Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
The lead up to Sheffield Pride on Social Media was… interesting. It was remarkable to see how easy it is to create a new outrage, and how words fed to a particular audience are so faithfully picked up and repeated. Of all the comments, one was actually helpful. Of course, being wise as a serpent I knew they were’t TRYING to be helpful, but being as innocent as a dove I chose to answer it as if they were asking a genuine question. They asked; “Should a good Christian follow what the Bible says.”
So here’s what I wrote. The Bible doesn’t "say" anything on it's own. We must read it, and in reading it we can not help but read it though the lens of our life experiences and education. If we read it in English we must also remember that its a translation, so the people who translated it have also already added a layer of interpretation which we need to take into consideration. Then, we have to read it in the historical and cultural and literary context in which it was written as well as through the lens of what we interpret from the rest of Scripture. Finally we must remember that the Bible is not the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. So as a Christian, Jesus is the final lens through which we must read Scripture. To that end, in my mind, we should follow what the Bible "says" through the lens of what Jesus said is the most important thing... to love God and love neighbor.
So if we read a Bible text and it seems on the surface to contradict Jesus when it comes to loving God or loving neighbor, that’s is a good indication we should dig deeper into that text, because the Bible will not contradict Jesus, who is the Word of God. So a good Christian does not follow the Bible as much as a good Christian follows Jesus.
That’s the responsible, honest way to come to the Scriptures. Here’s a little demo of how that works. Another comment leading up to Pride referred (again with bad spelling) to the Sin of Sodom, and in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus (the Word of God, remember) is referring to the very same passage as the online troll. Here’s what Jesus said, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” Jesus doesn’t seem to be talking about sex at all? What’s going on?
Well, believe it or not, it turns out that the best place to go for good, solid, reliable, Biblical interpretation is NOT to the playground when you were 10. To any televangelist or fascists looking for a scapegoat to use in making people fearful and angry. Or to anyone who types in the comment box of any social media platform using bad grammar and worse spelling!
The BEST place to start to work at good reliable solid Biblical interpretation is with the actual text. I know! Crazy! So, let’s go back to that story in Genesis, when two angels come to the town of Sodom. It’s the town where Lot lives and Lot, providing God-approved hospitality and radical welcome to others, welcomes them into his home. The story contrasts that welcome with the welcome given by the men of the town. They gave them the opposite of a welcome. In fact their intention was to violently rape them to show them how radically UNWELCOME they really were. Rape, just to be clear, is not welcoming, it’s not consensual, loving, or fun. They did not want to welcome them because they did NOT want to hear what the angels had to say to them. THAT was the sin of Sodom. THAT is the SAME sin Jesus refers to in this Gospel lesson. The sin of radical UN-welcome, the sin of violence, the sin of power wielded over another, the sin of refusing to listen to another's truth and care for the neighbor. THAT was the original sin of Sodom.
In this Gospel lesson, Jesus is simply reinforcing God’s call to love our neighbor and to love God by living in the footsteps of Jesus… welcoming the stranger, providing open and generous hospitality to all… where all means all... giving the other respect, and respecting one another with a genuine willingness to listen and to hear.
In still other comments the trolls typed in their parent’s basement that our church isn’t a real church. That we ignore what the Bible says. But the truth of the matter is that this church comes to it’s place of radical welcome, inclusion and hospitality not from IGNORING what the Bible says. It comes to be this place of radical welcome, inclusion and hospitality because THAT is what the Word of God, who is Jesus the Christ, Son of the living God has told us and shown us over and over and over again is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Amen.
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