Scripture reading: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Facing off. From the Tumblr of jtangc
In addition to all my other nerdy hobbies, I’ve had a long and fruitful love of Japanese animation (aka “anime.”) Like all such fans, I have my favorite series, and that for me is the Macross science-fiction franchise. Starting way back in the early 1980s with the original Macross (better known to most Americans as “Robotech”) and continuing up to its current series, Macross Delta, now being televised in Japan on Sunday evenings.
The central conceit of Macross (in all its incarnations) is that “music will save the world.” There are usually three protagonists in each series and at least one of them is always a singer, a musician. In Macross Delta, that singer heroine is Freya Wion, a cute redheaded teenage girl.
I haven’t been able to see a lot of Delta, since it is truly brand new, but what I have seen has shown me that Freya is one of the most courageous characters I’ve ever seen in any TV or movie. She knows her music has the power to save people (in Delta, it can cure a dangerous alien disease that drives people into berserker rages.) and she will do everything in her power to save them, trusting completely in her companions to keep her safe.
In one scene, she stands out in the open in a battlefield and sings to a berserk starfighter pilot, who then proceeds to try to kill her with his starfighter. But she’s protected by her friend who places his own fighter in the path of the berserker’s shots.
Same scene as the opening illustration.
In another, she leaps off the deck of a starship, singing all the way, to support her allies in a starfighter dogfight. Again, she is caught by one of her allies before she plummets to her death.
In both cases, she never hesitates, completely confident that her friends and allies will keep her safe from all harm.
When I read our Gospel lesson for today, with Jesus sending out the 72 into the mission field, I wonder if that wasn’t the sort of spirit he was looking for in these missionaries. Jesus doesn’t pull any punches about how dangerous this could be. “See, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.” he says openly. This is tough work. This is dangerous work.
The context of this sending is Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, in other words, his journey to the cross. He has no delusions about where things are going for his little spiritual movement. Things are going to get ugly and soon. People are going to die, starting with him, but sadly not ending with him. He needs people of singular courage who are going to go forth anyway, knowing they can do their part to save the world and completely confident in God’s grace to save them from all harm.
And that is what he ends up with. Peter, Paul, James, John, Andrew, Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and countless others throughout the generations who spread the good news of Jesus to the far corners of the world. Rarely was that message welcome and rarely did these evangelists and apostles come out of their experiences with their lives intact. The wolves won more often than not. But that didn’t stop Christianity from becoming the largest religion on this planet.
It’s a strange thing for us in the Church in this 21st century. We know where we are, but in so many ways, we’ve forgotten how we got here. The world is still full of wolves, hostile to the message we bear, and yet most of us are utterly surprised by that. We somehow think the world is supposed to be accommodating to the message of Christ. It isn’t and never has been. It has always been hostile to the truth we bear and always will be.
And sometimes the place where the wolves congregate the most is inside the Church itself. In our supposed “Christian nation,” the idea of welcoming the stranger has become anathema. We don’t want refugees. We don’t want immigrants. We don’t want Muslims. We don’t want “those people.” (There’s that phrase yet again.) In our supposed “Christian nation,” we don’t want to feed the poor or heal the sick. It costs too much and they don’t deserve our help. (There’s that word too.)
You want to draw out the wolves? Start talking about the dignity of every human being, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, political affiliation, or any other dividing line that we humans have created. Think about people who have already done that in history. Malcolm X and MLK. Bang! Susan B. Anthony. Jailed! Gandhi. Bang! Bishop Oscar Romero. Bang!
I could keep going. The Christians beheaded by ISIS. The Christian martyrs rotting in jails across the world for their belief. These atrocities happened because, whether the victims were people of our faith or not, they spoke the truth of Jesus Christ: that all human beings are precious to God and worthy of our respect and dignity.
To say that takes courage. To live that takes courage. To stand up for the marginalized in this and every society takes courage. The wolves are real and they are ravenous.
But they also cannot truly harm us.
Like Freya in Macross, we can be confident that our ally has our back. We can be confident that our protector will be there for us regardless of where life takes us. We can trust that no matter how fierce the wolves that gather around us, they cannot stand before our Savior: Jesus Christ.
“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus’ last words in the Gospel of Matthew, uttered immediately after he charged us with the Great Commission to go forth and spread his truth, are there to remind us of his presence and protection in our lives. So the wolves have gathered. So what? “If God is for us, who can be against us?” and “no weapon formed against us shall prosper.” God wins and so do we.
History bears that out. Yeah, the martyrs suffered and in some cases died for what they believed. But they still won. The truth they proclaimed continued to spread. The word they bore has continued to work on the world. The wolves may have won the battle, but they are losing the war. God is still at work. His Gospel continues to spread to receptive hearts, in spite of all the efforts of evil and misguided people to stop it.
No matter what the world throws at the truth of Christ, it cannot stop it. We have a message that can change lives and save this world. What have we to fear in sharing it and spreading it? The world can gnash its teeth all it wants. The war is already won. Christ is the victor. And so are we. Amen.
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