Provocative Words

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 18, 2012

Provocative Words

Hebrews 10:23-25

“I am going to tell you how you should vote

and who you should vote for.”

If I wanted to give you an example of provocative words,

I don’t think I could do much better than with that statement,

especially if I had spoken those words

from the pulpit two weeks ago.

To provoke another person is to incite, to push,

to irritate,

to cross a boundary.

The word “provoke” comes with a

“fingernails-on-chalkboard” quality,

a screechiness that gets under the skin.

All those robocalls that interrupted our dinner hours

for weeks on end were provocative,

although I think they provoked anger, contempt and disgust

more than anything else.

“Vote for this candidate,

or don’t vote for that candidate.”

Still, they must have provoked the response

the callers were seeking

from more than a few listeners.

At the beginning of my seventh-grade year

I was told I could choose to learn a foreign language.

French, Spanish, and Latin were the three choices offered me.

In my mind, though, there were really only two choices;

Latin was off the list.

But my mother persuaded me to take Latin,

that it would be a good thing;

that it would help me both as a reader and a writer.

So I took Latin……reluctantly.

Over the years I learned that my mother was right –

and yes, I did tell her that! –

word roots and word histories

can help us to understand meanings.  

So when we hear the word “provoke”,

we should dig a little into the word’s roots:

Pro Vocare:

Latin that means “to call forth”

There is no connotation of irritation

or annoyance in the Latin;

it is simply a call to action,

to prod a bit, but not in an irritating way,

as much as in a challenging way.

In writing,

“let us consider how to provoke one another

to love and good deeds….”

the author is urging his brothers and sisters in Christ

to be active, not to sit still,

but to build community by encouraging,

stirring up,

nurturing, exciting one another in faith.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews –

it probably was not Paul –

was talking to new Christians,

those who were struggling to figure out what it meant

to live as disciples of Jesus Christ

forty years following his crucifixion and resurrection.

The earliest Christians lived in constant danger:

while they wanted to proclaim “Jesus is Lord,”

they were commanded,

often at the point of sword, to say,

“Caesar is Lord”.

The letter encouraged them to hang onto

their hope and their faith,

as they helped one another,

encouraged one another,

and yes, provoked one another

to love and good deeds.

Provoked one another to do as Jesus taught the scribe,

in the lesson we heard two weeks ago:

to love God with all their hearts, all their minds,

all their strength, and all their souls

and to love their neighbors as themselves.

As we learned from that lesson,

to live life that way

is to draw ever closer to the Kingdom of God.

Even as the author was encouraging his listeners,

he reminded them of the importance of community,

of gathering faithfully, regularly to worship,

to nurture one another in faith in community.

There was and is no rugged individualism

in the church of Jesus Christ.

We may vaunt that characteristic in our society,

but we cannot forget that much of what Jesus teaches us

runs counter to what society teaches us.

So, Blessed are the poor,

not the rich and famous;

The meek and humble shall inherit the earth,

not the strong and the powerful.

We become a part of community in our baptism.

We become part of the universal church of Jesus Christ,

joining the family of all followers of Christ.

To reinforce this sense of community

each time we baptize someone,

we make a communal,

community-wide promise to the new disciple,

the promise we made today to Julie,

the promise we made this past summer

 to a dozen children:

“Do you as members of the church of Jesus Christ

promise to guide and nurture Julie

by word and deed,

with love and prayer,

encouraging her to know and follow Christ

and to be a faithful member of Christ’s church?”

When you responded that you would,

you were promising to provoke Julie

to a life of love and good deeds

through words, of course,

but more important,

by the example of your own life of love and good deeds.

In her book, “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”,

Anne Lamott writes so touchingly

of the community that she is part of:

“My friends are the reason I have so much faith in God.

…I would not be here were it not for the love, support,

and wisdom of the people of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church…

Their deep faith and love of God, and life,

have changed my world forever….”

If you’ve ever read any of her books or articles

you know that Lamott is a gifted writer.

She is also a recovering addict,

recovering from years of addiction to both alcohol and drugs.

She does not exaggerate when she says,

“I would not be here without [my church family]”

But even as she sings praises for her brothers and sisters,

she is also quick to acknowledge

that hers is not that perfect church

we all imagine must exist somewhere,

that place where everyone always gets along,

where the hymns that are sung

are always everyone’s favorites,

and where the preacher keeps his sermons to 10 minutes.

She portrays her church community

located in a town just north of San Francisco,

with all its strengths that have helped her,

but she doesn’t hide the community’s shortcomings.

Shortcoming that are no different

from what we’ve experienced here and

in every single church any of us has ever been part of,

ranging from disagreements over

what to serve at the annual fall dinner,

to struggles each year to recruit enough volunteers

for their various ministries;

And I am guessing her church too struggles

to get every member to return a pledge card

during the annual Stewardship campaign.

At her church, our church, every church

the disciples who make up the community

are all trying to do the same thing:

answer the question Jesus asked of Peter

“who do you say I am.”

(Mark 8:29)

and then from there figure out

what our response to that question

means to each of us,

and how we should live our lives,

how our response should shape and guide our lives.

It may not be as dangerous for us to live as Christians

as it was for those who first heard the letter to the Hebrews,

but living faithfully as a disciple of Jesus Christ is not easy.

It is why we need to encourage one another,

provoke one another.  

The flesh is weak,

and as often as not the spirit is just simply tired.

We need encouragement;

we need to encourage one another,

not only because discipleship is often difficult,

but also, as our lesson reminds us,

we need to live our lives as disciples with a sense or urgency,

looking to that day when Christ will come again,

come again in glory.

For, as our Lord has taught us

when he does come,

he’ll come like a thief in the night.

The month of December reminds us

that the Advent of our Lord

is something that will happen suddenly,

without even a hint of warning,

and we had better be ready.

In celebrating our Heritage, our history,

we celebrate how all our heritage saints

provoked one another to love and good deeds,

in building this body, building this church.

And future members of the Heritage Society

are called in the same way

to provoke one another to love, to grace,

to live fully into the lives we are called to in our baptism,

lives following the One

who most assuredly speaks provocative words

to every one of us,

calling us move 
“from selfishness to generosity,

from fear to love,

from hatred to compassion,

from the narrowness of self-righteousness

to the wideness of mercy.”

(Christopher Henry)

Calling us to lives transformed,

yet always transforming,

as we respond to our Lord’s most provocative words,

“Follow me.”

AMEN