PROPERS: PROPER 15, YEAR C
TEXT: LUKE 12:49-56
PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, PENSACOLA. ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019.
ONE SENTENCE: Division is a natural result of truth and falseness; between good and evil; between one pathway and another.
Nora and I recently had the opportunity to walk on some very sacred soil – a place I had longed to visit. That sacred land was beaches of Normandy – where divisions could not have been more stark or appropriate.
Specifically, we visited the beaches on which American troops landed on June 6, 1944 – Utah and Omaha beaches, and Pont do Hoc. British and Canadian troops landed further to the east, on Sword, Juno and Gold beaches.
Under stormy skies, with rough seas, and facing the withering fire of the enemy from the dune gun placements, the brave men came ashore – 75 years ago.
The scenes are very placid now, but one can envision the drama of D-Day. One-hundred fifty-six thousand troops landed there that day. The scene had a certain moral clarity to it. It was the line of demarcation between good and evil.
The division was clear. And there was reason for it. Good reason.
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When I was in my first year of seminary, one of the few courses we took during the entire year was New Testament.
The professor was British, with a dry, droll sense of understatement.
We had to do a paper explaining – through various technical means – the points of a particular teaching by Jesus. It was much like our gospel lesson today – subject to interpretation.
In writing my paper, I had the temerity to say, “What Jesus was meaning to say…”. After those words, the professor wrote in bright red pen, “Oh, really?”
His point was made.
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Today’s gospel lesson prompts some speculation on our part. What was Jesus saying when he said he came to bring division? What did the fire he was bringing mean? Why would family members be pitted against one another?
This seems to be so at-odds with our concept of a tender and mildJesus; one who is soft and undemanding. We squirm a bit with the images of a divisive, fire-brand savior.
But perhaps… just perhaps, he was talking about the natural result of his message and his ministry. Not that such division and separation would be good – though in certain circumstances the clarity between good and evil would be very helpful.
Keep in mind that Jesus’ message was very-much counter to the prevailing culture of the day. His words were much like the prophets which preceded him in the previous six centuries. He was calling the people to find and live the essenceof the Law – which he summarized in the words I read following the Collect for Purity of Heart: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
The teaching which he offered, and the manner in which he ministered, flew in the face of prevailing norms in his culture. He invited people to decide for themselves – not in a violent, militaristic sense – which pathway they would travel.
Some would follow, some would not. Hence, there would be division.
The division grew, for good or ill, as the young Jesus movement began to be separated from its native Jewish roots. The division during the early centuries of the Christian era led to mass persecutions and martyrdoms at the hands of the powerful Roman empire.
And, likewise, there was unhelpful division in the days of new definitionsof Christianity – with the Roman Church, and some governments, persecuting those who had different visions of the church. Henry VIII and Bloody Mary come to mind.
All that was part of the Reformation, that crucible period which the church endured beginning in the 16thcentury. The movement to reform the church raged across Europe. Rulers rose and fell as a consequence.
But, it had both its positive and negative effects. Yes, it brought division between groups – and in some cases with violent, tragic consequences – but it also brought about more clarity within the Jesus movement.
Fast forward to the modern era. That movement to reform the church has led, I think, to greater division – not all of which is bad. I am one of the dissenting voices who sees the hundreds of denominations and movements not as a tragedy, but as a means by which many may find connection with a savior that can touch many lives from a variety of directions.
The division continues today. It is as fresh as the headlines and as new as the politics. Once the division was unleashed so many years ago, there is no way to guess where it will go. We are constantly defining our faith.
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And let’s put it on a personal level. If we are truly honest with ourselves, the truth and power of Jesus’ words cause division deep inside our spirits.
As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
It is that internal division – a portion of which we may call our conscience– which creates a healthy, holy division within us. It can guide us through some rough spots of life, and also convict us when we decide we move away from the waywe are called to travel.
That division creates holy space within us and is helpful to us.
Division, then, is not something that is necessarily destructive. It is a natural byproduct of the truth we hear in Jesus words.
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Oh, yes, go back to the Normandy beaches again. Despite the huge toll of death and bloodshed those beaches witnessed, we can be ever grateful for the clear division which prompted that action. It was division that was as clear as night and day, as good and evil, as life and death.
Some divisions – internal, external, global or particular, as with a surgeon’s knife – are ultimately healing.
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