2022 08 14 Sermon
Division & Unity
Pentecost 10 C
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
Luke 12:49-56
I just spent a week in Colorado with the Boy Scouts. If you’ve ever been there you know how dramatic and beautiful the scenery is. Our main goal was to hike to the summit of Pikes Peak, which is at the altitude of 14,115 feet above sea level! The first day we hiked up to a flat spot on the mountain at 10,000 feet elevation and set up our camp. With the thin air at that altitude, this was already the most challenging hike we’d ever done. The second day we hiked higher. I was walking slowly up the mountain, but felt decent enough as I made my way to the tree line at 12,000 feet. After that point, for the next three miles of hiking and 2,000 feet of elevation gain, I could feel the air getting thinner and my pace getting slower with each step. One of the Scouts, Gus, was moving at the same pace as me. I’d say, “OK, Gus—see that rock up the trail? Let’s make it there then we can sit down and take a break.” Then he would say to me, “OK, Karl-John—see that bend in the trail up ahead? Let’s make it there and we’ll take a break.” One little section, one little encouragement, at a time and we helped each other get up the trail and onto the summit. We made it!
Or, as I like to say, my body made it to the top. My mind stayed somewhere down around 12,000 feet! That thin air does strange things to you, so much so that I kind of felt divided from myself, like my mind and my body were going in different directions: one of them up, the other down (way, way down). I could feel a strange sensation of division within myself. The only way I finally made it to the top was because of the unity of purpose I found with another Scout.
In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about some of the divisions we experience. In this case it is not a feeling of division within yourself, but division from other people. In many ways, this is one of the harder sections of the gospels to make sense of. Isn’t Jesus supposed to be the Prince of Peace? When he was born didn’t the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom God favors”? But here Jesus is saying, “Do you think 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.” What are we to make of this?
As I look at this passage in the context of the entire gospel, and of the lived experience of Christians, it seems that Jesus is saying that there is a cost to following him, and if you do follow him not everyone will support you. The way of the cross is not the easy way. Jesus himself mostly associated with the lowly, the sick, the hungry, the sinners, the outsiders—so it’s no surprise that even among people in the same household, some would support him and some would oppose him. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but the way of peace found in Christ means more than just trying to get along with others—it also means trying to set right the wrongs of society and the injustices that people suffer. Working for that kind of peace is hard!
People of goodwill can even be divided in their opinions about which things they feel need to be set straight in the first place. Therefore, if we accept the reality that divisions among people are inevitable and always have been, this needs to be accepted in a spirit of humility, because it would be very easy to use our divisions as an excuse to justify our own selfish pride, or our own sense of righteousness—as if being right was the point of following Jesus.
The point is not to be right or prideful; the point is to find fullness of life in God, and to be transformed by the Holy Spirit through faith, so that we live more and more in the way of Jesus. We can teach the love of Jesus only when we are truly loving others. We can teach the forgiveness of Jesus only when we are giving and receiving forgiveness. We can teach prayer only by being prayerful ourselves. We can teach humility before God only by being humble. We can teach God’s grace only when we accept it for ourselves. We can build bridges across the things that divide us, only by seeking connection with others, and acknowledging that God is present in you just as God is present in me. The point is not to be right, but to be in a right relationship.
We know that the world is divided. We experience it in our own lives. But we also have God’s promise that in Christ crucified and risen, all will one day be united in God, when God’s kingdom comes in its fullness.
Until then we can practice for the full unity (given by God) that will one day be the ultimate reality. On Pikes Peak, Gus and I found unity of purpose in helping each other hike up the mountain, even when our bodies and minds felt disconnected by the thin air. In the same way, we as Christians can find unity of purpose, even in the midst of our divisions, by helping each other practice being more loving, more forgiving, more prayerful, more humble, more grace-filled, and more aware that God is already present in each person you meet. Amen.