Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

––

––

By the Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Ph.D. '13
Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church
Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in the Faculty of Divinity

(The following is a transcript of the service audio, Feb. 19, 2023)

Create in us clean hearts, oh God, and renew a right spirit within us, amen.

When our eldest, Cami, was five, I decided to read to her the first book in the Harry Potter series. I didn't grow up with Harry Potter. I'm a little bit too old for Harry Potter, and I was reading it for the first time as well, and it was fun. It was a sweet book. We had a habit of reading to all of our children and our second child, Sam, our in between child, they wanted to join Cami and me for our Harry Potter and the Philosopher's or the Sorcerer's Stone's readings, and so they did. They hopped into bed with us and as Cami and I read through Harry Potter. I really tried to sell it. I was doing all the voices. "You're a wizard, Harry," like the whole thing. They loved it. Cami loved it. Sammy loved it.

It gets kind of scary at the end. I should have known. At the time Sam was only, I think barely four, which is too young for the end of the first book of Harry Potter. I'm going to give some spoilers for those of you who haven't read Harry Potter. But at the end, this force of evil named Voldemort emerges, tries to kill Harry. I was doing Voldemort's voice too, not a good move. Harry is protected. Voldemort also killed Harry's parents. This was a very bad decision to read to my four-year-old, I acknowledge. But Voldemort also killed Harry's parents but when Voldemort tries to kill Harry, his mother's love protects him.

Afterwards, after Harry is safe, his teacher Dumbledore tells him that love is a protective force, a more powerful magic than what Voldemort had. Sammy woke up screaming for weeks after I read this book to them, and then one night, a couple weeks after I read it, I went into his room and he was awake, crying. I said, "It's okay, Sam. It's okay."

They said, "Daddy, Voldemort's not real, right?"

I said, "No, Sammy, Voldemort's not real."

They said, "But love is real, right?"

I said, "Yes, Sam love is real."

What they wanted to believe was that love is a protective force. What they wanted to believe is that love is that deep and powerful magic. It's not what they asked because I think they knew I might not have the answer they wanted. Love is real, but I don't know if it has that kind of power.

I have such brave children. They're brave just because we moved up here last year, it was a big transition for all of them, but they're brave too because of the world in which they live and the world that we are leaving them. A lot of the things they have to be afraid of were named in our prayers. My brother went to Michigan State, was a proud Spartan, took classes in Berkey Hall where a student was murdered. I did my summer camps at Michigan State. My children have grown up in a world where they have mass shooter drills at their school, and mass shootings at school at every level are common. They've lived through a global pandemic. They face the future of climate change. There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday that talked about rates of mental illness and sexual violence among teen girls. I have brave children. Here Jesus says to them and to us, "Don't be afraid." But that's easier said than done because the world is frightening.

This passage comes from the gospel of Matthew. I'm going to speak to you for a minute about the gospel of Matthew, about the architecture of it actually. It's built in blocks.

There's an initial story about Jesus's birth and a final story about Jesus's death but the in between is built of five blocks, which are stories first of Jesus's actions and then of a long discourse of teaching. Basically, it's a story in five acts, and we are right at the transition point between the final two acts in today's gospel lesson. The first four acts take place in Galilee, in the place where Jesus was born and raised and where he did most of his early ministry, and then he has this moment when he leaves Galilee and heads toward Jerusalem. That's what's happening today, in between those two acts, the conclusion of his ministry in Galilee and the beginning of his ministry in Judea, in Jerusalem, which will end with his death, he goes up this mountain. The last act, the act in Galilee has just in concluded and it concludes with Jesus telling them that he is the Messiah and Peter confirming it.

Peter says, "You are the Messiah," and Jesus says, "You are right." Then they walk up this mountain and that confession of Peter's seems to be confirmed. It is confirmed in their mountaintop experience. Peter has just said to Jesus, "You are the Messiah," and they go up the mountain, just like Moses went up the mountain as we head in our Old Testament lesson, they go up the mountain and who do they see there? Moses, and Elijah to boot. The disciples actually, Peter actually responds really reasonably, faithfully to this appearance. Jesus has just said, "I'm the Messiah." Peter says, "You're the Messiah." They go up in the mountain, Moses shows up and Elijah, and they're radiant. They're shining like the sun. Peter says, "Let's build some dwellings, some tents."

