Where are we going on our honeymoon? I can’t tell you how many times my wife Kristen and I asked this question of each other leading up to our wedding two summers ago. After throwing out places that I had been—like the Holy Land—and that she had been—like Rome—we settled on Greece, a place neither of us had ever been. Many of you have likely seen many of the pictures and heard the stories from that trip, but if you haven't and would like to check them out you can visit our vacation and co-ministry blog, As the Kroe Flies. One place we visited was Corinth, where we walked around the ancient city, took part in a Portuguese mass, and picked up a gorgeous icon of the theotokos that hangs in our oratory at home. But one of the things that struck us as we read the placards around ancient Corinth was the declaration that the apostle Paul had preached the Christian gospel there…unsuccessfully. How was that possible? We have these two letters he wrote to the churches there, and today the city is synonymous with Christian pilgrimage, which hardly sounds like a failure. But it was a divisive community, which is why Paul had to write them multiple times, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as George Costanza might say, it didn’t take. So how did Paul do it? How did he keep writing, keep preaching, to a community that didn’t seem too interested in listening to him?
The ancient city of Corinth, where Paul was less than successful.
Paul’s story is not uncommon. Whether they find themselves in the midst of religious or political persecution, social constraints, or constant in-fighting, those called to publicly proclaim the love and mercy of God have faced innumerable challenges. This week we heard from Paul, as well as the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptizer, all of whom faced the uphill struggle of ministering to God’s people in trying times. How did they all do it? I suspect because they knew, to borrow Paul’s own words to the Church in Corinth, that God is faithful (I Corinthians 1: 9). No matter what, no matter where. That faithfulness was never going to fade, even if the circumstances under which they preached were fearful, even deadly. God, they knew, is faithful, which allowed them to be faithful, and a huge piece of that faithfulness lay in the fact that none of them did what they did for their own sake, but instead pointed others to this loving, liberating, and life-giving God.
'Listen
to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother's womb he named me.
He
made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he
made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
And
he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will
be glorified.”
But
I said, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my
strength for nothing and vanity;
yet
surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.”
And
now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to
bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for
I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength--
he
says,
“It
is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes
of Jacob
and to restore the
survivors of Israel;
I
will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”'
--Isaiah 49: 1-6
'John saw Jesus coming toward him and
declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is
he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was
before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this
reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did
not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on
whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of
God.”
The next day John again was standing with two of
his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is
the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed
Jesus.'
--John 1: 29-37
And then there is John the Baptizer. In the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John (no relation), we see a slightly different take on Jesus’ itinerant cousin. Here we don’t see John baptize anyone, not even Jesus. John makes no mention of his baptizing being for the forgiveness of sins, instead he is intentionally pointing the people toward Jesus. In the other Gospels Jesus doesn’t even take center stage until John has been arrested, but in the Fourth Gospel, he’s already there. John preaches the message, but the people follow Jesus, and for John, that’s the point. He is the first to call Jesus the Lamb and the Son of God, and he intentionally tells others that it is Jesus, not himself, whom they should follow. The whole point of John’s ministry in the Fourth Gospel, it would seem, is to reveal Jesus to the world, and once that happens, John’s own ministry effectively ends, as his community of disciples appear to leave him, and so he steps aside. God had been faithful in calling John, and now John’s own faithfulness is shown in his willingness to point others to Jesus and get out of the way.
John the Baptizer
What binds all of these texts, all of these prophetic voices, is the initiative of God in calling forth God’s servants, the communal, public character of their faith, and their message that expands far beyond themselves, even in uncertain and confusing times. Neither Isaiah, nor Paul, nor John kept their piety private, but they stepped out boldly to speak of God’s mercy and love for all, to remind the people of God’s faith in the people themselves, and to point the people toward the One who is above all and in all. Down through the ages, from the most well known to truly anonymous, God has issued a call, given a role, and worked through ordinary people to call the world back to God’s dream of shalom, of peace, justice, and love, for the whole of creation. Even in the darkest moments, even when the people don’t listen, God still moves, still calls, and still uses such folks to bring us a little closer to the Kingdom.
It is fitting, then, that we hear these voices at the same time that we honor the life and legacy of a modern prophet, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Like the servant in Isaiah, he called the whole world to God’s dream of shalom. Like Paul he reminded the people of God’s faithfulness in them, so that they would be faithful in their call to fight for justice and equality for all people. And like John the Baptizer, he sought not his own glory but was always pointing the people to Jesus, to the very embodiment of that dream. In his last speech before he was killed which would become known as his Mountaintop Speech,, Dr. King spoke with the fury and passion of a prophet. Most of us remember the last lines about how he had seen the mountaintop, like Moses looking out over the promised land, and how he rejoiced though he knew there was a change the he might not get there with us. But how many remember this part:
That was April 3, 1968, but Dr. King’s words could just as easily apply to our world today, every bit as much as the words of Isaiah, Paul, John, and Jesus do when we read them each week in our church services. Something IS happening in our world, even as we hear Mother Nature cry out in agony in Australia, even as our country braces for an impeachment trial and the inevitable bitterness of the upcoming election cycle, even as we find ourselves more polarized and unable to communicate openly and lovingly with each other now than perhaps ever before. Something is happening. Even as we endure deep pain, sadness, loss, and uncertainty in the ordinary, daily moments of our lives that won’t be covered in any headlines. Something is happening. God is still moving, still speaking. God is still putting on the hearts of ordinary men and women to heed their call, to abide in the faithfulness God has already placed in them, and to point us to God’s dream. It is not enough that we listen for these voices, but I wonder if we might very well ourselves, be those voices.
“Confusion is all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you use the stars. And I see God working in in a way to which we, in some strange way, are responding—something is happening in our world.”
--The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
That was April 3, 1968, but Dr. King’s words could just as easily apply to our world today, every bit as much as the words of Isaiah, Paul, John, and Jesus do when we read them each week in our church services. Something IS happening in our world, even as we hear Mother Nature cry out in agony in Australia, even as our country braces for an impeachment trial and the inevitable bitterness of the upcoming election cycle, even as we find ourselves more polarized and unable to communicate openly and lovingly with each other now than perhaps ever before. Something is happening. Even as we endure deep pain, sadness, loss, and uncertainty in the ordinary, daily moments of our lives that won’t be covered in any headlines. Something is happening. God is still moving, still speaking. God is still putting on the hearts of ordinary men and women to heed their call, to abide in the faithfulness God has already placed in them, and to point us to God’s dream. It is not enough that we listen for these voices, but I wonder if we might very well ourselves, be those voices.
Dr. King
Isaiah faced exile. Paul was unsuccessful in his preaching. John lost his ministry. Martin was assassinated. And we face perils and fears of all kinds on a daily basis. How can we preach, how can we keep standing, how can we listen for God in such tumultuous times? Faithfully, that’s how. Faith is what told them not to keep silent, to make their profession communal, for every person to hear, and faith sustained them in their troublesome hours. God was faithful to them, and God is faithful to you too, brothers and sisters. God has not given upon you, as God never gave up on Isaiah, Paul, John, or Martin. Let us pray that we will never give up on God. Let us pray that we will be faithful as God is faithful, that we will be faithful to the call put on each of us to spread that message of shalom, of hope in our loving, liberating, and life-giving God.
