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07 July 2002 (Proper 11, Year A)
Christ Church Covington
The Reverend Pamela Porter Snare
“Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you
have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have
revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.’ ”
Today’s gospel is a prayer Jesus offers to the Father, and an invitation
to follow him and his way of life, right after he and his disciples have
returned from a disappointing mission trip in several cities of the region
of Galilee. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ mission is confined to Jesus’ own
people, the Jews. Indeed, this mission trip has included the cities of
Chorazin and Capernaum, in whose synagogues Jesus has preached, taught,
and healed. Capernaum was Jesus’ own residence. (The ruins of those two
synagogues are still visible today. Five years ago, I visited the ruins of
the synagogue at Capernaum.)
This mission trip among his own people has, however, been a failure. Which
is to say, instead of recognizing the presence and activity of God in
Jesus and his ministry, instead of gaining followers for mission and
ministry, Jesus’ preaching, teaching and healing has incited anger and
hostility in these cities. It would be somewhat the equivalent of Mother
Theresa being booed out of Catholic Churches, or Bishop Desmond Tutu being
run out of Episcopal parishes. Jesus’ own people, in rejecting him, have
rejected his Father. They have failed to recognize God in their midst.
So following the failure of this mission among his own, Jesus turns to
prayer. Using a typical Jewish formula of blessing, he opens by praising
God, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. . .” He understands
the people’s failure to recognize God’s presence to be rooted in who God
is: “because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent
and have revealed them to infants; yes Father, for such was your gracious
will.” One commentary notes that the word translated “infants” literally
means “the simple” or “the uneducated.”
The prayer then becomes an affirmation of the Father’s purpose for Jesus
and of the intimate relationship between them: “All things have been
handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the
Son chooses to reveal him.”
Jesus’ prayer gives us insight into why he understands his mission to have
failed. The supposed wisdom and intelligence, the sophistication and
learning of those among whom he has been preaching and teaching and
healing in the synagogues, have become obstacles to perceiving the
presence and activity of God. Jesus does not fit their expectations or
their perception of who God is or what he is like.
They are expecting a Messiah who is more like an earthly monarch, one who
will free them from the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. They are
expecting a God who will side with the righteous – those who know and
observe the Law, and disassociate himself from the sinners – those who are
ignorant of the Law, and those who fail to observe it.
But Jesus does not comply with their preconceived notions. He is a poor,
itinerant rabbi with no political aspirations, much less connections. He
welcomes people as they are, regardless of their religious standing or
social class, and invites them to listen to his teaching. Indeed, his
closest group of followers are uneducated, ordinary men, neither trained
as rabbis, nor skilled in rhetoric. He seems to attract the poor, the
uneducated, and the outcast.
It is no easier now than it was then, I think, to accept God on his own
terms. Human wisdom and intelligence can still be an obstacle to trust in
the One who is beyond human understanding and rational explanation.
There are still biblical scholars and commentators who want to reduce God
to their categories of who God should be and what God can do. There are
those who want to reduce the resurrection of Christ to a psychological
experience of the first disciples: the disciples felt Jesus’ presence with
them after his crucifixion. These scholars discount any objective nature
to the reports of Jesus’ resurrection appearances.
There are scholars and others who still feel compelled to give rational
explanations for the gospel miracles. And there are still those who would
use God’s demands as a moral calculus to discern who is righteous and who
is not, despite the gospel caution that some who are first shall be last,
and some who are last shall be first.
Please do not mistake my intent here, nor the intent of the gospel. Human
intelligence is a gift of God, and education is not a bad thing. Both can
be means of grace, and used in the service of God. But when it comes to
living our lives with trust in the One who made us, and loves us, and gave
himself for us, more is required than intelligence and education. Indeed,
they are not even necessary. Believe me, I am aware that this is a risky,
if not dangerous, statement to make in the midst of Episcopalians whose
stereotyped profile is one of education, sophistication, and graduate and
post-graduate degrees. What is necessary to the life of faith is an
openness to let God be God – a willingness to let God reveal to us who he
is, even when it shatters our preconceived notions and surpasses our
rational explanations.
The life of faith is an adventure; and it requires a trusting and
adventurous spirit. Our lives unfold in God’s hands with unexpected twists
and turns that we are unable to foresee and for which we cannot plan,
except to nurture our love and trust in God’s goodness, his love for us,
and his provident and guiding hand with us.
Take a minute to look over your own life during this past year. Perhaps
some twists and turns were welcome and some not so welcome. But have you
been able to trust God’s presence and seek his guidance in both? How has
God surprised you? Take a minute to look back on the life of this parish.
Who could have foreseen the building of two houses by Christ Church for
Habitat for Humanity? Who could have foreseen the acquisition of the St.
Tammany Art Association building? God invites us into his future, and we
need open hearts and minds and ears to receive and use for his purposes
things which we have neither asked for nor could imagine. The life of
faith requires more than intelligence and education. It requires openness
to God’ s opportunities and trust in his guidance.
It is reported of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the most prolific of
Christian theologians, that on his deathbed he experienced a vision of
God, and said of his writings, “Burn them. They’re all straw.”
Thomas Merton, in his book, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, writes of
the learned Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, “Each day, for years, Barth
played Mozart every morning before going to work on his dogma:
unconsciously seeking to awaken . . .the hidden Mozart in himself, the
central wisdom that comes in tune with the divine and cosmic music and is
saved by love . . . Barth says . . . that ‘it is a child, even a divine
child, who speaks in Mozart’s music.’. . . ‘
Then Merton writes, “Fear not, Karl Barth! Trust in the divine mercy.
Though you have grown up to be a theologian, Christ remains a child in
you. Your books and mine matter less than we might think! There is in us a
Mozart (a divine child) who will be our salvation.”
May you and I trust in the divine mercy. Our intelligence and our
education may matter less than we might think. May we nurture the divine
child in us who is willing to let God be God, and to follow in trust
wherever he may lead us into his future.
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