Jesus and division: August 18, 2019

Year C, Pentecost 10                                              

Luke 12:49-56                                                             

Last week we sang “Let there be peace on earth.”  It’s a beautiful song and always makes me tear up a little.  Given the recent back to back mass shootings, it seemed particularly appropriate.  Peace-- that is what we are about in the Christian faith--- right---promoting peace and love? Then we have the reading today.  Jesus asked, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?”  We all think we know the right answer.  It’s so obvious.  We call him the Prince of Peace, at least we call him that near Christmas. Of course he has come to bring peace.  Then he answered his own question, “No, I tell you, but rather division.”  We probably  should have seen it coming given the beginning of our reading for today when he said, “I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled.” It sounded rather ominous.  But other than that weird comment, this whole idea of Jesus bringing division and conflict is coming out of left field. 

            Well not quite.  Let’s go a little further back in the Gospel of Luke to the moment when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple when he was 8 days old.  They encountered two people, two prophets.  The 1^st prophet was named Simeon.  We refer to his prophesy as the Song of Simeon.  We often hear it sung around Christmas.  “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”  You probably recognize it. It’s beautiful.  But unfortunately Simeon didn’t stop there.  He looked at Mary and said, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed…and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”  

Now, the words still sound pretty, because they are in the Bible and those writers had a way with words.  But if you think about it, anyone who is destined to cause the falling and rising of many is going to have a difficult life.  He will be surrounded by conflict.  Simeon specifically said that he would be opposed.   Typically where we find opposition, we find division.

             Therefore, this information that Jesus is providing should not come as a shock.  We had known this might happen since he was 8 days old. But there have also been a lot of references to peace.  When the angels announced the birth of Jesus they sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”  It seems like there are a lot of conflicting messages. The angels say that he will bring peace.  The prophets say opposition. 

            Which is it? In some ways, it depends on whether we are talking long term or short term. When the world ends and Jesus comes to raise the living and the dead, there will be peace.  That is what we hope and pray for.  But right now, peace is elusive at best.  If we really thought that Jesus’ goal was to bring peace when he came the first time, we would have to conclude that he failed miserably.  Does the world seem peaceful to anyone?  And if you look at the particular region that Jesus went to, that region has always been plagued by violence. 

I don’t believe that Jesus failed.  I believe that we have failed Jesus.  Jesus told people they could have peace, but everything would have to change.  We would have to raise up the lowly and bring down the proud.  We would have to stop pursuing money and status and instead share with all.  We would have to heal the sick and bind the broken hearted. It should not surprise us that his message was not well received by those in power.  He was opposed, just as the prophet foretold. 

Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “I came to bring violence.”  Jesus and his disciples never used violence. He condemned violence at every opportunity.  But he definitely brought division.  He divided the faith of his family.   He divided the faith that everyone thought he came to redeem.  In doing so, he divided families.  Just look at the disciples; they all left their families. He asked people to make a choice between following him and following the status quo. Whenever we shift from the status quo, there will be more division.

            There is nothing I can say to make these words of Jesus seem ok. We hear these words and recoil.  But consider the people that Luke was writing to.  They were new Christians, many of whom had been ostracized from their families and communities.  They were living in fear.  No one had to tell them that their world was divided.  Yet what they had, was a faith that gave them the strength to withstand the division and conflict  as it was necessary for lasting peace. 

            When we hear Jesus talk about fire, we all think of judgment and the fires of hell.  We don’t like that, especially in the Episcopal Church where we are about love.  However, fire has more meanings than damnation.  It also represents purification, refinement, and God’s presence.  Now frankly, purification and refinement don’t sound very tempting, but fire representing God’s presence is a bit more palatable.  In the story of the exodus, God led the people through the sea with a cloud.  When the Egyptians entered the sea in pursuit, the cloud turned into a flame and the entire Egyptian army was wiped out.  One commentator wrote that in the Exodus story, fire represents the power of God to effect change in the face of formidable resistance.[1]  The change was the people leaving their home and launching into the unknown wilderness. The resistance was the Egyptian army.

            Jesus came to bring peace, but the peace that he brought was so revolutionary, so otherworldly, it felt like judgment and conflict.  And you know, change can feel like judgment at times.  Often when we change things from the way that we have always been doing it, we wonder, well what was wrong with the way we did it before?  And you know what, Jesus was asking people to change.  Jesus is still asking us to change.  One of my favorite quotes, that I probably break out about once a year is, “Jesus loves us just the way we are, but Jesus loves us too much to let us stay that way.”  I wonder if change and even judgment would be less offensive if we understood that it was in the context of God’s love for us as his children and God’s desire for peace for all the children of the world.  God’s not just asking us to change to improve ourselves, but to change for the good of the world.

The song that we all love so much, “Let there be peace on earth.”  Let’s not forget that 2^nd line. “And let it begin with me.”   It doesn’t mean that we stop arguing.  It doesn’t mean that we smile more often.  It means that we do the work that needs to be done to achieve peace. That might be protest. That might be letter writing.  It might be working with the underprivileged in our community.  It might also mean being intentional about interacting with the people who you disagree with. Because while Jesus brought division, he never kept himself divided from people, even the people he knew would kill him. The more we interact with people who are different from us, the closer we can come to bringing more peace into this world.  It is very doubtful that we will see peace in our lifetimes, but we can each bring change.  We can start by changing ourselves.

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[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4143  Matt Skinner

August 14, 2016: Divisive Jesus?

