Sermon Proper 24, Year A – Matthew 22:15-22
Are you familiar with the term internet troll? The Wikipedia definition is “A person who posts inflammatory messages to provoke an emotional response.”
That sounds direct enough, but it’s too sterile. It doesn’t convey the emotional disdain caused by said group of people. Instead, let’s look at The Urban Dictionary—it will tell you what words really mean. This is slightly “edited.”
An internet troll is an attention—“grabber”—who posts stupid comments on websites in an attempt to get a reaction towards themselves so that someone will acknowledge their pathetic, insignificant lives since they don’t receive any attention in real life.
In the 21st century, trolls are mostly online, especially Twitter, but they have been around for centuries.
Jesus experienced their pre-designed and well-rehearsed confrontation that only had one aim, to ambush him.
Trolls use morality, theology, or ethics as launching points. In today’s Gospel reading, the Pharisees come out of their holes and try to trap Jesus in his words. If he declared allegiance to God, the Romans would execute him. If he admitted loyalty to Caesar and said to pay taxes, it would disgrace him among the people.
This is a very practical passage. It shows us how Jesus handled these issues, and it gives us a model to follow when we encounter trolls and Pharisees.
First, he recognizes them.
Matthew suggests that Jesus was “aware of their malice and knew they were putting him to the test.” The word “malice” is usually translated as “evil intentions.”
Jesus knew that the political and religious climate was delicate, so Pharisees would try to use both against him. He knew people are vicious when their influence is threatened.
So the Pharisees came together and plotted in the dark.
“We’ve gotta get rid of this guy because he’s dangerous to everything we hold sacred.”
“Oh, I know, but he didn’t even go to seminary, so let’s trap him between religion and politics.”
That sounds like a good plan by itself, but they didn’t stop there. The Pharisees joined forces with the Herodians. They were a Jewish political party that backed the Roman government and the taxation of the Jews. The two groups customarily opposed one another, but they hated Jesus more, so they put their quarrels aside.
They went to Jesus with a compliment, “We know that you’re an excellent and faithful man who teaches with no motives. So tells us, should we pay taxes to Caesar?”
It was either/or for them, but Jesus recognized that tactic. When we encounter Pharisees, who are more dedicated to an ideal than to God, the best thing we can do is determine the motives behind the actions.
Andrew Marantz did a TED Talk titled “Inside the bizarre world of internet trolls and propagandists.” Some of the primary tactics he lists are:
- Trolls drive content with emotion… everything is about emotion.
- Trolls love to make accusations, especially moral and ethical ones, against people.
- Trolls love drama, and many have sociopathic tendencies, so they do not care if their gossip or posts inflict pain on people and families.
J.R.R. Tolkien said, “Trolls are mighty slow… and suspicious of everything new to them.”
All of that is valuable information! How do we deal with trolls? Watch for them and recognize the tactics.
Second, Jesus responds to them.
Jesus responded in two different ways. First, he called them out. He says, “This is so hypocritical… why are you testing me like this?”
Jesus knew they needed to trap him between God and empire, between faith and politics, between the people and the emperor.
Then he pointed the Pharisees and Herodians back to God. He said, “Give Caesar what belongs to him; his face is clearly on the coin. But more importantly, give God what belongs to God.”
He’s speaking about honoring God by devoting a part of what we have to God. He’s also talking about presenting our lives to God and whatever vocation and ministry God might call us to.
So when we need to handle all the chaos, anger, bitterness, rage, prejudice, and racism, Jesus serves as the model! We can confront evil as Jesus did; tell people to give God what already belongs to God… ourselves… after all, God’s image is stamped on our hearts, not Caesar’s.
Lessons from the life of Fr. Sngi
I wanted some fun last week, so I decided to see what would transpire if I trolled some Christians about God, country, and politics. So I headed over to a website that’s frequented by progressives and conservatives alike. Translation, it’s where Episcopalians and Lutherans go to fuss with Baptists and people who consider themselves non-denominationals but are conservatives with reformed theology.
I disguised my email and created a username; then, for my picture, I used a photo of Fr. Sngi, a Roman Catholic priest from India who passed in 2016 after 58 years of ordained ministry at 95. In the picture, he’s dressed as a priest, but he’s wearing a turban.
