3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus wanders among cities and villages, preaching and teaching and healing. Then our gospel text says this: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. I want to highlight a couple of phrases in this sentence, in order for us to better understand what is going on.

Jesus saw the crowds: Jesus saw them, really saw them. Saw them in all their complexities.

Jesus had compassion for them: This compassion is much more than just feeling sorry for the people. The Greek word used here describes a gut reaction. Jesus sees the crowd and his gut reacts to what he sees. This is a very strong, passionate emotion. One commentator describes it as “furious compassion”.

They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd: The image here is not the same as in the parable of the lost sheep. These people didn’t just wander off. The verbs Jesus uses are much stronger than that: the people are harassed, tossed aside, jerked around.

A few verses later, Jesus talks about the lost sheep of the house of Israel. “Lost” is the tamest translation you could possibly choose for the word Jesus uses; the other translations are to perish, to be destroyed, to be handed over to eternal misery, to be ruined, to be devastated.

The image that emerges is that Jesus walks about and sees, really sees, just how exhausted, oppressed, harassed, downtrodden, devastated, and overlooked the people are. He reacts to that with furious compassion.

And he reacts to that by sending his disciples to minister to those people. “Go,” he says. “Go and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has come. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”

The devastation Jesus sees among the population is caused by the occupation of the Romans. They oppress the people with violence and demand high taxes. In Jesus’ days, especially the rural population sank deeper and deeper into poverty. Jesus was angry about that and sent his followers to bring healing and hope.

When Matthew writes down his gospel account, the Jewish War is still on everyone’s mind. Jewish freedom fighters had rebelled against Rome, and the Roman army reacted by completely destroying the land. In the year 70, that campaign culminated in the utter destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Matthew’s listeners are surrounded by devastation, and he responds by reminding them that followers of Jesus are called to go out into the devastation and proclaim the kingdom and bring healing and liberation.

Today, the devastation of our people has yet other symptoms.

Many of us are exhausted from the pace of life in today’s world. We work more hours and have longer commutes than previous generations. At the same time, our income doesn’t go as far. We work and work, but still struggle to pay bills, to do needed repairs on the house, to afford medical care.

When there are children in the house, we are constantly on the go: work, sports, scouts, playdates, church, service learning hours – go, go, go. We hardly have time to talk to one another, seldom eat dinner together at the dining table, rarely get to just be together and play and enjoy each other as family.

 When we have parents in the senior generation, we constantly feel guilty about not seeing them more often. And when we are those seniors, we miss our kids and grandkids terribly, but we see how crazy busy they are, and the last thing we want to do is heap even more stress upon them.

We as a people are harassed and jerked around and constantly exhausted. What are we doing to ourselves? Why do we live in this way, knowing that it makes us sick? We see the increase in mental health problems, especially among teenagers. We see the rise of opioid addiction and self-inflicted harm. We see the depression caused by isolation and loneliness. We know this way of life isn’t good for us, but we don’t know how to opt out.

What goes on beyond our homes isn’t good for us, either. Many days, I find myself not wanting to listen to the news. I feel devastated by the tone of political discourse, by the lack of respect, the disinterest in compromise, and the disregard for justice and truth. I feel devastated that racism and antisemitism are on the rise and often express themselves in violence. I feel devastated about the incidents of gun violence in this nation. I feel devastated that right now there are more refugees and displaced persons in the world than ever before. I feel devastated because trust in civic institutions like the justice system and the supreme court declines further and further. I feel devastated by the harsh laws regulating what we can do with our bodies and what gender we identify with and whom we love. I feel devastated by the enormous debt of this nation. I feel devastated by the effects of climate change and the slow pace with which we as a society are willing to change in order to safeguard God’s creation.

I feel devastated.

In my sermon studies, I often read a blog with the name “Journey with Jesus”. Addressing today’s gospel text when it came up three years ago, Debie Thomas wrote this:    

In his book, Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, tells the story of a young Jewish woman named Etty Hillesum.  Hillesum was in her twenties when the Germans occupied Holland.  She was not a conventionally religious person, but between the years of 1941 and 1943, as she watched her world descend into nightmare, she became deeply aware of God’s hand on her life.  Imprisoned in the transit camp at Westerbork (before being shipped to the gas chambers of Auschwitz), Etty wrote these words: “There must be someone to live through it all and bear witness to the fact that God lived, even in these times.  And why should I not be that witness?”

Williams describes Hillesum’s commitment this way: She decided to occupy a certain place in the world, a place where others could somehow connect with God through her.  She took responsibility for making God credible in the world.  She took responsibility for God’s believability.

I’ve been thinking about these phrases all week. Making God credible in the world. Taking responsibility for God’s believability. How do you feel, reading them?  What visceral reactions, if any, do they trigger? Alarm? Excitement? 

Longing?  Fear?  Does it ever occur to us that these phrases might describe our vocation as followers of Christ?  Is it possible that we are called to make belief in the kingdom of God credible for the world we live in?  Not just when belief is easy, but also — and especially — when belief feels impossible?

Thus far Debie Thomas.

Jesus’ disciples under Roman occupation, Matthew’s congregation in the aftermath of the Jewish War, Etty Hillesum in the concentration camp – they all found themselves in devastating times; yet they all followed God’ call: Go and heal. Go and preach good news. Go and cast out demons. Go and make God believable in this world. Go and make God credible in these challenging days.

That is our call, too. How can we live it out? How can we make God credible?

Following Jesus’ example, one thing we can do is let people know that we see them. We can look at them and say to them: I see you in your exhaustion. I see you in your loneliness. I see you being overwhelmed by depression. I see you wrestling with your gender identity. I see you struggling with your marriage. I see you unable to find affordable housing. I see you burdened by your student loans. I see you, and my heart goes out to you, and God’s heart goes out to you. I see you and will spend time with you because I care and because God cares.

Another thing we can do is react the way Jesus reacts to the people’s devastation: with furious compassion. We should have a gut reaction to all that is burdening God’s people. We know this is not what God has in mind for his beloved children. So let’s have enough furious compassion to say something, to speak up, to make some noise. Contact your senator or congress person and make your views known. Vote for candidates that see the people’s needs and are willing to address them. Volunteer your time by visiting the lonely, staffing a suicide hotline, serving as a mentor, fostering a child, tending a community garden, fixing someone’s car, something! Put your furious compassion into action.

Another thing we can do is gather with Jesus’ people to discern better, healthier, more godly and life-giving ways of being in the world. Jesus gathers the disciples; as a group, they are inspired by Jesus’ teaching. As a group, they go about their mission. As a group, they challenge the ways things have always been done, the patterns in which lives were lived, the scales by which people were judged.

Jesus has called us together here. As a group, we hear his promise and celebrate his presence in bread and wine. As a group, we support one another, see one another, carry one another’s burdens, encourage one another’s calling. As a group, we discern where and how God calls us to challenge the status quo and to free people from the powers that oppress them and drain the joy out of their lives.

This is what Etty Hillesum wrote in the concentration camp: “There must be someone to live through it all and bear witness to the fact that God lived, even in these times. And why should I not be that witness?”

Let us be such a witness. Let us see people and have compassion for them. Let us heal and free people from what oppresses them. Let us not only preach the kingdom of God, but also act it out. And in doing all that, let us make God believable in today’s world. Amen.