Be Prisoners of Hope…

Proper 9 – Be Prisoners of Hope
Calvary Episcopal Church
6 July 2013

“Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I restore to you double.”

When God speaks these words through the prophet Zechariah, the words are falling on the ears of people only recently reunited. The Babylonian exile has ended; Jews are making their return to Jerusalem and construction of the second Temple has begun. Those who were exiled and those who remained are being united in an uneasy marriage. Uneasy because despite shared heritage, their experiences were not the same. Many had lived in relative captivity in Babylon, while those who remained continued living in the northern parts of Israel.

To the group returning to Israel their entire way of life had changed. Temple could not be the center of their corporate lives when the temple had been destroyed. New ways of identifying themselves as God’s people had emerged; those who had remained did not know the new ways. It was not an easy time.

Zechariah comes bearing a message of hope. God speaks to the people.

“I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the warhorse from Jerusalem;
and the battle-bow shall be cut off,
and I shall command peace to the nations;
My dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

The imagery that God uses here would have instantly brought ideas of military power to the minds of the hearers. To stop chariots and warhorses one needs a strong cavalry. To break the battle bow, we need legions of infantry to cross the field of battle and fight. To spread dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth, a people are going to need to remain vigilant and to train in the art of war continuously.

This means that the king whom God is going to send to us is going to be a mighty warrior, sort of like William Wallace: seven feet tall, killing men by the hundreds, shooting fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from… well not his eyes. If you have seen the film Braveheart with Mel Gibson you know the type of king that we need to persevere in these trying times. Someone who can ride up before a battle, giving an amazing motivational speech, then run across the field with his two-handed claymore slaying every man and beast that stands between him and the freedom that he so desperately seeks.

Except this is not what God promised to us. God is not going to send a kilted warrior with his face painted blue, riding a valiant warhorse, surrounded by deadly men armed to the teeth.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Triumphant and humble riding on the foal of a donkey, which is an altogether different image than the one that we had in mind. Our king is the one coming to stop chariots and warhorses, to break the bows and to spread his dominion. A king on a colt does not sound like the type of king that comes to set us free.

What kind of freedom can you win from the back of foal?

Maybe we do not understand freedom. From the beginning of recorded history until today, and it will likely continue for generations to come, we have not fully grasped freedom. Freedom as we humans understand it is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint, the power of self-determination attributed to the will, the quality of being independent of fate or necessity, or the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.

The freedom that is described in the dictionary cannot be won from the back of a foal. Human freedom and the freedom that God offers to us are not the same things. Independence, self-determination, and the power to act without restraint are not God’s ideas of freedom. If these are the things that we expect in the Kingdom of God we are going to be sorely disappointed.

The freedom that God offers to us, without cost, is the freedom to be who we were created to be. Freedom is the ability to live fully into our created nature. Freedom is utter reliance and dependence upon God.

Reliance and dependence on something other than ourselves has never been the human construct of freedom and it certainly is not going to be turned into an internet meme on Fourth of July weekend. But it is what God offers.

The last definition that I mentioned before defined freedom as the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved; Saint Paul in his letter to the churches in Galatia refers to himself as a slave to Christ. New Testament professor Frank Matera wrote, “As Christ’s slave, Paul is completely subservient to his master, and yet he has found a freedom which only obedience to Christ can bring.” Paul found a freedom which only obedience to Christ can bring. It is only in slavery to Christ that Paul finds freedom.

The prophet Zechariah commends us to be prisoners of hope. What does it mean to be a prisoner of hope? Being a prisoner of hope means returning to our stronghold. It means coming to God like little children. Gazing upon the Almighty with eyes full of wonderment and awe, hands grasping for the warmth of a parent. Being a prisoner of hope means that we live our lives not in prideful fear of failure, rather it means we live our lives assured by the promises of our God.

Gentleness and rest, the easing of our burdens, and to be with us through every trial and tribulation, our assurance, our hope is the blessed knowledge that God will never turn his back on us.

Hope.

Hope is not prideful. Hope is strengthened by humility. Hope is sacramental.

We come to the altar to cast off our heavy loads; to find the rest that Christ promises to us and to take upon our shoulders the yoke of gentleness and humility. From there we enter back into a world that does not yet recognize the freedom that being a slave of Christ and a prisoner of hope brings. The gentleness and humility that we are yoked with can easily be traded out for false strength and pride. We must remain hopeful, because for every time that we are willing to cast aside the false strength and pride of the world, Christ is waiting to welcome us home with open arms and a love greater than we can comprehend.

From the return of those who had been exiled in Babylon, to our nation today, the story has not changed. We are a people divided by false differences. We do not hear our own song on the lips of the others. We are a people seeking a false freedom that can only bring separation from those who surround us and subjugation by a false idol.

We can be servants of pride or slaves of Christ.

We can be free from each other or united in God’s love.

We can seek false freedom or we can become prisoners of hope.

Be a prisoner of hope.

Rejoice greatly in your imprisonment.

Shout aloud brothers and sisters.

Triumphant and victorious is our God whose people are the prisoners of hope.