Jesus
promises a happy ending. Getting there is another story. In this week’s gospel,
Jesus tells us that he’s here to shake things up: Do you think I came to give peace
to the earth. No, I tell you, I came to divide it. Sadly, these few lines from
Luke have been cited to justify centuries of religious strife, intolerance and
holy war. But Christ is not preaching jihad, he’s predicting the impact his
message of love will have on our self-centered human nature. There’s no hidden
agenda here. He has come to turn the value system of the world on end. And he knows
the process will not always be pretty. As nature’s arch-predator, the human
race will not effortlessly be transformed into the Body of Christ. Jesus warns
us that the world, the flesh and the devil will not go quietly. Expect plenty
of pushback... from strangers, from neighbors, from friends, even from family. Jesus
goes on to tell us: I came to set fire to the world. But that doesn’t mean he wants
us to build his kingdom by fire and sword. The pitfall of reading snippets of
the gospel is that we lose context. Jesus was, is and always will be the embodiment
of divine love. As he tells us over and over, his kingdom is not of this world.
His call to arms is a call to unconditional love. The conflict he predicts is
not a territorial struggle or even a philosophical spat. The conflict will come
between those who accept and follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior and those
who reject him... sometimes casually, sometimes contemptuously, often violently.
At
best, we Christians have had a very spotty record of settling our differences with
love, to say nothing of the genocidal zeal with which we have often tried to
foist our faith on native peoples across the world. To this day zealots lampoon
tolerance as the last virtue of a corrupt society. Perhaps this is all in answer
to some primal “us and them” reflex. Perhaps, like Adam, we are tempted to
usurp the powers of God by passing judgment and dishing out punishment. All of
which flies in the face of Christ’s very specific charge to us... we are to
build the kingdom by loving God and neighbor. We are not to coerce the kingdom
into existence. We are not to con the kingdom into being by sugar coating God’s
word. With humble and honest witness, through the grace of God, we are called
to help love his kingdom into being. And let the chips fall where they may.
Christians
are to be courageous, not bellicose. We are not latter day scribes and
Pharisees spoiling for a fight over doctrine. Christ does not keep score by territory
conquered, theological arguments won or even by the size of the congregation.
We are not responsible for results. We are only responsible for serving him and
proclaiming him. That means we love and forgive, and then love and forgive some
more. To most it’s not easy. To many it’s just crazy. To those of us who aspire
to live in Christ, it is a joy... a preview of the serenity of being one with
God.