Stick to the Message – Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Luke 12: 49-56)
We’re gathered here in the middle of August, but look out because Fall is just around the corner. The seasons will change in a little over a month from now. Of course, with Fall comes another season; football season. In fact, football has already started up again. Preseason NFL games are being played and in less than a month the regular season will be here. The Lions play their first game in Green Bay on September 7th and play their first game at home the next week. Football is a big deal in our country. It is by far the most popular sport we have, and overall, it is the most popular thing on television. Tens of millions of people can be counted on to watch a big game on TV. It is one of the main forms of entertainment and escapism for many people. That’s part of why it is so loved by many. Mess with that and people get angry. Like they did during the 2016 season, when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel during the singing of the national anthem, rather than stand with his hand over his heart.
The reason for this action was that Kaepernick was making a show of protest against police violence against unarmed African Americans and general racial inequality in the United States. He started this in the preseason and continued throughout the entire 2016 season. This caught the attention, and the anger, of many people. Many disagreed with his politics and the stance he was taking (literally and figuratively). Some just didn’t want him to bring this into the world of football. After that season Colin Kaepernick never played in the NFL again.
At times like that you often hear the phrase, “Stick to sports.” People become uncomfortable when the concerns of the “outside” world break into their escapism and entertainment. Especially if it is something they disagree with. People came to football to have fun, and it was a comfortable, safe place for them. Political activism disrupted that and made things uncomfortable.
We live in a hard world, so we seek comfort where we can, and sometimes that includes church, and even, the Bible. Being surrounded by a loving community and sharing in the words of hope and affirmation we find in scripture can be a comforting thing, especially in difficult times. That is why gospel readings like the one we heard this morning can be so upsetting. These words from the Gospel of Luke are known as Jesus’ “Hard sayings.” They speak harsh truths in a blunt way and make us question Jesus and his mission here on Earth. All this talk of bringing fire and division among family members is not comforting. It is upsetting. We hear these words from Jesus and we want to say, “Hey Jesus, ease up. Why are you talking about these things? Stick to peace and love, man. Stick to healing the sick. Stick to miracles. We don’t want this dividing families against each other stuff.” So, why is Jesus saying this, then? Why is he talking this way?
This scripture however is a reminder that Jesus, as great a guy as he was, was not always the most comfortable person to be around. For one thing he said confusing things. Sometimes he said things that seemed confrontational, especially when he was talking to the rich men in town or to the religious leaders. Secondly, Jesus lived in a way that pushed his disciples and the people that followed him to live beyond what was comfortable for them. To do things in a new way. Jesus certainly did not shy away from conflict and division.
Yet Jesus did not literally come to make division; he came to offer a new life path. Of course, this would lead to division and infighting. This would be a natural result of people thinking and living in a new way. A way that was antithetical to the established order of things. Jesus does not seek to divide, but Jesus does bring a message that he knows will be divisive. The division happens because the people are not ready to hear his message. They are not ready to live as Jesus lives. Commitment to Jesus changes us (our faith, our values, our priorities) and some some won’t be able to handle that. Maybe even people that are close to us, like mothers and fathers. Jesus asks his followers to make a commitment, to make a decision, and that can lead to conflict. The division comes because some of us are still more committed to the way things are, so we are not open to the ways Jesus will change them.
So, where do we see ourselves in this story, then? When Jesus asks, “Do you think I come to bring peace?” What is our answer to that question? I think our answer, our gut reaction, would be to say “Yes.” Maybe an emphatic “Yes.” Yes, Jesus, I think you come to bring peace. After all, it’s there in the name, Prince of Peace. So, yes, we think Jesus comes to bring peace. Perhaps that is the issue. Jesus can come to bring peace, but peace does not always come easily. In their commentary on the New Testament, Disciples scholars Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock put it this way, “The peace of God is not an anesthetic that makes one numb to conflicts of the world.” In fact, they suggest it might do the opposite. Make one more sensitive and attuned to those times when conflicts arise. Especially when they are against the peace of God. So, knowing peace means that we will also be more aware of those times when the peace is disrupted. If we are blessed to know peace, we become more able to recognize when others are not experiencing peace, and we might feel called to do something about it. At least we would hope so.
