Scripture text: Luke 12:49-56
“I have not come to bring peace, but division.”
I’m confused. Who are you and what have you done with the real Jesus? Jesus Christ, our savior, is all about peace. He brings the “peace that passes all understanding.” We, as his disciples, share God’s peace with one another in our liturgies. We work for peace in the world and between peoples. We are all about peace because we have believed that our Savior is also all about peace. And yet, here he tells us that peace is not what he brings, but more division.
Jesus is, however, a realist and we live in a world that does not WANT peace. At least not the kind that he brings. The peace the world wants is the peace of the tomb. It is the peace that comes when you have crushed all your enemies and seen them driven before you (Thank you, Conan.)
It is the peace that comes when evil is defeated at last, the bad guys are dead, and we, the heroes, get to ride off into the sunset. That is the kind of peace we want. That’s the kind of peace the world wants. The peace of being the last one standing upon a mountain of corpses.
Sounds extreme? Then explain why our world is always at war. Explain why there is violent crime in our cities. Explain why we have a Presidential candidate who is wondering why we can’t use our nuclear arsenal on our enemies? Explain why there are movements that say #BlackLivesMatter or #BlueLivesMatter? Because people are dying; more accurately, people are being killed because we have decided they are the enemy, they are thugs or pigs or monsters, and you know what we do to monsters. We slay them and slay them we have and slay them we will.
Sounds extreme? Then explain why our world is always at war. Explain why there is violent crime in our cities. Explain why we have a Presidential candidate who is wondering why we can’t use our nuclear arsenal on our enemies? Explain why there are movements that say #BlackLivesMatter or #BlueLivesMatter? Because people are dying; more accurately, people are being killed because we have decided they are the enemy, they are thugs or pigs or monsters, and you know what we do to monsters. We slay them and slay them we have and slay them we will.
From the News-Gazette
The peace the world wants will come when there is no more blood left to spill. But the peace that God brings is different. It is the peace that comes from love, from embracing people, by welcoming people, by feeding people, by caring for people as God has cared for us.
Now that sounds great in theory. Wonderful even. But if you try to put it into practice, watch out! Embrace the enemy and see what happens. Welcome a “thug” into your life and see what happens. Care for a monster and watch what occurs. We’re meant to destroy them, not love them, and when we love them the world will retaliate against us.
I came not to bring peace, but division. You want to see that happen, love the wrong people.
It gets worse, because sometimes the worst hostility comes not from those outside in the world, steeped in its ways and completely in support of its culture of violence. Sometimes the worst hostility comes from people who should know better, those who know God best, people who claim the name of Christ.
I spent last week, as you know, at the Churchwide Assembly gathering in New Orleans, LA. An overarching unofficial theme throughout the week was God’s universal love and mercy for all creation. Again, easy and wonderful in theory. But, on Wednesday, when the preacher preached to us out of his experience as an African-American in the whitest church in America (Yes, if you didn’t know that, we are.) His words were challenging and inspiring in equal measure. As were others who spoke on the evils that we white Christians often do to our brothers and sisters of color or to people of alternate sexuality. Sometimes, we don’t mean to hurt others. Sometimes, we don’t realize it. But sometimes, we do mean it and we do realize it. But regardless, we can and have done evil to others. The sword of the Crusader and the rope of the lynching tree are not as deep in the dustbin of history as they should be.
The audio's a little wonky, but it's worth the listen.
I did not come to bring peace, but division. Want to see that in action? Call out your own kind, your own people, for the evils they have done, inadvertently or deliberately, to others. Call out your nation. Call out your friends. Call out your family. I dare you and watch what happens.
It gets worse still. If our own kind can be guilty of evil, then it follows that we ourselves as individuals can be guilty. This is the hardest challenge of all, when we must confront the darkness in our own hearts. To admit, to truly admit, the wrong we have done to others. Hurtful things we’ve said, behaviors that have harmed others, habits and vices that damage our relationships. Of these, we are guilty, and the battle within us can rage fiercely.
I did not come to bring peace, but division. Want to see that in action? Stare long at those skeletons in your personal closets and know that they are yours and only yours. No one else can be held to blame for them. It’s you who put them there. My skeletons are mine. I’m the one who made them. I can’t pretend they belong to someone else. They are mine!
You know, maybe we are the bad guys. And if we’re the bad guys, what happens when our enemies, steeped in the world’s idea of peace through superior firepower, decide to come after us?
Sobering thought. Fearful thought. And it is that fear that fuels the division. We fear the truth of who we are. We fear the truth of what we’ve done and we’re capable of doing. And we fear the truth of what can be done to us by others.
Jesus knew that fear well, because it was as real in his world and times as it is in ours. Two thousand years has not changed that. But Jesus came to bring a new way, a way of REAL peace, a peace based on love and not fear.
That love begins with you and me. It begins when Jesus comes to you and me and says, “I love you. I know everything you’ve done, all that ugliness, all that villainy. I know your guilt. Yeah, you screwed up. But I love you and forgive you. I died for you; that’s how much you mean to me. I went to that cross for you. Love others in this same way.”
So it goes forth from us to our own people. Our race, our family, our nation. No, let me show you another way. Let me show you how love works. Let me tell you about how much you mean to Jesus Christ. Let me tell you what he’s done for you and why. Let me say to you, “I love you and he loves you. He knows everything you’ve done, all that ugliness, all that villainy. He knows your guilt. Yeah, you screwed up. But He love you and forgive you. He died for you; that’s how much you mean to him. He went to that cross for you. Love others in this same way.”
And it goes forth from our own to others. To those different from us. Let us together show you another way. Let us show you how love works. Let us tell you how much you mean to Jesus Christ. Let us tell you what he’s done for all of you and why. Let us say “God loves you. He knows everything you’ve done, all that ugliness, all that villainy. He knows your guilt. Yeah, you screwed up. But He loves you and forgives you. He died for you; that’s how much you mean to him. He went to that cross for you. Love others in this same way.”
That, my friends, is real peace. It is our calling. It is our purpose. Go forth and love. Go forth and bring peace. Amen.
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