5 Pentecost (Proper 6): 15 June 2008
(Genesis 18:1-15/Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19/Romans 5:1-8/Matthew 9:35-10:8)
Operation Enduring Freedom
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There is always the risk in using an example – especially one that is either too current or too controversial – that it will become the focus of attention and distract from what it was intended to illuminate; the very thing that makes an example useful as a window can also make it opaque as a wall. Even so, I think I will run the risk in service of the Gospel lesson.
On 7 October 2001 the United States led a coalition of forces in the invasion of Afghanistan, a response to the attacks of 9/11. Afghanistan was then governed by the Taliban, an extremist Islamic faction dedicated to a strict and repressive interpretation of Shari’a law: theft was punished by amputation – more serious crimes by public execution at the local soccer field – women were virtual prisoners in their homes, and any dissent was ruthlessly suppressed. Our government was even more directly concerned about Taliban support of terrorist organizations, particularly of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. And so, with international support we launched Operation Enduring Freedom to liberate Afghanistan from Taliban rule and to root out and destroy terrorist activity.
The invasion began with a call for the Taliban to repent: relinquish control of the government, lay down all weapons, dismantle terrorist training camps and open them to international inspection, turn over Osama bin Laden and all active members of Al-Qaeda, and support the democratization of Afghanistan. The alternative was bombs in the air and boots on the ground, a devastating military campaign by the world’s major powers. The Taliban chose this alternative.
Throughout the ensuing war the coalition was insistent that the battle against the Taliban was actually a battle for Afghanistan. The goal was not to destroy Afghanistan, but to liberate the country from its real enemy – the Taliban – and to give it the space and freedom to determine a new direction toward liberty, equality, and justice – in the Western sense of these ideals, of course. This was the promise behind Operation Enduring Freedom: not just freedom of the world from terrorism, but freedom of the world for democracy.
Now, suppose you were an ordinary Afghan citizen – then or even now. The West has invaded your country while holding out the promise of liberation. What signs would you expect to see of the fulfillment of that promise? What signs of liberation?
I would expect to see the oppressors – in this case the Taliban – identified, judged, and cast out by the authority of the Coalition. I would expect to see a progressive healing of the nation: the reduction of ethnic conflict, the liberation of the disenfranchised and oppressed – women and religious minorities among them – and the emergence of true justice. I would expect to be taught the ways and means of this new philosophy of democracy and freedom. Frankly, I would expect to see the Coalition tangibly deliver on its promises; if you proclaim liberation, I would expect to see you follow through with judgment, healing, and teaching. And I would expect to see you recognize that long-term engagement is required; I would expect a plan for the future that includes another generation of Coalition personnel to carry on the work begun. Proclamation, teaching, healing, judgment, and continuity: these things I would expect to see.
Now to another invasion, to an earlier Operation Enduring Freedom:
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
These twelve Jesus sent out (Mt 9:35-10:1, 5a, NASB).
When Jesus comes to Israel, he comes as a one-man invasion force to liberate an oppressed people. “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” he proclaims. This is good news – gospel – to a people who have waited long for God to arrive, to vindicate his people, and to establish his kingdom of justice and righteousness. Jesus begins to speak and to act very much as if God has invaded the land through him, as if vindication and liberation will come through his ministry among the people. Naturally, these people have certain expectations, certain signs they expect to see in fulfillment of Jesus’ promises – signs of liberation. Now, suppose you were an ordinary Second-Temple Jew – a contemporary of Jesus. Jesus has invaded your country while holding out the promise of liberation. What signs would you expect to see of the fulfillment of that promise? What signs of liberation?
I would expect to see the oppressors – in this case Rome and the Herodians – identified, judged, and cast out by the authority of God and thus to see God’s people vindicated, declared to be in the right. I would expect to see healing of the nation: the reduction of sectarian conflict between Pharisee and Sadducee, between Essene and Zealot; the liberation of the disenfranchised and oppressed – orphans, widows, the poor – and the emergence of God’s righteousness and justice. I would expect to be taught the ways and means of this new way of being Israel. Frankly, I would expect to see Jesus tangibly deliver on his promises; if he proclaims liberation, I would expect to see him follow through with judgment, healing, and teaching. And I would expect to see him recruit and train disciples, to endue them with his authority and power, so they might continue and expand his work. Proclamation, teaching, healing, judgment, and continuity: these things I would expect to see.
