Sermon for 10th Sunday after Pentecost
Preaching on THIS Gospel Text?
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
I certainly did not want to preach on THIS Gospel text! Where is the “Good News” in these words of Jesus – “I came to bring fire to the earth” and “division” of households and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and ending with calling the crowd all “hypocrites!” Yes, I certainly did not want to preach on THIS Gospel text!
So, I wrote what I thought was a fine sermon on the second lesson for this weekend, the text from the Book of Hebrews where the writer of Hebrews speaks of the “great cloud of witnesses” that precedes us in the faith. I shared some of the people in my own “cloud of witnesses” and a wonderful example from my visit to the catacombs, early Christian graves, outside of Rome, where the graves of some 300,000 early Christians are stacked upon each other, a literal example of how we stand where we are today on the backs of those who came before us.
But my heart kept coming back to THIS Gospel text. I kept coming back to what I might share with you that might be helpful in yours and my journey of faith in 2019?
That got me thinking of the “cost” of attending church. What does it cost us to go to church?
Well, some answers are obvious – it cost us a couple of hours on a Sunday morning, a loss of a chance to sleep in on a Sunday, whatever we put in the offering plate, our efforts to pull ourselves and our family somewhat together.
That does not sound like much of a cost, does it? If we are talking about those kinds of “costs,” well, it costs very little to attend worship here at Mt. Olive or anywhere else.
This was not so in Jesus’ day. As Jesus indicates in today’s lesson from St Luke’s Gospel, in this complicated and off-putting passage which I really did not want to preach on, as Jesus indicates in today’s Gospel lesson, those who followed Jesus were regularly thrust into conflict and division, often with their own family members. There was a great “cost” to following Jesus in Jesus’ day.
To follow Jesus, you see, was to question the religious and economic and even political status quo.
If you were Jewish, as most of Jesus’ earliest followers were, following Jesus meant accepting as the Messiah this itinerant rabbi who hung out with outcasts, accepted sinners, a rabbi who preached a message of love and forgiveness. It meant, that is, accepting as Messiah a person who looked nothing like the warrior King David who they had expected as a Messiah.
And, if you were Gentile, not of Jewish background, it really meant the same – also accepting as the Messiah an itinerant rabbi who hung out with outcasts, accepted sinners and preached a message of love and forgiveness. It also meant, that is, accepting as a Messiah someone who looked almost nothing like a person who the culture of Jesus’ day would have said was powerful or important.
Moreover, in Jesus’ day, following Jesus was not just getting ourselves together for worship on a Sunday morning. No, in Jesus’ day following Jesus meant not merely adopting a new set of beliefs, but a new way of living. To be a follower of Jesus meant that a person was called, invited, to live a life like Jesus, accepting and honoring the outcasts, rejecting the easy temptation of judging others and instead inviting other people, people far different that those of one’s family and friends, inviting them into their lives. To be a follower of Jesus, the one who preached love and forgiveness, was to practice love and forgiveness, particularly when it came to those who differ from you, even, and maybe especially, practicing love and forgiveness for those who believe differently that you. And that, as Jesus states in today’s Gospel lesson, could and perhaps would cause conflict, even conflict within family and friends.
That got me thinking of what it might be like if we, today, practiced our faith the way Jesus called his original followers to practice their faith – love and acceptance for all, even those far different from us, even those who society shuns. How would our family and friends react to that?
And then we have Jesus’ “bringing fire to the earth” comments. Across the Old Testament, the purifying fire Jesus seems to reference in today’s Gospel is most often associated with the fire that burns away impure religious practices. Not impure as in “not liturgically correct,” but rather impure in that they tended to make religion a source of false comfort.
Over the centuries too many have thought that right religious practices and beliefs should exempt you from suffering or disaster or poverty or even death all around you.
And, of course, this sort of “impurity” continues today. So many today still believe that if they “accept Jesus in their heart” all of their problems will go away, they will not only escape eternal punishment and secure a divine reward in heaven above but will also be rewarded here on this earth. This “impurity” is also behind what is called “prosperity gospel,” the ever-popular belief that with a right faith, all will go well in your life, including your financial life.
We know this is not true. A belief in God in Jesus Christ does guarantee eternal life with God, but it does not guarantee an easy life on this earth. To the contrary, a belief in God in Jesus Christ may even bring a difficult life since our calling is to love and care for everyone, even those who are difficult to love and care for, even those who are very different from ourselves.
So, I asked myself, “What if our faith is not about is guaranteeing future bliss?” What if our faith is rather an invitation to live differently now, today, to see those around us neither as souls to be saved or threats to be deterred, but rather to see them, others, all others, everyone, to see them as God’s children to be loved, honored and cared for?
That got me thinking of how most, if not all, politicians end their important speeches with “God bless America” or God bless the United States of America.” Not a bad way to end a speech, to be sure.
And yet, throughout the Bible any blessing comes with an expectation, even obligation, that the person blessed by God is to extend God’s blessing to others. Our nation has been blessed, abundantly, richly, and from those who have been given much, much is also expected.
With that in mind, I would love to hear a politician end with “God bless America so that America can be a blessing to the world.”
And that gets us back to why we come to worship. I would hope that our worship – hymns, lessons, prayers, sermon, communion – all of it and even our refreshments after worship, that our Saturday and Sunday gatherings would lead us all to a deeper faith, one that shapes our lives, a faith that matters, one that shapes the way we think of all of our lives – work, family, friends, money, service and so much more.
So, let us be a place not of obligation but a place to come to be encouraged, equipped and sent out to make a difference in this world. And a place to return to when following Jesus becomes difficult. Because following Jesus, as Jesus suggests in today’s Gospel, may bring division, but it can and will also bring great joy.
Jesus, the one who sends us out, Jesus himself states in today’s Gospel lesson that he was baptized with fire, the fire of God’s radical love for this world. This is the Jesus who is with us both as we come to worship to be reminded of our identity as God’s beloved and as we are sent out from here to tell others, all others, that God loves them also, just as God loves us.
This is what Jesus came to earth to do – to tell the world that God loves us all, that such a belief of love will not always, even may not be often, be easy, but that God in Christ Jesus will accompany us all in all of the joys and sorrows of this life. Today and tomorrow and always.
Amen.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose)
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, August 17 & 18, 2019