I went after both camps! I posted, “As someone on the outside looking in, it’s time for “American Christians” to stop attacking their government as if it’s demonic, and stop spreading COVID in their “rallies and marches.” It’s also time for them to check their malignant patriotism and their loyalty to their leader instead of God. Focus on God, and go be true Christians by producing the works of mercy and feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and healing to the sick. That’s the church’s vocation, not the American government’s job.”
Then I got some popcorn, grabbed a Sprite, kicked back, and waited for the fireworks. Whooooooo, it was nuclear. The replies, in the name of Christian charity, of course, were nasty!
“Bigoted racist.”
“Yet another white male homophobe.” – somehow Fr. Sngi transformed into a white American male.
“Proof conservative republicans don’t care about the earth.”
This one is good….. “This kind of southern hypocrisy sickens me! The church has a moral obligation to overthrow this regime!”
So, Fr. Sngi has assembled some impressive adjectives. He’s a straight white homophobic male who is also a southern racist republican intent on dismantling the world for oil.
It didn’t stop there; I inflamed the other side of the aisle too. Three particular responses were deliciously fantastic.
“Don’t even lump this guy in with us! He’s no conservative, just look at that turban; he’s foreign.” May I confess I heard that one in a deep southern accent?—”Faarrnnn”… that’s how to say foreign in the south, if you wondered.
“You’re not even from here, so what gives you the right to tell us what to do with our country? This troll is proof we need more immigration restrictions and law and order.”
“This Arab has a lot of big words but not a lick of common sense.”
So, Fr. Sngi is now an intellectually challenged Arab foreigner—probably… a turban-wearing terrorist—who is a threat to law and order and in need of a wall to keep him out of the U.S..
Fr. Sngi was none of these things. Fr. Sngi only said to worry less about the emperor and more about Jesus. No one agreed with Fr. Sngi about giving to God what belongs to God; they only concentrated on what was wrong with Fr. Sngi’s opinions.
The more he pointed people toward God, the angrier they got.
Then a man who had to be a parish priest posted a reply. His username was brilliant… it was the best I’ve ever seen, “sheepdog.” He simply replied, “Hey, I see what you did there, you trolled trolls. This is proper 24’s Gospel reading; Sunday sermon gold!”
Amen.
Series: Leaning into the Peace of God.
Sermon: Silencing the Unforgiving Voices
Sermon by Fr. Rian Adams. Proper 19, Year A. Matthew 18:21-35
Last week I started a series on leaning into the peace of God. The first sermon was how peace of mind comes when we work through conflicts. This week I’m continuing the theme of leaning into God’s peace be facing another form of conflict… conflict with the self.
Intro:
“Dentists Are Seeing an Epidemic of Cracked Teeth,” said a headline in the New York Times last Tuesday.[1]
The author, Tammy Chen, is a dentist in New York City. She says that the pandemic has the dental business booming; “I’ve seen more tooth fractures in the last six weeks than I had in the six months before covid.”
What’s causing this apparent “epidemic of cracked teeth”? She says it’s stress and anxiety. We are grinding our teeth at night because of covid-induced nightmares, covid-phobia, and our infatuation with the 24 hours news cycle.
It all made sense. She even told us how to defend ourselves from the “cracked teeth epidemic.” She recommends a breathing exercise before bed. That sounds straightforward enough. But what she said next… that’s when I hit the pause button.
Apparently, after we do our breathing exercise, we are to “wiggle and flop around on the floor like a fish” to release some tension.
I think most of you are like me, you’re fairly open-minded people. Nevertheless, there is a point of no return. Allow me to confess my edited first thought, “My dear, you are either young or do not have a fused spine because a cracked tooth is better than a fractured back.”
But my second thought was, “There’s something missing from this article because simply relaxing the body and not softening the soul will not keep us from grinding our teeth in our sleep.”
With that in mind, let’s dive into this passage and see where we can find God’s peace.
When I look at the reading, I immediately see some problems, and they are not trivial problems either. But before we dive into them, it’s important for me to admit that I’m taking this text in a very new direction.
Most sermons today will focus on a direct reading of the passage. Preachers will tell parishioners not to be like the unforgiving servant in the story. They will say that Jesus warns against holding grudges, since God has forgiven us of so much.
They will show us how the King forgave a servant’s debt that amounts to 20 million dollars in today’s standards, but that servant would not forgive a man who owed him the equivalent of $20. The sermon will end with an admonition; to forgive lest we end up in a spiritual prison like the unmerciful servant.