Proclamation, teaching, healing, judgment, and continuity: these things are precisely what we see in the Gospel text. Jesus proclaims the presence of the Kingdom of God. He teaches all who will listen the true nature of life in the Kingdom; think here about the Sermon on the Mount, about the parables, about the symbolic and prophetic actions of the Master. Jesus heals all manner of diseases and heals the social rifts in society by touching the lepers, dignifying the role of women, dining with the tax collectors and sinners. He confronts and judges and casts out the true oppressors when he exorcises demonic powers and assails the strongholds of Satan. And he plans for continuity by enduing his disciples with his power and authority – by filling them with his very Spirit – and by commissioning them to continue his work and expand it first to all Israel – Jerusalem and Judea – then to Samaria and finally to the uttermost parts of the earth.
None of this looked exactly like Jesus’ contemporaries expected – after all, the Romans and the Herodians continued to dominate the land and God’s righteous rule didn’t become apparent. None of this looked exactly like Jesus’ contemporaries expected because they misunderstood the true nature of their oppression and of Jesus’ liberation. The Jews expected to be vindicated – shown to be in the right by God. Instead they were called to repentance for abandoning their vocation as God’s elect – a vocation to be a light to the Gentiles and a blessing to the world. It was Jesus and his followers who were vindicated through his resurrection and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Jews expected their Roman oppressors to be cast out. Instead the true nature of their oppression was revealed – bondage to false notions of how to be God’s Israel through compromise, separation, or violent opposition and bondage to the demonic forces of Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons. The Jews expected the Kingdom of God to come suddenly with justice rushing like a river and righteousness flowing like a stream. Instead, it came as a mustard seed – small, unobtrusive – and like a long-term work in progress to be implemented by successive generations of Jesus’ disciples.
I suspect the Coalition’s invasion of Afghanistan didn’t look exactly like the Afghanis expected. Neither did Jesus’ invasion of Israel and the world look exactly like the Jews expected.
And there is the Gospel text in its historical setting. Jesus invades enemy-held territory. He comes to liberate his people by inaugurating the Kingdom of God and by proclaiming its presence, by teaching what that looks like, by healing, by casting out the powers of opposition, and by recruiting and equipping disciples to carry on his work. And all this because He felt compassion for the people, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. That’s how the text works in its historical setting – with the implied question, How will people respond?
But what of us: How does the text work now? Well, on one level it speaks to each of us individually. Jesus comes to each one of us as to enemy-held territory and proclaims the good news that he is Messiah and Lord and that he has come to liberate us from our bondage to self and to sin. He calls us to repent – to change our minds and hearts and directions. He offers to cast down and cast out all the forces of evil arrayed against us and with whom we are arrayed against him. He offers healing and restoration. He offers the Holy Spirit to teach us and to lead us into truth. He calls us by name to be his disciples and he empowers us to continue his work in the world. This is the working of the text on the level we call personal salvation. Again the implied question is, How will we respond?
But the text also works on another level, not individual this time, but corporate. The basic paradigm goes like this: As Jesus to Israel, so the church to the world, an idea I first heard voiced by N. T. Wright. Jesus came to Israel – in a one-of-a-kind, once-for-all fashion – to inaugurate the Kingdom of God by his finished death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. That was Jesus’ unique vocation and we cannot – and dare not try to – repeat that. But, he called into being a people, the Church, to implement his Kingdom work in each new generation. What Jesus was and did for Israel, the Church is to be and to do for our world. In short, we are to invade enemy-held territory with the good news that Jesus is Lord and that the Kingdom of God has arrived. We are to teach by word and symbolic action – by every aspect of our lives – what that means and what that looks like. We are to bring the healing love and power of Jesus into the midst of the pain and brokenness of the world by touching our modern “lepers” and by lifting up the poor and disenfranchised around us. We are to name, to shame, and to cast down and cast out all the spiritual powers of evil in this dark world – powers invisible and powers exercised through very visible, very human structures and systems and organizations. We are to preserve and to pass on the faith and practice we have received to the next generation so that the work of Jesus may continue until that great day of his return. That’s a part of what the paradigm means: As Jesus to Israel, so the Church to the world.
Now, if we take this a step further, what we want to know and need to know is how to implement this paradigm in our particular setting. This is a matter of much prayer, of immersion in the Scriptures and the life of the Church, and of following the leading of the Holy Spirit. At best I can offer just a few hints, a few suggestions of what this paradigm might look like.
