Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
The Lord spoke to me this morning in the Spirit as I was praying about today’s sermon.
He said: “Martyrdom is freedom.”
I think it may have surprised our students of the first five hundred years of Christian thought to find that almost all of the literature produced by Christians in the first three and a half centuries, including the New Testament, had to do, one way or another, with martyrdom.
Mark’s gospel is an inspiration to martyrdom, and at a basic level, so is the rest of the New Testament.
Martyrdom is a tricky idea. It is a mantle often claimed, but rarely earned. It’s a common theme we hear now among various titans of our political and economic world who get into this or that kind of trouble, “I’m a martyr! I’m being punished for my beliefs!”
In this version of martyrdom, a guy who goes into a synagogue and murders a bunch of Jews and is arrested and found guilty of murder could be a martyr for the cause of wiping out the Jews. Every Jew-hater in the world shouts “martyr”! The state is silencing dissent! We’re entitled to our opinions!
We hear the problem. If your cause is persecuting Jews, dying for it doesn’t make you a martyr. If your cause is the freedom to hurt others with impunity, so that when you hurt them and they strike back or complain, you claim martyrdom, you’re kidding yourself.
It’s the cause that matters, see.
Listen to this quote from a real Christian martyr: Alex Navalny:
“The fact is that I am a believer, which, in general, rather serves as an example of constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, because mostly people are atheists, I myself was quite militant.
‘But now I am a believer, and this helps me a lot in my work, because everything becomes much, much simpler. I think less, there are fewer dilemmas in my life — because there is a book in which, in general, it is more or less clearly written what needs to be done in each situation. It’s not always easy, of course, to follow this book, but in general I try.
And therefore, as I already said, it is easier for me, probably than many others, to get involved in politics.
Navalny goes on: “A person recently wrote to me: “Navalny, what is everyone writing to you: ‘Hold on, don’t give up, be patient, grit your teeth? Why do you have to endure it?’ I think you said in an interview that you believe in God. And it is said: ‘Blessed are those who thirst and hunger for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.’ Well, that’s great for you, then!”
And I thought — wow, this person understands me so well!”
We need to hear the mockery in the letter Navalny received, a mockery he received with a sense of humor.
People who risk their lives for the sake of actual justice for people who are being violated, oppressed, and mistreated—and I’m not talking about overweight old people with big investment accounts, by the way, who are angry because they didn’t make as much money this year as they did last year, I’m talking about people who have little or nothing and no one to defend them, non-citizens are often the target for example—such martyrs never yell, “Look at me, I’m a martyr” when they are punished for taking their stand. Nor do they marshal an army of lawyers or deny they did whatever it was they were accused of. Jesus didn’t deny the accusation that he was a king, which was in fact technically illegal in the Roman Empire. And Jesus said, “Don’t you know that I could call on my Father for help, and at once he would send me more than twelve armies of angels?” But of course, he didn’t. Martyrs don’t marshal armies for revenge.
Or let’s remember a friend of mine from seminary who was put into a steel box in the heat of the day, every day, for a month, because he dared to preach against Apartheid in South Africa. When I asked him how he endured it, he said only, “it was glorious.”
When someone is calling attention to all they do and all they suffer, they are not martyrs, they’re narcissists that want attention. Martyrs are free of any concern for self, and have willingly taken on themselves a larger view, which it turns out, is a light yoke and an easy burden, or as my friend in seminary said, “glory.”
This is why I have worked so hard over the last few years to introduce you to Jesus and his story. We have so allegorized and spiritualized and re-interpreted scripture to the point that it seems anyone can prove anything from the Bible, particularly their own biases and hatreds against people different from themselves. I have tried to show you that the gospel is not a list of truths for you to believe, or a code of law to obey, but a story to enter into, and a person to know.
It’s not a new kind of dualism, a new list of right and wrong things, a simple black-and-white, as so many of us might long for. It’s not dualistic. In fact, dualism is the very force that is threatening us all right now. Our longing for a simple yes or no, our desire for a clear choice.
The choices are in fact fairly clear, as Navalny pointed out, it’s all in the story of Jesus, and once accepted, there is no effort involved, no agitation or self-pity. There is just the truth.
God is coming and there’s nothing the powers and principalities of the world can do about it. Trump can’t stop him. Biden can’t stop him. No amount of intimidation, fear-mongering or doomsaying can stop God. The mighty will be brought down from their thrones and the lowly will be lifted up, no matter what any of us think of either group.
Navalny pointed out that the powers of the world will first try to intimidate you, make you fear their wrath. And if you do, you’ll give up, just like they want you to. But if you don’t, the next thing they’ll try to do is to isolate you, make you feel alone.
But the truth is, you’re not alone, because millions of people, young and old, rich and poor, in the depths of their hearts, know exactly what the truth is, and long for it. Because we all know what true justice and freedom really is, but simply lack the courage to stand for it.
Amen.
