when we celebrate true freedom. Because those things are no longer held over us, no longer threats to our well-bring, but embraced as places of grace, as the coming of God’s kingdom among us.

Our community, then, is made a place of honesty and healing. Our church, then, is a community of welcome and embrace. Our children are celebrated and encouraged as they explore and discover who God has created them to be. Our own struggles are caught up in the new covenant with a God who has broken our expectations and brought life out of death, wholeness out of pain, who is with us every step along the way, no matter where our lives may take us.