Surrounded & Struggling for Safety

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Psalm 39 (40):2-4,18; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53

Picture: By Michael Hamments on Unsplash

What does it feel like to be surrounded? That depends on what or whom we are surrounded by, right? By friends or by enemies? By danger or by safety? Yet we know that the word surrounded is often used to refer to danger of some sort. Such as in those old crime dramas I used to watch on TV, as a child. We have you surrounded, the police would say, throw down your weapons, and come out with your hands on your heads! Then those surrounded would have to decide what to do. Typically, they would choose one of only two options. Either to obey and go quietly, or to disobey and engage in a violent shoot-out with the authorities. But is a third option ever possible? Such as to keep resisting, but non-violently?

In our scriptures too, we find people surrounded in various ways, and on different levels. In the first reading, the city of Jerusalem is under siege, surrounded by the fearsome army of the mighty Babylonian empire. And not only the city, but the king himself is surrounded. Not just by the foreign soldiers outside, but also by his own rebellious officials within. Against whom the king pitifully confesses that he is powerless. Which is how Jeremiah ends up both surrounded and sinking in mud, at the bottom of a well that has run dry. From all sides, danger closes in on him. Danger from vicious enemies. Danger from starvation. And danger, presumably, from the temptation to give his persecutors what they want. Which is for him to give up the unpopular message God had called him to proclaim. To stop telling everyone to surrender to the Babylonians. Somehow Jeremiah finds the courage neither to give in nor to fight back (he can’t), but simply to keep resisting. Thankfully, he finds an ally in the Ethiopian eunuch, Ebed-melech, who bravely breaks ranks with the others, and convinces the king to raise Jeremiah from his muddy tomb.

In the gospel, Jesus has been telling his disciples to stay alert. As we may recall, in last week’s reading, the Lord told them to be like men waiting for their master to return… ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks… Then, in today’s reading, Jesus goes on to speak about the danger he himself will soon have to face. About that literally crucial moment, when he will both baptise and be baptised – both surround and be surrounded – with the fire of his own Death and Resurrection. Like Jeremiah before him, Jesus will suffer the consequences of his own non-violent resistance to the sinful perspectives and practices of the powers that be. He will be lifted up on the Cross, and buried in a tomb, before being raised by God on the third day. And, like Ebed-melech, his disciples will somehow need to find the courage to break ranks with the others, in order to keep following the Lord. To embrace the reality that the One they follow has come to bring not peace, but rather division.

And not just the disciples in the gospel, but also all Christians down through the ages, including us. We too are called neither to give in cowardly, nor to fight back violently, but to keep bravely and patiently resisting sin in its different forms. How to find the courage and endurance to do this? Doesn’t the second reading help us answer this question, by advising us to do two things? First, to remember that, however much we may feel besieged by danger, we should never forget that we are also surrounded by generations upon generations of witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us. Fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers in the faith. Formidably arrayed like a friendly yet boisterous crowd of supporters at a stadium, enthusiastically cheering on the home team. Second, we are to keep the eyes of our hearts ever focused on Christ. Frequently calling to mind the Mystery we celebrate at this and every Eucharist. How for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it…

In other words, when we find ourselves besieged by danger, the second reading teaches us how to surround ourselves with a space of spiritual safety. From which we may draw the courage and endurance we need to keep resisting sin. And isn’t this advice especially important today, when the very idea of being surrounded by danger has itself become highly dangerous? For many use it to fan the flames not of love, but of intolerance, xenophobia and unjust discrimination against minorities of all kinds. Faced with such dangers, we need more than just courage and endurance. We also need wisdom and discernment. Not just as individuals, but also as communities and societies. And how to foster wisdom and discernment, except by cultivating more spaces where people may safely engage in meaningful conversations across differences? In our homes and churches, in our schools and work-places, and beyond.

Sisters and brothers, amid the dangers that surround us, how might we cultivate more of such safe spaces today?