Am I A Soldier?

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

August 19, 2007

Text: Luke 12: 49-56 and Second Timothy 2:1-7

JESUS BRINGS A CRISIS

In the first century AD, not many people were neutral when it came to the subject of Jesus. I do not remember any text in which it is reported that those who heard him speak or watched him minister to the sick went away saying to themselves, “That was very interesting. Now I think I’ll go to the market to buy some fish.” People either heard him eagerly or, in time, they are furious with him. “Wherever Jesus went, he seemed to precipitate awkward situations and often crisis situations.” (C.S. Lewis)

When Jesus as a teenager went into his hometown synagogue and read from Isaiah, Luke 4: 18-21, for example:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
At first they spoke well of him. Then they began to say, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Jesus, seeing that they were offended, offended them in return by saying that foreigners sometimes knew more about God’s requirements than they did. The result was that they ran him out of town, and would have killed him on the spot, but he evaded them.

This was the beginning of many instances where Jesus’ words and actions created a crisis or an awkward situation.

In a quick review of Luke, these were some of the words used to describe peoples’ mixed responses to Jesus:

amazement, awe, anger, murmurings, fury, plotting against him, sought after him, marveling at him, pressed in upon him, provoked him, lay in wait for him.

When Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God and that the time had come for repentance and forgiveness of sins, some were overjoyed and followed him; others were offended and sought to destroy him. Those who were most aware of their needfulness were the most welcoming. They were those for whom the present external circumstances were most grim.

FIRE UPON THE EARTH

So, it should not come as a surprise to us, these words from today’s passage. Jesus’ ministry was like fire which purifies; he will undergo the baptism of his own suffering and death. He anticipates his own suffering and longs to get the job done.

Then he lays it out very clearly: “I have not come to give peace, but rather division. If you are following me and have not yet realized this, now is the time for learning. If anyone follows after me and carries on my work, it will mean that you will be treated as I have been and will be treated. Even within your families, there will be conflict.”

There is peace which is the smoothing over of conflict, or acquiescing to the opposition, or hiding from the differences. This is not the peace Jesus brings. He brings the peace which is the restoration of a peaceable kingdom where people may be righteous and society may be just. Though Jesus came ultimately to be the Prince of Peace, “Peace is not to be mistaken for letting a broken and self-centered world and humankind remain undisturbed and to be at ease with itself.”(Fred Craddock)

Jesus is reminding the disciples that the dawning of the Kingdom of God means the transformation of a fallen world. As C.S. Lewis wrote many years ago, every piece of territory claimed by God is counterclaimed by the Evil One. Jesus’ ministry was analogous to poking a bear----- there will be a reaction to Jesus message! It is not nice to mess with the status quo! (Dick Donovan, Sermonwriter)

BLUNT ABOUT THE COSTS

Taking up your cross daily was not merely a symbolic metaphor. People would face persecution and even death if they signed on for this kingdom work.

It was the disciples, Jesus’ loyal core group, whom Jesus asks, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (6:46) Anyone who comes to him gets the hard line, ‘Don’t play games with me!’” (Frederick Danker, Luke, p.87)

In an apt image, Fred Craddock says that the crisis Jesus presents to people is like two raindrops that fall on the gable of a house. In that moment, one rain drop goes to the west roof and the other rain drop goes to the east, which could mean that they will be oceans apart. “To turn toward one person or goal or value means turning away from another. God acts in Jesus of Nazareth so that a crisis is created, i.e., Jesus is making a difference even within families. Peace, as the status quo, is disrupted.” (Luke)

Clarence Jordan wrote that “We tend to see Jesus as the source of a broad, generous and accommodating invitation to come along into the kingdom by a process of osmosis rather than metamorphosis…..” (Centering)

But Jesus knows that people do not stroll or amble into the kingdom. Whether their decision is immediate or considered, there will a moment of decision-----our “yes” to God’s “yes to us.” And if we choose to follow Jesus, we must be prepared to be “near the fire.” (The Gospel of Thomas)

The “signs of the times” to which Jesus refers are the signs of God’s holy, active, powerful, redeeming, purifying presence---something he called the kingdom of God. To see that God has and is coming in Jesus’ words and works drives us to fish or cut bait, to “judge for ourselves” what is wise and true----as we would prepare to settle a legal case, or prepare for a rain storm.

WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF US?

Jesus is asking his disciples to have compassion, that is, to suffer with him for the same cause which God has entrusted to him. (Will Herberg speaks of this as sharing the pathos of God.) So what is Jesus asking of us?

I have known a few people who have decided that, since Jesus confronted people and created awkward situations, they must be called to do the same. But I think this may confuse ends with means. (Sometimes we must decide if our goal is to make people reject us, or persuade people of a new way of thinking and acting. Given differing situations, either might be appropriate.)

I am always driven back to the specifics of the New Testament witness to Jesus. Maybe there will be clues as to how we are to do Jesus’ work in our day.

Jesus forgave sins.

Jesus did not judge people by their external qualities.

Jesus commanded demons to come out of people.

Jesus healed those who were hopelessly diseased and ostracized from their communities.

Jesus included in his table-fellowship those who were flagrantly sinful and those were proper religious people.

Jesus received children and blessed them.

Jesus engaged women in direct conversation, and welcomed them as followers.
Jesus said that those who were poor, hungry, grieving were blessed, and those who had it all were in for hard times.

He told us to love our enemies.

In his stories, often the hero was someone who was not pure, such as the Samaritan.

He spoke the truth to religious people who were more concerned with what was legal than they were with what was right.

He told the rich people that they were in grave danger and needed to trust in God for their status, not their wealth..

Jesus confronted the comfortable and comforted the distressed.

Jesus invited people to change their lives, to do an about- face, and to receive forgiveness of sins and a new future, no matter what their past had been.

CLUES AND HINTS

Jesus entered into conflict when he did and said these things. This doesn’t mean that we are to find ways to go out and offend people, but we are called to imitate Jesus in ways that fit our situations. Following Jesus makes a difference for the kingdom, not usually in grand gestures, but in everyday living and interacting----in being the Christ-inhabited, Spirit-led people that we are given to be.

For example:

There are Christians I know who work tirelessly in government circles for the redemption of criminals in prisons, and oppose the mentality that people cannot change.

I know of children who befriend new, different-looking kids in school and are ostracized and ridiculed for their acts of kindness.

I know of a manager who hired handicapped people and was fired for doing so.

I read of people who are tortured and killed for their belief in Jesus.

I know of Catholic nuns who were killed for being advocates for justice for the poor in Guatamala.

I know of people who live on less so they can share with those who have barely enough to live.

I hear of a Baptist layman who has taught two generations of youth in his church and who is credited with leading them to faithful lives.

I know of college students who face ridicule because they do not go along with the definition of fun as getting stumbling drunk every weekend.

I know of elected officials who tirelessly work with governmental processes to bring people together to find answers to problems that do not have easy answers.

I know of people who use their vacation time to work with VBS or to go on trips to minister to people who live in grinding poverty.

I know of a woman who prays an hour a day for all of the sick and troubled people she can remember.

I know a person who, at age 80, set out to wake up her self-righteous and satisfied church, confronting the leaders with the needs of the poor in their community.

In a day when our heroes are bigger than life, it is instructive to remember that, for most of us, most of the time, hard service is a daily cross-bearing (Luke’s version of that text) by ordinary people who are keep on keeping on. And some in our world literally follow Jesus to the cross.

ARE WE SOLDIERS?

In all of these, people are standing up for something and opposing something or someone. This is sacrificial service for the sake of the kingdom.

This is where the vocation of a soldier is an apt METAPHOR for what Jesus is asks of disciples.

“Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” Paul writes to Timothy.

In ancient Hellenistic cultures, there were three recurring examples of dedicated service: soldiers, athletes, and farmers. So Paul uses all three in this letter to his friend. (At least two of the three are used commonly now.)

Note that the dominating armies of the time were Roman, and the Jews and the Christians were regularly being killed by these soldiers. Nevertheless, Paul uses this image because it fits.

What was admired was “a soldier’s dedication, effort and willingness to suffer in order to accomplish a goal.”

As Paul saw it, these virtues were “morally transferable” to the role of a follower of Jesus Christ. Disciples were being called to hard and dangerous service under the leadership of the one who recruited them. Jesus is the recruiter. The Christian is a soldier in the cause of Jesus Christ, in the work of the kingdom. And, as soldiers are disciplined and discipline themselves for the sake of their mission, so Christians are called to do the same for their mission. “Soldier” is a metaphor for dedicated, disciplined service in the face of opposition. (Luke Timothy Johnson, First and Second Timothy)

(It is worth noting that in two instances in the gospels, soldiers are held up in favorable light. John the Baptist is asked by a soldier what he should do to repent. John tells him that he should not use his strength to extort money from the people and to be satisfied with his wages. In another instance, Jesus tells a Roman centurion with a sick daughter, that his faith is so strong that he has not seen anything to match it in Israel.)

PARADOX

This is the paradox of discipleship. “The peace of Jesus is the cross. But the cross is the sword God wields on earth. It creates division.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Jesus said “Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you and learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.” But to know this rest, this peace, is not lasting unless we, each in our own lives, sacrificially give ourselves in service to the least, the last and the lost----to be “little Christs” in the world.

[Jesus is willing to sacrifice for the sake of the life purpose God has laid upon him. The enduring message is that, when we our hearts and heads are turned around by the life-changing, heart-warming good news of forgiveness and a new future eternally with God, we are called at the same time to be in God’s service. Our efforts matter. Our lives matter. Each of us has differing gifts and opportunities, but we are all empowered by the same Holy Spirit to use our gifts for God’s glory. We can each find our little piece of God’s vision that we can serve and ask for God to help us be brave and imaginative in our service.]

THE CHURCH: IN BUT NOT OF THE WORLD

We are called to be an example of life lived in communion with God, a people dedicated to the love of God and neighbor, a people who march to the beat of a different drummer; a people whose devotion is to the Triune God------ to the vision that this God has for the world. We are a community called to worship God, to let our stories be interwoven with the stories of God’s mighty acts in the Bible, and to allow God to equip us for hard duty in daily life, to be soldiers in the service of our commander, the Lamb that was Slain and who now reigns.

This means that we be on guard to avoid the “coziness problem.” This is the problem of being so accommodated to the prevailing values and life-habits of our world that we are invisible. We may see the world as friendly or hostile to our Gospel and our Kingdom vision; truth is, the wheat does grow in amongst the weeds.

In our relative freedom to “do our thing” as Christians, our greatest dangers are probably the sneaky, subtle temptations: greed, self-adulation, escapism, isolation from poverty, ignorance of complicated issues, and an insistence on easy answers and quick solutions to massive problems. When we get too cozy with any prevailing culture, we have probably sold out, and have little to offer a bewildered and conflicted world.

This is why we keep returning to these words of Jesus----words about fire and baptism and division. We remember who we are and the mission God has given us.

So we keep on “giving an account for the hope that is in us,” (I Peter 3:15) building up “good people systems,” opening doors of opportunity, opposing injustice and cruel neglect, comforting the suffering, lobbying for the ways of peace.

There is a cost to this road we follow. And there is a joy in serving the cause of our commanding officer.

Bishop Ernest Dixon used to say it this way:

“Jesus calls us to work that we think is impossible,
And Jesus gives us a deep joy and a lasting peace which we could never have imagined would come our way.”