Not Peace But Conflict

The scripture interpretations have been taken from Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel.

Jesus is recorded to have spoken some very controversial words and sayings throughout the gospels. We have him on record saying, after reading the writings of Isaiah, “The Lord’s spirit is on me; He has ordained me to break the good news to the poor people. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the oppressed, and sight for the blind. To help those who have been grievously insulted to find dignity; to proclaim the Lord’s new era”, as saying “This very day this scripture has become a reality in your presence.” Everyone amened and were amazed but Jesus didn’t stop there, “Surely some of you will cite to me the old proverb, “Doctor, take your own medicine. Let us see you do right here in your hometown all the things we heard you did over yonder.”  Well to tell you the truth, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. And I’m telling you straight, there were a lot of white widows during the time of Elijah, when the skies were locked up for three years and six months, and there was a great drought everywhere, but Elijah didn’t stay with any of them. Instead he stayed with a Negro widow over the next county. And there were a lot sick white people during the time of the great preacher Elisha, but he didn’t heal any of them—only Naamen the African.”

Jesus should have stopped when they were amening, the collection plates were ready to overflow, now though, after he finished they ran him out of town with the intention of pushing him off a cliff. Jesus says a lot harsh words and his commands, even his parables, are hard to swallow. He told the passersby to sell their belongings and give the money to the poor. He told them when someone strikes you on the left cheek you offer them the right or when they wanted your jacket you should give them your shoes also. He told them the first will be last and the last will be first. He told them that the poor are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of heaven, the hungry are God’s people because their bellies will be filled, the weeping are God’s people because they will laugh.

Jesus has said a many controversial words in his day. Every hour on the hour CNN would have a headline that read, “Jesus says: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Billy O’Reilly and Rachel Maddow clarify that he doesn’t mean everyone in the next hour.”

I believe, out of all that is recorded, the harshest words Jesus has spoken comes from our scripture passage this morning: “I came to kindle a fire on the earth, and what wouldn’t I give if it were already roaring! I have an ordeal to go through, and how pressed I am until it comes to a head! Do you all think that I came to give the world peace? No, I tell you, not peace but conflict. From now on, if a house has five people in it, they shall be fighting—three against two and two against three. A father will be against his son, and the son against his father; a mother against her daughter, and the daughter against her mother; a mother-in-law against the bride, and the bride against the mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:49-53 Cotton Patch Gospel).

Indeed time as shown, as it often does, Jesus has brought more conflict than peace. He seems intent on dividing families: he divided James and John from their father; he divided himself from his mother and brothers, saying, “those who do the will of my father are my mother and my brother”; at the age of 12, he disappears for three days in Jerusalem, and when his parents finally find him in the Temple and scold him, he retorts, “You should have known that I would be here.” Later on in Luke, Jesus says, “If anyone is considering joining me, and does not hate his father or mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, indeed for his own life—he simply cannot belong to my fellowship.” Jesus seems intent on dividing and on creating conflict and that is what he does.

Following Jesus is not all rainbows and sunshine, joining and becoming a part of the Christian community is not going to guarantee you a life of happiness. The only guarantee we have as Christians is this: the cross. That is our guarantee. It is a guarantee that we will have to pick up and carry our own cross with the knowledge that we will be nailed to it. The Jesus we follow is not some tame and nice Jesus, he is the one who over turns the money lenders in the temple. He is the one who, unapologetically, calls the Pharisees hypocrites. He is Jesus, the fulfiller of the law, the one who has come not to bring peace but a sword, not campfires and songs of kumbaya but hard messages of abandoning our families, our wealth to follow him.

Sometimes I think we wish Jesus was a little more tamed. One that preferred our praises and hymns instead of one who demanded our lives.