It starts, I think, “inside” the church, with the building of a people and a society that models the Kingdom of God. As Jesus was a light to Israel, so too must the church be a light to the world by living out the Kingdom agenda in the midst of the world. If the church comes proclaiming Jesus to the world, then I think the world has a right to expect us to live like disciples of Jesus. Just a quick scan of 1 Corinthians – and I could have chosen others of Paul’s letters – gives some clear insight into the communal life of such disciples. In our churches there should be no divided loyalties, no personality cults, no exclusive denominationalism, no ethnic barriers, no economic distinctions: only a focus on Christ. Sexual immorality should be unheard of. Marriage should be held in honor – nurtured and preserved. The spiritually mature should mentor the spiritually immature and the stronger should make concessions for the sake of weaker brothers. All members should exercise their spiritual gifts for the benefit of the church and should renounce envy of others’ gifts. All should seek and practice love, the greatest of the spiritual gifts. And the church should do all things in view of that great day of Christ’s return and the resurrection of the dead. It starts inside the church.
Though, the paradigm must start “inside” the church, it must then move out into the fields already white unto harvest; we must live as disciples in the larger world – in our communities, in our places of work and school, in our places of recreation and social interaction. We must be in our world as Jesus was in Israel. This vocation re-emphasizes the importance of the church; only that which we learn and practice in a loving, spirit-filled community can we then export to an often hostile, suspicious, and broken society. We have been formed by a different story; our vocation is to live that story. And what does the story require of us, what does our God require of us but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God? Imagine bringing God’s justice into your work place or your school or … well, wherever you go: not the world’s justice – which is often mere retribution – but God’s justice which is always restorative and redemptive, which always seeks to put broken things to rights. Imagine bringing God’s mercy into your work place or your school or … well, wherever you go: not the world’s mercy – which is often mere sentimentalism and non-transformative acceptance and which leaves people as victims in their brokenness – but God’s mercy which proclaims repentance and offers welcome, forgiveness, and transformation. Imagine walking humbly with God at your work place or your school or … well, wherever you go. Now this is where many might disagree with me, but we do not walk humbly with God when we try to force our faith upon others or try to dominate social institutions and organizations in the name of our God. We do not walk humbly with God when we exchange witness for coercion, when we use the ways of the world to accomplish the purposes of God. We walk humbly with God when we carry the cross of Christ. Justice, mercy, humility: As Jesus to Israel, so the church to the World.
Jesus has invaded Israel and the world with his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. He has inaugurated that Kingdom through his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. And now he has sent us out into the world to implement that Kingdom. This is truly Operation Enduring Freedom.
Amen.
(Genesis 18:1-15/Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19/Romans 5:1-8/Matthew 9:35-10:8)
Operation Enduring Freedom
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There is always the risk in using an example – especially one that is either too current or too controversial – that it will become the focus of attention and distract from what it was intended to illuminate; the very thing that makes an example useful as a window can also make it opaque as a wall. Even so, I think I will run the risk in service of the Gospel lesson.
On 7 October 2001 the United States led a coalition of forces in the invasion of Afghanistan, a response to the attacks of 9/11. Afghanistan was then governed by the Taliban, an extremist Islamic faction dedicated to a strict and repressive interpretation of Shari’a law: theft was punished by amputation – more serious crimes by public execution at the local soccer field – women were virtual prisoners in their homes, and any dissent was ruthlessly suppressed. Our government was even more directly concerned about Taliban support of terrorist organizations, particularly of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. And so, with international support we launched Operation Enduring Freedom to liberate Afghanistan from Taliban rule and to root out and destroy terrorist activity.
The invasion began with a call for the Taliban to repent: relinquish control of the government, lay down all weapons, dismantle terrorist training camps and open them to international inspection, turn over Osama bin Laden and all active members of Al-Qaeda, and support the democratization of Afghanistan. The alternative was bombs in the air and boots on the ground, a devastating military campaign by the world’s major powers. The Taliban chose this alternative.
Throughout the ensuing war the coalition was insistent that the battle against the Taliban was actually a battle for Afghanistan. The goal was not to destroy Afghanistan, but to liberate the country from its real enemy – the Taliban – and to give it the space and freedom to determine a new direction toward liberty, equality, and justice – in the Western sense of these ideals, of course. This was the promise behind Operation Enduring Freedom: not just freedom of the world from terrorism, but freedom of the world for democracy.
Now, suppose you were an ordinary Afghan citizen – then or even now. The West has invaded your country while holding out the promise of liberation. What signs would you expect to see of the fulfillment of that promise? What signs of liberation?