Year C, Pentecost 13                                     
Luke 12:49-56                                                

            When I read this Gospel passage, the following questions struck me, “Why didn’t I take my vacation this week? How come Mark got to preach on treasure and heart and I got stuck with angry Jesus? What’s so wrong with preaching on a Psalm once in a while?” The truth is, I actually love the idea of preaching these kinds of texts.  I love reading commentaries for hours on possible explanations.  But when my research is over and my fingers hover over the key board and the cursor blinks mockingly at me—I go back to those earlier questions. Why am I not on vacation? Part of my current problem is that I have been preaching a lot about the Body of Christ and the need to look past the things that divide us.  You know what is really hard for a preacher---when Jesus actually contradicts you.  It does not look good.  I would say my number one rule in preaching is: “Don’t contradict Jesus.”  Thus, after months of preaching about breaking through the walls that divide us, we have this passage.

            Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”  It gets worse from there.  After that he goes into unnecessary detail about how families will be divided…because of him. 

Jesus is our Lord and Savior.  He came to free us from our sins.  He came to show us how to love.  He came to forgive us.  He never said he would be nice about it.  We have this gauzy water color version of Jesus in our heads.  It’s the same one we saw in our children’s Bibles.  Yes, Jesus is a compassionate and forgiving.  He also said some really difficult things.  He was trying to change the world and he did not have much time to do it. At times, he was very harsh with people.

            Just a few chapters before this one, we heard that Jesus, “set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  This was a point of transition.  It tells us that he was preparing for his death. While he was all powerful and divine, he had taken on  human form.  As a human, he knew that he would suffer great physical and emotional pain.  When he said, “I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism (which in this context meant death) and what stress I am under until it is completed!”  A lot of people hear this and think that Jesus is excited about the judgment that will befall humanity.  It does say that he brought fire…but the fire that he brings is the same fires that burns him.  It is his own death and he is closer to it every day.  Of course he wishes it was already kindled.  Of course he’s a little stressed about it. Imagine living for years knowing that you were going to have a gruesome death.  Imagine what it would feel like every day as that moment got closer and closer. 

            That makes pretty good sense, but what about this whole bringing division instead of peace?  We call him the Prince of Peace.  The Prince of Peace should not be talking like this.  While there is no easy answer for this, I believe there is an explanation.  Notice that Jesus does not say, I am bringing division and I could not be more pleased about.  He does not say that he wants the world divided.  He just knows it will be.  When Jesus was born into this world, it was already horribly broken.  People thought the Messiah would be a quick fix.  He would come and say some nice things, do a couple of miracles and all of sudden all would be well. Jesus knew that it would be much harder than that.  God tried the easy way ---he have us paradise in the Garden of Eden.  It did not last long. 

While Jesus accomplished a great deal in the three years he was in public ministry, it didn’t make much of a difference.  People were still insistent on overthrowing the Romans.  For many people in Israel, peace was a world where Israel was the most powerful nation.  In their eyes, peace was not about justice, it was about who had the power.  That is similar to how we operate today.  There would be peace if the United States was in charge. I find myself longing for the days when we were the only superpower. That is the kind of peace that I believe Jesus wasn’t bringing.  He wanted peace that was built on justice and mercy, not power. 

There is a blessing we use at the end of the service.  “The peace of God which passes all understanding will guard you hearts and minds in Christ.” That is the peace that Jesus wanted—that he still wants, but it was beyond their understanding then and it continues to be misunderstood by us today.  That is why we still say that blessing at the end of the service.  In our best moments, we yearn to understand that peace.  Jesus also knew the only way to teach people about this peace that passes all understanding was to humble himself in front of those who had the supposed power, humble himself to the point of death.  In order for that lesson of real peace to sink in, his body was broken.  Jesus had to break so people would finally understand what it was to be whole, to be holy.  We had to witness him break himself for us.

            Yet even after that ultimate sacrifice, Jesus knew that we would be even more divided than before.  When the Gospel of Luke was written (about 40 years after his death) the Jews who chose to follow Jesus were ostracized.  They could no longer worship in their synagogues.  Much like Jesus predicted, families were torn apart.  This is not a pretty picture, and it is not meant to be. 

            I started by saying that by speaking about the importance of unity and the Body of Christ, I had contradicted these words of Jesus.  I was being a little overly dramatic. Jesus did not like division any more than any of us.  But he knew that when you follow him with authenticity and passion, you are going to tick some people off.  Being a Christian is not about pleasing people.  It’s not about going with the current.  It’s going against it.  Being a Christian isn’t easy.  It’s not just about showing up to church once awhile (although that is a really good start).  It’s about making Jesus your number one priority.  Every decision is made in the context of what it is to be a follower of Christ.  I can guarantee you that if you take that road, it is not easy. I fail in some way almost every day and that is when I have the courage to try.  The worst for me is when I do not even have the courage to try.  Failing is so much better than capitulation.  At least we try.      

            In the very beginning of the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph brought their infant son to the temple to be presented.  A holy man named Simeon was there and he immediately blessed them and said, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed… —and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Talk about a mixed blessing! From the very beginning, Jesus’ own parents knew that their son would bring conflict to the world and even pain to his mother.  But they also knew that the pain would be temporary and that in the end there would be salvation for all. 

After we adopted Joshua, every parent told us how wonderful and hard it is to be a parent.  No one said, “It’s really not worth all the pain and agony.” We should treat our God with the same love we have for our children, our parents, our partners, our best friends...   We should make him just as much as a priority. God already gave us everything.  He asks the same of us, everything.