Bad News and a Better Reality

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Is anybody else just really exhausted and tired of all of the bad news that just surrounds us? Yeah, I am too. I can't believe that I have to stand here again and decry another murder of a U.S. citizen at the hands of our government. But here we are. Debbie, I really appreciate your prayer. It was just the right prayer for this moment as we grieve again and as we grapple with our confusion and our anger.

What an emotional roller coaster we are on right now. I mean, on Friday we're out at the protest chanting and being so loud and proud of being Minnesotan. And we make our way to the Target Center and there's some guy in there singing about how everyone gets a kitten if they want one. And I thought that was weird, but I just accepted it, you know? And then we turn around and Saturday rolls around and Alex Pretti gets punished for what we did on Friday in a flex of authoritarian power.

And as we wrestle with all of that that's going on around us, we also can't escape ourselves either. If we were having health complications before all of this started, that didn't change because ICE came to town. If you were struggling in your marriage before all of this happened, that didn't change because someone got murdered. Our lives continue to go on. And so we hold our own personal bad news with the headlines.

And I know that you feel guilty because I do too. But we're all asking ourselves some of the same questions. Like, can I even be upset right now about the leak in my roof? Can I be ticked off that my health premiums went up 200 percent? Like, it feels so trivial with everything going on around us, but it's still very real. And so we get to add guilt on top of the grief and the pain and the confusion and the anger that we're already feeling.

And that happened to me two weeks ago. A lot of you already know this, but my car got stolen two weeks ago and I was planning to come down to the table to help deliver groceries. And I went outside to heat my car up and I went back inside and came back outside a few minutes later and my car was gone. And so I called the police first and then I called Debbie to let her know that I was not going to be delivering groceries that day. Long story short, my car got recovered and it had some damage on the exterior, but the worst part was really the inside. I opened the car door and it smelled like Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg had been in there camping out for a week. And I was like, oh my gosh. So I got so mad and I needed someone to vent to.

So I called Manuel, my partner, and I was just so upset and I was complaining to him and I was using words that I definitely can't say here. And we have this running joke. He told me that there was no way he was going to get into heaven unless he was my plus one. And I said, I don't know that that's how it works, but nevertheless, he is very invested in me being a man of God. And so he said to me after I got done complaining, “I've never heard a pastor talk like that before. Instead of being angry, maybe we should pray for him because that person that stole your car might have needed a place to sleep last night.” And I was like, “OK, Mother Teresa, maybe I'm going to be your plus one.”

We have a lot of bad news to process on a societal level, on a communal level and on a personal level. And as we engage in all of those levels, how we respond to the bad news that surrounds us matters. It's important. And in our election year reading for this morning, Jesus received some bad news. And I think the way we see him respond says a lot for us about how we should respond to the bad news that's surrounding us.

And so our election year reading for this morning comes from Matthew, chapter 4:12-17. And it says this:

Now, when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. From that time, Jesus began to proclaim repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

So the bad news that Jesus receives in our text for today is that John the Baptist has been arrested. And for us to really understand the impact that this has on Jesus's ministry, we need to know a few things about John the Baptist and why he gets arrested in the first place. John and Jesus are cousins. And John is born to be the forerunner who points the way to the Messiah. And if you recall from the Christmas story, John's father, Zechariah, is a priest. And that means that John is supposed to also be a priest.

So the fact that he's not tells us that at some point in his 20s, he rejected the priestly call so that he could go out and be a wandering prophet. He's rough around the edges. He eats locusts with honey. And he's passionate about his message that the kingdom of God is at hand. And that message resonates with a lot of people because so many people are being oppressed by the Roman Empire. And so John begins baptizing these people in the name of repentance and a new way of life in the kingdom of God. And so Jesus meets John during this time and John begins to mentor Jesus and he baptizes him. In fact, we say the Lord's Prayer every single Sunday, but Jesus didn't make that up. When Jesus teaches us that prayer, what does the disciple say who asked him about it? He says, "Teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." So we have the Lord's Prayer because Jesus was a disciple of John. Jesus loved John. They were friends. They were family. They had a connection and mentored one another.

But then John gets in trouble because he's sort of a loud mouth. He goes to Galilee to call Herod Antipas out to tell him to repent of his sins. Herod Antipas is the ruler of Galilee and he's not very happy about it. He wants more and more power, but Rome refuses to give him all of Judea. So he only has a slice. He has pariah and he has Galilee. And so he is very much trying to prove his worth to Rome so that he can expand his rule.