I would expect to see the oppressors – in this case the Taliban – identified, judged, and cast out by the authority of the Coalition. I would expect to see a progressive healing of the nation: the reduction of ethnic conflict, the liberation of the disenfranchised and oppressed – women and religious minorities among them – and the emergence of true justice. I would expect to be taught the ways and means of this new philosophy of democracy and freedom. Frankly, I would expect to see the Coalition tangibly deliver on its promises; if you proclaim liberation, I would expect to see you follow through with judgment, healing, and teaching. And I would expect to see you recognize that long-term engagement is required; I would expect a plan for the future that includes another generation of Coalition personnel to carry on the work begun. Proclamation, teaching, healing, judgment, and continuity: these things I would expect to see.
Now to another invasion, to an earlier Operation Enduring Freedom:
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
These twelve Jesus sent out (Mt 9:35-10:1, 5a, NASB).
When Jesus comes to Israel, he comes as a one-man invasion force to liberate an oppressed people. “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” he proclaims. This is good news – gospel – to a people who have waited long for God to arrive, to vindicate his people, and to establish his kingdom of justice and righteousness. Jesus begins to speak and to act very much as if God has invaded the land through him, as if vindication and liberation will come through his ministry among the people. Naturally, these people have certain expectations, certain signs they expect to see in fulfillment of Jesus’ promises – signs of liberation. Now, suppose you were an ordinary Second-Temple Jew – a contemporary of Jesus. Jesus has invaded your country while holding out the promise of liberation. What signs would you expect to see of the fulfillment of that promise? What signs of liberation?
I would expect to see the oppressors – in this case Rome and the Herodians – identified, judged, and cast out by the authority of God and thus to see God’s people vindicated, declared to be in the right. I would expect to see healing of the nation: the reduction of sectarian conflict between Pharisee and Sadducee, between Essene and Zealot; the liberation of the disenfranchised and oppressed – orphans, widows, the poor – and the emergence of God’s righteousness and justice. I would expect to be taught the ways and means of this new way of being Israel. Frankly, I would expect to see Jesus tangibly deliver on his promises; if he proclaims liberation, I would expect to see him follow through with judgment, healing, and teaching. And I would expect to see him recruit and train disciples, to endue them with his authority and power, so they might continue and expand his work. Proclamation, teaching, healing, judgment, and continuity: these things I would expect to see.
Proclamation, teaching, healing, judgment, and continuity: these things are precisely what we see in the Gospel text. Jesus proclaims the presence of the Kingdom of God. He teaches all who will listen the true nature of life in the Kingdom; think here about the Sermon on the Mount, about the parables, about the symbolic and prophetic actions of the Master. Jesus heals all manner of diseases and heals the social rifts in society by touching the lepers, dignifying the role of women, dining with the tax collectors and sinners. He confronts and judges and casts out the true oppressors when he exorcises demonic powers and assails the strongholds of Satan. And he plans for continuity by enduing his disciples with his power and authority – by filling them with his very Spirit – and by commissioning them to continue his work and expand it first to all Israel – Jerusalem and Judea – then to Samaria and finally to the uttermost parts of the earth.
None of this looked exactly like Jesus’ contemporaries expected – after all, the Romans and the Herodians continued to dominate the land and God’s righteous rule didn’t become apparent. None of this looked exactly like Jesus’ contemporaries expected because they misunderstood the true nature of their oppression and of Jesus’ liberation. The Jews expected to be vindicated – shown to be in the right by God. Instead they were called to repentance for abandoning their vocation as God’s elect – a vocation to be a light to the Gentiles and a blessing to the world. It was Jesus and his followers who were vindicated through his resurrection and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Jews expected their Roman oppressors to be cast out. Instead the true nature of their oppression was revealed – bondage to false notions of how to be God’s Israel through compromise, separation, or violent opposition and bondage to the demonic forces of Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons. The Jews expected the Kingdom of God to come suddenly with justice rushing like a river and righteousness flowing like a stream. Instead, it came as a mustard seed – small, unobtrusive – and like a long-term work in progress to be implemented by successive generations of Jesus’ disciples.
I suspect the Coalition’s invasion of Afghanistan didn’t look exactly like the Afghanis expected. Neither did Jesus’ invasion of Israel and the world look exactly like the Jews expected.
And there is the Gospel text in its historical setting. Jesus invades enemy-held territory. He comes to liberate his people by inaugurating the Kingdom of God and by proclaiming its presence, by teaching what that looks like, by healing, by casting out the powers of opposition, and by recruiting and equipping disciples to carry on his work. And all this because He felt compassion for the people, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. That’s how the text works in its historical setting – with the implied question, How will people respond?