Psalm 22:23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
The Lord spoke to me this morning in the Spirit as I was praying about today’s sermon.
He said: “Martyrdom is freedom.”
I think it may have surprised our students of the first five hundred years of Christian thought to find that almost all of the literature produced by Christians in the first three and a half centuries, including the New Testament, had to do, one way or another, with martyrdom.
Mark’s gospel is an inspiration to martyrdom, and at a basic level, so is the rest of the New Testament.
Martyrdom is a tricky idea. It is a mantle often claimed, but rarely earned. It’s a common theme we hear now among various titans of our political and economic world who get into this or that kind of trouble, “I’m a martyr! I’m being punished for my beliefs!”
In this version of martyrdom, a guy who goes into a synagogue and murders a bunch of Jews and is arrested and found guilty of murder could be a martyr for the cause of wiping out the Jews. Every Jew-hater in the world shouts “martyr”! The state is silencing dissent! We’re entitled to our opinions!
We hear the problem. If your cause is persecuting Jews, dying for it doesn’t make you a martyr. If your cause is the freedom to hurt others with impunity, so that when you hurt them and they strike back or complain, you claim martyrdom, you’re kidding yourself.
It’s the cause that matters, see.
Listen to this quote from a real Christian martyr: Alex Navalny:
“The fact is that I am a believer, which, in general, rather serves as an example of constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, because mostly people are atheists, I myself was quite militant.
‘But now I am a believer, and this helps me a lot in my work, because everything becomes much, much simpler. I think less, there are fewer dilemmas in my life — because there is a book in which, in general, it is more or less clearly written what needs to be done in each situation. It’s not always easy, of course, to follow this book, but in general I try.
And therefore, as I already said, it is easier for me, probably than many others, to get involved in politics.
Navalny goes on: “A person recently wrote to me: “Navalny, what is everyone writing to you: ‘Hold on, don’t give up, be patient, grit your teeth? Why do you have to endure it?’ I think you said in an interview that you believe in God. And it is said: ‘Blessed are those who thirst and hunger for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.’ Well, that’s great for you, then!”
And I thought — wow, this person understands me so well!”
We need to hear the mockery in the letter Navalny received, a mockery he received with a sense of humor.
People who risk their lives for the sake of actual justice for people who are being violated, oppressed, and mistreated—and I’m not talking about overweight old people with big investment accounts, by the way, who are angry because they didn’t make as much money this year as they did last year, I’m talking about people who have little or nothing and no one to defend them, non-citizens are often the target for example—such martyrs never yell, “Look at me, I’m a martyr” when they are punished for taking their stand. Nor do they marshal an army of lawyers or deny they did whatever it was they were accused of. Jesus didn’t deny the accusation that he was a king, which was in fact technically illegal in the Roman Empire. And Jesus said, “Don’t you know that I could call on my Father for help, and at once he would send me more than twelve armies of angels?” But of course, he didn’t. Martyrs don’t marshal armies for revenge.
Or let’s remember a friend of mine from seminary who was put into a steel box in the heat of the day, every day, for a month, because he dared to preach against Apartheid in South Africa. When I asked him how he endured it, he said only, “it was glorious.”
When someone is calling attention to all they do and all they suffer, they are not martyrs, they’re narcissists that want attention. Martyrs are free of any concern for self, and have willingly taken on themselves a larger view, which it turns out, is a light yoke and an easy burden, or as my friend in seminary said, “glory.”
This is why I have worked so hard over the last few years to introduce you to Jesus and his story. We have so allegorized and spiritualized and re-interpreted scripture to the point that it seems anyone can prove anything from the Bible, particularly their own biases and hatreds against people different from themselves. I have tried to show you that the gospel is not a list of truths for you to believe, or a code of law to obey, but a story to enter into, and a person to know.
It’s not a new kind of dualism, a new list of right and wrong things, a simple black-and-white, as so many of us might long for. It’s not dualistic. In fact, dualism is the very force that is threatening us all right now. Our longing for a simple yes or no, our desire for a clear choice.
The choices are in fact fairly clear, as Navalny pointed out, it’s all in the story of Jesus, and once accepted, there is no effort involved, no agitation or self-pity. There is just the truth.
God is coming and there’s nothing the powers and principalities of the world can do about it. Trump can’t stop him. Biden can’t stop him. No amount of intimidation, fear-mongering or doomsaying can stop God. The mighty will be brought down from their thrones and the lowly will be lifted up, no matter what any of us think of either group.
Navalny pointed out that the powers of the world will first try to intimidate you, make you fear their wrath. And if you do, you’ll give up, just like they want you to. But if you don’t, the next thing they’ll try to do is to isolate you, make you feel alone.
But the truth is, you’re not alone, because millions of people, young and old, rich and poor, in the depths of their hearts, know exactly what the truth is, and long for it. Because we all know what true justice and freedom really is, but simply lack the courage to stand for it.
Amen.
