Faith Brings Division

Today's sermon was primarily based on the gospel, Luke 12:49-56 with references to the second lesson of Hebrews 11:29-12:2.  I ended up using a combination of the NRSV and The Message for the gospel
And you can find my entire reasoning for doing so here at yesterday's post.  But this is the actual text that I used for today:

Jesus said: I’ve come to start a fire on this earth

and how I wish it were blazing already.

 I have a baptism with which to be baptized

and what stress I am under until it is completed!

Do you think I have come to bring peace,

to smooth things over and make everything nice? 

No I tell you.  I’ve come to bring division, to disrupt and

confront. 

From now on, five in one house will be divided,

                Three against two, and two against three

                Father against son and son against father.

                Mother against daughter

and daughter against mother

                Mother in law against daughter in law

                                Daughter in law against mother in law

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising

in the west you immediately say “storm’s

coming”  and you are right

And when you see the wind blowing from the south,

you say “There’s going to be scorching heat”

and you’re right. 

You hypocrites and frauds! 

You know how to interpret the appearances of the earth

and sky, the changing of the weather, but why do

you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Enjoy the sermon:

Oh this is not the Jesus we are used to. Can we please speed up to or reserve back to December when we get text and hymns with messages like “Peace on Earth goodwill to men”?! That is a much more comforting message, one that is filled with hope, one that little children sing songs about “I’ve got peace like a river.” Instead it is August, and we have a gospel text where Jesus proclaims, announces, declare, pronounces that he is not here to bring peace, to smooth things over and make everything nice. No instead he is here to bring division, to disrupt and confront. This isn’t the Jesus that we know! This isn’t the Jesus that we love!

But maybe it is the Jesus, the God, that we love and worship. Jesus didn’t come to maintain the status quo. He tipped over the money changers’ tables. He ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other well known sinners, the people the rest of society gossiped about. He offended the religious and political leaders of his time by disputing their authority. He caused more things to overturn and disrupt that he did to heal and smooth over.

And Jesus still brings division today! Denominations do not get along with other denominations. Congregations do not get along with other congregations, even in their own denomination. Christians do not get along with other Christians, even in their own congregations. There are divisions as a result of our faith in Jesus. And because we follow Jesus there should be division.

When we follow Jesus, when we put God first in our lives, we are putting others second, our family, our friends and that causes division. We are no longer fully devoted to them. When we follow Jesus we are announcing that we will stand up for what is right, even if it means standing along. Now that doesn’t always happen, but it is our hope in Jesus, our hope in faith that we will be able to do what Christ wants us to do instead of what society wants us to do. Can you see how division happens?

But we don’t always have conflicts. We play polite; we get along for the sake of others, and in many cases that is good. It is human nature to avoid conflict, to let people get away with doing wrong because you don’t want to cause a scene. To do the “Christian thing” and silently forgive or at least let bygones be bygones. But yet here is Jesus saying that he is coming to cause conflict, so maybe we need conflict in order to be Christian. We need to disagree with society, with the community at large and even with each other so that we can do God’s work in this world. Because it is when the status quo is upset that faith happens, that people are able to prophesy God’s word in this world and that people are able to hear God’s words and do God’s work.

Maybe one of the worse things that could have happen to Christianity is that Christianity became the status quo, Christianity became the norm. It became mainstream to be a follower of Jesus, and you were banished for not being a regular worshipper much less a non-believer. Because when Christianity became the status quo, and following Jesus means upsetting the status quo, following Jesus meant upsetting the church that Jesus is the lead of.

But now in this new millennium, in this post-modern society that we are a part of, this age of the internet and social media, Christianity is no longer the status quo. Yes Christianity is still the most popular religion in the United States, with 76% of Americans identifying themselves as Christians, but as few as 20% of Americans actually attend worship on any given week. Christianity is no longer the status quo, so maybe it is time that we, Christian, we followers of Jesus, upset the status quo.

We are being called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. To point out and loudly proclaim against the hypocrisy that exist in society, to invite sinners and outcast into our homes and our sanctuary, to offend religious, political and community leaders by disputing their authority and fighting for those who voices so often go unheard. To create the division in society that Jesus himself created so that faith can happen, so that we are able to prophesy God’s word in this world, so that people are able to hear God’s words and do God’s work, so that Christ may be proclaimed, so that God’s grace can be known to all people.

This is scary, it is hard to be an outsider, to be a proclaimer of God’s words. We might end up like those people that we heard about in Hebrews, the people who were tortured, mocked, flogged, chained and imprisoned as a result of their faith. People who were stoned to death, cut in two, killed by the sword. People who hid in disguises to keep from being destitute, persecuted and tormented. But yet for all those people, faith kept them. Faith kept them alive with Christ. Faith kept them in their hardest moments, faith kept them knowing that what they were doing was right.

And faith will keep us. Faith will keep us when we are mocked and persecuted for our beliefs. Faith will keep us alive with Christ. Faith will keep us knowing God’s will for this world and doing what is right. Faith sustains us during division, especially division that is a result of faith. For faith is a gift from God. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And we are saved by grace through our faith, regardless of what divisions are created because of Jesus.