But what of us: How does the text work now? Well, on one level it speaks to each of us individually. Jesus comes to each one of us as to enemy-held territory and proclaims the good news that he is Messiah and Lord and that he has come to liberate us from our bondage to self and to sin. He calls us to repent – to change our minds and hearts and directions. He offers to cast down and cast out all the forces of evil arrayed against us and with whom we are arrayed against him. He offers healing and restoration. He offers the Holy Spirit to teach us and to lead us into truth. He calls us by name to be his disciples and he empowers us to continue his work in the world. This is the working of the text on the level we call personal salvation. Again the implied question is, How will we respond?
But the text also works on another level, not individual this time, but corporate. The basic paradigm goes like this: As Jesus to Israel, so the church to the world, an idea I first heard voiced by N. T. Wright. Jesus came to Israel – in a one-of-a-kind, once-for-all fashion – to inaugurate the Kingdom of God by his finished death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. That was Jesus’ unique vocation and we cannot – and dare not try to – repeat that. But, he called into being a people, the Church, to implement his Kingdom work in each new generation. What Jesus was and did for Israel, the Church is to be and to do for our world. In short, we are to invade enemy-held territory with the good news that Jesus is Lord and that the Kingdom of God has arrived. We are to teach by word and symbolic action – by every aspect of our lives – what that means and what that looks like. We are to bring the healing love and power of Jesus into the midst of the pain and brokenness of the world by touching our modern “lepers” and by lifting up the poor and disenfranchised around us. We are to name, to shame, and to cast down and cast out all the spiritual powers of evil in this dark world – powers invisible and powers exercised through very visible, very human structures and systems and organizations. We are to preserve and to pass on the faith and practice we have received to the next generation so that the work of Jesus may continue until that great day of his return. That’s a part of what the paradigm means: As Jesus to Israel, so the Church to the world.
Now, if we take this a step further, what we want to know and need to know is how to implement this paradigm in our particular setting. This is a matter of much prayer, of immersion in the Scriptures and the life of the Church, and of following the leading of the Holy Spirit. At best I can offer just a few hints, a few suggestions of what this paradigm might look like.
It starts, I think, “inside” the church, with the building of a people and a society that models the Kingdom of God. As Jesus was a light to Israel, so too must the church be a light to the world by living out the Kingdom agenda in the midst of the world. If the church comes proclaiming Jesus to the world, then I think the world has a right to expect us to live like disciples of Jesus. Just a quick scan of 1 Corinthians – and I could have chosen others of Paul’s letters – gives some clear insight into the communal life of such disciples. In our churches there should be no divided loyalties, no personality cults, no exclusive denominationalism, no ethnic barriers, no economic distinctions: only a focus on Christ. Sexual immorality should be unheard of. Marriage should be held in honor – nurtured and preserved. The spiritually mature should mentor the spiritually immature and the stronger should make concessions for the sake of weaker brothers. All members should exercise their spiritual gifts for the benefit of the church and should renounce envy of others’ gifts. All should seek and practice love, the greatest of the spiritual gifts. And the church should do all things in view of that great day of Christ’s return and the resurrection of the dead. It starts inside the church.
Though, the paradigm must start “inside” the church, it must then move out into the fields already white unto harvest; we must live as disciples in the larger world – in our communities, in our places of work and school, in our places of recreation and social interaction. We must be in our world as Jesus was in Israel. This vocation re-emphasizes the importance of the church; only that which we learn and practice in a loving, spirit-filled community can we then export to an often hostile, suspicious, and broken society. We have been formed by a different story; our vocation is to live that story. And what does the story require of us, what does our God require of us but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God? Imagine bringing God’s justice into your work place or your school or … well, wherever you go: not the world’s justice – which is often mere retribution – but God’s justice which is always restorative and redemptive, which always seeks to put broken things to rights. Imagine bringing God’s mercy into your work place or your school or … well, wherever you go: not the world’s mercy – which is often mere sentimentalism and non-transformative acceptance and which leaves people as victims in their brokenness – but God’s mercy which proclaims repentance and offers welcome, forgiveness, and transformation. Imagine walking humbly with God at your work place or your school or … well, wherever you go. Now this is where many might disagree with me, but we do not walk humbly with God when we try to force our faith upon others or try to dominate social institutions and organizations in the name of our God. We do not walk humbly with God when we exchange witness for coercion, when we use the ways of the world to accomplish the purposes of God. We walk humbly with God when we carry the cross of Christ. Justice, mercy, humility: As Jesus to Israel, so the church to the World.
Jesus has invaded Israel and the world with his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. He has inaugurated that Kingdom through his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. And now he has sent us out into the world to implement that Kingdom. This is truly Operation Enduring Freedom.
Amen.
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