Now this is possibly probably a reference to the Jewish Festival of Booths, of temporary dwellings, which is a ritual that continues in Judaism today and it's meant to mark the ground that you are on as holy and also to signal your dependence upon God. This is a religious response that Peter is making. He sees this holy thing, this sacred thing, he sees this one that he believes is the Messiah, and he says, "Let's do this," and it's not a bad idea.

It's also not the right idea because as soon as he says it, a voice comes from heaven and says to him, "Don't do that. Listen to him." The implication being that Peter and the disciples are not listening to Jesus in requesting to build these tents. "Listen to him," that voice says.

Listen to what? What does that voice want the disciples to listen to? I think it wants them to listen to what he said before. It's true that Jesus did say, "I am the Messiah," but what he also said, "And now we are going to go to Jerusalem and I am going to die and you are going to take up your crosses and follow me." They want to stay on the mountaintop and camp out. Jesus says, "No, we are on our way. We have to descend this mountain," and when they do, they return immediately to Jesus's ministry. The first thing he does is take a child into his arms and says, "Let them come to me," and then he starts healing people and reaching out to outcasts, the same thing he was doing before. He gets back to work. They're not meant to stay on the mountain.

They're supposed to get back down to their work and make their way to Jerusalem, but that makes the command that Jesus gives them in that moment, "Get up and don't be afraid," again, hard to hear. Because what he has told them is, "We are going to Jerusalem and I am going to die, and you are going to take up your crosses and follow me. Don't be afraid." It seems to me there's plenty to be afraid of, just as in our world today, plenty to be afraid of.

What does that do not be afraid mean? I don't think he's saying to them, "Don't worry, everything will be okay." In fact, he's just told them it is going to be pretty rough. I don't think he's saying, "Don't worry," because when he is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to God, he is full of worry and anxiety. I don't think he's saying, "Don't worry."

The word phobos is the word that is translated as fear here, phobos, phobia. We have that in our own language. The literal etymology of the Greek word phobos actually means to be put to flight, to be so scared you run away. I think what Jesus is saying is, "Don't run away. Follow me. Don't run away from this. Don't run away from love. Run toward it."

This line, "Don't be afraid," Jesus says it another time in the gospel of Matthew. Do you know who he says it to? He says it to the women who come to his tomb on Easter morning. He says it on the morning of the resurrection. The word resurrection is a fancy word in English. It means the rising of Jesus from the dead. But in Greek, it just is the word get up. Jesus got up. In Greek, it reads the same either way. It's not fancy and highfalutin like resurrection. It's just get up and that's also what Jesus says to the disciples on the mountain this day. He says, "Get up. Do not be afraid." To the women, he says, "Do not be afraid. Don't run away love. Run toward it." To be clear, the women also have plenty to be afraid of on Easter morning. Their teacher has been just tortured and murdered, their friends have all scattered and abandoned him, the weight of the Roman state is coming down upon their movement but Jesus says to them, "Go to your brothers, the ones who abandoned and betrayed me, the ones who are cowering in fear, and send them my peace. Get up. Don't be afraid. Run toward love, not away."

That's the message to the three disciples on the mountain here this morning as well in their moment of terror and confusion. Don't run away from love. Run toward it. Love may be frightening, love might not protect you from harm, but the wager, the wager of Christian discipleship is not that love will free us from all risk. It's that love is worth the risk. What this suggests this morning, as we turn our own faces towards Jerusalem as Lent approaches, what this suggests is that discipleship and resurrection are not about whether you are scared. It's about what you do with your fear when you are.

Here's what Jesus does. He comes down from the mountain. He leaves all that glory behind. He leaves Moses and Elijah behind. He leaves the voice of God behind. When he's praying in the garden talking to God, God is utterly silent. Utterly, utterly silent. But he comes down that mountain and he loves children and outcasts and right up to the cross, loves his enemies.

Here's what the women do. The women leave the tomb and they reunite with the brothers who betrayed their Lord Jesus. I think that's what getting up, that's what rising and turning aside from fear looks like. It looks like running toward love instead of running away from it even when we are anxious and worried and afraid.

This week, this Wednesday, we too begin the holy season of Lent. We begin our journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem. Unlike his disciples, we know how his story ends, but like them, we don't know how ours will. We have no idea what our future holds, and like the disciples before us, like the women at the tomb, we have reasons to be afraid. But following Jesus doesn't mean avoiding that uncertain future. It means braving it, turning lovingly toward it instead of fearfully away. It means coming down from our mountains and coming up from our tombs. It means rising to meet the world and all its risks in love.