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Wednesday night, while sitting on my deck and doing some research for this sermon I received an email from today’s very able assisting minister that read: “On Sunday, I will need your assistance as a bridge between the acolytes and I at the time of the offering.” Rest assured, I now know exactly what assistance will be required but at the time I wondered what the note was about and found it quite cryptic.
What kind of bridge was I supposed to be? What was the Pastor Nelson bridge supposed to do? Did being this bridge require some kind of physical hijinks on my part right out of Cirque du Soliel? (If that was the case it wasn’t happening!) Otherwise, I was open to any kind of bridge building that might be needed.
One might say I was so intrigued by this bridge building opportunity, that I was in suspension.
But it did get me thinking about this business of bridge building and how of late many seem to be in the business of bridge burning.
I think of the words from Representative Liz Chaney (revered by some vilified by others) speech the other night at the Regan Presidential Library where she said:
One of my democratic colleagues said to me recently that he looked forward to the day when he and I could disagree again. And believe me, I share that sentiment, because when we can disagree again about substance and policy, that will mean that our politics have righted themselves. That will mean that we have made the decision that we are going to reject anti-democratic forces, that we are going to reject toxicity, that we are going to reject some of the worst kinds of racism and bigotry and antisemitism, that characterize far too much of our politics today.1
Currently we live with a burn the bridges behind and ahead mentality that is not healthy, but it is very, very easy and even can be a little fun.
I love the way Friedrick Buechner describes this mindset:
Of the 7 Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back: in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.2
“It’s easy to venture off the path when you’re angry,” Jonah Goldberg reminded his readers in his column this week, “but that’s when it’s most important not to.”3
Jesus understood this which is why in today’s Gospel he is about the business of turning his disciples from being “bridge burners” to “bridge builders.”
I don’t expect you to remember last week's Gospel but if you did you would immediately see why this very nice notion of sending out his disciples is a really radical idea.
He had tried it once before on a much smaller scale and the results weren’t quite what he had expected.
{Jesus} ... set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.4
To put it directly, Jesus’ disciples were not very good advance men. A little rejection and their first response, their only response, after following Jesus all that time, is to burn the place down. You can almost hear him yelling, “Noooooo!” as he hustles them out of town.
Here is the most amazing thing. Jesus tries it again! He sends them out again! He expands their number (Which I am not so sure is a good idea lest he increase the number of pyromaniacs from two to seventy.) but this time with explicit instructions as to how they should behave if they want to build bridges between people.
I love the way Dr. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jesus’ instructions from today’s Gospel.
“Travel light. Comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage. Don’t loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way. When you enter a home, greet the family, ‘Peace.’ If your greeting is received, then it’s a good place to stay. But if it’s not received, take it back and get out. Don’t impose yourself. Stay at one home, taking your meals there, for a worker deserves three square meals. Don’t move from house to house, looking for the best cook in town. “When you enter a town and are received, eat what they set before you, heal anyone who is sick, and tell them, ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!’ “When you enter a town and are not received, go out in the street and say, ‘The only thing we got from you is the dirt on our feet, and we’re giving it back. Did you have any idea that God’s kingdom was right on your doorstep?’”5
This time, instead of burning bridges they discover that building bridges is a much better way. If there is any negativity, any toxicity, they are not to let it cling to them but brush it off.
That is easier said than done. For all of us have felt “the rise in our gut when someone rejects our most cherished beliefs.
We recognize the need to justify our views, prove we are right, defend our faith. But we don’t stop there. We also have the impulse to attack — to show how that person is wrong, misguided, even unfaithful. If we have structural or institutional power, we may move to shut them down and “command fire to come down from heaven and consumer them” figuratively if not literally. If we have military or political power, we may use it to harm and punish.6
Jesus wants his disciples to try and see if they can’t put an end to all that. He wants them to try and see if they can’t bring peace rather than violence wherever they go. He wants them to, at least, give it a shot and if it doesn’t work congratulate themselves on the effort and then move forward.
And, wonder of wonders, Jesus’ plan works. They come back, besides themselves with excitement. I can’t bring myself to believe that some of the bridges they tried to build didn’t collapse with a splash into the river. I can’t bring myself to believe that they didn’t shake more than a little dust off their feet.
Still, when they returned, they had more than their fair share of victories to celebrate. Even the “demons”, the worst of the worst, listened to them! The irredeemables listened! The low life’s listened! The boys who once were too proud, listened. They all listened! And they were following because of what the followers of Jesus said and did as bridge builders.
Jesus sent his friends out and warns them that they are going like “lambs among wolves.”
That is where we come into the story.
The crowds we face are just as tough, if not tougher, than the crowds those first followers faced.
The crowds we face seem to like, if not gravitate to, candidates that tear one another down rather than build their communities up. The bad news is that negative political ads work! It is easier to be a bridge destroyer than a bridge builder.
The crowds we face idolize, to the point of idolatry, a leader so much that they would risk the Republic on his behalf.
The crowds we face worship their guns more than God.
And the worse news of all, the crowds we face may be indifferent to Jesus' message entirely. Our harvests may not be as plentiful as we would like them to be.
The good news is we can still tap into the God’s power to transform the painful brokenness and build bridges into the hopeful promise of what ought to and can be.
Bridges can be built and damaged bridges repaired when brave men and women stand up to the powers of this world that hurt, and disparage, and destroy and say, “that is not of God, and we will have none of it.”
Bridges can be built when we own the promises of God’s which are still there when we stop thinking that the way things are so shall they ever be and come together to build bridges to make the world a better place.
Jesus knew the work can sometimes be discouraging but we must remember that this is still God’s world, with bridges to be built. Let peace be our greeting and our way of life, and let the peace of Christ be the building blocks for all of our bridges as we seek to do the little things that make our corner of the world
There are bridges still to be built. God’s kingdom is where it always was, “right on our doorstep.” Let’s be about the business of building bridges so that this nation and this world may, once again, be a good place to be.
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