12 Pentecost 2007 Zion, Washington

There is the illusion that Jesus is only about bringing peace and being meek and mild; and to be Christ-like is to be passive and pleasant at all costs. Today's Gospel reading indicates that God the Son is somewhat more complex than that.

It's no milder in the original Greek texts. We were laughing sardonically at this week's Greek Bible study, when we came to the part where Jesus said, "Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth?" We figured he went on to say,"Heck no! (or words to that effect) That was at Christmas! This is the 12th Sunday after Pentecost. I have come to bring division!"

This passage probably was included by St. Luke because it spoke to the divisions within families over conversions to Christianity, from Judaism as well as from the Greek and Egyptian religions. And just because the divisions Jesus describes are generational, doesn't necessarily mean that the "kids" were the converts.

I can remember being part of an ecumenical group of seminarians who visited a Roman Catholic seminary as part of the exchanges within the New York Metropolitan Inter-Seminary Movement. When we arrived, our seminarian host told us that he was required to tell us that the non-Roman Catholics would not be invited to receive communion at mass. When he was asked what would happen if we did anyway, he smiled and shrugged. When it came to mass, some did, some didn't go up for communion.

Afterwards, we discovered that a lot of the Roman Catholic seminarians, in their vigorous, rigorous, young faith, were outraged that non-Roman Catholics had dared to receive communion at their altar. On the other hand, we discovered that a lot of the seminary faculty, in their older and wiser holy Christian faith, were deeply hurt that more of us didn't come forward for communion. It's not always the kids who want to break new ground based on the Holy Gospel of God.

Sometimes, the child really is "father to the man" and "out of the mouths of babes" come the wisdom that we all need to hear. And sometimes it is from the minds and hearts and souls of those who have people who have grown wiser as they have grown older that we find the wisdom we need to hear. Sadly, not everyone gets wiser as we get older. One of my favorite old country/western songs is titled, "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Full Grown Fool". I've always thought it was a great waste of a lifetime to arrive at one's "golden years" and still try to find simple answers to complex questions, or to reduce life down to a series of smarmy one-liners.

Jesus' tirade, in today's Gospel reading, reminds us that our life on earth with God in Christ continuously rests within the tensions of peace and division, the tensions of comfort and affliction, the tensions of faith and doubt; the tensions of wisdom and stupidity; regardless of how old or how young we are. It's why God gave us prayer and study and our essential need to be Christians in community, so that we can struggle with each other over the wisdom of our holy faith and the foolishness of our distracted lives.

 Jeremiah recorded God's frustration with false prophets and the people who follow them. My word, these days, the air waves of this nation are filled with more religious broadcasters on radio and television than ever before. But you and I know the defining phrase that separates the true prophets of God from the false prophets. We hear it once a month here, as the closing phrase to what we call the Summary of the Law, "on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

I think everyone preaches "Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind". Preaching anything else probably doesn't qualify as "preaching". But who doesn't preach "love your neighbor as much as you love yourself"? Those are the false prophets. The men and women whose message feels the least bit hateful? Watch out! They will lead people away from God, even as their ancestors forgot God's Name "for Baal", to quote Jeremiah in today's First Reading. In one case, I've seen, first hand, the true and predatory evil that has come from one of those TV "religious personalities" and it really is scary. It really is Evil (capital E).

On the other hand, I think Joel Osteen is the new Billy Graham. Both men's message is positive and welcoming and safe and inviting. Both men throw open a very wide gate into a relationship with God in Christ. Neither man is willing to step beyond that gateway, into the thornier issues of a holy Christian life. They understand the limits of their own vocation from God and leave the rest of it to other people. But their message is consistently focused on the love of God and love for oneself and love for one another. They pass The Test. (Big T, Big T) The Test.

Yes. Over the years, I confess that I've been perfectly frustrated by both men because they steadfastly will not engage in the more complex issues that face us as Christians living in a complex world. But now and again, light shines in my darkness and I realize that not everyone is called to be the sort of prophet who takes people to task by confronting them with the harsh realities of the consequences of not loving God completely and not loving oneself and not loving one's neighbor in deep, profound, and empathic ways. Billy and Joel are the Greeters at the door of the House of God. Other people are called to be the Ushers, the Lectors, the Intercessors, the Preachers, the Prophets, and the Priests. They are not false prophets.

So Jesus and Jeremiah are right. We face divisions because Jesus has come into the world and we are confronted with both true and false prophets who sometimes encourage - if not cause some of those divisions - even within the Body of Christ, the Church.

So what's a Christian to do? The answer, of course, is contained within the Second Reading for today from "God know who's" Letter to the Hebrews.

First of all, what great hope! "We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." We are not alone. We have each other, whom we can see, and we have a great cloud of witnesses whom we cannot yet see. More importantly, because they are within that realm in which all things are known, they have all compassion, all faith. They no longer "see in a mirror dimly", they see God face-to-face. They no longer have partial knowledge, they now know everything, they now understand everything; and they surround us with their presence and with their prayers.

Yes, as today's Collect says, Christ Jesus is both a sacrifice for sin and an example of godly life. And some people will say that being Christ-like is too high up and too far off for the average person to attain. So we are now surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses: people, quite frankly, like you and me, who have been successful Christians in their own generation and now stand as concrete proof that this holy life to which we are called is possible to do, and, what's more, it's advisable to do.

But it takes discipline - in both senses of the word. If we were only always pardoned and never forgiven for our sins, we would never grasp the seriousness of the consequences of the harm we do. So, although God is much more prone to pardon us and let us off, "Scot free"; now and again, God forgives us - and although the reconciliation is made, there are consequences, punishments, pain - though usually not on a par with that pain which our sins inflicted on someone else. That's one discipline.

The other type of discipline is the discipline of a disciple of Christ, who takes on the burden of intentionally loving God and neighbor and self as though taking upon our shoulders an ox's yoke, but it's the yoke of Christ. It's hard work and it requires a daily commitment, a constant focus and perpetual discipline... and to the outsider, it looks easy, but isn't.

Look at the great physical shape that most entertainers are in, whether they're musicians with "abs of steel" (to coin a phrase) or actors and actresses who are perfectly handsome or perfectly beautiful, and in perfect physical shape. As you can see from looking around at the rest of us, that sort of thing doesn't come naturally. They take on a discipline, for which they often get richly rewarded. (The operative word being "richly".)

Done correctly, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, both types of discipline are painful; and later yield "the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (And the rewards are out of this world.) And the last line of today's Second Reading is one way of capturing the Christian life in a nutshell: "Strive for peace with all people, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

Consider this: the most satisfying consequence of the Summary of the Law is peace, serenity, that uniquely warm and empowering feeling that comes from hearing God say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." So, in spite of the divisions, regardless of the false prophets, "lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed. Strive for peace, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord." We are all called, by God, to this good and holy discipline.