24 "A
disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25 it
is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the
master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more
will they malign those of his household!
26 "So
have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and
nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say
to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim
from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and
body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And
even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do
not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 "Everyone
therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my
Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before
others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34 "Do
not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to
bring peace, but a sword.
35 For
I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and
one's foes will be members of one's own household.
37 Whoever
loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son
or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and
whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those
who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake
will find it."
Called to Division??
This summer, I attended the 221st
meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Presbyterians from all over the world
gathered in Detroit for eight days to do the business of the church. We had, as I’m sure you can guess, committee
meetings. We had worship and
communion. We had fellowship. We came together, from near and far, to try
to discern the will of God for the PC(USA).
And, at the end of our time together, whether we were happy about the
results or not, we worshiped again.
I arrived home about 10:00 that
Saturday night, exhausted and longing for my bed and my pillow, and still
reeling from the events of the week.
It’s an intense week, during which it is not unusual for meetings to go
past midnight. My job as a student
assistant meant dealing with IT issues and assisting the organizers with
whatever they needed, and required me to arrive early and stay late, so most
days were upwards of 16 hours.
There were many tears that
week. Some of them were admittedly my
own, but most of them came from supporters on all sides of issues. There were tears of joy, tears of grief, tears
of exhaustion and tears of gratitude.
Even though this is the “business” of the church, I want to be clear
that it is deeply spiritual work, and faithful Christians from across the
ideological spectrum often break into song and prayer together. They reach out to one another, grieved by
their separation, but firm in the belief that they are proclaiming the Gospel
to the best of their abilities.
I cannot tell you who is on the
right side of God in our debates. I can
tell you who I believe is on the right side, but I’m not sure that would be
helpful. Because these are good,
faithful people working their tails off to the glory of God, and that is to be
celebrated. AND, in the end, no matter
how “right” we are, we all fall
short, and that is what we must remember when we begin to talk about those
“other” people as “wrong.”
In our text for today, Jesus has
just finished talking to his followers about discipleship. Then he tells them
this: “Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have come not to
bring peace, but a sword.”
{sigh}
Honestly, I struggle with this
text. I’ve looked at it over and over,
read commentary after commentary, prayed, written, done all the things a
preacher is supposed to do while writing a sermon. But this one phrase is so entirely contrary
to everything I have ever been told about Jesus. After all, Jesus is the one who brought us a
new commandment. In John 13:34 Jesus
says: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one
another.” It doesn’t even sound like the
same Jesus.
Perhaps some context will help…
The book of Matthew is written
to a group of Jewish Christians. So,
let’s stop and think about what that means.
The Gospels are often read to portray the Pharisees as the “bad guys.” They weren’t really bad guys, they were Jews practicing
strict adherence to Torah, the law that God gave to the Jews. They were genuine religious people engaging
in genuine religious practice. And Jesus
himself wasn’t trying to portray the Pharisees as “the bad guys,” but his
ministry often violated their interpretation of the Law. The Pharisees were
charged with upholding this Law that had guided their religious practice and
relationship with God for centuries. Yet clearly, Jesus’ reinterpretation of
the Law could appear to be complete disregard for that Law, and as such posed a
significant threat to their approach.
So the Jewish Christians of
Matthew’s community still practiced Jewish traditions and considered themselves
Jews…and they were, ethnically, nationally, geographically; everything about them
said Jew…but they were also followers of Jesus.
That meant they didn’t adhere to the same law they once did. They were following Christ at the risk of
everything.
And what does Jesus tell
them? He says, “Don’t worry; this is how
it’s supposed to be. I’m not here to
make your life easy.” Gee, thanks,
Jesus, that was super inspiring.
These Jewish Christians are,
once again, wandering in the desert.
They are in exile. They have
become the scourge of society, meeting in secret in order to preserve their
lives and, especially, the lives of their families.
But Jesus tells them not to do
that. Because being a disciple means
being willing to give up even their families.
They were following Christ at
the risk of everything.
And that, I believe, is what the
PC(USA) is doing today. We may not be
meeting in secret (it definitely was NOT a secret that two thousand of us were
in town) and we may not be fearing for our lives simply for being Christian,
but our family is breaking apart because of our will to be followers of Christ
Jesus.
