The Twelve Sunday after Pentecost

August 19, A.D. 2007


Keeping High Risk Company


There is an old saying that you are “known by the company you keep.”

I also remember being told as a teenager “you can’t fly with the eagles while roosting with the buzzards.”

Today we are challenged to take a look at the company we keep.

To begin with, have a look around, for we are keeping good company with each other in this place – and, were it not for this place, we would not even know each other – and how sad that would be.

We’ll have to admit that we are a pretty nice, fun, and pleasant bunch with which to keep company.

However, there may be more to it than meets the eye.

Is it possible that because of our baptism – because we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever - we are also keeping high-risk company?

Today’s second lesson lays it squarely on the line:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So, just by whom are we surrounded? What exactly is the cloud of witnesses?

We are surrounded by every friend that of Jesus Christ, every person that has ever, at any point in time, been a friend and follower of Jesus.

That, is pretty good company.

When we profess that we believe in the communion of saints, when we gather at the altar to receive the body and blood of Jesus, we are surrounded by all of those who are with Jesus in the eternity of God.

That’s kind of awesome, when you think about it – being that close to people like St. Peter, St. Paul, Dr. Luther – all those who have gone before us.

But, quite honestly, it is pretty risky.

In the first place, the word witness in the Greek Bible is “martyr” and that places an entirely new meaning to what it means to be a friend of Jesus, especially when we carry the indelible mark of the cross on our lives.

Peter, Paul, James, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Brother Roger of Taize – all who literally gave their lives because they were friends of Jesus who gave his life for every human being.

Jesus makes it clear what he asks of those who are his friends:

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For those who want to lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it.”

There it is in a nutshell:

If we are going to be friends of Jesus, if we are going to profess the risen Christ as Lord, then, we are challenged to take up the cross and we are challenged to join the rank and file of all who have given their lives for the sake of Christ.

This means that, when we take seriously the challenge to be a disciple, our lives are no longer our own, they are Christ’s

This means, as Brother Jean Phillipe of Taize once told us: “our lives are

so vulnerable.”

Vulnerability, then, is the mark of the cross upon our lives.

Christ was certainly vulnerable, throughout the ages the cloud of witnesses was vulnerable, so we can’t expect to stay safely tucked away in the pews.

Vulnerability means that we need to take the risk to do whatever it takes for us to proclaim the heart of God in the heart of this city.

Vulnerability means that things will never be the same, it means that none of us can ever go back to the safe way of doing business as usual, for there are no good old days for the friends of Jesus.

Vulnerability means that we must at all times take seriously the words of St. Paul that we walk by faith, and not by sight.

It also means that we heed the words in today’s gospel.

Jesus, in his inimitable way, says things that we perhaps wish had remained unsaid.

He tells us: “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Those are pretty strong words from the one referred to as the prince of peace.

Christ makes it clear that to follow him, means that it may cause division with those who are following the ways of the world rather than the ways of Christ.

St. Francis of Assisi, for example, had to make a choice: The materialistic self-centered world of his father, or to take the risk of following Christ.

He chose Christ.

One day in front of the entire town of Assisi he said;

“Listen, all of you, and understand it well.

Until this time I have called Peter Bernadone my father, but now I desire to serve God.

This is why I return to him this money, for which he has given himself so much trouble, as well as my clothing, and all that I have ha from him, for from henceforth I desire to say nothing else than “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

Mother Theresa of Calcutta had it made teaching in a convent school.

But, one day she was riding a train and she heard the call of Christ to take the risk of truly following him – and that is exactly what she did.

She picked up the first dying person on the streets of Calcutta, and, before it was over, she had picked up over 45,000.

Her most poignant statement was: “We are called upon not to be successful but to be faithful.

Even today, the sisters of her order are ministering in the violent and poverty stricken areas of Richmond, simply up the road from where we are.

On the night of his betrayal Jesus prayed for us to be his friends.

“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.

I pray not only for these, but for those also through their words will believe in me.

May they all be one, Father, may they be one in us as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ: that prayer of Jesus was prayed for us.

Yes, we are keeping high-risk company, but, in all honesty, it is the only eternally significant company worth keeping.

One day Jesus was talking to his friends.

Someone said to him: “Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.”

Jesus said: “Who are my mother and my brothers and my sisters?”

And looking around at those sitting in a circle about him he said: “Here are my mother and my brothers and my sisters.

Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.”

Hear the words of Brother Roger of Taize, who, two years ago this week became a martyr of Christ: “Without looking back, you want to follow Christ: remember that you cannot walk in Christ’s steps and at the same time follow yourself.

Without looking back, you want to follow Christ: here and now, in the present moment, turn to God and put your trust in the Gospel.

There you will draw from the sources of jubilation.”