3rd Sunday After Pentecost
Matt 9:35-10:23
The Rev. Josh Stromberg-Wojcik, Priest-in-Charge
Today we hear that Jesus went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing illnesses. He has compassion on the crowds, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Given the political climate of our country today, it seems to me that there is a feeling that many wolves prowl today and we may feel helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. I am reminded of Jesus’ warning a couple chapters back in Matthew 7, in which Jesus warns the disciples to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. It seems today that many wolves are on the prowl, with great amounts of money and power and ill intentions to make themselves and other rich folks richer while making the poor poorer. And they have been quite successful at doing so lately. The gap between rich and poor has grown and grown. And now, with Trump’s Big Bad, Destructive, Deadly Bill, poor people are going to die and the gap is going to get even bigger as the poor are hit even harder and the rich make out like bandits.
Jesus also lived in a time of turmoil, a time in which the rich and powerful of Rome were also taking advantage of the poor and of the countries that Rome had colonized. There were plenty of wolves prowling in Jesus’ day as well.
Jesus’ advice, in the context of many prowling wolves disguised as sheep, people with ill intentions who pretend to care and want to help, is for his disciples to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” They are to visit different homes, to see what kind of hospitality they receive, and to do their best to share about Jesus’ love and the new life he brings. But they are not to be naive. They are to be prepared that some folks posing as good hosts will end up trying to take advantage of them. They are to understand that not everyone will be willing or ready to hear the good news of love and new life Jesus brings. They are to understand that some supposed hosts will in fact betray and turn their guests over to the authorities for questioning, flogging, and perhaps even execution.
When we are truly Jesus’ disciples, filled with the love and truth of God, Jesus knows, this feels threatening to some people. It feels threatening to those who have spent a lifetime hoarding resources and power, manipulating others for their own benefit, and pitting one group against another. It feels threatening to those who benefit from systems of oppression and death. It feels threatening to those who profit off other people’s illness and poverty. Jesus knows that, when his disciples show integrity, compassion, and love, they will be met with hostility. The purity of heart of the disciples will act like a mirror, reflecting the ugliness of heart of those who take advantage. They will not like what they see, and they will respond violently, desiring to shatter the mirror, and do what they need to to get rid of the mirror, even turning the disciples over to the authorities for questioning, imprisonment or execution.
Mahatma Gandhi, in describing the kinds of active, non-violent civil disobedience that he practiced in India, teaches about “satyagraha,” or “soul-force.” This is the kind of positive spiritual force that does not attack those who perpetuate evil, but neither does it comply with their requests. When Britain tried to force Indian citizens to purchase Britain’s own very expensive salt instead of being allowed to make it themselves, harming the poor, Gandhi marched 240 miles to the Arabian Sea to illegally make salt to protest this unfair tax. By picking up a handful of salt-rich mud, and technically therefore “producing” salt, he openly defied British law, famously saying, “with this, I am shaking the foundations of the British empire.” His action inspired nationwide civil disobedience, inspiring millions to defy British rule. The government responded with violent police crackdowns, arresting over 60,000 people, including Gandhi. The peaceful nature of the movement led to global outrage over the violent crackdowns, deeply damaging British legitimacy and accelerating India’s independence.
Satyagraha,” or “soul-force,” powerfully, lovingly stands firm, unwilling to cooperate with evil. It stands firm in its commitment to love, peace, and justice, and reveals the ugliness of the systems and the people in charge of the systems of violence. In my view, in today’s Gospel reading, satyagraha is in fact the very thing that Jesus is teaching the disciples to practice when he teaches them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” I can imagine Jesus telling those non-violent Indian protesters, as the Indian police violently arrested them, “do not respond with violence. Rather, if the police will not listen to the injustice of the salt tax, the way it unfairly harms the poor and outcast, those whom I am particularly concerned about, and they instead insist on violently arresting you, when you get to jail, shake the dust off your feet. For truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for those in charge of the British Empire.” Those in charge of unjust systems inevitably will get angry and will perpetuate violence against those who stand firm for love and justice. And when those demanding love stand firm with non-violence, the ugliness of the systems is exposed, and the world sees the truth of the ugliness, and demands change.
The same thing happened in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and the SCLC organized the Children’s Crusade, in which young black students were peacefully marching to City Hall to talk with the mayor about the problems with segregation, and were stopped by white civic authorities, who used force, fire hoses, and dogs. While the peaceful protestors were sent to jail, these images left the world aghast, and revealed the ugliness of racism, ousting Eugene “Bull” Connor from his job as commissioner of public safety, burnishing King’s reputation, obtaining desegregation in Birmingham, and paving the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited racial discrimination in hiring practices and public services throughout the US. King and the SCLC used “soul-force” to expose and undermine brute force, and positive change was made.
When we feel like the prowling wolves are too powerful, like we are powerless sheep without a shepherd, let us remember the power of Jesus’ love that lives in us. Let us remember the power of soul-force, the force of the love of God that lives within us. Through soul-force, when we are “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” the fake sheep’s clothing of the wolves is exposed, the wolves are exposed for who they are, the systems of domination are undermined, and the Reign of God shines forth. May it be so, that your kin-dom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
