Rev’d Peter Balabanski

Pentecost + 10C – Luke 12 49-59 – Fire and division

Hearing the gospel just now, I’d guess some of us were startled at the way Jesus spoke. That’s not the Jesus we think we know – the peacemaker; the healer. The Jesus we know brings healing and love, not fire and division. In a Bible study at a refugee detention centre, I was once asked by one of the residents what these verses from the gospel meant – why did Jesus say I come to bring fire and division?

I responded the way I’ve been trained to. I showed how this passage fits into its context in the gospel – Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem and crucifixion – and also how it fitted into its context in the experience of Luke’s community as they wrote this Gospel. Families were being divided when one member of the family chose to follow Jesus, but the others didn’t.

I wondered if this would help the woman who asked the question. It took a while to dawn on me that the people sitting with us actually knew what I was talking about better than I did; from personal experience. They know religion as a life and death matter. They know the fire and the division; they know families dividing and friendships ending because of their Christian faith. It’s dangerous to be a Christian where they come from. Somebody becomes a Christian; someone else hears about it and takes offence, and denounces the new Christian to the authorities.

When that happens, suddenly family members are denied work opportunities. Their kids might not be allowed to go to school or university. And they might be denied healthcare – simply because one family member has become a Christian. That’s why they were here in a detention centre. They couldn’t live like that any more.

Few of us have ever experienced our faith in a way that costs like this. We’re free to practice a faith, or not to. Jesus offers us a gift: a grace which we can take or leave – or we imagine it’s that simple. Most Christians in Australia don’t know what it’s like to be reviled or disadvantaged because of our beliefs.

It might sound strange, but I want to ask why not? Why doesn’t our faith challenge the evils of our society to the extent that we get really painful pushback? Jesus confronted wrongs in his time, and he would confront things today, whatever the cost to him. I believe Jesus would confront the ever-more vindictive way the cancel culture operates here to shut people down.

I believe Jesus would also confront the way vulnerable people are routinely exploited in our society, and how the environment continues to be to be raped for short-term comfort and profit. And he’d be crucified again for doing it.

We’re called to take the same risks Jesus took, and speak out. Our Church leaders speak out about these things in press releases. They challenge the evils and they encourage us as Christians to offer an alternative vision in our community. Because Jesus calls all of us – not just our leaders – our spokespeople – to offer costly compassion to the needy, and the Biblical vision of a creation which will always provide for all creatures; to offer this compassion and vision as the true alternative to faithlessness and greedy exploitation. Our Church leaders speak out. And we must too; we’re here to bring the message of our Lord Jesus to the grass roots.

You and I are called to direct involvement in social action when social evils violate our deepest beliefs. Perhaps we feel that we shouldn’t get involved. But the eighth century prophets we’ve been reading all saw a direct relationship between people’s religious and civil life. They also proclaimed God’s judgement on us if we act as if there’s no such connection. Religious and civil life are both founded on keeping faith; founded on the bedrock of justice for the poor and vulnerable, and loyalty to God. That was true 2,700 years ago and it’s still true today. True faith lives and speaks justice and loyalty publicly.

Jesus proclaimed justice, mercy and faithfulness; he also lived it out. His unrelenting proclamation brought hope to ordinary people and challenged the social evils of his time. He spread the message and changed hearts. And it did bring fire and division to his community. And it led to his execution. Proclaiming a way of being and believing is empty for us if we don’t live it out ourselves. And not necessarily quietly. Jesus called us to proclaim it too; even quiet Anglicans.

So, when do we start? I don’t think there’s any question. Now’s the time, and it starts with our families and friends. Amen

Wesley curate story     I think John Wesley was right – if we haven’t converted someone or offended them, we probably haven’t proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ yet.

Amen

Lord, must I do unto others
before they do unto me?
Lord must I arm myself to protect myself
from harm and injury?
No, no, that is not the lesson
that I learned on my mother’s knee
when she told me to do unto others
only what I’d have them do unto me.