Jesus said to his disciples, “I have come to set the earth on fire.
And, how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with
which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is
done. Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I
tell you, rather, division. From now on, a household of five will be
divided, three against two and two against three. A father will be
divided against his son, and a son against his father; a mother
against her daughter, and a daughter against her mother; a mother-in-
law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law.” .... This is the Good News, the Gospel of the Lord!

Well, if that’s the good news, I don’t want to hear the bad news. My
goodness! I mean, can you believe that gospel? It doesn’t sound like
Jesus at all to us. Let me put it into a bigger framework. It’s from
the gospel according to Luke. And a lot of people say the most
beautiful book ever written is the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke
is the one that has the Christmas scene. Then it has Jesus teaching
the Sermon on the Mount. But he’s not up on a mount. Luke puts it on
a level plain, so instead of being Our Lord and Master, he is our
friend and brother teaching us. And then, Luke tells us the story of
the Good Samaritan. It’s nowhere else in the Bible. And then he tells
the story of the Prodigal Son. And then he gets to this chapter. This
is Chapter 12. And, for forty-five verses he tells us, “Don’t worry.
Relax. Take it easy. God’s eye is on the sparrow and you are worth
more than many sparrows. Look at the lilies of the field. They don’t
work hard at it, but God clothes them. Don’t worry about what you’re
going to wear, what you’re going to eat. Don’t worry. Relax.”

And then, at Verse 45, he turns it all around, and he says, “I didn’t
come for peace, but for division. In a household of five, three will
be against two and two against three, son against father, daughter
against mother, and mother-in-laws....” Don’t even go there! There
are two theories that kind of explain this different Jesus. One comes
from a lot of scholars who point out to us that the exact words we
have of Jesus are few and far between. And Luke was writing his
gospel fifty years after the death of Jesus, and he didn’t have a
Tivo. He didn’t have a VCR. He didn’t even have a little tape
recorder. So they had an oral tradition. But the early Church was
inspired and confident that it could convey accurately the message of
Jesus. And, in that Scripture, they not only told us what Jesus said,
as best as it was remembered, but what Jesus would say in their own
day and age. And, fifty years later, their own day and age, was a
time when Christians were widely distrusted, where families were
divided over following Jesus or not, and where there was great
persecution. And that’s why these words were put on the lips of
Jesus, because it is the message of Jesus for that day and age. Fair
enough.

But I think the exact opposite. Even though we may not have the exact
words, I do think that we have the exact message of Jesus of
Nazareth. We have his exact prediction and we have his exact
conviction. And I think that for a number of things. First of all,
because Jesus knew his history. He knew the way the Jewish people had
treated all the prophets, even prophets preaching peace, like
Jeremiah in that first reading. Jeremiah came to preach peace. He
said, “Don’t become terrorists. Don’t do violence to other people.
Trust in God. And, because of that, they said, “You’re demoralizing
our troops. You’re unpatriotic.” And they threw him into a huge
cystern, and he sank into the dirty mud at the bottom, and they left
him there to die. I can’t help but think of Father Louis Vitale,
Father Steve Kelly who was with us last week. This week they are on
trial for protesting the war in Iraq and for protesting the use of
torture by our government. But, whatever.... Jesus knew exactly how
preachers of peace get treated. And secondly, the message of Jesus
was to cross boundaries, to reach out with forgiveness and love to
the people different from you, to Samaritans who were foreigners and
non-believers, to tax collectors who were hated, to public sinners.
And his society said just the opposite, “You belong to a social
caste. Stay in your caste. A social class? Stay in your class” And
they said to him, “Family is most important. Family comes first.
Family before everything else. And your tribe.... Your tribe comes
first. Your tribe before anything else. And your nation, your nation
comes first. Your nation before anything else.” And Jesus said, “No.
No. No.” to all three of those.

And finally, he already knew they were plotting to destroy him, so he
could figure out pretty easily what they were going to do to his
followers.... what they’re going to do to us. So his words are
strong. They’re disturbing. They’re uncomfortable. But I think he got
it exactly right. And, in the face of that, he announces a two-fold
message. First of all, he announces division and persecution. That’s
going to come. And, secondly, he calls for forgiveness and hope.
Division and persecution.... I heard of a sociology professor in one
of the local colleges who gives a course every year on the family,
and he always begins by reading a letter from a parent who is very
disturbed and writing to another government official. He’s a
politician. He is writing about his son who was once well-behaved and
obedient and well-motivated, and then got involved in a weird
religious cult. He left his friends and he is alienated from his
family. He has nothing to do with them. And he gives it to the
students and says, “Who are we talking about here?” Almost, without
exception, they say, “That’s the Moonies or one of these cults.” Then
he reads the rest of the letter. It is written in the year 200 by a
Roman citizen who is actually the governor of a province, about his
son who is involved with a weird group called “Christians.” He had
become a Christian. But we don’t have to think about the 200’s for
that. We can think more recently for persecution. Think of Archbishop
Romero murdered at the altar in El Salvador, the four missionary
church women slain and tortured, the six Jesuits killed by the Contra
death squads. But that’s a while ago. That’s fifteen years ago. What
about today? How about the Iraqi Christians? Iraqi Christians
embraced the faith before the collapse of Rome and before the birth
of Mohammed, and they are being exterminated today. A few years ago,
there were seven hundred fifty thousand Iraqi Christians. Today, the
number is down to three hundred thousand, .... just three hundred
thousand. And, in the face of that, in the face of that kind of a
world, Jesus says, “Don’t choose violence or revenge, but be a people
of forgiveness and of hope.” This priest, a couple of years ago,
Iraqi studying in Rome, said he was going back to Iraq to be with his
people. He knew it wasn’t very safe, but he was going anyway. And he
said, “I am certain about one thing. One single fact is always
there. The Holy Spirit will enlighten good people so that they may
work for the good of humanity even in this world which seems so full
of evil.” Thirty-four years old, that’s what he said. Two days later,
he was gunned down because he was a Christian, along with three
deacons who were with him in the car.

And what does Jesus say in the face of this kind of world? He says,
“I have a strategy. You’re not going to like it, but I have a
strategy. The strategy is find ways and steps to forgiveness.” And he
says, “Know there is always hope, no matter what has happened
before.” That’s the message of Christ, the message of the cross, and
the message of resurrection. So, here we are each Sunday morning,
gathering for Eucharist. What’s it all about? It’s not about a
private celebration. It’s not about personal devotion. Rather, we are
gathered and nourished, as Christians have been for two thousand
years, to be reminded through words of faith, through blessed bread
and wine and through the presence of the risen Christ, that we are
connected with each other, and with all people of God’s world, all
people and all of creation, and that we cannot give up on each other.
Jesus says to us in today’s gospel, in sharp terms, “It ain’t gonna
be easy.” It’s not easy, but despite divisions and violence, despite
how bad news gets sometimes on TV and media, we will not give up. We
won’t give up on what we are called to be and what Jesus shows us to
be. We are called to keep on trying to be a people, first of all, of
forgiveness and a people of hope. Amen.