There comes a time when you just can’t take it any more. “This has got to stop. This has got to change. I’ve got to do something.” You’ve been walking in darkness, living in the land of gloom, as Isaiah puts it, too long. Something must change. The moment happened to Rosa Parks riding a bus. “Things have got to change.” So she refused to move to the back. It happened to the American colonists when the king added a tax onto tea. “This has got to stop.” So they had a tea party in Boston harbor. It happened to Nelson Mandela under apartheid. “I’ve got to do something.” So the struggle was engaged. According to Matthew, it happened to Jesus when John the Baptist was arrested. He couldn’t go on as he had before. He had to do something in response to his cousin’s arrest. So he began to preach in words that echoed the message of John. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In our time, the racial, political, religious situation becomes more than one can bear. It’s at that point that action is called for. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday we all reach that point. We say, “Something has to change. Somebody should do something.” And we’ll realize that we are that somebody. It might happen at a funeral when you see a family member you haven’t spoken to in years. I’ve got to do something to heal the rift. It might happen when gun violence claims one victim too many and you say, “This has got to stop.” It might happen when the realization that people are homeless, people are hungry, people’s illnesses aren’t being treated, children aren’t be educated in the richest country on earth. Those situations can’t continue so you decide to do something about it. Let’s use the example of Jesus to form a strategy about how to respond when we’ve got to do something.
The first thing to note is that once Jesus decided to act he went back to his roots, to this base. He left the Jordan where he had been hanging out with John and returned to his home district of Galilee. But notice that Matthew takes care to point out that Jesus didn’t go back home to Nazareth. He didn’t go back to the comfortable, the familiar, the expected: the carpenter’s shop and mom’s home cooking. But he did go back to what he knew, to the reality he understood. He had to get in touch with what made him who he was before he launched out. Church, we must act in a similar way. When being sick and tired of being sick and tired spurs us into action we too must return to our roots, to our base, to what makes us who we are. No one should go trying to fix something out there until one is grounded in here. How do we do that? How do we ground ourselves? Remember who brought you here. The courage of the ancestors inspire future action. St. James is part of a glorious heritage. Remember that you have been blessed. There is a reason that you are the one who feels moved to action. Something in your family, your story, your education has equipped you to deal with the difficult. Once God has put it in your heart to do something, you can be assured you will be given the gifts necessary. And remember where your strength comes from. If we rely on our own weak efforts and limited time we might as well give up before we start. But when we rely on the Lord, when we turn to prayer for guidance and strength, then all things are possible.
After Jesus has decided to act and goes to Galilee he takes the next step – he gathers people to help him. No Lone Ranger, he. He gets people to become companions with him in his efforts to correct the intolerable. “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” This is not for efficiency’s sake, to divide the work load, but because being together in and of itself starts to cure whatever ill we are trying to address. It is in the plan of God that we act as a body, with each individual contributing their bit to the effort. Jesus didn’t do everything by himself because together, he and his companions were better. The same goes for us. When we reach the point where we have to act, we find others to share the task. Maybe that is why in his letter to the Corinthians Paul is so insistent “that there be no divisions among you but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.” When we don’t act together, as one, in the tasks which God has given us we are belying our nature as the body of Christ. When there are divisions, separations, differences we aren’t reflecting the fact that God made us to live and work and be united. If Jesus needed other people, certainly we need other people. T he people God has woven into our lives form the body of Christ who make all things work together for good.
Finally, when Jesus decided to act he did very specific things that he had the gifts to do: “He went about teaching, proclaiming the gospel, and curing.” He didn’t march into the office of Herod and demand the release of John the Baptist. He didn’t confront the Roman authorities about their oppressive system. He didn’t challenge the High Priest about the cultic irregularities in the Jerusalem Temple. No, he did what he could do: teach, proclaim and heal. Certainly all of those other abuses galled at him and doubtless he hoped they would change. But it was not his role to fix all the problems. Jesus did what he could. That should be a powerful reminder to us that we don’t have to do everything but we do have to do something. Some can give the gift of their time, their listening presence, their patience. Others can give the gift of organization and structure. Others can supply enthusiasm and drive. Don’t look on your contribution as unimportant. If one woman too tired to change bus seats can change the world, maybe your phone call, your letter, your meeting attendance can play a part as well. And the blessed assurance, if we follow the Jesus plan, we are guaranteed success, for the cross of Christ is the sign of victory.
