Sermon - 23rd Sunday After Pentecost (11/17/2019)
Mal. 4:1-2a; Ps. 98; 2 Thess. 3:6-13; Lk. 21:5-19
“They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance.”
In the last 18 years of practicing law, I’ve had a number of occasions to make arguments in courts, government agencies, and international tribunals. I’ve even been appointed to be on an international tribunal. To stand up and make an argument in a court or in front of a decisionmaker on behalf of a client takes a lot of preparation. You need to know the legal rules and precedents for and against your position, you need to know the facts of the case backwards and forwards, you have to have thought through the best point to make first, to anticipate what questions might be asked or what arguments the other side might make, and all of this takes time and effort.
So I have to say that, in my line of work, the advice that Jesus gives today – Don’t prepare your defense in advance – is really, really bad advice. Imagine going into court and asking your lawyer, So, what will you say in my defense? And she says, “Oh, I don’t know, I figured I’ll just wing it. See how the Spirit moves me.” This is when you very quickly get a new lawyer.
Preparation, taking the time to think things through and figure out how to effectively communicate it, is essential in court. And in sermons, as it turns out, so I started early this week to think hard about this text, and I really wondered why Jesus gives the advice that he does. We know from the rest of the New Testament that Luke, who compiled the gospel passage we read today, personally witnessed Paul and other apostles getting dragged before governors and judges for proclaiming the gospel, and even getting put into prison. So this was no abstract problem for Luke – he had seen it happen, and he passed on to us the advice that Jesus gave the first apostles. “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance.”
So presuming that Jesus and Luke know something that I don’t, I asked myself why their experience is different from mine. And at first I thought of times when preparations for an argument were going really well, when I’ve been able to see all the different threads of an argument fitting together in a kind of flow, almost like music. When I’ve been able to get to that point, it’s very freeing, because I know that whatever off-the-wall question a judge might ask or whatever unexpected objection gets made, I’ve internalized the case so well that I am confident I’ll know in the moment how to respond. And I thought, maybe that’s what Jesus is talking about. If you live your faith so deeply that it becomes instinctual, that it becomes part of you, then you don’t have to worry when you’re called to account – you’ll just know how to respond. If you’re always in touch with the Spirit within you, if you practice listening to the Spirit every day, then the Spirit will be there when you need help.
And while there may be something to that way of thinking, I eventually concluded that’s not what Jesus is saying. Notice, Jesus does not say, Don’t get stressed out about how to respond. He says: Make up your mind not to prepare in advance. Make a point of not preparing. You’re going to want to think about preparing, but make a conscious decision not to do it. He doesn’t say don’t worry about whether you’ll say the right thing; he says don’t think about what to say at all.
So then I asked myself: Why is it so important for me, as a lawyer, to prepare when I have to go to court? Well, it’s because my client has hired me because my client wants a certain outcome, a certain decision from the court. And I need to prepare and think through the argument as best as I can to maximize the opportunities to get the result that my client wants. Preparation is important because the result is important. So if we find ourselves like Peter or Paul who get hauled before the Council or some Roman governor and questioned about the faith, shouldn’t we also care about what they are going to decide? Or maybe the point is that we should not care.
And when I began to consider that possibility, I immediately thought of countless situations where we all encounter busybodies who have opinions about things that are none of their business. One person decides to have a glass of wine before dinner. Another person decides not to drink alcohol at all. One person decides to take a job offer, another person decides to turn one down. Someone else says she feels she’s not safe in a particular situation. Another person says they’d really prefer not to go to an event their friends invited them to. Whatever it is, inevitably there is someone who has an opinion about the choice you have made. “Why would you do that?” “What are people going to say?” “So-and-so is going to be so disappointed.” You’ve been there, right?
And you know – the worst thing you can do is to argue with somebody like that. Because as soon as you start to argue, you’re conceding that their opinion matters. That you need their approval or permission. And nine times out of ten you don’t. Sometimes, a friend who truly has your best interests at heart can give you a perspective you hadn’t considered, and that’s worth engaging with. But most of the time the emotionally healthy response is to say, I’m a grown adult and I’m going to do this and I’m not going to do that and your opinion doesn’t matter to me in the slightest. And if you find yourself anticipating those carping voices and planning what you’re going to say in response – well, then, as they saying goes, you’re letting those voices live in your head rent-free. When you don’t need anything from the person asking you for a justification, even thinking about the clever things you’re going to say in response is giving in.
Jesus began his ministry by announcing in the synagogue at Nazareth that the kingdom of God was at hand, and the congregation tried to throw him off a cliff. Now, days before his death, Jesus warns his disciples: Living in the kingdom of God is going to meet opposition. If we forgive one another’s sins and love our enemies, people who want vengeance will call us traitors to the cause. If we truly love and welcome all people, across every social boundary and division, people whose identity is wrapped up in the righteousness of their tribe will find us offensive. If we say God has loved us despite our sins so we will show mercy and grace even to the undeserving, people whose sense of self-worth is based on their accomplishments will call us fools. If we come together to share bread and cup as equals before God and siblings in Christ, those accustomed to being served by others will deem us a threat to the social order. If we seek to treat every person with respect and resolve disputes in the light of God’s peace, those whose fear is so great that violence seems like their only security might think we are the enemy. This is going to happen, Jesus says, and you need to be ready for it.
But what you don’t need to worry about, Jesus says, is how you’re going to explain to the opponents of the kingdom why they’re wrong. Because God does not require permission from anyone to bring the kingdom, and we do not require permission from anyone to live into God’s reign.
What we can do, and what Jesus commends to his disciples and to us, is to bear witness to the truth of the gospel. The good news is that the God revealed in Jesus is full of love and grace, mercy and forgiveness, inclusion and peace, and that by faith in this God we can be set free to practice love and grace, mercy and forgiveness, inclusion and peace. Just bearing witness, testifying with the way we live our lives about who God is and what God enables us to become, is the most eloquent and persuasive thing we can do. If we encounter opposition – no, when we encounter opposition – then we should not for a single instant think that we need to justify our hope to the powers opposed to the kingdom.
Until at last, when God’s judgment on this world is finally revealed, and everything humans have tried to build apart from God lies in ruins, not one stone left upon another, when the dead are raised and the kingdom of God arrives in its fullness, may we discover that we have been safe in God’s kingdom all along, and that not a hair of our heads has been harmed. May it be so for us, and for all of God’s beloved childen. Amen.