What Will You Have To Say When The Time Comes?
Good Morning Friends,
God wants us to be faithful in our words and actions, even in difficult situations. For bad things happen to good people and persecution of Christians and even martyrdom is part of history. Serving a God who is invisible can be difficult even if we too are unseen by our enemies. Doubt can be expected, but also the assurance of a peace that passes all understanding. The problem is that standing firm with one’s conviction can have negative consequences in this life and not standing firm in the faith can have consequences in the next.
There are lessons to learn in how to approach this and part of it hinges on today’s question: What Will You Have To Say When The Time Comes?
Scripture: At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ‘
Luke 13:31-35 (NRSV)
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31b-39 (NRSV)
Message: The worldly powers in Jerusalem and especially the ecclesiastical pride of the Sanhedrin, in today’s Gospel reading, was against Jesus even though some of them still believed in him. On the political front Herod thought Jesus a trouble maker and that Jesus was a friend of John the Baptist made things worse. We have three groups in the storyline relevant to today’s question. There are reactionaries, prophets and revolutionaries. The reactionaries of the temple and political state, in their greed condemn the prophet as a revolutionary and desire to kill him. The insurrectionists in the mob in their bitterness condemn the prophet as a reactionary and want to kill him. Jerusalem is called the prophet killer for a reason. But God’s ultimate triumph of purpose will not be thwarted. And ultimately God would use Rome to address Jerusalem. But the story does not end there. We still to this day have a part to play, but first we must learn, as Paul did, that we cannot give to the world what we do not have. We cannot share Christ’s love unless that love is within us. We cannot create a world of justice if greed is in our hearts. We must have the heart of a prophet and teacher realizing that we must stand up with Jesus to the reactionaries and rebels of the faith, even in the face of persecution.
And So, ultimately, we will face our own death much like we face the little deaths of persecution in life. We have a choice to either receive Jesus and his love or to deny him and live a life of heartbreak and a sad death of desolation. Death like persecution is not something we seek but will come and we need to know what we will say in response. I am not going to put words in your mouth. You need to search your own heart for you will say. But I do hope that we will all be more than conquerors of the fear of persecution when we give affirmation of life everlasting in Christ. Friends, living in a society that has great pride in their inclusive attitudes and policies invites harsh criticism. But being a lukewarm Christian and chameleon in it is worse. In some ways it is sad that the most intense persecution a Christian in the United States will ever face is from another Christian. But even in this situation we are not to conform to the pattern of this world. We are to be innocent as a dove and shrewd as a serpent in our internal as well as external battles. We are to throw off the shackles of fear of external criticism and exclusion and let God’s light reveal the truth that Jesus, who paid the ultimate price is offering the world reconciliation and each of us hope, even in our hypocrisy. The ultimate battle is inescapable. We can never outrun the darkness. But we are never alone. But we must realize that we cannot have words of hope to bring hope into the world if our hearts are filled with despair…. we cannot give grace in what we say if all we know is judgement…we cannot offer a word of thanks or forgiveness if our hearts are filled with bitterness. And so, we must keep fighting the good fight and seeking the words to share that glorify God.
Pray we avoid persecution by realizing that judgement belongs to the Lord. Pray we are comforted in the reality that in our affliction God will assure us of the promise of Christ. Pray in the face of difficulties we learn to spread the Good News with love realizing that each of us must face a dark night. Pray we turn the other cheek when appropriate and stand up for Jesus every time we can in the Spirit. Pray we believe God is for us in this fight. Pray therefor we let God’s light shine through us. Pray we always fight for peace. Pray we seek to go below the radar screen seeking God’s will not our own. Pray we find honor in service. Pray our mind is renewed. Pray we seek Christ’s victory not our own. Pray we not fear defeat. Pray we own our defeat realizing it is not true failure. Pray we realize that our wounds are not our weakness. Pray we realize that the ultimate battle is the Lord’s. Pray we realize that if God is for us nothing can stand against us. Pray we keep on doing what we have been called to do until we are called home. Pray we share a good word from the Word made flesh. Pray when the time comes, we do not forget to say thanks for all the love we have received and shared.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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