Year B — Proper 16

The Rev. Gerald W. Keucher

In the Collect today we prayed, “Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity…may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your name.” The Old Testament and Gospel lessons show two different ways of gathering the Church. The two different ways of building the Church might be called our way and God’s way.

Joshua does it our way. Joshua was a great general. He’d had pretty good success after Moses’ death of turning the rabble that had been wandering through the wilderness for 40 years into a pretty strong army. He knew about discipline, and he knew how to motivate the troops and keep up their morale. He’s a top-down kind of guy, as we learned when Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, and he wanted Moses to stop them.

So he caps off his victorious military campaign with the great covenant ceremony at Shechem. He puts all the brass and all the government figures up front, and he conducts a big rally. The people are excited about being on the winning side, and they respond.

Joshua says, “This is gonna be tough,” and the people respond, “Yeah, we know it’s gonna be tough” Joshua says, “I don’t think you can do it,” and they say, “We beat the Amorites; we can do it.” Joshua says, “It’s really tough, really tough; I don’t think you can do it,” and of course the people respond, “We can do it. We can do it. We’re gonna do it.”

And then Joshua gives them more rules for how they’re supposed to conduct themselves. Okay, here’s how you have to do it.

Now I don’t mind being on the winning side, and I’d really like to see lots of people all excited about being here, so that when I say, “The Lord be with you,” a huge roar would come back to me, “And also with you.” Wouldn’t success like that show forth God’s power?

Well, it would certainly show that we were successful. It might actually say less about God. Let’s look at how Jesus does it. The day before Jesus had fed the 5000 with five loaves and two fish. The people were amazed and wanted to make him king. If Jesus were building up the Church our way, he would’ve built on the crowd’s enthusiasm, right? He’d have turned it into a big rally — “Who’s the man?” “You the man!”

But God didn’t do it that way. Jesus slipped off by himself that night. And the next day, instead of telling the people what they wanted to hear so that they’d support him, Jesus tells them things that are difficult to hear.

“This isn’t about winning,” Jesus said, “This isn’t about following rules better than other people so you can look down on them. This isn’t about your traditions’ being more successful than other people’s. This is about giving yourself for the world. This is about becoming one with God’s self-offering for the redemption of the world. This is about wanting to do what God wants so much that you do God’s will rather than your own. This is about eating my flesh and drinking my blood.”

And what’s the result of Jesus’ sermon? You’d have to say it was failure, at least the way we count failure. Many of the people who have been following him now no longer went about with him. He lost a lot of members. And notice that Jesus doesn’t threaten those who go away with hellfire. He just said what he said, and people made their choice.

Now all this doesn’t simply mean that outward success is bad and being weak and on the ropes is always good. But it does mean that we need to look at things carefully. Just because something is big and successful doesn’t necessarily mean that God is blessing it. And just because something is weak doesn’t mean God is not there.

God would like us to build the Church his way, not our way, and that means no threats, no promises that pander, like the so-called Prosperity Gospel, no trusting in anyone or anything other than the relationship we have with Jesus. But it also means complete faithfulness, self-forgetful humility, putting others first, and just good old hard work.

The twelve are confused when so many people go away, because they wanted success as much as anyone. But when Jesus asks them if they want to go away as well, they say, “Where could we go? Even though we don’t understand exactly what’s going on, we can’t imagine living apart from your words and without being with you.”

That’s the relationship God wants with us. God doesn’t want to make us just servants or soldiers who do what they’re told. God wants to make us friends who want to be together. Being Jesus’ disciple isn’t about learning the rules; it’s about coming to long for God “until my heart is pure, until with thee I will one will, to do or to endure.”

And it’s because we have that kind of relationship with God and with God’s Word that we can ask some questions about today’s Epistle. If we were just soldiers or servants, we’d say, “The Bible says it; I believe it; and that settles it.” But a friend can say to a friend, “What do you mean by that?”

And our friend St. Paul would say something like, “Look, I’m talking to men who can have their children put to death. I’m talking to men who are legally able to do pretty much anything they want to with their wives. I’m trying to say that God wants some equality and mutual respect in marriage and family life, and the people I’m talking to find that pretty revolutionary. You live in a culture that Jesus’ ways have had 2000 years to change, and his ways have changed the world. You’ve got a ways to go still, but don’t just accept or reject what I’ve written. Instead, get to the heart of what I’m trying to say.”

So how do we show forth God’s power? Here’s what I would say. We show forth God’s power when we trust God’s faithfulness. That means that we show forth God’s power when we live in ways that would not make sense if God did not exist. We show forth God’s power when we hope in Him in spite of our troubles, when we look to Him as the fount of all wisdom, and when we acknowledge Him as Lord of our time and of our checkbook.

That’s why we’re here today; that’s why we devote our time and money to the work of the parish and our diocese. That’s why we follow a devotional like “Forward Day by Day,” or read the Bible daily. That’s why we do the hard work of maintaining our relationships with each other in spite of our disagreements. That’s why we defer to others even when we know we’re right. That’s why we stand firm for what is right even when we suffer for it.

None of this would make sense if God did not exist. None of this would make sense if God had not subjected himself to suffering and death on the Cross. None of this would make sense if we were trying to build the Church our way.

But God does exist. God did become flesh of the Virgin Mary His Mother. God did suffer and die. And God did establish an indissoluble bond with us in baptism. Therefore, all that we do as a sincere response to these gifts — whether or not we are attended by the outward measures of health and success — shows forth God’s power to all to whom God has given eyes to see it.