University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

November 18, 2007

“You Will be Hated”

A Sermon for University Presbyterian Church

The Reverend Dr. Anna Pinckney Straight

Luke 21:5-19

⁵When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶"As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."

⁷They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" ⁸And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.

⁹"When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." ¹⁰Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

¹²"But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls.

The lesson just before our text for today is the story of the poor widow who puts all that she has, two copper coins, into the temple’s treasury. 

Rather than giving out of her abundance, her extra, she freely gives all that she has, and as Jesus marks her actions, in both Mark and Luke, the conversation immediately shifts.

Like a class plunging their eyes to the floor when asked a difficult question, those who are witnesses to the sacrificial giving of the widow suddenly begin to notice the amazing stone and decorative aspects of the temple.

Imagine it with me.

Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;” 

“Wow.  Look at that stone work!  You just don’t see craftsmanship like that anymore.”

I wonder what Jesus was thinking.  Did he get angry?  Was he frustrated?  Did he see in this moment of discomfort among his followers an opportunity to get real with them about what was ahead, what would be required?

It is the 21^st chapter of Luke.  21 of 24 chapters.   There is no more time for tact.  For beating around the bush.  Euphemism.  Pretense.

Jesus tries to tell the disciples what is ahead.  The hardships.  The pitfalls.

          “Listen” Jesus says.   “Listen.  Things are going to get crazy after a while.  It is going to seem like the world has been turned inside out.  It’s going to be tempting to interpret every war, every catastrophe as a sign.  A signal.

          People will come and tell you that they are signs.  Signals.  That they mean this or that about when I’m going to come again.  Resist it.  Don’t listen.

          And it’s not just the things around you.  It’s going to be tough for you, too.  You’re going to get it from all sides.  There will be persecution.  Your faith is going to be questioned, and some of you are even going to die because of your faith.

          But that’s not the worst of it.  Some of you are going to live.  And you are going to be hated. Hated.  Because of me.”

And that’s a challenge, isn’t it?  Because it goes against our nature to accept being hated.

We are, after all, the culture of “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all.”

Not being liked?  Are we ready for that?

Presbyterian minister Amy Ruth Schacht writes,[1]

          “It’s not that there is something inherently wrong with wanting to be liked…. reassurance we are loved and loveable. After all, it’s a good portion of what motivates us as children: We want the coach to like us, our teacher to like us, we want to please our parents. But then… we start to realize there is more to life than that, and… we hopefully have enough of a foundation of being loved and being liked, that we can start looking for that something more in life.

          Because here at church, it’s not about being liked. It’s about encouraging each other to follow the way Jesus shows us: Not to get too excited when people adore us, not to get too despondent when people let us down, because both will happen

          Following Christ means digging deep, deeper than our worries about being liked, deeper than our concerns about being proper, deeper than worrying about overstepping our bounds. Loving one another means trusting in God enough that we have each other’s backs… encouraging one another to grow in Christ for service and ministry. Being a disciple does not come easy, and if it does, we aren’t doing it right. Being a disciple means getting corrected every now and then, going out on a limb, taking a risk with one another, looking out for one another, challenging one another to grow.”

 Are we ready to risk not being liked?

Of course. as many of you have probably already noticed, I’m doing exactly what Jesus didn’t.  Watering this down.   Trying to make his words more palatable.

That’s not really what Jesus says.  Jesus doesn’t say that we won’t be liked, Jesus says we will be hated.

Last week we heard these words from Brian Blount, guest preacher:

“Anger motivated Jesus to act in ways that changed not only a man’s arm but also a part of the world that was withering all around him.  How deep is your love?  I tell you truly, there is a withered man in each and every one of our average Christian lives.  When we one day face him and face the people and circumstances who prefer the order of their lives and world to the chaos that trying to heal him might cause, what will we do?  How much will we love?

The Jesus who loves us so fiercely is coming again soon…..Jesus is angry.  Don’t you think it’s about time we got angry too?”[2]

If you heard or read it, I don’t have to tell you, it was a powerful word. 

A powerful question.   Isn’t it about time we got angry?

The text for this week asks the faithful follow-up question.

Why aren’t we making more people angry?  

In this place where most of us have some level of respect, where our congregation is well accepted and liked, what are we doing wrong that as Christians, we aren’t more hated here in our every day world?

And the question I’m asking myself:

If I struggle with not being liked, how on earth am I going to handle being hated?

Am I willing to be hated?

Because this word of Jesus’ in the passage from Luke today is no relic of culture, it is every bit as current as the date on top of today’s newspaper.

One of the commentaries for this week’s text said this:

“While the text projects for Luke’s readers… a fearful and distressing time, the text also reminds modern readers of the massive rejection from a sometimes complacent, sometimes hostile culture when the gospel is faithfully witnessed to. Inevitably God’s reign poses a serious threat to established power structures. Reactions in North America are normally not so violent or dramatic as those in other times and places, but we are deceived if we think our power structures are any less resistant.”[3]

We are deceived if we think our power structures are any less resistant.

So.  “Why aren’t we more hated?”

In her book entitled, “God’s Troublemakers: How Women of Faith are Changing the World, Katherine Rhodes Henderson suggests this reason:

“For the most part, however, contemporary religion in America has been preoccupied internally with institutional survival and relevance.  While the Religious Right has become more vocal and strident, the progressive middle and left have grown silent, and for many, faith has become privatized, something best kept to oneself and on the periphery of public life.  Religious moderates and liberals have appropriated this code of silence in order to operate more fully in a secular context, and to avoid being dismissed as religious fanatics.”[4]

And in her words I am reminded that being hated for faith is not about store clerks saying Happy Holidays.

This isn’t about an attempt to wed church and state, shrouding that goal in the language of persecution.

This is about being hated because we are willing be vulnerable about and faithful in the most significant and taboo of topics in our culture.

Distribution of resources.

Hope.

Anxiety.

Security.

Forgiveness.

Peace.

And allowing ourselves to be hated.   Not because we point out the sins of others, but because we love God and all of God’s children enough to live faithfully ourselves.  When it is easy.  When it is tough.  When it speaks the language of the culture and when it does not.  Letting go of the desire to correct or be right.  To always speak the truth with nothing less that total love.

Are we wiling to allow the waters of Baptism to work on our rough edges?

To follow the leading of the Holy Spirit even more than we look for affirmation?

Willing to live it ourselves, following in the example of the one who did not ask others to go until their crosses but was willing to love so generously that he was given his own cross, a cross which ultimately led to the empty tomb and will some day lead to a greater communion.

In his book, The Problem with Pain, C.S. Lewis wrote:

"love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness….  There is kindness in Love: but kindness and love are not coterminus….Kindness merely as such cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, only that it escapes suffering.  It is for people we care nothing about that we demand happiness on any terms: with our friends, our lovers, our children, we are exacting and would rather see them suffer much than be happy in contemptible and estranging modes."[5]

Are we willing to go there?

To ask not only why we aren’t more hated?

Are we willing to be hated and see in the hatee the image of God?

The Good News of all of this is that being hated is never God’s ultimate goal.  Jesus is not celebrating the turmoil that will happen, he is preparing his followers for it.   Telling them, telling us to hang in there.  Reminding us that we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  Reminding us that these things are to be expected in this generation.  This generation.  Our generation, this period of time since that Easter morning when the tomb was found empty.

And so.  Are we willing?

Are we willing to get angry?

Are we willing to be hated?

Are we willing to love God so fiercely and to live out that love so passionately that it cannot help but cause others to look at their own contexts and wonder?

May God sustain and support us as we wrestle with these important questions.

Amen.