Say the Names, Claim the Silence
“Say the Names, Claim the Silence”
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 Matthew 9:35-10:8
Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, June 14, 2020
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Andrew Kennaly, Pastor
This morning’s scriptures have a whole lot going on, with cultural and church traditions swirling in the background. From Evangelical Fundamentalists to the most socially conscious progressives; as many ways people find to label each other, there are that many ways to interpret the scriptures before us. If you’re looking to validate end times doctrine, you could find things here to back you up. If you’re searching for biblical proofs to argue for societal shifts, like challenging wealth inequality, there’s food for fodder here. If you’re a missionary, these verses can be a source of strength. Christians of all stripes, from judgmental to mystical can find here something to prove their way of approaching life and faith.
With all this possibility, it is humbling that you would elect to listen to me right now, even as I share through my own filters, my own biases, and my limitations. It is a responsibility I don’t take lightly, sharing the Word of God in ways that seek to encourage, benefit, and grow your faith. This is a fine line, showing compassion, sympathy, and care on one hand, while on the other needing to challenge; breaking our delusions and exposing our stunted faith, to show what often we don’t even see.
That’s the rub. Prophets live in this tension directly; comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, loving God and God’s people yet pointing out hypocrisies and immaturities that people ignore in themselves. Prophets know full well their message will likely be rejected and they will suffer when people react to their teaching. Like John the Baptizer proclaiming in the wilderness, challenging the leaders, and soon losing his head in Herod’s prison. We didn’t read that story this morning, but the dynamic is similar, very classic, and Jesus knows this.
Jesus seems to understand that people tend to accept what is familiar and known and perceived by their egos as supporting their self-made identities; but people tend to reject everything beyond what their ego comprehends. If something is unknown or viewed as threatening, it is labelled as bad and perceived as an enemy. This is a classic pattern of dualistic thinking, constantly judging things in life as good or bad, in or out, worthy or unworthy. When we recruit God on our side, the results are even more potent, to the point where some Christians even say people are damned to hell for all eternity if they reject their version of God’s teaching. This works, if you believe in hell. Belief, in general, we have relegated to the mind, as a way of agreeing with certain ideas and perspectives which we hold and defend as truth, which is another form of egocentric living.
Mystery is uncomfortable, elusive, and can make people suspicious. Like dead air on the radio, we quickly fill the space of silence with self-affirming messages and doctrines and rules that help give us a sense of security and safety.
With all this swirling around as possibility in approaching these scriptures, two things stand out today. Two things. One is from the Psalm, and the other is from the Gospel according to Matthew.
The Psalmist is summarizing several previous psalms and it all boils down to love for God, trusting God with everything for all time, even beyond death. Then the psalmist says to God, “You have loosed my bonds.”
What I’m perceiving is that it does not say the bonds are broken or removed, only loosened. Whatever the struggle the psalmist is facing is not gone, but the burden of that struggle has shifted; a real breakthrough has taken place through the power of God. This seems like a more honest assessment of life. Age after age has struggles of one kind or another, and the importance of seeking justice spirals and revolves, and though contexts shift to pick up certain particularities, within dualistic thinking, human nature remains the same. So that’s one image, the bonds are loosened, by God, who helps us in times of struggle, and yet the bonds are still there and the work of speaking truth to power and calling for equality and right relationship continues.
The other aspect standing out this morning is from Matthew as we read, “These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew,” and the list goes on. It mentions Matthew the tax collector, and shortly after, Simon the Cananaean. Simon is also better known as Simon the Zealot. What a striking contrast between Matthew, who works for the Roman State in collecting taxes, and Simon, a Zealot seeking to overthrow the Roman State. Supposedly, these two are enemies, and yet they share this mission, united by Christ as Jesus sends them on a mission to share a message, and to learn, through experience.
Notice the theme of speaking truth to power carries through into this story as this variety of messengers visit the inside crowd. Going to Jewish villages, Jesus knows full well that some would welcome and others reject. He acknowledges the struggle in this: that the apostles will share their experience with people in power and be “dragged before governors and kings” and this becomes an opportunity for those leaders and the Gentiles to learn. This is a lesson on human nature and dynamics that echo through the ages, and also shows how important it is for that apostolic mission to take place, both because it speaks truth to power and because the apostles learn compassion experientially.
It’s generally hard for people to self-reflect, to look at society’s problems and realize we all participate at multiple levels in what causes pain and suffering in the world. Even religious leaders, governors, and kings need it pointed out to them that doctrines, policies, and practices that benefit some can be oppressive for others. Jesus sends them to the home villages, and even he himself preaches and teaches in the synagogues in all the cities and villages.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.” (At the Edge of Enclosure, online preaching resource by Suzanne Guthrie, http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper6a.html).
We as a species need to humble ourselves to see the many ways ego-centric dualism creates structures that defend our version of the status-quo. Saying the names of the apostles, of those sent by God to teach society lessons, roots this dynamic journey in specific times and places.
Breonna Taylor, George Floyd; just two names of African Americans killed by police. Saying their names is a different dynamic than simply talking vaguely about racism in America, or the many systemic issues we face, such as wealth inequality, environmental degradation, access to healthcare as a human right, education, and the list goes on. It is important to say the names, and to claim the silence their death now leaves as their voices are hushed.
In silence, the mystical journey helps us enter faith experientially, contemplatively, in ways that we empty ourselves, trusting God more than the systems we create or even the thoughts we think. We perpetuate structures to control and subdue other people and the planet for our own purposes and profit.
But the bonds are loosed. The divestment has begun, the statues are toppling down, and the breath of God empowers us to grieve deeply the wounds of the world so when words do come they are not from our own frame of reference, but given to us for our time, shared from the Source, the Spirit of God speaking through us.
To close I will share inspired words from Dorothy Day in her book, The Reckless Way of Love. In a call to look upon all, she says, “Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife, which may at any moment become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself, ‘What else is the world interested in?’ What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships? God is love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship to each other. We want with all our hearts to love, to be loved. And not just in the family but to look upon all as our mothers, sisters, brothers, children. It is when we love the most intensely and most humanly that we can recognize how tepid is our love for others. […] The keenness and intensity of love brings with it suffering, of course, but joy too, because it is a foretaste of heaven.” (Dorothy Day, quoted by Suzanne Guthrie, http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper6a.html).
The contemplative vision reveals God’s goodness in every creature and in every living thing because it is God permeating the world in variety, diversity, and all aspects of life. May we live in love that unites us, in Christ, both now, and always. Amen.