A Counterpoint to the Noise--June 2, 2023

A Counterpoint to the Noise--June 2, 2023

[Jesus prayed:] "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in the truth." [John 17:15-19]

We're meant to be the minority report in the world, we followers of Jesus.  We're meant to offer an alternative to the conventional wisdom, a counterpoint to the loud and dominant messaging of the day.  Like the ancient Hebrew prophets at their best, we are meant to speak a different word over against the noise all around... but from a place of love.  Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest might well have criticized their society and their leaders, but it was because they cared about the people to whom the spoke.  (As James Baldwin said about his relationship with his own country, "I love America more than any other country in this world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.") But that means we are going to be constantly finding ourselves in a place of tension, speaking up in the world because God loves the world and the people in it, but also feeling out of place in that same world because it keeps running away from God's open arms.  That's the two-step we are constantly doing: reaching out to the world in love, but being willing to be left on the outside looking in when the world doesn't want to listen.

Without that grounding in love, we come off not as Christ-like counterpoints to the world's noise, but as sanctimonious scolds who just add to it.  And, my goodness, there is no shortage of Respectable Religious Finger-Wagging that just seems itching to condemn folks or to look down on them, all using the slogan, "But I'm just telling 'The Truth'" as cover.  That's not what Jesus has in mind here.

For one, Jesus doesn't picture his followers being in positions of power to stand in judgment over others.  That's like the prophets of ancient Israel, too--they had no political office, no wealth, and no official leverage, but only the power of their words and the courage to speak them.  Jesus doesn't envision his disciples deputizing themselves as the local morality police with the power to force others to follow their rules, but rather that we would be a compelling presence by the ways our lives line up with the truths we are telling.  We'll stand out by our love in the midst of indifference and self-interest... by our commitment to justice rather than what is convenient or comfortable... and by our refusal to do things for money and power.  That standing out--that sort of blessed weirdness--is what it means to be "holy," or as the phrasing is in these verses, "sanctified."

That's critical to pay attention to: when Jesus prays that his followers would be "sanctified" (made holy), it is in terms of "the truth."  What should set us apart in the world is not our public shows of piety or religiosity, not our holier-than-thou condescension toward "those sinners," and not a reputation for being wet blankets who hate it when anybody else has fun.  What should set us apart in the world is that we'll be the ones willing to keep speaking the vision we've been given from God--a vision of justice and mercy, of care for the vulnerable, and of the life we've found in Jesus.  So often when church folk talk about being "holy" or "sanctified" we end up using it as a way of puffing ourselves up or looking down on others, rather than a calling to stand out because we're willing to keep telling the word we've been given from Jesus.

So every time we insist on valuing people over just making bigger profits at work, we're speaking up a truth in line with Jesus.  And every time we hold both public figures and our private selves accountable to live with integrity, we're being made holy in truth-telling.  Every time we are willing to go against the flow for the sake of holding on to what is good, true, and decent rather than just chasing after what is trendy, convenient, and profitable, we're being "sanctified" in the way that matters.  And every time we let God's love for the world lead us to speak up to set things right rather than shrugging with indifference, we're becoming the answer to Jesus' prayer for his followers.

Today, where someone needs a friend or an ally to speak and stand alongside them, you can be that presence.  Today, where it feels like everyone else has agreed to sell out what is "right" for what is "profitable," you can be the one who points people back to what matters.  And where it seems like the world is drowning in noise, you can be the one whose actions speak louder than any of it.

Who knows what God might do through any of those chances we get on this day?

Lord God, give us the courage to stand out from the crowd in ways that look like you.