When it Feels Like God Tricked You - Jeremiah 20: 7-13 & Matthew 10: 21-33

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have someone ever tricked you or deceived you? In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is trying to escape Oklahoma and the Dust Bowl by going to California and the land of promise. Unfortunately, their car dies and it cannot be fixed. Desperate, they negotiate on a used car and scrape their few dollars to buy it. A few dozen miles outside of town, the car grinds to a halt. Upon further inspection, Mr. Joad discovers the seller had stuffed the rear differential with sawdust to help disguise the sounds of failing gears. Caveat emptor, the adage warns – let the buyer beware. The Joad family was tricked in their desperation. There is nothing new under the sun. Tricksters keep on tricking, just with new twists and turns. Just last week, a text message went out with the sender pretending to be me, asking for a favor, for recipients to send gift cards to “me.” I pray no one was tricked into sending this scoundrel anything. Please note: if I ever need money, I’ll just ask for cash. <grin>

I think some people, some young Christians – and here, by young, I don’t mean in age but in maturity, in faith-experience; the Corinthians, for example, were young and immature in the faith, still trying to learn and understand not only the truth of Jesus’ atonement but how that plays out in the Christian life. That is what I mean by “young Christians” – some young Christians think that the life of faith and discipleship will be easy street. After all, that’s how faith is often marketed. Give your money and your heart to Jesus and all will be right in the world. Go to church, read your Bible, give ten percent, boycott the correct stores, wear a James Avery cross and eat at Chick-Fil-A and all will be right at the world.

But then something happens, and that young faith is challenged. Perhaps it’s a phone call from the doctor saying that the bloodwork had something suspicious; better come in for some tests. The boss says, I’m sorry but work just isn’t what it used to be and we’re having to let people go. After verbal sparring with a son or daughter over the Christian faith became an out-right war of words, he or she left home because you are – quote – intolerant and bigoted in your beliefs. Friends whom you have loved and laughed and interacted with for years suddenly grow cold towards you, confiding in a mutual friend that you aren’t as fun as you used to be before you started going to church. You used to have extra income, it seems, but now that you’re giving to the church, the budget seems to be tighter than it was. While the church follows the light of Christ, you see the shadows of satan lurking nearby. When you started worshipping at a church, you thought the congregation was a loving, warm, and kind family of faith enwrapped in the love of Jesus but now that you’ve been involved, you realize there is whispering and grumbling and fighting just like when your own non-Christian family gets together. Has God tricked me? Is this all that the church is, a holier-than-thou version of what I thought I left behind?

I said this happens to young Christians, but I suppose, now that I’m thinking about it, it's not just young Christians that feel this way. It happens to us who have been in the church for decades. Yes, it happens to pastors, too. We start to feel like we’ve been tricked, fooled into thinking that the church, like the old grey mare, just ain’t what she used to be and we’ve picked the losing horse in the race of life. Worst of all, it’s not that we were tricked by other well-intended Christians. Sometimes, it feels like we’ve been tricked by none other than God Himself. Where is He? Where are His promises? Why is it so hard to do what He has called us to do? Why does “Follow me” feel more like trying to get through a house of mirrors? Has God tricked me into being a disciple - all risk, no reward? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

If you’ve ever felt this way, this morning’s Gospel lesson and Old Testament lessons are for you.

Listen again to Jeremiah’s lament: “O Lord, you have deceived me and I was deceived.” Yes, Jeremiah accuses God of deceiving, seducing, overpowering, tricking – even bullying him. It’s as if Jeremiah is saying, “I’ve been proclaiming that which you have told me to say, God, but it’s not doing a lick of good. But, I’ve tried to not say it and it burns in my throat until I do. When I finally give in and prophesy, I get labeled as a terrorist (v3) and they call me a deceiver who must be overcome!” You tricked me and I let myself be tricked by none other than you!

Had Jeremiah been able to read the Gospel reading, perhaps he would have felt differently. Discipleship, following the Lord, is not a proverbial bed of roses. It is demanding, troublesome, emotionally draining, even physically, mentally, and spiritually punishing.  Not all the time, of course, but there are seasons, moments, times when the yoke of discipleship is so terribly heavy that one would never describe the burden as “light” the way Jesus says. At least, that’s been my two decades of experience. So I, for one, resonate with Jeremiah and in my own weakness, I search for answers as well. And this is why the words recorded by Matthew in chapter 10 are so poignant for us, as God’s people – not just pastors, but as God’s people who follow under the cross of Jesus. That, friends, is the reality behind the “Follow me” of Jesus.

