Timothy Peoples 13 th Sunday after Pentecost Wilshire Baptist Church 14 August 2016 Dallas, Texas You Took An Oath Luke 12:49-56 I swear to fulfill to the best of my ability and judgment this covenant and share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow. I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required. I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug. I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call on my colleagues when the skills of another are needed. I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long to experience the joy of healing those who seek my help. Doctors all over the world stand together believing in this oath, trusting that this will be true in their practice. The Hippocratic Oath was written between the 5 th and 3 rd century B.C. by Hippocrates. This Father of Western Medicine was known for having precise techniques and a hospitable presence. He believed that this oath was not just for those practicing medicine, though it is directly related to practitioners, but an oath for humanity to be well-kept, honest, calm and understanding. In his original oath, Hippocrates made this promise not just to humanity but also to his Greek gods. For many in this room, we too have taken an oath. It may not directly be the Hippocratic Oath, but similar. Do you remember? Whether you did the long walk down the aisles or recited it at confirmation class. You pledged your heart, your mind and soul to loving God and humanity. Promising to believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior through his redeeming. Pledging to turn from sin and follow Christ, to live within the fellowship of the church and serve Jesus Christ in the world! Whether you were sprinkled or dunked down under the waters in the baptistery, you found yourself confessing to the dying of self: buried with Jesus by baptism into death, not so that you can continue in sin but in order 1
to abound and share the newness of life. Through your words and your actions to God and humanity, you took an oath! Yet, in our passage for today Jesus tells us, It seems that we have forgotten this oath. It seems that once we were like Hippocrates, holding on and believing the promises and commitments we once made, yet now we have become hypocrites. We claim to believe, but fail to act. What was a small gathering of lessons for the disciples turned into a gathering of thousands. People were climbing and trampling over each other in order to hear what Jesus had to say. While they were words for the disciples, they were words that neither created a secret nor were closed off to just the twelve. What Jesus had to say could be meant for all so they might know what it means to be a disciple. Maybe the thousands in the crowd thought this was going to be another of Jesus uplifting messages or maybe they would get a glimpse of a performance, or a saving. Yet they failed to realize that Jesus was walking to his death in Jerusalem. After giving parable after parable, smiling in their faces and patiently answering questions when they didn't understand, Jesus finally goes off. I came to bring fire! If you thought peace was the goal, you haven t been listening because division is to come! Now, one could say Jesus words in this passage are descriptive rather than prescriptive. It is not his purpose to set children against parents, but this very well may happen when the work of Christ is stirred up. Divisions occur because of our decisions. Decisions that we ultimately make in response to Christ or even for ourselves. But Jesus isn t done yet. He says, You can interpret the weather but you can t interpret the present time. I imagine someone leaning to his or her neighbor saying, We live in the Middle East; it s hot. It is always hot! That's not hard to know. 2
All of a sudden Jesus yells out, You hypocrites! And they began to look around in the crowd to see if tax collectors, politicians, Sadducees, Pharisees and some televangelists were around because Jesus had only used that word when referring to those people. And I wonder how long it took the crowd to realize those other people weren t there, but Jesus was talking about them. Jesus is not reprimanding the crowd for their inability to understand the world through the lens of Christ. But reprimanding them for their unwillingness to do so. They were unwilling to acknowledge the character of Christ within the world, the presence of salvation, the action of God which demands a decision from God s people, whether it creates divisiveness or not. They were unwilling to hear the voices of those marginalized. They were unwilling to hear injustices because they are not directly related to them and at times even unwilling to hear the hearts of those in their own congregation and community. Unwilling but not unable. Does it sound familiar? It makes me wonder how often do we fail to realize that we are included in the hypocrite group Jesus is talking to. We love to be the ones looking around in the crowd searching for the real hypocrites and not see ourselves as the guilty party. Like the crowd, we find ourselves coming to church and may be a little surprised by the passage that is before us. When I first read the passage it made me want do the fourth sermon in the series Life in the Commonwealth of Christ, an encore after George s series. Then I remembered I have too many student loans and that would be a worse sermon to preach! Jesus message sounds harsh, aggressive and rather uncomfortable to hear. But here s the question: Is that Jesus fault or ours? Maybe Jesus is right, we have failed to interpret the present time. We have failed to live in the ways we have promised. See, we live in a time where schools and libraries have banned books such as Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird because they are harmful to youth, but our laws also allow someone to own a semi-automatic weapon. Generalizing and marginalizing become honorable acts. 3
