Practising Kingdom
‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26 ‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
SERMON
Let me tell you a story: Imagine someone who didn't sleep well. Work has been hard, the kids have been sick, and it's too late to make themselves some lunch for work. So they duck out from work to buy some lunch and walk past a young woman sitting on a blanket in that winter wind tunnel which we call Grenfell Street. She looks cold, miserable, sick, and hungry. Our friend turns back and says, "I'm just getting some coffee. Would you like some? How do you have it?"
And a few minutes later they return with a flat white with two sugars. "They had some good muffins, too," says our friend... and sits down next to the beggar. Some folk have a gift of compassion that simply blows my mind: Our friend talks to the young woman as though she's someone they've known for years. On the surface it sounds like light chat, just small talk, of no consequence, but the young woman is being healed. She is being treated like a fellow human being instead of a despised outcast. She is being loved, some of her life is being given back to her. She has a friend.
Eventually, our friend stuffs the muffin bag into their empty coffee cup, and says, "I should get back to work. Perhaps I'll see you around." And gives her new friend some money for tea.
And few metres down the footpath, our friend is shoved into the wall of a building. A man in a thousand dollar suit and a hundred dollar haircut yells at her, "What do you think you are doing!? Why pander to lazy no good f's like her!? They don't deserve it!" His spittle sprays across her face and he storms off, shaking with rage.
What causes such hatred?
Hatred is the evidence of fear. And fear has flared up... in the soul of the man in the suit because our friend's act of love has... destabilised... his world. We keep our world stable—our world is more or less safe and stable—because we know what is right and wrong. We know who is good and who is bad, and we know how to treat them. We know the right way to live. And we know—we think we know—that although we are not perfect, we are a good person. It's the only way we can live with ourselves.
Except... when the man in the suit sees our friend show compassion to the person who is begging, suddenly reality breaks into to his neatly curated world and tells him, "No... you are not good. You have walked past that beggar every day this week, and done nothing." The kingdom of heaven has come near to the rich man, it is at hand, and it rips his world open. He feels judged by our friend's kindness. Quite innocently, the kind person has said to the rich man in the suit, "You are the equal of this beggar, and she is your equal, too." And his world is tipped over, everything is knocked sideways, because suddenly right and wrong and status don't work. He has seen the goodness of the kingdom and it threatens his privilege.
Our friend has not only bought coffee for the woman in the street. She has offered the man a richer way of being human, a way of discovering the deeper joys of life. And he has a choice. He can choose to feel judged by her, because she has shown him that he is wrong, and that he is not living the best way he could, and so... he can reject her and resent her… or, he can choose to accept the invitation to a life of compassion and openness that she is showing him.
In this story, he chooses to lash out in fear.
This is why the church is persecuted. When it lives the life of the kingdom, it destroys people's world. Or, more correctly, the Kingdom of Heaven destroys our world when it comes near. When Jesus' love is acted out in our world, we see how impoverished our humanity is. We see our violence. We see our injustice. We see how far we are from the beings God wishes us to become. And we see the cost of being healed.
In the reading today, Jesus is warning us that the reality of life is... that for every person who recognises the love of God which shines in the compassion of the kingdom, there are many more who are terrified and destabilised by it. They fear the kingdom of heaven because its compassion and gift of richer life means the destruction of their world. It calls us... who are rich and comfortable to become even richer by being someone who sits with the beggars on Grenfell Street. But sometimes that... doesn't feel richer at all.
Faith and fear are very similar emotions. Faith is trust and belief in what Jesus tells us can be the riches of our future. Fear is to trust and believe what the world tells us will happen to us if we don't fit in. Fear warns us that we will die. Faith tells us that death need not control us. We all live trusting either in the truth of fear, or trusting in the truth of Jesus. The only question is how to live by faith rather than in fear.
The story of the young woman begging on Grenfell Street could have been true. I do have a friend who can talk to anyone and make them feel cared for. But there was no rich man in a suit. There was just... me. Like our friend, I walked past the young woman sitting on the footpath and then thought, "She looks miserable. I could buy her a coffee, and a muffin." Except I didn't turn around, because I was afraid of what she might say to me. What if she accused me of harassing her? And If I didn't know what to say, how to ask her if she'd like a coffee.
So I kept walking to my next appointment. It's a choice I regret to this day, and I am deeply ashamed of it
Jesus says in the reading, three times: Have no fear of them. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Do not be afraid. I asked myself how I could possibly live without fear. And I did that recognising that Jesus is utterly honest. Let's hear the full saying about the sparrows again:
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. Do you hear what he is saying? The sparrows fall to the ground all the time. Some of us may fall to the ground, destroyed like a sparrow. But God will see. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. You will not be left behind.
But can I live with that? Can I trust that? How can I trust that, and be that kind of person?
What the counsellors say is that we that we can practice living despite fear and without fear by starting with the small things, and building up to bigger things… and perhaps being surprised by what we are able to do.
I once saw that all the checkout aisles in our supermarket were full, and most of them had a queue... except for the one staffed by a Sudanese girl. No one was going there. So I took my trolley to her checkout. I had nothing to say and, anyway, it might well sound like I was hitting on her if I tried to make conversation. But I chose her checkout. And I smiled and said good morning. I thanked her for her help, and I wished her a good day. And whenever I saw her when I did my shopping, I used her checkout and I treated her with the same manners I'd have used for the Queen.
It seems trivial. But it's practising the kingdom of heaven. It's making a small start. And it lets us grow to something more. Perhaps, one day, if someone is rude and racist towards her, I may be able to apologise and be kind when it's my turn to unload the trolley.
It can be as simple as giving someone sitting on the footpath some money—not throwing it down, but smiling at them, looking them in the face, handing it to them, being human and saying hullo, giving them a significant amount of money. That can be the beginning to overcoming some of our fear… and to overcoming some of our other darker feelings.
I practice talking to people in the street, and in our park, especially those with whom I feel uncomfortable. It means I practice facing my fear. Your fears will be different…
This is all we have: Fear or Faith. Faith is where the riches are.
Care for people. Learn to be compassionate. Practice being unafraid. God will be there. As Jesus said, "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it." Amen
Andrea Prior (2023)
Direct Biblical quotations in this page are taken from The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please note that references to Wikipedia and other websites are intended to provide extra information for folk who don't have easy access to commentaries or a library. Wikipedia is never more than an introductory tool, and certainly not the last word in matters biblical!
See also:
Matthew 10:24-39 - The work of Easter is begun
Matthew 10:24-39 - The Cost of Life
Matthew 10:24-39 - Fear or Freedom?
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