SUNDAY, JULY 2, 2023 | AFTER PENTECOST - PROPER 8 (A)

Texts

Jeremiah - Prophet is true, when what prophet says comes true - not very practical, there is more to it than that, though

Romans - Paul is talking about slavery much easier than we would - the social reality for him was different -> for us, it is a lot. It is hard to see slavery as anything positive. Alternative - servanthood, bondage - a bit better, but not by much. We can kind of see what he means, but it is really hard to get past the language!

Matthew - Welcoming is important, as it all goes through Jesus to God. Welcoming a prophet has its reward as well. Simple acts of mercy matter.

Good morning,

How’s the summer going so far? Big storms, air pollution is back, 80+ … I suppose this is the new reality to get used to, the climate change is no longer this theoretical thing, it is really clear it is here! And speaking of progress, I want to also affirm that today’s Romans reading might be difficult to read today - even with the assumption that Paul meant well for the sake of the gospel, the talk about slavery as ambiguous (freed from slavery of sin and enslaved to God) can be difficult to parse. And just changing the translation of the word doulos/douloos may not entirely help - bound, subjugated. Let’s loop back to it in a little bit, but boy oh boy, isn’t it full of cultural and historical triggers!

The Matthew reading seems like an easier entryway to our sermon today - following Jesus’ teaching about bringing the sword to the world from last week, this little tidbit is fairly mild and uncomplicated. It’s about being welcoming in certain situations - as we learn, it is all going through Jesus to God the Father, welcoming someone is not just a closed, intimate affair! Goodness gets around and rises up to God! It’s rewarding and Jesus encourages us to do so. Matthew is giving us a break from gnashing of teeth and weeping sort of material he likes to highlight. And let’s be nice to prophets who prophesy peace, because if the only way to tell if they prophesized well is when it comes true as proposed in our Jeremiah text, then that may take a while!

Now, back to our Romans text, time to dig in and face the challenges. First of all, I am not going to spend time on trying to defend Paul, I think we have spent way too much time on that in the past as a church - he was a fallible human just like the rest of us and even though the Spirit was dwelling inside of him, he still had his challenges. I think it is fair to say that as a well-connected Pharisee and a citizen of the Roman empire, he wasn’t even at a slight risk of becoming a slave or a bonded servant. I am pretty sure of that, just like it seems safe to say the likelihood of any of the Rockefellers becoming dirt poor is nearing zero chance. After all, he shared about his top notch religious education, the trust he earned within the Pharisee movement, so that he could become their agent in persecuting the rising Jesus movement, and his Roman Empire citizenship was providing him with certain protections and privileges. Sooo....to put it mildly, I don’t think he is the best person to talk about slavery in any capacity. Not more than I can talk with authority about the marginalization of the Roma people in my home country - I have my observations from the point of view of the majority culture and can tell you it is wrong and unjust, but that’s it. And oh boy, I wouldn’t dare to make theological analogies out of it. And to treat slavery carefully is all the more important as it is not some long time past issue - Juneteenth, the celebrated end of U. S. slavery was only 158 years ago, so slavery is definitely not some “ancient history” and more than that its consequences are still reverbing throughout the society - racism, marginalization, baffling fans of the losing team of Confederation that put slavery on their money, and persisting myths about non-White biology and intellect. And elsewhere around the world, slavery still lives on, be it bonded servanthood, child soldiers, or human trafficking.

Where we can agree with Paul is his linking of slavery to sin - there shouldn’t be any doubt that subjugation of another human being is deeply sinful and against God’s merciful plan for humanity. We are not meant to own other human beings like livestock. Perhaps Paul thought that with the coming of the gospel and its widespread dissemination, slavery will cease. That slavery will only become this analogy to our servanthood to God. And there were many occasions for that, indeed, here in the early colonies as well and even in our Lutheran churches, when slaves happened to be baptized, they had to promise to continue their service to their Christian owner because the message of liberation somehow did not apply to that! Horrific.

I think that throughout the Bible, God responds to slavery as something that is hard to tell people not to do, but never intends for it to be a permanent part of the order of things - it is no coincidence that in Leviticus we have the idea of Jubilee, when every once in a while, the society is supposed to be reset in terms of debts and ownership of people or of their labor, all the things that are supposed to be impermanent in God’s economy, because ultimately those are not the things that should matter in life. No, God instead calls us to community, loving each other, and careful stewardship of the creation.

We are not freed from sin and then enslaved to servanthood to God. Just one master replaced by another, perhaps something that made sense didacticly in ancient times, but not today, we have to reframe. We got to know the truth and the truth sets us free to love, to care, to marvel, to dream, to hope.... we don’t HAVE TO serve God and act within God’s mission, we GET TO. Just like U. S. A. has never meant to become a Christian nation…and with the societal pluralism, progress, and endless efforts of many fortunately never fully will, despite efforts by Christian nationalists. But I do believe that this country has a continued opportunity to witness to God’s merciful and loving presence, through its resources, influence, and possibilities. It appears that some individuals and groups are trying to undo the exemplary societal progress that has been made over the decades such as eroding rights for protected groups as we could see with the recent Supreme court decisions (seeking judicial protection as Christians from diversity and progress is just sooo out there, Jesus wept), but I trust that with God’s help and guidance, we can get it back and then some. So yes, we are freed from the slavery of sin, it has no hold on us anymore, but we are not slaves to God either! We are God’s agents, ambassadors, troubadours, social workers, jesters, EMS, teachers…all according to our gifts and calling, we are meant to be active and willing participants. And there is still so much to do and so we can rejoice in it. Amen.