In
the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It
is often believed in America that a healthy relationship is one that has all
sorts of happiness, warmth, and smiles.
It is also taught that a healthy church is one that has the sound of joy,
an ethos of cheerfulness, the feeling of friendliness, and an abundance of love
pouring out of the pews into the city streets.
Yes, it is believed that churches that ‘get along’ with the community
and churches that have internal peace and harmony are those that are the real
deal. Otherwise stated, it is taught by some that the highest ideal in society
and the church is visible love that yields the attitude of tolerance and
harmony.
According
to this way of thinking, if one wants to preserve a true and vigorous church
that is filled with happy clichés and warm sentiments, then it must mean that
peace should be upheld and protected at all costs. Yes, agreeing to this way of thinking means
that anything which threatens the church’s warmth, anything which intimidates
the church’s happiness, and anything which may impede the ability for people to
get along with each other in the church and with the culture is to be deemed as
a threat to love, tolerance, and harmony.
This results in branding everything that bullies peace as an enemy that should
most certainly be disregarded or possibly eliminated.
The
problem with this line of thinking though is that Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading
from today usurp this ideology. Loosely
stated, the bridegroom of the church, Jesus Christ, said that He did not come
to make life cozy. As the Messiah, He revealed that He did not come to somehow
please everyone and make everyone happy, so that everyone could get along
together forever with warm fuzzy feelings.
Rather, as we heard in our Gospel reading, Jesus came to cut—make a
sharp knife cut—between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and
mother-in-law, and so forth. Yes, His
coming cuts through warm domestic arrangements and disrupts the wisdom of the
world, which results in slander, pain, ridicule, rejection, persecution, unsettledness,
and even death of Christians. The reason
why this is the case is that God ripped open the heavens and sent Jesus into
this world. The sending of Jesus results
in the invasion of the Kingdom of God into this sinful world. Indeed, Jesus—the righteous prophet, priest,
and king—was born in a manger and journeyed towards the cross. This foreign invasion was and continues to be
an invasion of a message of truth and redemption that stands at odds with the
message of the world and stands at odds to the evil one and our sinful nature.
My
friends, contrary to what well-intentioned Christians sometimes say in our day
and age, our lives (that are connected to Christ) are not marked by a good life
without pain or struggle, as your future gets brighter and brighter, due to
being promoted to new levels of glory where your wildest dreams will come true
and every single obstacles in your path topples, but rather lives that are
marked by the cross. A cross, that
yields experiences of hostility, tension, loss, and persecution from those who
are opposed to the message of Christ. Indeed,
"...as soon as [God’s] Word is proclaimed, men will divide into two camps:
some will receive it with joy, others will be offended by it and will begin to
hate and persecute those who receive." [1]
“But
Pastor!” you may say, “Isn’t Jesus the prince of peace? Does He not bring and leave us peace? Didn’t Jesus greet the individuals in the New
Testament by saying, ‘Peace to you?’
Were not the disciples bearers of peace?” Yes, Jesus is the prince of peace and He
does deliver us peace. However, the
peace that He accomplishes and delivers is peace with God the Father. More specifically, the wrath of God has been
satisfied by Jesus resulting in complete and total peace for you and me. There is no condemnation for you in Christ
Jesus; there is indeed peace with the Father. The stirring truth of Christianity though, is
that the disciple shall be as his teacher.
Thus, being at peace with the Lord puts you at odds not only with your
own sinful nature, but puts you at odds with the evil one and the world around
you as it should. My friends, the story
of and message of Jesus caused offense “when it was first preached in places
like Nazareth; we should not be surprised that it continues to offend [today]. In
fact [we Christians] ought to be troubled when our handling of the Bible never
offends.”[2]
It
should not come as any surprise, then, that the message of Christ conflicts
with the message of the world for this is indeed what Jesus means by the sword
that He brings to the earth. But what about the church, should we expect the
sword of Jesus as well? What about the
church, should we expect division?
Should there be division, for we are people of the Word, are we not? We are indeed people of the Word; however, our
sinful natures are alive and well in each and every one of us. We acknowledge this reality each and every
Sunday in this church as we confess our sins at the beginning of each Divine Service. Therefore, because this is the case, when the
Word of God is rightly taught in the church it should bring about tension in
you and me. Yes, we can learn to expect
that the Word of God will continually come to you and me confronting, exposing,
and killing our sinful natures. Keep in
mind that our nature is weak, our view of truth is tainted, and our reason is
warped, because of our sinful conditions.
Thus, we need Jesus’ words, words of Scripture, not to be merely spoken
and delivered to us to elicit noble feelings, but rather spoken and delivered
to us to reform and form us as hearers, to grant us faith.[3] Simply put the Word of God needs to invade
the world of sinners, you and me, and continually function as our only source
of wisdom and truth. Jesus’ words must
invade, for apart from the Word the church is left in her sins, blinded, and
lost.
Practically
speaking, when the Word of God is properly divided and taught we should expect
a certain amount of tension not only between the church and world, but within
the church as well, whether we want it or not.
This means that an absence of this tension in the church can be seen not
as healthy, but rather unhealthy, because quite possibly the Word may have been
lost. Yes, if a church does not have an
ounce of tension over the scriptures but only love, happiness, and tranquility,
I believe this may be a cause not for celebration but for alarm. Permit me to explain, “Our heavenly Father
wielded the righteous sword of His wrath against His own Son so that you would
never have to experience such a brutal eternal death. He slayed His own Son; poured out His holy
and precious blood, for you, so that you may have life, and have it to the
fullest. And this once-slain, but now
resurrected and victorious Christ continues this amazing, loving work of the
Father on us, His blessed creations, as He endeavors to kill the sin within us
that constantly seeks to destroy us, confronting and slaying that sin with the
sword of His Law, all so that He can make you alive anew in the life-giving joy
of His Gospel; making you alive with His Gospel gifts of His own victorious
body and blood. I know that may not be
exactly what you want to hear, but it’s true.
Because you still wear sinful flesh; because you still “occasionally”
give in to sin and sinfully stand in opposition to Christ, He loves you enough
to wield His sword of righteous love against that sin so that that sin within
you can be put to death, and you can have and enjoy the life and peace that He
purchased for you with His own body and blood.”[4]
Jesus
said that He came not to bring peace to earth but He came to bring the
sword. This is the way that it is. Therefore,
we do not seek out tension, nor do we manufacture conflicts and fights in the
church and community, but rather we strive for peace, but hold to truth at all
costs. We rejoice when harmony, warmth
and tranquility fill the church and overflow to our neighbors, but not at the
expense of disregarding and eliminating Jesus and His Word. For we know that a part from Jesus we do not
have eternal peace.
Baptized
Saints, “just like your Lord said to His disciples in last week’s Gospel
lesson: Have no fear. Trust in Him above
all things. God knows what He’s doing,
even if it doesn’t make sense to you; even if He didn’t run it by you first for
your approval; even if it offends you and [puts you at unease]. God knows what He’s doing. Be not afraid to let God work, whether it’s
wielding the sword or waving the palm branch, dividing and slaying or
resurrecting and rejoicing. Be not
afraid. It is finished. You have nothing to fear, and you have every
reason to rejoice and be at peace.”[5]
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1]
C.F.W. Walther, The Proper Distinction
Between Law And Gospel (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1928),
265-267.
[2]
William Willimon, Shaped by the Bible (Nashville,
TN: Abingdon Press, 1991), 85.
[3]
Robert Kolb and Charles Arand, The Genius
of Luther’s Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2008), 144.
[4]
Jason Zirbel, “Christ’s Surgical Love,” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3810
(27 June 2014)
[5]
Ibid.
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