Living in a time where many agree to justice as long as it s my kind of justice and allows me to keep my comfort. Because it appears justice served as food to those who can t afford it, clean water for those who need it to survive, education for those to partake in this country s system, or equality for every citizen seems too costly. A time where children are told no matter your race, gender, how rich or poor you are, you can be or do anything you want. Then watch as the world denies, belittle, and tells many of them to succumb to another. Words that were once laced with hope become words of betrayal. If this present time were represented as weather, I would say we are in the midst of storm. It s partly cloudy but the sun is still peeking out from behind the clouds. How do we interpret a time, such as this? Theorists and philosophers have made it clear: time and space correlate with one another. We can measure time only by space and space only in time. Therefore, in order for one to interpret their time, they must realize and understand their space. Space is more than land, but within space is everything that once created beside-each-otherness. Influences of race, class, gender, education, politics, and location greatly negate or validate how we interpret our time. These aspects regulate how we perceive our world and even how we act within the world. Whether consciously or unconsciously we all have our own perspective. Due to that, there are things we do not see and choose to ignore. However, I must remind you, none of those aspects make up your identity. They may be features, but they do not create who you are and how you are to be. For our identity is placed with the living God--God coming through Christ reconciling the world unto God s self. A God that places the Holy Spirit in each believer to stir up, lead, and move within this world. And God s space is limitless and made up of all. We do not interpret the world through any worldly features or aspects, but through the lens of this God. When you joined this church, you married into a family that believes in being a bold witness to the way of Christ in our time. 4
Joining together builds a community of faith shaped by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is who Wilshire is and who we continue to strive to be. Wilshire is a place where God s grace abounds and where our love is shared among all. It is in our DNA to make space for grace. To make space for all, even a young minister like myself, to stand in this pulpit. We are a fellowship of believers who seek God s love, Jesus grace and the community of the Holy Spirit. We devote ourselves to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength. We commit to loving our neighbors as ourselves. This is our language. Our vision. Our mission. We strive to realize the kingdom of God on earth, seeking justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. Wilshire children of God we must live into that. Therefore, we cannot observe our time just from our small spaces that make us feel warm and fuzzy. For when we live into our mission, when we understand and act in the ways of Christ, the tension it holds and the crosses we must bear, we accept that God s worldview is not just for our comfortable small spaces, but a mission to stand beside and love all, no matter what and no matter where. We must not only believe it but act within it. The movie Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 American spy thriller. Jack Ryan, played by Harrison Ford, is appointed Acting Deputy Director of the CIA. While in this position he discovers his colleagues are conducting a secret war against drug lords in Colombia with the approval of the President of the United States. In one of the scenes, Ryan goes to see a colleague, Admiral Greer, played by James Earl Jones. Ryan tells of his fear and the hardship of digging deeper into this work. If he continues, his colleagues, the president, and those within his small space would not be happy. Admiral Greer, who is on his deathbed, looks into Ryan s eyes and says, You took an oath, if you recall, when you first came to work here. And it wasn't an oath to the National Security Advisor of the United States, I mean to his boss... and I don't mean the President. You gave your word to his boss and you gave your word to the people of the United States. Your word is who you are. 5
As Christians, we stood before God and entered into a covenant, we stood with each other and took an oath. Confessing to believe in the truth and to act upon the truth, no matter the consequences. Because not only do we live by the Word, but the living word is who we are. It is up to us, those who have witnessed the grace of God, to also carry the burden of pursuing the will of God. Together, we must read the signs of the times, not just the weather, but civil rights of people, politics, and social injustices and must respond appropriately. If the kingdom of God is to come on earth as it is in heaven, we as the church must understand the events of the earth and pursue how best to respond with a message of heaven. We gave our word to the boss. Do you remember? Amen. 6