STRAIGHT TALK
SCRIPTURE
If you had
any doubt that Jesus was human, this text for this morning should dispel that
doubt. “I have a baptism with which to
be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed.” This is a person under stress. Jesus has a mission to complete and the time for
the completion of that mission is drawing to a close. He is on his way to
Then, this
one we’re accustomed to calling the Prince of Peace, starts talking about
conflict. Again, these are disturbing,
distracting words from the lips of one we look to for unity. Not only does he talk about being a source of
division, but he talks about sowing division within the family. Now I know that there is division within lots
of families, but Jesus is not the source of those divisions. There is often jealousy, greed, competition, struggle
for power, clash of values and conflicting dreams, all of which can lead to
division within the family, but rarely does Jesus rank as a source of
conflict. There are exceptions, of
course.
I can think
of one occasion in which there were two young men who wanted to enroll in
confirmation and join a church I served.
Their parents, who were not members of our church, were adamantly
opposed to their joining our church because they said we were a country club
church. It is true that we had many
members who were members of country clubs.
However, we didn’t have a golf course, a locker room, a pro shop, golf
carts, a swimming pool or tennis courts.
I think their objection was not so much who the people were who were in
the church, for many of our members were fellow faculty members in the
university where these young men’s parents taught. The cause for this division was Jesus. When Jesus is taken seriously as the center
of one’s life, he pulls us away from our other commitments and challenges our
values. In this situation I would say
that Jesus was a cause of division in this family. One of the young men whom we eventually
confirmed became the Director for Youth Ministry in that church at a later
date.
We all know
of other situations where families are divided over what we understand to be
the nature of Jesus’ ministry. We all
know of families who have members join a denomination which is different than
the faith community in which they are raised and then proceed to badger other
family members about their deficient faith and the superior faith to which this
particular member has now attached him or herself. So yes, Jesus is a source of division.
If you thought
that these words of Jesus were astonishing reminders of his humanity and his capacity
for straight talk, think back to the beginning of our text for today where he
tells his followers, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were
already kindled!”
I may at an
earlier time have told you that I was a volunteer fireman in the first church
that I served full-time. In that
community I saw the destructive force of fire as it consumed buildings and also
human life, so I’m uncomfortable with the notion of an all consuming fire which
leaves nothing in its path. I have
considerable fellow feeling for those folks in the West whose homes and lives
are in jeopardy because of the current wildfire season.
I do know
that fire has to it, in addition to destructive potential, the capacity to be a
purifying agent. I know that I have
mentioned to you that I worked my way through college on a small city
newspaper. One of the jobs I had there
was to tend the immersion furnace where we melted the lead for our printing
plates and ingots for our linotypes.
This is now an outdated technology which serves only to mark me as
outdated and obsolete, or in this context, extinguished. Every evening when everyone else had left the
newspaper it was my job to melt the printing plates and the lines from the
linotype and then clean the furnace.
This consisted of putting a can of flux, a cleansing solution, into the
furnace at the bottom and boil out all the impurities in this body of lead
which was 650 degrees Fahrenheit. Then
it was my duty to take a skimmer and remove the impurities which I had boiled
out from the furnace leaving it clean.
This is
perfect illustration of what I think Jesus was getting at with his straight
talk of wanting to set fire to all those things that were impeding the progress
of his ministry. He looked around him
and he saw a religion which was stifling and out of touch with the people who
gathered around him to hear what he had to say and to feel his compassion for
their plight. That religion defined who
was clean and who was unclean based on behavior or station; who was in and who
was out. Jesus wanted to burn down, to
purify the whole system whereby people made money on what was to be sacrificed
to God in the temple. He wanted to incinerate
the notion that one was valued by what they have or what they gave at the
temple. He wanted to singe those who
sought to display their righteousness by their long prayers in public
places. He wanted to burn down the whole
system which denied human dignity to those who had neither money nor
status.
I suspect
that he also saw that division he talked about as a way of defining the loyalty
of those he sought to call into partnership in his ministry and those who would
come after him.
I’ve thought
long and hard about what Jesus would say to us in his capacity to speak
forthrightly about the things which concerned him. I suspect that he would speak words of
commendation to First Congregational Church for daring to say that “God is
Still Speaking” through your deeds, to assure that the world we live in is a
just and peaceful place inclusive of all people in Christ’s name.
A new era
is here, and if Jesus were talking to you today I suspect he would say to you
that if you are faithful to the gospel you will find yourselves divided from
those who don’t hear it. That is no
reason why you should shrink from sharing that gospel with others as we have
received it. This church has so much to
offer those who are seeking a place of acceptance and a place to explore the
vitality of one’s faith.
I suspect
that Jesus would say take up the torch of passion and burn down the systems
which tell us that might makes right and proclaim Christ’s peace.
The
Reverend
I have two
regrets as I leave here. The first is
the absence from all the friends I have made here in this wonderful
church. The second is all I’ll be
missing as you go forward with excitement over the way the gospel will unfold
here through your ongoing efforts in Jesus’ name to talk straight to a world
which is often crooked and out of joint.
As I leave
you, I wish you God’s richest blessing as you continue to show the world how the
gospel is delivered to a world in need.
Sermon
preached by Reverend