Matthew
10:34-39
“Making
a Holy Ruckus”
June
25, 2017
Let me start this morning by
repeating Jesus warning to those who would follow him, that their lives are
likely to become disoriented and rearranged in profound ways. We’re used to the term “an unholy ruckus” but
when Jesus shows up, what ensues is often what could be called “a holy ruckus”. Nonetheless, a ruckus is a ruckus, and you
don’t want to head straight into one unaware of what could happen. Jesus said,
“Do not
think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring
peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” [Matthew 10:34-39]
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” [Matthew 10:34-39]
Since Vacation Bible School starts
tonight and has “Heroes” as its theme, I’m going to read a hero story that was
required reading for Mrs. Evelyn Boyer’s fifth grade class at the Harvey C.
Sabold Elementary School in 1975. It
illustrates this passage. And we’re
going to see the pictorial illustrations from that story, both because some of
them are kind of fun and because the screen is set up anyway.
As background, though, it’s
important to recall that religious and political issues have always been
tangled up and always will be. In
seventeenth-century England, wars were fought over whether the King or the
Parliament should have more power, which also a theological argument. If we all stand as equals before the throne
of God, each in need of mercy and each open to God’s grace, doesn’t that mean
we should all treat one another equally?
Why should anyone bow, or why should a man even remove his hat, to
another human being who is no less a sinner and no more a child of God?
Such a simple concept, and yet so
threatening!
Anyway, here’s the story as told by
Edward Eggleston in A First Book in
American History. It’s about someone
whose name should be familiar.
WILLIAM PENN
WILLIAM PENN, who founded Pennsylvania, was
born in London, England, in 1644. He was the only son of Admiral William Penn.
Admiral Penn had become a captain before he was twenty, and had distinguished
himself in naval battles. He was a rich man, lived fashionably, and was
received at court. He wanted to make his son William a man of importance in the
world like himself. So William Penn was carefully educated. When he was at
Oxford he heard a man named Thomas Loe preach against such things as the
wearing of gowns by students. It had been the custom for the students in the
colleges at Oxford to wear gowns; but the Puritans, who ruled England after
Charles I was beheaded, forbade this, having a notion that it was wicked. When
King Charles II was restored to the throne, the students were again required to
put on gowns. Under the influence of Loe's preaching, Penn and some other young
men refused to dress in this way, and they even went so far as to tear off the
gowns of other students. For this Penn was expelled from the university.
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William Penn's father was very angry with his
son when he came home expelled. He was afraid that his son would join the
Friends, or Quakers, who not only refused to take part in the ceremonies of the
English Church, but also refused to serve the king as soldiers, believing war
to be wicked. They would not make oath in court, nor would they take off their
hats to anybody. Admiral Penn did not like to see his son adopt the opinions
and ways of a people so much despised and persecuted.
Hoping that William would forget these
impressions, he sent him to France. Here young Penn was presented at the court
of Louis XIV, and here he finished his education. He then traveled in Italy,
and returned to England when he was twenty years old. His father was well
pleased to see that he had improved in manners, and seemed to have forgotten
his Quaker ideas.
He was presented at the court of Charles II, and
became a law student. He also carried dispatches from his father's fleet to the
king. In 1665 the plague broke out in London, and in these sad times William
Penn's religious feelings began to return.
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His father, hoping to give him something else to
think about, sent him to Ireland to attend to some land which belonged to the
admiral. Here he was presented at the court of the viceroy, the Duke or Ormond.
He served as a soldier for a little while during an insurrection. You will see
that his portrait was painted in armor, after the fashion of fine gentlemen of
that time. But while Penn was in Ireland, he heard that Thomas Loe, whose
preaching had affected him so much when he was a student, was to preach in
Cork. Penn went to hear him; all his old feelings revived, and he became a
Friend. He now attended the meetings of the Friends, or Quakers, for which he
was at length arrested and thrown into prison with the rest of the congregation.
He was afterwards set free. His father, hearing of what his son had been doing,
sent for him.
Admiral Penn was very angry with William, but he
told him that he would forgive him everything else if he would take off his hat
to his father, to the king, and to the king's brother, the Duke of York.
William took some time to think of it, and then told his father that he could
not promise even this. The admiral then turned his son out of doors. But his
mother sent him money, and after a time he was allowed to come home, but not to
see his father.
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William Penn presently began to preach and write
in favor of the doctrines of the Friends. He soon got into trouble, and was
imprisoned in the Tower of London for eight months. The duke of York was a
great friend of William Penn's father, and he finally got Penn released from
the Tower. The father now gave up opposing his son's religion. William Penn was
arrested again in about a year for preaching in the street. He was tried, and
spoke for himself very boldly in court. The jury, after listening to him, would
not bring in any verdict but that he was guilty of speaking in the street.
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The judges were very angry with the jury, but
the jurymen would not change their verdict. The judges of that day were very
tyrannical. The jurymen in this case were fined, and sent to prison along with
William Penn, who was imprisoned for wearing his hat in court. Soon after Penn
was released, his father died. The admiral asked the Duke of York to befriend
his son, who, he feared, would always be in trouble.
Penn now traveled in England, Wales, Ireland,
Holland, and Germany, on his preaching journeys. He used all the influence he
had at court with the king and the king's brother, the Duke of York, to get
Quakers and other persecuted people out of prison.
The American colonies had come to be a place for
people of all religions to flee to when they were troubled in England. Some
members of the Society of Friends—Penn among others—began to be interested in
West Jersey, a part of what is now the State of New Jersey, as a place of
refuge for Quakers.
The English Government owed Penn's father a
large sum of money. Charles II was in debt, and found it hard to pay what he
owed, so at length Penn persuaded the king to grant him a tract of land on the
west side of the Delaware River. The king named this Pennsylvania, in honor of
Admiral Penn. William Penn made the laws of his colony such that nobody in it
would be troubled because of his religion.
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William Penn knew that it would
always be necessary for God’s people to struggle to stay faithful to their
consciences. He did not forget Jesus’
words:
“Whoever does not take
up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake will find it.”
[Matthew 10:38-39]
In fact, he wrote a book from the Tower of London with the title
No Cross, No Crown, in which he
urged,
“O come! let us follow Him, the most
unwearied, the most victorious Captain of our salvation; to whom all the great
Alexanders and mighty Caesars of the world are less than the poorest soldier of
their camps could be to them. True, they
were all great princes of their kind, and conquerors, too, but on very
different principles. For Christ made
Himself of no reputation to save mankind; but these plentifully ruined people
to augment theirs. They vanquished
others, not themselves; Christ conquered self, that ever vanquished them. He never by compulsion, they always by force
prevailed. Misery and slavery followed
all their victories, his brought greater freedom and felicity to those He
overcame. In all they did, they sought
to please themselves; in all He did he aimed to please his Father, who is King
of kings and Lord of lords.”[1]
