A sketch on Matthew 10:24-39, with Jer 20:7-13 and Ps 69:7-10

Year A, proper 7, 25 June 23

A: Well, what a dismal set of readings! If that is what the church has to say, no wonder it is not very popular!

B: Jeremiah is never full of laughs. I suppose that’s fair, since he did have a hard time, but he can’t have been an easy companion. (Pauses) Do you think we are supposed to learn something from him.

A: Maybe. There are plenty of chapters in his book. But what do you do with messages of gloom and judgement?

C: Are you talking about Jeremiah? I looked him up this week, and found a quote I’m still thinking about. It said, “such a sense of isolation can be a common experience in the Christian Life”

B: There’s something in that. A couple of my friends in church are having a hard time at the moment. I asked them about it, and they said – well, it wasn’t that their faith helped despite the circumstances, it was more that their faith was making things difficult.

A: How does that work? I thought faith was supposed to give you peace, and make you a nice person.

B: One man said his wife kept getting at him about the amount of time he was giving to church work. Another woman told me that her children said that if she couldn’t put her family first, they didn’t want to know her excuses. They felt pressured; they wanted to grow as Christians and to love their families, but knew that God had a real claim – a first claim – on them.

C: That’s interesting, because my quote started with “such a sense of isolation can be a common experience in the Christian life” and went on to say of Jeremiah that a more basic truth was that God intends good for his faithful people.

B: And perhaps we need to remember that Jeremiah, despite all the threats, did survive the war and everything else. He’s remembered as someone who spoke the truth most wanted to ignore.

A: OK, and that’s Old Testament. I’d like to think that all changed with Jesus, but he seems to be talking about divided families, and even dividing them! Where’s the love in that?

B: He did say that to follow him and be a disciple could be costly. His love for us is free, but loving others can be difficult – and sometimes we have to take a stand for our faith, even if that causes conflict with those around.

A: I know a family where the wife’s parents won’t talk to their son in law, because they go to one Chapel and he is a member in another.

C: But I think Jesus was talking about Christian faith, rather than loyalty to one or other congregation. There are many places in the world today where just to be Christian is really dangerous, likely to lose you a job, or even your life.

B: Like China, Afganistan, North Korea you mean?

C: Yes. But there is plenty of trouble for Christians in this country. Ask any teenager about whether they would be popular as a churchgoing Christian in school.

A: So what is Jesus saying then? That we should be afraid of letting our faith be public?

B: No, if you go back to that Matthew reading, he is warning us that discipleship can be tough, but saying that while human opposition can be hard, the thing that matters is to be faithful to God. In the end, everything will come out and be known. What you want is to be found to be right then, not when some gossip is spreading rumours about you.

C: Fear God, not the bullies! It sounds strange to fear God, but I think Jesus is telling us to get the right perspective, not to be caught off balance, trying to be popular and “cool”. The God who looks after sparrows –

B: – and Jeremiahs –

C: does not guarantee us an easy life. But God does say that life in his service will be valuable, that we will find our true purpose.

A: Like the apostles I suppose. I’ve always found it strange that none of them changed their minds – apart from Judas. They seem to have had problems, and many were eventually killed for their faith, but you don’t hear them saying that it’s time to give up.

B: Perhaps there is more to passages like this than we thought. I’ve been told that Psalm 69, which is not very joyful, is the most quoted Psalm in the whole New Testament. It must be saying something that matters.