Divided Together
Proper 15C
Luke 12:49-56
August 18, 2019
St. Matthias
From now on, five in
one household will be divided…
father against son
and
son against father,
mother
against daughter
and
daughter against mother,
This is one of several
places in the Gospels where Jesus talks about division in families over the
Christian life. Why should faith and
belief be any different than anything else?
I have noticed that Jesus never says that granddaughters and their grandfather’s
will be divided! But think about all the
things that families do disagree about.
My father is a liberal democrat.
His brother – my uncle - in Mississippi is a conservative
Republican. We don’t talk politics at
family gatherings. It’s probably best
that way.
But it often seems the world wants us to be divided. Watch any of the dozens of news channels on
TV or listen to the politicians and all they want to do is point out what makes
us different or the same from anyone they disagree with. This or that poll says that this or that is
believed by 72.1% of Americans, but only 69.3% of folks support a totally
different and unrelated topic and there is always that plus or minus 3% margin
of error. It is surprising how many
people want to speak for all of us. I
think I want to be counted as undecided.
It is also probably best that way.
Certainly, we have arguments in our church families. Marriage and ordination have been hot topics
for the past 20 years. I do believe it
would be easier to change the Bible instead of the Book of Common Prayer. My father is an Anglo-Catholic – he likes
smells and bells and all that genuflecting.
I’m just your basic everyday social gospel, broad churchman. You can keep the incense and I’ve worried
that if I genuflect I might not be able to get back up again. My brother and his family are Presbyterian
and my sister and her family are Southern Baptist. Our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter
are Roman Catholic. I bet between all of
our families and friends that we know somebody in just about every Christian
denomination and world religion there is.
And there is that never failing temptation to claim that our beliefs are
just a little bit more right than someone else’s.
And it may sound like Jesus is talking about all that
divides us in today’s Gospel lesson.
Mother against daughter – mother-in-law against her
daughter-in-law. Not a pretty
thought. But Jesus’s teaching goes much
deeper than that. For whether we are
Christian or Jew, Episcopalian or Baptist we have far more in common than what
may divide us. It is the love of God
that shows us how to love our families, friends, and neighbors. It is the Holy Spirit that binds us all
together and turns bread and wine into spiritual food for our spiritual
journey. In the waters of baptism
whether sprinkled or poured or immersed in the River Jordan, we are marked as
Christ’s own forever whether rich or poor, young or old and from whatever part
of the world.
Sometimes though – despite all that brings us together –
we do our best to separate ourselves and stand apart. Then we wonder what’s wrong with all those
other people who do not believe like we do or wear the same hat or agree with
our sense of what is right and wrong or put our favorite bumper sticker on
their car too. During our visit to
Jerusalem this summer, you could not help but notice all the ways you could be
different. Everywhere you looked, there
were hundreds of thousands of people.
About half were Jewish – a 4th Christian – and another 4th
were Moslem. And you pretty quickly
learned how to tell the difference by what they were wearing. For one thing - Jewish men and women all wore
hats or scarves of some sort. Islamic
men and women were dressed in the traditional robes and birkas. Christians wore hats, robes, and just about
everything else except birkas except that everything they wore looked different
than what the Jews and Moslems were wearing.
And even within the different religions there were multiple ethnic
differences with Sunni and Shiite Moslems – Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox
Jews – and at least a dozen or more different Christian sects and groups. And of course we all know about all the political,
religious, and philosophical differences that separate us all. But, I remember standing at the entrance to
the Old City of Jerusalem – the City of Abraham, Mohammed, and Jesus – and thinking
that we all look the same. And I will
bet that our sameness is both inside and out.
We all need love. We all worry
about our families, friends, and neighbors.
We all seek the Peace of God.
It is not what divides us, but what brings us together and
it is God who makes us one. When we
proclaim that WE BELIEVE – we proclaim as well that we will love all of our
neighbors whether we look like them, talk like them, or believe like them. WE BELIEVE means there are no exceptions. WE BELIEVE bring us all together as children
of the God who created all of equal and who looks at you and me and says we are
Good. The real challenge for us in our
world today is to celebrate that God loves us all equally, that Christ came to
save us all, and that the same Holy Spirit dwells within each one of us.
Go and look for everyone created in the image of God. It will be everyone you see. Love them as much as God loves you. Wear a different hat. Stay away from bumper stickers – they take
the paint off your car. If you really
want to be different – practice loving everyone especially your mother-in-law. AMEN.
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