At the end of this scripture reading Jesus speaks to the crowd. He calls them hypocrites. Saying that they can predict the weather so why can’t they predict what is to come based on the time they are living in? For Jesus, this is a reference to that baptism with fire that was spoken of earlier. He is referring to his death and the changes that will follow. Yet even after all he has said, the people are not catching on. So, he compares it to the weather. In Judea at this time the weather was dictated by the direction the wind was blowing. If it was blowing from the west then it was coming from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea and so the people knew rain was coming. To the south was desert land, so if the wind was blowing from that direction the people knew dry air and heat were coming. So, Jesus wants to know, why the people can’t read the signs of the times in the same way. Why can’t they see what he has come to do and change their ways accordingly? Shouldn’t those who have the peace of God be able to read those signs? Or be attuned to what Jesus has come to do?
Probably, but that knowledge and that awareness means having to accept that the fire and the division that Jesus talks about. For the disciples it meant having to deal with the fact that Jesus was going to die and they were going to have to find a way to continue on following his teachings in a world that might now be hostile to them. As Craddock and Boring also write, “you can’t go around the cross, you have to go through it.” Following Jesus meant finding a way to live out the peace of Christ in world where that message of peace had created division. We are not eager to read or follow the signs that lead us to such a place. So, we might ignore people like Colin Kaepernick who make a stand to say, “Something is wrong. People are being treated wrongly and unfairly.” In other words, the peace of Christ is not being shared as it should be, it is not being applied to our society’s relationships with certain marginalized groups of people. Something is wrong. So, rather than listening to the warning and letting the signs tell us what time it is, we tell the messenger to “Stick to sports!”
When there are calls for justice and righteousness in the world, things begin to get divided. When the division happens, we begin to hear a lot of sentiments similar to the “stick to sports people.” For instance, if a church wants to share the peace of Christ by making a place that is open and affirming, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, we might hear “stick to the Bible, specifically the parts of it that I believe say what you’re doing is wrong.” If we think that our faith in Jesus should inform our politics in a certain way, some people might say, “Stick to thoughts and prayers. Stay out of activism.” The cracks of division begin to show when we try to live out the gospel the way Jesus taught us. We become divided from people who disagree with us, or who simply do not feel ready to follow Jesus to the cross, through his baptism of fire.
Some people, even some Christians, might say, “Stick to the cross.” Meaning, stick to the part of the story where Jesus dies, and because he dies, we are all saved and sins are forgiven. Let’s stick to that part. When we tell Jesus’ story we should “stick to the cross.” When we seek to live our lives in light of this story, “Stick to the cross.” Which makes sense, I suppose, when the cross is interpreted as one singular moment of salvation and atonement. Our sins are forgiven and our soul’s place in eternity is secure. That creates the peace that Christ is supposed to bring, doesn’t it? That’s certainly what the Roman’s thought. Putting Jesus on the cross would bring peace for them. But it is peace through violence. Which isn’t really a thing. It is simply a result of conflict and division. We must remember that the cross is not the end, however. Things go on after the cross. In this text, Jesus is urging people to become ready for what is next, because the world will be different after Jesus’s example of love.
Jesus may bring fire, but our actions and responses matter as well. The message of Jesus can divide, but it doesn’t have to. At least, not permanently. We have signs to guide us. We also have people to guide us. People that can interpret those signs, and who know what time it is. Those people are able to discern the message that Jesus brings us. It is a message of love for all God’s children. It is also a message that can cause division, because it can be hard to move us humans from our comfortable understanding of the world. So, it is a message that must persist, and find new ways to speak to us. Sometimes in places we might expect, like church. Sometimes in places we don’t expect like during the National Anthem before a football game. We can’t just stick to one thing, and neither could Jesus, because the message is bigger than that. In order to share the good news, we must be flexible, because there are always new ways to get the message out, even when people aren’t ready to hear it. So, stick to the story of Jesus’s love and how it continues to change the world because even after the cross, that is what goes on, and that is what will ultimately bring people together.
Amen.