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Sunday June 12, 2005 - Proper 6, Year A

It's so easy to miss. A few words
in a list of names, twelve names altogether, all disciples of Christ, getting ready to be commissioned to go cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons, twelve men on a mission from God, sharing in the ministry of their leader, Jesus: Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

And just a few words, tax collector, Canaanite, betrayer.
Those few words, that might just serve as identifiers, kind of like our last names
might also be a hint
that all was not well in disciple-land.

If your picture of the disciples
is anything like mine,
you image a happy bunch
something like the seven dwarfs
whistling as they worked,
men so absorbed in following their Lord and Savior
that they had no time for petty disputes and quarrels,
traveling from town to town with Jesus, teaching, healing, enjoying being the focus of attention and being with their hero, just one big extended
summer camp.
And yet sometimes
there is a hint
that it wasn't quite like that.
Every so often you get the feeling
that the disciples have their own agendas,
and Jesus
kind of gets in the way,
whether it's calling the children
that they thought shouldn't be wasting the time of the Messiah
or fussing about the crowds who'd gathered
when it was long past time
for Jesus — and his closest friends — to get a day off;
and then there's Peter's attempt to convince Jesus
that he's got it all wrong, that this suffering thing
is not the way to go,
that there are better ways
of bringing about this kingdom of God thing.
It's not uncommon
for there to be tensions
between what the disciples think is important
and what Jesus thinks.

But the tensions aren't just about the disciples
not getting
what Jesus is on about.
There's also a few hints
that there are some tensions among them. Remember James and John,
who as far as we can tell try twice — once through their mother, once for themselves — to get Jesus
to promise them special privileges when the time comes
for him to rule, seats at his right and left hand,
just a little higher
than everyone else.
And then Judas, the night before Jesus died: Jesus tells him to go do what he has to do,
and the disciples seem to assume
that it's some sort of irregularity in the accounting
that Judas needs to deal with so urgently — or else.

And then, you read today's list of the disciples, and those little extra descriptive words
and realize
that far from being a bunch of guys all pretty much the same in their backgrounds and commitments,
these disciples are a really
mixed
bunch.

And none more
than Matthew
the tax collector
and Simon
the Canaanite.
You remember Matthew, we read about him last week. He was sitting by the road in his little booth, collecting a toll from the passers by,
when Jesus said, "Follow me."
And Matthew did.
What the bible doesn't tell us
is that tax collectors
were not popular people.
They were regarded
as agents of the Roman oppressors, not to be trusted, people willing to take advantage of the political situation and make a few bucks. Think French collaborators
during World War 2, or Iraqis today
cooperating with American forces.

Then there is Simon
the Canaanite, also known as Simon
the Zealot.
The Zealots
were rebels,
people who were working towards the overthrow
of the Romans,
people who believe that patriotism
demanded action.
Think
the French Resistance,

or Iraqi rebels.

Matthew
and Simon
were natural enemies. It doesn't matter
which one was right
and which was wrong. The point is
no one
in their right mind
would let these two
anywhere near each other;
least of all
put them together in a small team,
and give them a mission.
It was a recipe
for disaster.
What on earth was Jesus thinking?

But that's exactly what he did. Put them together, Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector, along with Judas who would betray him and Peter who would deny him, and James and John who wanted the best seats, and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and the other James and Thaddaeus, a mixed bunch
commanded to go cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.
It didn't matter
that they weren't perfect, it didn't matter
that they didn't agree on everything.
Because the gospel that Jesus had to tell,
the gospel
was far bigger than all that.
Their job
was to get on with it.

It's not
that the differences weren't there. They were. And they probably got int the way sometimes
when the disciples were trying to work out how to do this mission that Jesus had given them.
But as things go, they were relatively unimportant.

John Calvin and some of the other great reformers of the sixteenth century, put it this way. There are things
that are essential to our faith. Things we're all expected to agree with, things that are what define us
as Christian.
The Creed that we say each Sunday
is a good summary of these. If someone were to ask you what Christians believe
then you could show them the Creed.

And then,
there are things that aren't essential — the technical term is adiaphora. Things that it's okay for Christians to differ on. They are things
where more than one side can be argued from scripture and our tradition.
These things include politics — as Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector show us. They include environmental issues, the question of how to deal with international debt, and capitalism versus other models of finance. Things like whether clergy should wear vestments in church, whether women can be ordained, whether we use contemporary language or traditional forms for our prayers. There are a lot of ethical issues here: euthanasia, stem-cell research, abortion. You will hear Christians argue different positions on these, argue them passionately, and they will back up their arguments from Scripture and tradition and plain logic. Some are probably right. Some are probably wrong.
It's not that these things aren't important; it's just that in the overall scheme of things, they pale into insignificance
beside a God who became incarnate for us, beside a Christ who died for us all,
good and bad alike, whether we deserve it — which most of us don't — or not.
So that in the end what we believe on the adiaphora, the non-essential things
doesn't make you
or break you
as a Christian.
What makes or breaks us as Christians, is whether we're willing
to accept God's gift to us of forgiveness in Christ, to follow him.

In fact, the astounding thing about the early Christians, the thing that set them apart from others, was not just that they followed Christ, but that following Christ was so important
that they wouldn't allow anything else to divide them. Fourteen times in the New Testament, we find the command
to love one another.
Early Christian took that so seriously
that by about the year 200 CE, the church father Tertullian wrote
that the pagans were saying about Christians: "See how they love one another."
Their love for one another was so strong
that it was at the heart
of their mission to the world, Christ's mission to the world,
to share the gospel of Christ.

Imagine
what it would be like
if the main thing people knew our church for
was how much
we love one another.
Even though we differ
on a whole bunch of things, from whether we like the traditional Lord's Prayer or the new one,
where we stand on hot button issues like homosexuality or abortion,
whether we agree with decisions our vestry makes or not.
All those things
are adiaphora, non-essentials. They are important,
but not as important as what unites us,
our faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ,
and the love that overflows from God into us, and from us
into one another.

Imagine what it would be like
if what people in this corner of South Jersey said about Trinity
"See how those Christians
love one another."

Over this summer I challenge you to find ways
to follow our Savior
and to express your love
for one another in this community.
Whether it's by inviting someone for a meal,
or by offering to help out with kids,
whether it's taking on a ministry that benefits the whole community,
or committing to pray for someone,
or making a decision not to let something you disagree about
get in the way of your relationships. I'm sure you can think of other ways.
And let's see what we can do to make Trinity a place
where people say, as they said of the early Christians,
"See how they love
one another."

"See how they love
one another."

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2005