Jeremiah, in his crisis, and Jesus, in His commissioning of the disciples, both shine the light on this reality that is often hidden and not talked about, or sugarcoated as if it is no big deal or it rarely happens. It happens, hard, fast, and ugly. And, lest the child of God – whether young or old, mature or immature – is prepared for such a thing, it is tempting to listen to the voice of satan and point our self-righteous finger at God and say, “You lied to me. You tricked me. You set me up. Some God you are.”

Both Jesus and Jeremiah are clear: following Jesus is difficult, hazardous, and challenging. The same baptismal water that washes away our sins and joins us to Christ’s death and resurrection also tattoos a spiritual target on our foreheads and hearts. Yet, Jesus says three times – not once or twice, but three times – fear not! Do not fear your opponents, do not fear those who kill, do not fear your worth in the eyes of the Lord, for He loves you deeply and fully, even more than the sparrows in the air.

What do you do when discipleship is hard? What do you do when the doctor calls, or the boss hands you a pink slip, when discipleship tears apart families and friendships, when all these things happen and your eyes and ears and even your heart are telling you things that God’s promises are words, just words?

You go to the cross. That’s what we know is true. At the cross, we know Jesus died for us. He rescued us. He redeemed us. He stood in our place under the weight of the world’s sins, my sins, your sins, and He paid the ultimate price of being the perfect sacrifice, the perfect Lamb dying for imperfect sheep. You go to the cross, and when you go to the cross, you discover in Jeremiah’s words, the foreshadowing of what Jesus will face. At the cross, He was the laughingstock of God’s promises. People mocked Him to His face. “If you really are the Son of God, save yourself!” Friends turned tail and ran. And when He cried out for His Father’s help and hand, why have you forsaken me, the Father was silent. Yet and still, whom does Jesus trust: His Father. “Into your hands,” even in the silence, even in the mocking, even in the loss of my life, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit.” Jesus turns to what He knows is true: the very same words and promises of God that He proclaimed, that were rejected, that were thrown back at Him, Jesus clings to those promises as He follows the will and work of God.

On the cover of your bulletin is the graphic that quotes Jesus, Matthew 10:22, “The one who endures to the end will be saved.” On the one hand, there is literally the word “saved.” For us as God’s people, that is the word – it is a word of Hope (capitol H!), of promise, that is grounded in Jesus. It is the guarantee of salvation that is already ours and extends into eternity. It is the AMEN to our lives under the cross this side of heaven. But, it is preceded by that other big word “endure.” Endure brings to mind the connotation of hardship, of struggle, of great difficulty that we will face. In the context, Jesus is painting a grim but real picture of life as a disciple who follows Him. It sounds as though there will be much we have to endure, as if it places the onus on us.

But, the grammar here is fascinating. It’s less about us as the ones who must do the struggling and it’s more about the struggling that has been done for us. The verb tense technically isn’t one of a present or future mindset; it’s past-tense with an ongoing, continued action. And, instead of thinking of it as enduring, I would rather nuance it as remaining or abiding – in other words, the opposite of abandoning. “The one who remained and continues to remain…” This begs the question, then, abides and remains in what? In those very promises of God that are fulfilled in Christ. Not in your clinging and enduring, but in what Christ endured and clung to for your sake. And, having been baptized into Christ and His enduring, remaining, abiding love, this gift is given to you as well: His endurance for your salvation. So, putting this together, I would rather hear these words like this: The one who clings to what Christ has done for him or her by going to the cross, dying in his or her place, satisfying God’s payment, the one who clings to that very promise delivered in Baptism, even in the midst of what everything else seems to be is contrary, he or she will be saved.

That means, when you feel like Jeremiah, like this life of discipleship isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and in some ways you find yourself wondering if it’s worth the effort, if it’s worth enduring all this, follow the footsteps of that great, Old Testament prophet of old and simply cling to those very words and promises of God that you know are true in Christ Jesus our Lord.