Clarence Jordan tells this story: He was invited to speak at a church in a suburb and he had it is mind what he was going to preach until he showed up to the church that Sunday. He had thought the church he was going to was a big white Southern Baptist Church (keep in my mind this story takes place in 1950 something). When he arrived at the church he discovered it wasn’t a big swanky white church. It was a mill-town church at the edge of the city and the city grew up and engulfed it. The sanctuary sat about 300 but there were close to 600 there. But the surprising thing, the thing that amazed him the most was the people were both white and black, just sitting anywhere they wanted to sit. And behind him sat the choir filled with both white and black voices singing together. He was amazed!

After the service the preacher got up and told everybody they were going to have dinner out on the grounds, and not behind the church but out in the front of the church, where the entire city could see them! As they gathered out in the front yard to eat lunch, Clarence went over to the preacher and said, “You know, this is rather amazing thing to me. Were you integrated before the Supreme Court decision?” The preacher looked at his and said, “What decision?”

The preacher explained: “Well, back in the depression, I was a worker here in this little mill. I didn’t have any education. I couldn’t even read and write. I got somebody to read the Bible to me, and I was moved and I gave my heart to the Lord, and later, I felt the call of the Lord to preach. This little church here was too poor to have a preacher and I just volunteered. They accepted me and I started preaching. Someone read to me in there where God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), and I preached that.”

Clarence looked at him and asked, “Yeah. How did that get along?”

“Well,” the preacher said, “the deacons came around to me after that sermon and said, “Now, brother pastor, we not only don’t let a Negro spend the night in this town, we don’t even let him pass through. Now, we don’t want that kind of preaching you’re giving us.”

“What did you do?” Clarence asked.

“I fired them deacons.” He answered.

“Why didn’t they fire you?”

“Well,” the preacher said, “they never had hired me. I just volunteered.”

“Did you have any more trouble with them?”

“Yeah,” the preacher said, “they came back at me again.”

“What did you do with them this time?”

“I turned them out. I told them anybody that didn’t know any more about the gospel of jesus than that not only shouldn’t be an officer in the church, he shouldn’t be a member of it. I had to put them out.”

“Did you put anybody else out?” Clarence asked.

“Well, I preached awfully hard, and I finally preached them down to two. But,” the preacher said, “those two were committed. I made sure that any time after that, anybody who came into my church understood that they were giving their life to Jesus and they were going to have to be serious about it. What you see here is a result of that.” (Jordan, Clarence. “The Substance of Faith” The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Patch Gospels. pg 44-45).

Jesus preaches a hard message of love and change that brings conflict and divides families into 3 against 2 or 2 against 3. A message that divides churches into 3/4ths of a vote. It is not a message of acceptance. Acceptance is no different than toleration. I can accept and tolerate without ever loving someone. It is a message of unconditional love for our neighbor, the love that sends a follower of Christ to the cross for his/her neighbor. If we wish to be serious Christians in a serious time then we need the untamed words of Christ to pierce our souls because these words make us whole. We need to be willing to grab our cross and sing, “Come thou fount of every blessing, tune thy heart sing thy grace; Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise: Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of thy redeeming love!”

The message of Christ is not a message that brings peace, instead it is a message that brings wholeness. It is a message that confronts us with the difficult truths of the sins of our wealth and the difficult truth that there is no Christian state if it is ruled by power and control instead of servanthood and sacrifice. Jesus wishes to make us whole and in order to do that, in order to fully make us his disciples, his words must burn our souls like the refiner’s fire so that we may be purified and become full followers of his movement, his kingdom.

Are we willing to be made whole by being cut into pieces? Are we willing to bring the peace of Christ to a world who believes peace to be an avoidance of conflict and conflict to be at war with our neighbor? The peace of Christ is a peace that brings conflict to world that believes the first shall be first and the last should get a job. The message of Christ transforms us into a people who sees their neighbors not as their enemies but as a child of God. It burns away everything that holds to worldviews and transforms our eyes, our hearts, and our ears to a Godview of creation, of this world.

Are we willing to allow the life changing, soul piercing, and fire burning words of Jesus to burn our old self away so that the new self, the self in Christ can pick up our cross and join fully in God’s movement? Our cross is waiting.