February 16, 2023 ~ Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Beckie Sweet ~ COURAGEOUS
You’ve heard some of these remarkable stories: A mother changes the way she views the boy who shot and killed her little girl. Parents ask for a lesser sentence for the two men who beat their son and left him for dead. A man spends years trying to save the life of the man who shot him point blank with a shotgun. These stories illustrate the point that we have a choice to make. It is the same choice believers have had to make since the time of the early church. It is the same choice churches have had to make from their beginnings until now.
In the wake of our rapidly changing political climate, and the realities of unprecedented elimination of government supported services and departments, rights and protections, we can choose to allow all of it to eat away at our emotional core. We can go on pretending we are o.k. and pressing on, all the while it devours us from the inside out turning us into vessels of bitterness, pain, and apathy. We can choose to let it fester within us, feeding on our energy, and pushing us toward a breaking point. We can choose to retaliate, throw judgement and hatred around, and seek vengeance in the name of justice. OR, we can choose to be gracious!
On the one hand, it should be the easiest choice in the world. On the other hand, we know in reality, it is often far more complicated and takes far more courage than we ever thought we would have.
Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians from prison. It probably would have been easier for Paul to turn inward during his time in prison, to become defensive, jaded, or vengeful with the situation in which he found himself. Or, perhaps it would have been easy for him to feel he deserved this time locked away. Remember that in his “former life” as Saul, Paul was a persecutor of Christians. Instead of either of these reactions, Paul grounds himself in the grace and peace that God provides through Jesus. He has first received forgiveness from God and now lives out of that mindset rather than harboring resentment or feeling guilt in this difficult situation.
Paul recognizes that God has given him the courage to live through these struggles through the gracious support of the Philippian community. Paul is not in this alone; he writes to the Philippians, “You hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” Paul was saying that through suffering we become the community of grace.
This shared grace in community isn’t just a comfort to Paul, it doesn’t just give him courage to survive the current situation. It goes further than that. Paul is able to extend that grace to others, to give himself over to God and allow God to use him to expand God’s mission in the world. Instead of resenting his imprisoners, Paul gives them grace. He shares the gospel with them. He reports: “it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard… that my imprisonment is for Christ.” Seeing the way God is working through Paul despite his imprisonment has inspired others to courageously spread the good news of Jesus, too.
As I mentioned last week when we shared the “Courage to be Vulnerable,” we often think of courage as a heroic act. But long-term courage, like that of Paul, invites others in to be courageous, too. If it’s gracious courage, it is not proud or self-centered but looks outward to other people and into the world to see where the need is and to meet it, even when it’s not easy or it is met with resistance.
As I prepared for today’s worship, I kept remembering the remarkable Nelson Mandela. He was born and raised in South Africa in the early 20th Cent. After receiving his education (including once being expelled from school for participating in a student protest), Mandela joined the African National Congress and founded its Youth League whose purpose it was to non-violently dismantle apartheid, an institutionalized system of racial segregation that the National Party’s white-only government had established. Mandela, described as a “dreamer who never gives up,” was arrested and jailed several times for “treasonous” activities, until he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow the state.
During the 27 years that Mandela spent in prison, the state never released any pictures, and tried to squash any reports of Mandela’s activities, and the deplorable conditions and treatment Mandela received in the prison on Robben Island. And yet the majority black population projected its hopes for freedom and equality on him. The anti-apartheid movement grew as Mandela’s mythic status helped transform him into an international icon.
It would be impossible to overstate the electric sense of anticipation that coursed through South Africa as then president F.W. de Klerk prepared to release Mandela from prison. Although apartheid was still the law of the land, de Klerk was promising sweeping changes to dismantle the system of racial segregation. Again, to make a long story short, Mandela was released, on February 11, 1990 (35 years ago this past week) as Black South Africa exploded with joy. A raucous crowd of some 100,000 blacks squeezed into the Grand Parade Grounds outside Cape Town’s City Hall, infusing it with the energy of a rock concert. His first words to the crowd: “Comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom. I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you the people…” And later, reflecting on the day of his release, Mandela stated, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
After being cut off from society for more than a quarter century, Mandela had grown into one of the wisest statesmen of the era. And in 1994, during the country’s first all-race election, Mandela was elevated to the presidency. Mandela radically rejected any temptation to achieve revenge on the part of the blacks and instead embarked on a courageous process of reconciliation and healing of the deep wounds that apartheid had inflicted on the South African people. In a speech given in 1995 he stated, “Reconciliation does not mean forgetting or trying to bury the pain of conflict, but that reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.”
Mandela’s approach to forgiveness was rooted in the belief that it is not a weakness, but rather a strength, that allows one to forgive. By forgiving his oppressors, Mandela could move beyond the pain and anger of his past and focus on building a better future for South Africa.
Friends, that is the Courage to be Gracious. Grace is the gift of God’s forgiveness, acceptance, healing and transformational power. Graciousness is the gift of respect, forgiveness, and acceptance that we offer each other. We offer graciousness when we seek to understand others before judging them. Graciousness, within the biblical context, is the extension of God’s grace and love to others. It involves treating people with kindness, respect, and generosity, regardless of their circumstances or actions. Graciousness reflects a heart that is attuned to the needs of others and seeks to bring comfort, encouragement, and support.
What will our choice be? As followers of Jesus, will we give up on our faith, our country, the fabric of our society? Will we turn away? Will we allow emotionally charged issues, political differences, hot topics, systemic injustice, fear of the other, or racial tension divide us? Like the church in Philippi, we must remember who we are in Christ. We must remember it is by grace, God’s grace, that we are here to begin with. It is by God’s grace that we are loved and can give love. It is how and why we do what we do. It is God’s grace that can do far more than we can. We must remember it is because of that grace, and not anything we do in and of ourselves, that we can have the Courage to be Gracious; to live a gracious life; to love and love well inside and outside the walls of this building.
As we follow Jesus, may it be so! Amen.