That’s a good sermon, and it’s a sermon we need to hear. We need to see the world through the eyes of God’s mercy.
Movement
But that’s not the sermon I’m preaching today because, much like the article from the Times, I think it misses something. It’s difficult to treat the behavior when we don’t look at the soul—the place where the behavior is born and resides.
Let’s try something different with this passage this morning; let’s turn it inward. Let’s realize that each character—the King and the unforgiving servant—are parts of the self.
Carl Jung said, “The one who looks outside dreams, the one who looks inside awakens.”
See, when we hear the parable in the traditional sense, we remain on the surface. Most of the time we’re not as judgmental as the servant who demanded $20 after his king forgave a 20 million debt.
Here’s an important point: Normally, we’re not like that to others, but we are like that to ourselves. According to the National Science Foundation, the average person has about 40,000 thoughts per day. Of those, 80% are negative and 95% of those negative thoughts are exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.[2]
We say things to ourselves hat Jesus would never utter to a human being. Have you ever heard, or even said, “I’ll never forgive myself for what I did _____ .”? That is the voice of the unforgiving servant, and it will steal our peace.
We all know that voice, “God has forgiven you, others have forgiven you, but I will not let you forgive yourself. You’re in a jail of anxiety, depression, guilt, and shame over that $20 bill you stole. If people find out who you really are no one will ever love you.”
He uses shame to silence us. He wants us to keep our stories—even the ugly ones—locked up where they can’t help others. He’s always easy to recognize because he has no mercy.
What I want to know today is can Jesus speak to that unforgiving person inside who tells us we’re not as gifted, smart, privileged, or educated as others, so we shouldn’t even try to make a difference in the world.
I want to know if God can take the tightness and the tension and soften it so that peace can enter it? I have a suspicion that when peace enters our fear, it calms the unholy voices.
How does that happen? I think the first step is to take the microphone away from the unmerciful servant inside.
Let’s look at the reading one more time because it has one more problem. It’s actually the biggest problem in the whole passage. It bothered me so bad last week that I consulted five commentaries, most of my favorite N.T. scholars, and I even resorted to a source that’s unreliable and borders on voodoo, a Google search.
I couldn’t find one person who even addressed this issue, much less responded to it.
This King… he seems like the antithesis of the Gospel. Jesus just got finished telling Peter that he should forgive 70×7, without number, then Jesus turns around and tells a story about a King who’s not even willing to forgive twice.
Why should we forgive without number when God gets off the hook?
Sometimes things are not as black and white as they seem.
If we use our holy creativity with this text, then we can play the part of the King. So when we hear that familiar voice we can say, “No!
You will not shame me over a $20 bill.”
Actually, you can tell him what the king told him:
“Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.”
Amen.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/well/live/dentists-tooth-teeth-cracks-fractures-coronavirus-stress-grinding.html
[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/family-affair/201712/negative-self-talk-dont-let-it-overwhelm-you
Series: Leaning into the Peace of God.
Sermon, Pride, Prejudice, and Peace
Sermon by Fr. Rian Adams. Proper 20, Jonah 3:10-4:11
Introduction:
Let me tell you a story about how religious exclusion is born. Pride needs all the right answers. Before long, the addiction to certainty strangles love.
To maintain certainty, fear requires hundreds of hours and dollars looking for authorities that agree with its position. When fear empowers pride, prejudice is born.
Finally, the God of their own making gets involved. That’s when “those people” can be persecuted because they are not God’s “true children.” Does that sound like the current news cycle? Actually, it’s the story of the prophet Jonah from the 5th century B.C.
Pride and Prejudice Prevent Peace
Series Recap: So, we’re in a sermon series on Leaning into the Peace of God. Today we’re continuing the theme of how peace is on the other side of conflict. Two weeks ago the conflict was with others, last week it was with ourselves, and this week the conflict is with God.
Act 1: Jonah’s Pride
My guess is there are some people here this morning who have been mad at God. If I had to wager, there are people among us who have lost their faith after a tragedy.
There have been times I’ve said, “God, I just don’t understand why, it’s just not fair.”
The late great philosopher, Tupac, said, “Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else even cared.”
That’s where the story of Jonah speaks to us. Jonah can’t have peace because he won’t confront his pride. If we step back and look at him, we can laugh at ourselves because he’s really a mirror.
