Göttinger Predigten
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13th Sunday after Pentecost, 08/18/2013
Sermon on Luke 12:49-56 (RCL), by David Zersen
REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE
Children need to feel loved and affirmed. Out of such self-understanding they learn to make responsible decisions for themselves. Recently, we were with our four grandchildren, ages 5-7, at a neighborhood park offering water fountains in which to run, playground equipment to explore and a very steep hill to climb. The five-year-old grandson asked if he could climb the hill and sit toward the top and play with his collected sticks. I conceded, knowing that I could see him from below. Another grandchild's play in the water fountain distracted me for a while, and suddenly I realized that I could no longer see my grandson. I climbed the steep hill, only to discover him rolling in wild abandon down the hill which had sticks and broken glass amidst the grass. I called to him at the bottom of the rear side of the hill and immediately he realized what had happened. He had taken my affirmation to allow him to sit near the top of the hill to mean that he could make his own decisions about what was and was not fun or dangerous. For a moment he had forgotten who he was, a much-loved five-year-old child who needed to pay attention to the counsel shared by a concerned and loving grandfather.
When we read today's Old Testament and Gospel lesson, we are reminded of the authority figure standing at the top of the hill. But we don't hear much of the affirmation and counsel in these texts. We are struck by the judgment, even if we aren't sure about the circumstances. It's this judgment that many also object to, wondering what kind of God has a right to say things like that to people who expect to be embraced and comforted with the words that many a contemporary false prophet loves to share.
Let's remember the setting in Matthew's text. To be sure, the author frames Jesus' words more aggressively than Luke does. And everyone has a right to express what he or she thinks another has said. Nevertheless, Matthew's Jesus has an apocalyptic sense to him. He has sharpened his words to challenge those who understand their place in God's kingdom too casually. Jesus often uses hyperbole, an exaggerated packing of words, to make a strong point. Here he takes to task those who have assumed peace means accommodation to any view at all. That's not the peace I came to bring, Jesus fairly shouts. Once people take my words to heart, they will discover that they have divisions within their families and communities, not some phony approach to truth that says everything is valid and all views are acceptable. They will discover in their midst not just smoke, but fire; not just discomfort, but division.
Those who heard Matthew's Gospel being read in their communities knew that this was true. When the disciples first heard Jesus preach, the words may have seemed extreme. "Perhaps he's having an off day," they may have thought. "Wow, what happened to meek and lowly, sweet Jesus?" some of us ourselves may wonder. However, those who were part of the Jesus movement in the latter part of the first century recognized the divisions that had taken place between the Judaizers and the libertines, the gnostics and the literalists, the Herodians who favored revolt and the pacifists who refused to take up the sword. They had come to know that Jesus' words had practical implications for the unity of their relationships, their families, and their religious communities. Their religious worlds had become very complicated, as they stood on the tops of their well-known hills and tried to decide which next steps were and were not acceptable? What would Jesus do, they wondered? It is not just first century question.
On the one hand, it seems un-evangelical to take stands that create divisions among those with whom we feel comfortable, especially within our own families of faith. After all, haven't we come to some agreement that God's loves us all and makes no distinction among persons? Can't we all just get along? On the other hand, there are the hard questions about what we can and can't accept as Jesus' followers. The older I become, the more I realize that the decisions facing a five-year old on a hilltop in life are less complicated than those facing me as an adult. As I "mature," and I've put that in quotation marks, I recognize that the choices available to me have nuances attached to them. With greater clarity, I've come to understand that what Jesus is calling us to may not be the same thing which members of my friendship circles or even religious communities find important. In fact, I have come to believe that many of the things believed by those closest to me are shaped by purely secular notions or social views that arise from totally unchristian perspectives. Let me give examples to make the point-and to share why Jesus' challenge in today's text is right on target.
