I’ve been reflecting on my sermon from this past Sunday, and I am unhappy with it. Don’t worry, I’m not beating myself up about it nor is this a veiled plea for people to salve my insecurities. Long ago, I accepted the fact that not every sermon would be a home run. A minister has his or her better and worse days in the pulpit just like any other day of the week. Instead, what I’m doing—and I’m inviting you to come along for the conversation—is thinking about what I wanted to say and why it was so difficult to say it. I’m thankful that as your minister I get to preach again next Sunday and the one after that and the one after that and so on. This conversation continues between us—minister and church—as we all journey together.On Sunday, I preached out of Luke 12: 49-56, where Jesus says that he did not come to bring peace but division, even division between family members. These are startling words from the Prince of Peace, and on the surface, they are frightening words, especially to those of us who work to strengthen families, including church families. I shared my belief that the context of these verses in Luke’s Gospel help to make these verses more understandable, if no less threatening. Luke tells us that Jesus may be the Prince of Peace, but he has come to upset the status quo. He came to lift up the lowly and oppressed and to humble the proud and powerful. He preached about hidden things being revealed, laying up treasure in heaven and the hypocrisy of doing the right thing religiously but the wrong thing morally. In short, the peace of Christ means anything but an affirmation of the status quo. (I’m pretty sure that my sermon on Sunday did not express this idea so clearly or succinctly.)
This is a difficult message to convey, because I long for unity and lack of conflict in every aspect of my life, including my vocational life. As a minister, I desire for people to get along and agree so that we can be a unified community of faith. Yet, I also know that almost always before true unity (peace) can be achieved the hard work of dealing with difficult issues and questions must be performed. That often involves conflict and change, because the status quo is most often the lowest common moral and spiritual denominator. If the hard work of conflict and change is not performed, a false unity is created that comes into existence because some people shouted the loudest and other people acquiesced and everyone chose the road of least conflict rather than the narrow way of faithfulness.
Jesus’ words in Luke 12 are also hard to talk about, because division is rampant in our society and our world, especially in regards to religion. Part of the reason I am a minister is because I feel called to help others experience the grace of God and to see Christianity and the church as healing forces in our world rather than divisive and judgmental institutions. Many ministers, churches and Christians seem to revel in dividing people from one another—sacred vs. secular, Republican vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal, etc. Demonizing others is an easy way to build support, because it involves no inspection of the self only criticism of the “other.” I believe the division Jesus says will happen because of him is not something we should treat with arrogant glee but humble grief. Conflict and change may be necessary, but they can also be painful. Furthermore, the self-sacrificial love of Christ is our example of how we are to care for people—even those we disagree with. This is especially true within a church.
These are difficult concepts. I will continue to express my thoughts about how we can be a faithful community of faith even as we face the necessary conflict of growing and changing to meet the demands of our present and future. I hope you will do the same.
Grace and Peace,
Chase
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