Jonah is upset. He’s pouting because God doesn’t submit to his will and obey his expectations. Jonah knows how the world should run. Jonah knows who should be in and who should be out. Jonah has more wisdom than God!
But God normally has a way of speaking to our pride. There is an old proverb that says, “Pride is a mask of one’s own faults.”
God tells Jonah, “Go preach to Nineveh, call them to repentance.” His pride says no.
Jonah boards a ship heading to Tarshis, just to show God who is in charge. Some say Tarshish was in modern day Spain. Keep in mind, this text was likely written in the 5thcentury B.C. when the earth was still flat! People believed you could fall over the edge of the earth into oblivion. Jonah heads to the edge of the map just to escape God’s mercy.
Dwight Moody joked, “God sends no one away empty except those who were full of themselves in the first place.”
Allow me a moment of honesty; my name is Rian Adams, I’m Jonah, and I’ve been to Tarshish. I have a T-shirt that says Tarshish or bust. I’ve Air B&B’d a room and vacationed in Tarshish…. Here’s it gets real… I saw some footprints that looked familiar.
We’ve all been prideful, and we’ve all ran from God at points in our life.
Act 2: Jonah’s Prejudice
There were two reasons Jonah couldn’t have peace to carry out his calling. First was pride, the second was prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice Prevent Peace
Before I dive into that idea, let’s look at the context of the book.
When the Babylonian armies defeated Israel, their God was defeated too; defeat turned their theology to ashes.
Let’s apply that to our lives today: When people have a crisis, the natural response is to either abandon their faith in God, or transfer the blame from God and absorb it into themselves.
The Jews thought God judged the nation because they didn’t keep his laws, and because they were in interracial marriages with Gentiles. That’s when phobia crept into their minds… a fear of the other.
The problem with that idea is the previous prophets foresaw an age when nationality would not stand between God and the human family. The prophet Isaiah said that all people, even to the ends of the earth, would be saved by God (Isa. 45:22).
So when everyone else was doubling down on their racial distinctive, one man challenged them. The conservative isolationists were in power, so he couldn’t speak publicly. So he sat down with his pen and wrote a story about a strange prophet.
Bp. Jack Spong, a mentor of mine, refers to Jonah as “The definer of prejudice.”
It was a tale about a prophet named Jonah. God calls him to go to Nineveh, but he refuses. He hops a ship and heads to the edge of the earth. But the ship winds up in a storm, and the sailors throw Jonah into the sea. Then a whale swallows Jonah. After three days inside its belly, it pukes him up on the beach.
That’s when Jonah decides that it’s in his best interest to go to Nineveh. At least he can tell them God’s going to judge then unless they repent. There’s no way the city of 200,000 people will hear that message.
But miraculously the entire city, even the government and the king, and even the animals repent. BUT… Jonah is mad about it. He’s not mad at the city, or her people, or even the animals, no, Jonah is mad at God. He goes outside of the city, sits on a hill, and demands that God kill him.
His pride put him in the belly of a fish, and his prejudice against the Assyrians put him under a plant wishing for death.
Then the writer kicks the humor up another notch. Recent statistical analysis confirms this idea. A recent research partnership between the best universities in the western world—Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge, and Sewanee, of course—revealed a mind-blowing fact… There is one sure and certain way to make someone who is mad even madder; ask them if they are mad.
God said, “Are you mad Jonah?” God is prodding him, “Hey Jonah, hey, you mad bro?”
Jonah says, “Yeah, I’m mad. And imma tell ya why. Because I knew you would show mercy to that city, and it disappoints me that your character has room for such inclusion.”
Then boom, the story ends. There’s no resolution. We’re left wondering if Jonah ever turned the curve and allowed God to transform his heart, or if never overcame his pride and prejudice.
Jesus even told a similar story about workers who were upset because a landowner who paid workers the same wage who came late to the harvest.
They don’t have peace because the landowner’s mercy is too wide!
Conclusion:
Let’s bring it home: Jonah didn’t have peace in his soul for the same reason the first workers didn’t; they couldn’t work through their theological and spiritual conflicts, and they blamed God
It’s okay to have a conflict with God. Here’s a little secret, God can handle conflict. What’s not okay is to surrender our peace of mind and board a ship to Tarshish.
Amen.