Four years ago, at the General
Assembly in Minneapolis, we removed the restriction which denied ordination to
our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sisters and brothers. The issue of homosexual ordination has been a
divisive one from the beginning, and has spawned a new Presbyterian
denomination…the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians…or ECO. That one change to our polity literally split
the church.
But friends, I believe it is too
simple to view the ECO and other Presbyterians with whom we disagree as
‘Pharisees,’ or even to claim that either side is wrong. Though
painful and deeply sad, our disagreements are not entirely destructive. We are all doing discipleship. We are following Christ at the risk of everything,
even the destruction of our church family.
It gives me hope, and great joy, to know that our love of Christ is
greater than our love of anything else.
So much so, that in order to be faithful followers, we are finding
ourselves divided.
There will, undoubtedly, be more
churches and individuals leaving this year.
The issues that divided us ranged from clergy being allowed to marry
same-sex couples, to divestment from fossil fuel companies and companies that
profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine, to our official position on
drones, guns and the death penalty.
These are hot topics, and we considered them all. Faithfully, prayerfully…we considered them. Votes were cast, tears were shed, cheers were
heard, songs were sung, hugs were given and received, communion was taken.
And now here we are, standing on
the edge of a new reality, one which sees the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the
ECO Presbyterians, one where we must take seriously what is written in our own
Foundations of Presbyterian Polity: “The Church is to be a community of faith,
entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.”
We are divided as followers of
Christ.
This, my friends, is kingdom
seeking. Let us be determined to discern
the will of God, God alone, and “let the chips fall where they may.”[1] If we find ourselves divided as a people, let
it be because we are following the Christ we confess as Lord. Because “the demands of the prince of true
peace may very well feel like a sword cutting through lesser loyalties and
making quick work of our flabby, commonsense morality.”[2]
You see, Jesus knew, when he
instructed his disciples, that the work he was preparing them for would be
treacherous. Discipleship is
costly. He deliberately used violent
imagery, to prepare his followers for what was to come. So we cannot say that we didn’t know, because
we did. We were told that we would be
risking everything if we were to be followers of Christ. And yet, here we are, risking everything.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but
Jesus’ values are not family values.
Jesus’ values are kingdom values.[3] It’s hard for us to comprehend what that
means, because his teaching has become so commonplace for us. But it was totally radical. There’s a reason the authorities wanted him
dead.
I want badly for our church
family to be in unity with one another, but more than that, I want to follow
Jesus. I want to be a disciple. I want to be radical. I fail most of the time.
I’m human. I fail at kingdom seeking. That’s not to say that we should be seeking
out hardship or things that will cause us to be divided, no. In fact, Jesus tells us only to pick up his
cross, not to create our own. What we
should be doing, though, if following what God is calling us to do, rather than
doing what makes us most comfortable.
For example: My fiancée, Matt, and I would really like to go west when
we get married and graduate. We want to
be close to my sister, who just had our first nephew, Moses. Our great desire is to be near our family, to
do ministry where we can be comfortable and where our kids can all grow up
together. We know it won’t be easy, but
it’ll be better if we’re close to family.
If we’re comfortable…
How’s that for risking
everything? For kingdom seeking?? I told you most days I fail.
I overheard a similar story at
General Assembly. A woman prayed for God
to send her west so she could be with her family. As she put it, “God heard “west” and sent her
to West Jersey.” This terrifies me. Aside from simply not wanting to live in New
Jersey, I hate the thought of being so far from my family. I hate the thought of my kids not growing up
around their cousins. Julie, my sister,
sat down next to one of our cousins at a family gathering a few years ago and
he said, “Who are you?” I don’t want
that for my family. Unfortunately for
me, Jesus’ values are not family values and at some point I will have to
realize that our dreams of waking up to a Pacific view may not be where God
sends us.
All this for a Church whose
savior brings a sword of division? All
this for a church that may ultimately perish?
The Gospel shakes up
values. The Gospel rearranges
priorities. The Gospel reorients goals.[4]
But I trust that when Jesus
tells me not to fear, I shouldn’t. Okay,
I mostly trust that. It’s what he says
though. Three times in this passage,
Jesus says “Do not be afraid.” He
promises that, despite the hardships of discipleship, God goes with us.
So I implore you to pray, to
discern the will of God. And at the risk
of everything, follow.
Amen.