He also lives in luxury and has built an extravagant capital building on top of a Jewish graveyard that has really ticked the people off. And maybe the cherry on top of all of this is that he puts his own wife in prison so that he can marry his brother's wife, Herodias. And John is disgusted by all of this. And so he starts preaching against his immorality, his luxurious lifestyle and his thirst for power. And that just won't do so. John is arrested. And when Jesus hears about his cousin's arrest, it compels him to go straight to Galilee to begin his ministry. And Jesus knows how dangerous that is. Yet it doesn't deter him. It compels him. It motivates him to go.

And I wonder what motivates us to action. I wonder if we could follow in the footsteps of Jesus and allow the injustice that we see taking place around us to compel us to do something about it. To call those in power to account for their unjust actions, to use our gifts and our resources to love and serve our neighbors better, to risk scrutiny in the name of truth that people would rather not be faced with. As followers of Jesus, we have an opportunity to provide moral clarity in a moment where fear, hatred, divisiveness and even murder are being applauded as holy virtues.

And for many people in this room, not all of course, but many, the color of our skin and our socioeconomic status affords us the privilege of ignoring what's going on around us if we chose to. You could turn the TV off. You could close the blinds. You could delete the signal chat and you could just wait it out. But when Jesus learns what happens to John, he doesn't wait it out. He goes straight to Galilee where Herod Antipas is living in luxury and corruption.

And I feel sure that Jesus had to wrestle with the implications of all of that. I imagine Jesus's family saying, just wait it out. Begin your ministry when it's safer to do so. And we all know what that feels like. My mom texts me every day to make sure that I'm at home and not agitating ICE agents out on the street. And we were having an argument, which we do a lot, me and my mom, and she ended up saying to me one day, well, if you were disrespectful and did something worth getting sprayed over, you deserve to go to jail.

And I share that because I've had conversations with you guys and I know that you're having similar conversations with your family and your friends who are very vocal about our need to be silent. And so I know that it's rather easy for me to stand up here and talk about being motivated to action. But I also know that in practice, it's not always that easy. There is social pressure from our family and our friends and our coworkers for us to remain silent. There's financial pressure for us to hoard our assets for ourselves and not serve our neighbors as we could. And then there's fear. I mean, just plain fear. What if I get beat up and thrown in a van? What if someone shoots me while I'm out there and I die? Like, we're all balancing these pressures while there's also that moral compass in us that's telling us what's going on is not right, that it is evil.

And so I can't tell you what your role has to be in all of this. That's between you and the Holy Spirit. But what I can tell you is that it's never a convenient time to do the right thing. It was Dr. King who said, "It is always the right time to do what is right." And so whatever your role may be in this moment, right now is the right time to do the right thing.

And if you're just not sure what the right thing for you to do in this moment is, I think our scripture for today gives us some really good direction. You may have noticed that the text talks a lot about geography. So Jesus withdrew to Galilee and he went from Nazareth to Capernaum and that can be really confusing. But John and really everybody thought that the Messiah would begin his ministry in Jerusalem. But that's not what Jesus does at all.

If Jesus had been in Minnesota, it would be like assuming that Jesus was going to begin his ministry in St. Paul. Because that is the capital and that is the center of power, supposedly. [congregation laughs] Sorry, I let that slip out. I'm sorry. That was my personal, I'm so sorry. But he doesn't do that. Instead, it's like he moves from uptown to dinky town and everyone's like, "Why would you do that?" And so he starts recruiting college students and preaching there.

And the geography of that tells us something really important, that God is rarely found at the center of power. If you want to follow Jesus well, don't run to Jerusalem. Hang out in Capernaum for a little while and see what God is doing there. If you want to know what it feels like to do the right thing, deliver groceries to a part place family and see the smile on their face as they fear for what's going to come next for them. That's where God is. That's what God is doing. We're staying on a street corner at 7 p.m. with strangers and neighbors in total darkness and only be illuminated by the candles that you're holding around you and fill the Holy Spirit. That is where God is. That's what God is doing.