Many people that all of us know here in the United States, for example, believe that the solution to world problems is to have a country like our own which remains the strongest military power in the world, and with that power to defend not only ourselves, but to prevent other countries from becoming aggressors with smaller nations. People with such beliefs may feel too comfortable with the tradition that this is the native land that God blesses, with the notion that this is the biblical city set on a hill that others need to respect. The U.S. has a long history with such a view, but it can lead to an alarming arrogance and condescension that has nothing to do with a New Testament view of relationships and community building. If Christians within the U.S. seek to understand Jesus' words about love, acceptance and peace, complicated as the situations may be, they may find it difficult not to sense a division between themselves and others who may even see themselves as part of the Christian community. As we try to take seriously our role as baptized children of God, we may find it necessary to ally with those whose views we share. This can lead to very real division. To some degree, we may sense this has already happened among us.
Another example is also well-known to us. Many people condescend to others, knowing full-well that such peole are suspicious, trouble-makers, misguided and up-to-no good. Or they may feel that certain racial groups are less-intelligent, certain genders are less qualified or certain sexual orientations are choices made by perverse people. It is troubling to hear views that are based on cultural conditioning, not scientific evidence. It is disconcerting to be challenged by people who claim to be Christians, but whose views have little to do with Jesus' own words about social justice, divine acceptance or welcome for prodigals. However, it's not possible merely to ignore the visions and pretend that we can all just get along. At times, we must separate ourselves into communities which share a clear understanding of God's offer of forgiveness, love and peace. When such separation occurs, we understand what Jesus is saying in this text. We are being called to remember who by baptism we are summoned to be.
When we look at today's Old Testament lesson in Jeremiah 23: 23-29, we not only see why these two lessons belong together on this Sunday, but we also are stunned to hear the voice of God challenge so strongly those who would comfort themselves by saying, "let's all just get along. Let's remember that God loves us and we can be at peace." You remember what Jesus said about false peace: he came to bring not peace, but a sword in such situations where people pretend there is no truth, no justice, no faithfulness, but mere accommodation. In the Old Testament setting, Jerusalem was becoming more and more endangered by the threat of foreign invasion. The false prophets said all was well; not to worry. "Hakuna Metada." We know this false peace from the story in the Lion King. However, Jeremiah lays such false peace low. He says that from God's standpoint, prophets are free to say anything they want! (Fascinating divine support for free speech.) However, in such situations, let my prophets speak even more faithfully! And when those who have been pacified by the accommodating words of the false prophets here the truth, they will know that what they have been hearing is chaff. "What has straw to do with wheat? Is not my word like fire; like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?!"
Such language is even powerful to us today who recognize in it the truth that not all views are valid. Not all perspectives respect the worth and dignity of every human. Not all concepts of peace allow that justice should prevail for all. When people can be considered collateral damage as a nation strives to execute its own views of security, this does not lead to any peace Jesus would know. When people are condescended to because they accept a sexual orientation they did not choose, this does not lead to harmony in the Christian community that Jesus wants to establish. There will always be differences among us as Christians, but the questions that we seek to answer must always be placed in the context of God's love offered in the death and resurrection of Jesus. In that act of love, God judges once and for our disobedience and summons us to a new life in Christ. Daily we are encouraged to remember that the divisions which arise between faithfulness to God's call and surrender to cultural norms are real. Daily our baptisms remind us that a new truth shapes us because the new realities are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Daily our baptism reminds us who we are.
In the 1994 production, Lion King, both movie and stage play, mentioned before, Rafiki, the baboon, brings Simba to the lagoon to see his father's face. Simba says, "That's not my father. It's just a reflection of me." "Look deeper," Rafiki replies, "he lives in you." The father's voice resounds, "Simba, you have forgotten who you are. You are more than you have become."
This is the insight with which all of us need to struggle as we hear the words of today's texts. They are not just the words of an angry God. They remind us that in this world, there will be divisions between those who follow cultural traditions or secular paths and those who strive to remember who they are in Christ. Along the way, it's easy for us to lose our way and be seduced by those who claim to represent popular truths. When this happens, we need to hear the Father say, "You are more than you have become. Remember who you are."