Stress Fractures

Luke 12:49-56         “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

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When this text comes up in the lectionary it is tempting to start looking around for other options.  It is not a pretty passage.  Dare I say, this is not the Jesus we know and love.  He is irritable, frightening; and he makes us uncomfortable.  I think I can speak for most preachers, who are at heart people-pleasers, when I say that we struggle with the desire to take the easy road and preach on something lighter – like the binding of Isaac, for example. 

What can you say about a text like this one?

To my surprise, when I sat down with the text I found an abundance of things worth saying – more things than I have time to say, actually.  I told someone this week that I was in the process of writing three distinct sermons on this text.  He said, “please – choose just one.” 

So I choose to talk with you about the unpleasant topic of conflict and division.  Jesus says quite plainly that he will bring division within households – father against son, mother against daughter, and so on.  We know about conflict amongst our loved ones.  Mothers who won’t speak to their daughters because of some argument from years ago.  No one quite remembers what it was about or why it was so important yet, nonetheless, the anger and hurt are as fresh as ever.  Sons who cut off contact with their fathers for reasons that remain unspoken and, therefore, unable to be reconciled.  Brothers who divide over business disputes and only speak to one another through their lawyers.  We know about conflict amongst loved ones.  But how it hurts to hear Jesus say that this conflict comes from him, and that he meant to inflict it.

It is a dangerous thing for him to say.

We dislike conflict in the most intense way.  Yet, oddly enough, we often have it in our lives – even over the most unimportant things.  At the roundtable we talked about a conflict that once arose in the congregation over the matter of carpeting the sanctuary.  This is actually a classic church conflict.  Many congregations have come to the brink of civil war over the matter of flooring.  Changing the color of the carpet, going from one type of surface to another – things that seem small.  It is surprising when they turn out to be big. 

The story of Fiddler on the Roof is a good example of conflict and division in family.  The main character Tevye, father to five daughters, bless his soul.  Three of the girls are approaching the age of marriage and so this is a time of great stress for Tevye and his wife Golde. 

It is also a time of great change in the world in which they are living; Russia in 1905 was experiencing tremendous unrest, and it impacted the Jews in particularly hard ways. In their little village they held to tradition.  But tradition was being challenged.  

The first daughter wants to arrange her own marriage – forego the services of the village matchmaker.  This was not the way things were done!  Choosing for yourself who you will marry – can such a thing even work out?  The younger generation is pushing the envelope on this – choosing to marry for love. “It’s the new style!” Tevye says to Golde.  Well, their love for their daughter is what enables them to work through this conflict, and it turns out to be relatively easy to resolve.  Because it turns out the first conflict was only the sign of bigger things to come.

The second daughter wanted to marry a man from outside the village – a revolutionary Jew, one who really pushes against the old traditional values, who brings so many new ways into the village.  This time they did not even ask for the parents’ permission.  They did not believe they needed their parents’ permission.  Really.  But, again, love carried the day.  This conflict also was resolved, although with more difficulty and pain than the first.  At this point it was no longer possible to assume that things would go back to the way they had always been.

The third daughter married a man who was not a Jew – a Russian who shared none of their beliefs, customs, values.  The only thing they shared was the love of this daughter, and it was not enough.  This conflict would not be resolved.  This time, their love would not heal over the wound.  It was a conflict too great to bear and it led to a divide in the family.  To Tevye, this daughter was dead.

There are conflicts that can be smoothed over with ease, no lingering effects. And there are conflicts that can’t be smoothed over, but demand that we all change in some way.  Then there are conflicts that are just too hard to tolerate and there is nothing to do but split.  Divide. Fracture the body.

This stuff happens, we know.  But how can we see this as something that God intends?  Where do we look to understand this immensely troublesome notion?

Perhaps we need to look at the cross.  That seems to be what Jesus was looking at.

The stress of this burden on him is evident in the first sentences, as he speaks of fire and baptism – the fire of judgment and the baptism of his death on the cross.   “What stress I am under until it is completed!”

In the words of Luke, Jesus has turned his face toward Jerusalem, and we know what that means to him:  confrontation with the priests at the temple, clashes with religious and civil authorities, tensions among his followers, betrayal, denial, arrest, torture, rebuke by his own people, and finally death on a cross.

Conflict of the most intense and painful and powerful kind.  And would we dare suggest that this is not necessary?

We want peace.  We, like those first disciples, believe he has come to bring peace to the world.  But how do we think we get to peace? 

William Penn, good Quaker, founding father of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and champion of freedom, is known to have said, “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”  He wrote these words while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London because of his religious convictions.  I remember these words every single Holy Week; words that speak to the truth that there is no peace without conflict; no salvation without rejection; no glory without struggle. 

Crisis is indeed a part of God’s plan.  The word comes from the word crux, a word we use to talk about the essence of something, a nub of truth.  When we refer to the crux of the matter, we are saying here is the glimmer of truth in this particular problem.  Crux is also the Latin word for cross, from which we might understand that the cross is not just an unfortunate thing that happened – it is the essence of God’s plan of salvation. 

Conflict cannot be swept under a rug and forgotten.  Brokenness cannot be patched up with duct tape and ignored.  True reconciliation with God requires a willingness to face the brokenness in ourselves and others, to confess and to forgive, to speak our truth and listen to another’s truth.  None of these are easy.  It is sorely tempting to opt for the easier path, but the easier path will not take us where we want to go.

To be the church of Jesus Christ demands that we follow his path and that means we will walk into conflict at times.  That we will be confronted with changes that are not to our liking. 

We will probably look for the easy way.  We will try to use some of the old familiar responses to problems: resist; get angry; find multiple things to get upset about and pick fights with one another; or walk away.  But these responses will not be helpful.

So what can we do?  What should we do?

First, be aware. Life is change, and change inevitably brings conflict.  Quite often, the presence of conflict is the sign that change is happening.  Simply understanding this is helpful. 

Second, be encouraged. In some families, some communities, where things have been pretty stable for a good while, they are ripe for change.  There are bound to be negative responses to change.  However, change is necessary for life to exist, so take it as a good sign if people are unhappy.

Third, be kind.  We know there will be disputes.  We know there will be divisions.  We know that when there are changes there will be the possibility of some people being traumatized by it.  But we can make a choice to respond with love to whatever is thrown our way.

Whatever God asks us to do, God provides what we need to do it.  When Jesus calls us hypocrites, that’s just to goad us into action.  We know how to read the signs, he is telling us.  And with God’s help, we will.