August 19, 2007
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15, Year C)
Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56
How do you like the gospel lesson this morning? Sounds kind of harsh, don't you think? It's a bit unsettling.
When I reflect on this portion of Luke's gospel, I have two reactions:
First off, Jesus sort of loses it – "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!”
But the next part, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” This part is a bit harder to hear and think about. With our tendency to over-sentimentalize Jesus and his message of peace and hope, these words seem to be the antithesis of that sense of acceptance, inclusiveness and intimacy that we have come to accept as our model for living. At a time in history when family and tradition defined you: who you were in society, how you related to others, how you made your living, Jesus’ radical statement shattered conventional thinking and called the disciples to a new way of living. I don't think Jesus was making a statement here against the importance of families, or traditions or loyalty. I think he was trying to grab our attention, to shake us out of our complacency and our comfort zones, and make us realize that God is continually making a new thing. In this new world, we are defined by how we understand the new social order, how we care for all of Gods family. In this new world, we are called to destroy systems that stifle life – and it will not be easy. In the promise of the kingdom, there will be struggles and heartbreak. In the battle of good vs. evil, some of the good will perish. There is no such thing as cheap grace.
"But this is the Bible," we say! This is God's story, this is our Christian community. We're family. We're about being together and loving, accepting and giving. And that is all true. But what is also true is that in the midst of this striving to be faithful followers of Jesus, in our humanity we can also be a bit judgmental, and petty and selfish. And so I wonder about that, why in churches do we sometimes behave so badly?
I think it's because of the differences in how we live, out in the world, in our professional lives, and how we live in the spiritual realm, and who we bring to each experience. In our daily interactions with the world, in public and our workplaces, we try to bring our best selves. We want to present to the world our strengths, our steadiness, our best behaviors. We want to be competent and capable, well liked and respected. We strive to be goal directed and productive. And sometimes, we can be harsh, focusing on the bottom line more than the individual people involved in achieving it.
And then I think about the selves that we bring to the church. To be sure, we bring our strengths and competence here too, but I think we bring more of our complete and authentic selves. It can be a harder place to be. We all come with preconceived notions about what church life is or should be. Our professional life is business, the face we present to the world. Our spiritual life is personal. As we draw closer to God's dream for us, we must somehow manage to combine our best selves with compassion.
As church, in a reflection of the image of God, we say come as you are, who you are, bring all your gifts, your hopes and your dreams as well as your fears and vulnerabilities. And this is a gift of the church; we all need a place where we are free to be exactly who we are. But we sometimes forget that along with resting in the ever-welcoming arms of God, we also have to pay attention to the way we behave. We struggle with the inner conflict between personal expectations and the will of God. We incite one another to fulfill our own agendas; we allow ourselves to be lulled by feel-good quick fixes or sucked into a vortex of finger-pointing or self righteousness. We forget that those who work for the common good will have to fight for it, because it always means compromise, that someone will always have to give up something.
Last evening we were blessed with the presence and wisdom of Bo Lasoff, founder of the Human Kindness Foundation. He had a lot to say and left us with a lot on which to reflect, but the essence of it for me was this: we can become who we are meant to be by trying each day to be a little less selfish and a little less fearful than we were yesterday. We have to take responsibility for making our relationships work. For church to be that safe place we need it to be, it must also be the place we learn to become the best that we can be, together.
Christian living is not for the faint of heart. Life is hard and bad things happen. The world we live in is full of wonder, but it is also a place of conflict, conflict on a personal, local, national and international level. And we are more connected to it than ever because of the media, instant access to breaking stories all the day long. For some, I think it can actually be a bit addicting, it keeps our juices flowing. Others can fall into an attitude of complacency, constantly surrounded by suffering and becoming numb to it. In the gospel story today, Jesus reminds us that he comes to bring a cleansing fire to the earth, sometimes dividing families and communities. He expresses his frustration with our focus on worldly things. We have learned to understand the forces of nature and even predict the future, but we cannot see the spiritual imperatives and truths that are right in front of our eyes and are the keys to our spiritual survival. We are called to be lovers of truth and haters of injustice, and so we might be asked to alter our priorities, to make hard choices and to live in a new way. The good news is that Jesus, fully human and fully divine, understands, has already traveled the journey, and will guide us on our way.
Amen.
The Rev. Maggie Geller
Church of the Good Shepherd