God is showing up. And if you want to be a part of it, then you're going to have to look in the places and the faces that other people would underestimate. The second thing that I think this text points us to is that followers of Jesus are meant to be lights in the darkness. Matthew is very intentional about the Old Testament quotes that he uses. Name-dropping Naphtali and Zebulun are on purpose.

These are the two northernmost regions of Israel. When the Assyrian invasion happens, they get the brunt of it. They get hit first and last. They get cut off from Israel. And the prophet Isaiah steps into that moment and tells them that their despair will be turned into joy and that even though the oppressor has taken so much from them, a light is shining in the darkness because a child is going to rise up whose kingdom will not have it an end. And of course for Matthew, that child is Jesus. So Matthew is making a really interesting parallel here.

Zebulun and Naphtali do not exist during the time of Jesus. They're ancient regions of Israel. But Zebulun is the region that Nazareth currently sits on. And Naphtali is the region that Capernaum currently sits on. And so what Matthew is saying is that Jesus is exactly where he's supposed to be. He's the one shining the light into darkness for an oppressed people. He's the one with the power to turn despair into joy.

And so if we are going to follow Jesus well, we must be people who turn despair into joy and we must know that we are in the right place at the right time. Brett Younger, who is an associate professor at McAfee in Atlanta, he says, "When life is darkest, even the faintest flicker makes us breathe a little faster and open our eyes a little lighter."

So are you letting your light shine, even the faintest flicker to expose the injustice of the oppressed around you? Are you letting your light shine to speak truth into the conversations that you're having each and every day? For those living in the shadows of empire, a little bit of light can go a really long way. And so I encourage you to ask yourself, is the gospel that I'm preaching and embodying, is it actually good news for the most vulnerable around me? Because if the answer is no, then that version of the gospel doesn't have anything to do with the kingdom of God that Jesus preaches about.

And the last point that I'll make today is that we offer hope through repentance. Repentance gets a bad rap because street preachers have weaponized it to wag their finger in your face and tell you what a horrible sinner you are. But actually, repentance can be a beautiful gift because it's not just a demand for us to stop doing something wrong, it's an opportunity for us to start doing something right.

The Greek verb for repent is metanoeo, and it means to turn around or to change. And that kind of turning around happens in our lives all the time, we just don't spiritualize it and call it repentance. It would be like you waking up every day and eating a piece of cheesecake for breakfast and then deciding, "Hmm, that's probably not healthy for me to do, so I'm going to start having a kale smoothie every morning for breakfast." You've repented!

Or walking past your neighbor's icy sidewalk, and it's an elderly person, and you think as you walk through there every day and it hasn't been cleared yet, "Hmm, someone should really do something about that." And then one day it dawns on you, "Oh, that person should be me." And then you go out and clear their sidewalk for them. That is repentance.

Repentance doesn't have to be scary. It can be a beautiful reflection of the way that God is changing the world through us. But there's a balance here, and I don't want to sugarcoat it. Repentance is not just a personal call, it is a societal call as well. And that means that we must be ready and willing to be bold in calling the powers that be to account. That's what John did. He didn't sit around with Herod Antipas and explain that if he changed the way he ruled, that it would be like him not eating cheesecake anymore and exchanging it for a kale smoothie. No, he called him out because he saw the oppression of his people and he knew that better was possible.

Repentance is hopeful because we know that better is possible. We know that God is righting wrongs and making all things new. We know that every person is made in the image of God even when they're not acting like it. It doesn't have to be this way, you guys. Things can change. People can change and we get to be a part of that. And so we can't let the bad news paralyze us.

We are gospel people. And that means that we take the bad news and we allow it to motivate us to repentance, to change so that what the world sees and experiences is good news for all the people. The kingdom of God is at hand. And so whatever role you may be playing in this moment, may it be guided by God's movement beyond the centers of power. May it be guided by a light that exposes injustice and by a repentance that refuses to accept the world as it is.

If you would please, let's bow our heads and we'll pray together. Lord God, in heavy times like these, it can be so hard to see the light. It feels like we're drowning in bad news and yet you keep reminding us that better is possible. It is always the right time to do the right thing. So use us, Holy Spirit, to make better a reality. Your kingdom is near and our prayer this morning is that we would not only recognize your justice in our own lives, but that you would also give us the strength to realize justice for our neighbors. These are difficult days, but your light shines and we are thankful. In Jesus' name, Amen.