August 19, 2007 - Luke 12:49-56
The Rev. Stephanie E. Parker

Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but division."

With the passage of time, I believe that some of the jagged edges of the difficult teachings from our scripture have been worn smooth and dull by their familiarity. Jesus' words today, however, spill out into our sanctuaries with a flow of words that still feel harsh and sharp to our ears.

This reading might actually cause you to eagerly anticipate the sermon-possibly like never before-so that we might hear the soothing words that will explain away this troubling pronouncement. I hope I have some of those words, but I must be very careful because Jesus' truthfulness is uncompromising, and I cannot let us bob and weave around a difficult teaching. We must acknowledge that we are caught up in the power of a loving God who challenges us to move and to change.

Today, we, like the generations of disciples who came before us, are confronted with the knowledge that God desires both our fidelity and our transformation. Realizing this fidelity and transformation may well require the sacrifice of intimate relationships or the reorientation of guiding precepts to which we cling. We, like the disciples, will be forced to make choices, sometimes between the things and people we hold most dear.i[1]1

But Jesus did not and does not desire to divide families nor does he desire us, as Christians, to turn our backs on those we love who may not themselves have come to the full knowledge of Jesus as the Christ. Jesus simply states the uncompromising truth to prepare us for the painful reality that to embrace the new; we must sometimes live through the death of the old.

We have all perhaps, in one way or another, experienced a heartrending time when grief for the old and hope for the new have resided side by side in a strange symbiosis. As I reflected on the anniversary of my ordination this week I realized that going to seminary was for me one such experience. To move into the future and become who I was sure God formed me to be meant that I had to say goodbye to a church, to my friends, to a community and a business that had all meant stability, security, and happiness to me for a very long time.

But to stay in the old places of security and comfort after realizing that we are indeed called into something new by Christ ultimately robs us of joy anyway. Failure to respond to God's call to new life feels like the death of that deepest part of our soul that quickens and ignites when we hear God's invitation for us to follow Jesus. When we finally abandon ourselves to trust in God's providence, we feel the surge of new life running through our veins.

Even as we feel the tumult of the division that separates us as we say goodbye to the old, we strain forward pulled by the hope and certainty of Jesus' promise of finding true life.

I personally experienced what this "true" life felt like for me during my transition to seminary when one morning at 5 am, as I was finishing a paper that was due at noon and I had to be in Chapel by 8. I suddenly realized there was an utter joy and peace that was the bedrock foundation supporting me in my fatigue and stress. In that inexplicable moment and in many other moments like that, that continue to this very day in my service to this church, I know with utter certainty that I am walking the path God has lovingly placed before me.

Think about those moments in your own lives when you have felt the "rightness" of some very difficult decision or transition. Try to recall those times when you've prayed and thought and planned and wondered how in the world you could do this or that and how it just seemed foolish to upset the status quo of your life.

But then even as you seek to turn away from the potential disruption a new dream or tough decision will bring into your life, you suspect that there is a better kind of peace than the status quo and that in fact continuing to do business as usual only creates a very thin and fragile veneer that masks a deep emptiness or persistent longing.

When we realize God is moving in our lives, we can at last surrender our fears and anxieties. And in the holy void left by the departure of anxiety and fear, we discover something far more abiding has taken their place---we discover the peace that passes all understanding---we discover God's peace. This is the peace that survives division of every kind.

Still, this contradiction of the Prince of peace saying he came to bring division is a tension that calls us sit up and take notice. Jesus does want to bring a deeper health and wholeness to our lives and our world and the cost of that process will be division. The greater peace-God's peace--- will come at the cost of what a former classmate of mine, Frank Logue, called a lesser peace.ii[2] Much of what follows is my interaction with a sermon of his.

You see Jesus did come to bring peace, but he is calling us to shalom; God's deeper, lasting peace that is beyond human understanding. We often think of peace as the absence of conflict, but today Jesus pauses for some truth in advertising to say that the deeper peace of God will first bring division.

Frank, whom I mentioned earlier, calls us to look at some recent history a little closer for an example and pointed to our not so distant struggles with racism and segregation. He points out that some could look around in the 50's and see a world that had peace among racial groups. But the peace that existed in much of the South in this time was a much lesser peace.

This peace was maintained by blacks who sat in the back of the bus without complaint. The peace was upheld by blacks who knew better than to attempt to be served in white restaurants. The peace was sustained by otherwise conscientious but fearful whites who colluded by pretending to believe that black people were happy with segregation.

There was this lesser peace in place, and yet, in that same time and place, a deeper understanding of God's peace called some people, both black and white, to action. The promise of God's peace called people to stand up for their own rights and the rights of others and led them to refuse to settle for this peace that was no peace, they refused this lie, which was bought at too great a price.

Throughout history there are thousands of examples of people settling for this lesser peace when God was calling them to something more. The peace of God brings an end to the false peace and can indeed pit family members against each other.

Jesus experienced plenty of division in his own life. Jesus saw his mother and brothers turn against him. They tried to silence Jesus fearing that he had lost his senses. Later, would come reconciliation for Jesus and his family, but first came division.

Jesus continually reached out to the outcast in his own society. Jesus upset the status quo and eventually was killed for rocking the societal boat a little too much. Jesus did bring God's peace to the earth, a true and lasting peace, but if we choose to embrace God's peace, Jesus wants us to be prepared for the potential upheaval.

It is impossible to make a true commitment to follow Jesus' teaching and not have it change your behavior and your attitude. A commitment made in one area of your life will affect your whole life. You will be transformed over time in ways that you might not fully appreciate yourself. Other people will notice and not everyone will like what they see. For example, stop taking drugs and then try hanging around the friends that do. You won't be welcomed for long, unless you change back to your old self.

Without being aware of it, everyone wants to preserve the lesser peace. But the cost of accepting the lesser peace is that we can't help our world break through to the deeper peace waiting for us. Shalom, God's true and lasting peace is calling us to stand up against the many forms of injustice around us.

Any time we preserve a false peace at someone or some group of people's expense, we are trading God's Shalom for a something less.

So, as Jesus exhorts us many times, be not afraid. There is nothing to fear in Jesus' words beyond the impending loss of the status quo. But do be ready to have your lives upended and your peace disturbed as you seek and embrace the wondrous peace of God. Amen.


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