Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Love for Neighbor in the Mud, the Blood and the Beer Or When Peace is a Denial of Love
Theme: Fight—not for yourself but for your neighbor and his well-being. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Jesus says a rather disturbing thing in today’s Gospel: Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Dear Christian friends, 1. Why do you fight with your family—especially those others in your family who are Christian like you? Your answer might be, “Well, pastor, we fight because we are ‘poor miserable sinners.’ We can’t help it. Yes we are Christians, but everyone in my family is also thoroughly sinful, and sin creates conflict.” I will agree with your claim that everyone in your family is sinful. Everyone in my family is sinful, too. However, sin is not the only reason why Christian families must sometimes fight among themselves. 2. Why do some congregations have Voters’ Meetings that grow tense, coil up in conflict, sometimes even break out into shouting, and then get rehashed in the parking lot? You might answer, “Well, pastor, so-and-so is a pretty bullheaded fellow. Some congregations are full of people like him—people who want to get their way and who want to domineer others and who always seem like they are right. Selfishness is the purest and most ancient form of sin, and selfishness at Voters’ Meetings cannot help but lead to discord.” I understand your point. While our Voters’ Meetings here at Grace are delightfully amiable and forbearing, not all congregations enjoy such peace in their decision-making. However, selfishness and bullheadedness are not the only reasons why Christians sometimes lock horns with their fellow Christians in the congregation. (Maybe a little brouhaha every once in a while would be healthy for the good Christians of Grace and their pastor.) 3. Our church body has recently completed its national convention in Houston, TX, during which many important decisions were made. Many of these decisions were hotly contested, debated as vigorously as was possible, and passed by margins of 51%-49% in the voting. Why must we fight with our fellow Christians in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod? Every time we have a convention, it seems, we also read wishful editorials in our synod’s publications. These editorials want to know, “Why must there be fighting amongst us? Why can’t we all get along and love one another as Christians?” Every time we have a convention, new rules get passed that make it harder and harder for people to voice protest, harder and harder for us to disagree with one another, harder and harder to fight. Synod, congregation, and family: it is easy to see the dark side of why we might fight amongst ourselves. Yes, we are sinful; yes, there are insecure people who follow personal agendas, rather than doing what is healthiest and best for the whole group; yes there are in our church body entire congregations that are simply too grumpy for their own good; yes there are egos and personalities and tempers that easily get ablaze and make things worse than they need to be. While it is easy to see the sin in fighting, it might not be quite so easy to see the holy side of fighting; the pious and faithful side of fighting; the love-for-neighbor side of fighting. Nevertheless, Jesus has come to bring divine gifts to us. According to today’s Gospel, some of those gifts—gifts “from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:7)—some of the gifts that Jesus has come to bring us might not seem very gift-like at all: Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. According to these Words from Jesus, DIVISION is a gift that He has come to bring! Did Jesus allow Himself to be born of the Virgin Mary, suffer, die, and rise again so that we would no longer engage in combat with one another! Not according to these Words: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you.” Jesus came, not to take away our combat, but to transform our fighting and combat into acts of Christian love. “I have come to give… division.” With these Words, Jesus wants you to know that there are some times when peace in your home is NOT a blessing, when peace in your congregation is nothing but LOVELESSNESS, when peace in your church body is that church body’s KISS OF DEATH. “I have come to give… division.” With these Words, Jesus wants you to know that there are times when love for neighbor will require you fathers to go to war against your sons, imposing the commandments upon them and not allowing them to live the self-centered, lazy way your sons would prefer to live. These Word require that you mothers and you mothers-in-law to be diligent in holding the Christian faith before the eyes of your daughters and your daughters-in-law: nagging, pleading, harping, and whining about their faithfulness to Christ and His church, even when your daughters do not want to hear it. “I have come to give… division.” You silly, self-centered little girl! You selfish, immature little boy! Do you really think that your parents enjoy making rules for you, enforcing them with threats, and then punishing you when you break them? Do you think they want to argue with you over everything—and that they desire to re-hash old arguments with you when you do not seem to be able to get the point the first twelve times? Dear child: your parents do not fight with you because they want to be your overlord. Your parents fight with you because they love you; because they want to protect you; because they want to see you grow up to become faithful spouses, good citizens, honest workers, and loving parents who are willing to fight. “I have come to give… division.” Families will disagree and even over Baptism because some members of the family stop taking Baptism as seriously as God wants them to take it. “I have come to give… division.” Brothers will sometimes exchange hot words because one of the brothers has become indifferent toward worship and the other brother must now rattle his chain. “I have come to give… division.” Christians must fight with one another because we must call continually one another to repentance—and repentance is never easy. Sometimes congregations must fight for the same reasons—and national church bodies, too. Believe it or not, not every pastor in our church body possesses as much discernment as he ought; not every congregation is headed in a faithful and Scriptural direction; not every new idea is a good idea. When we try to stop our neighbor from chasing a bad idea, or when we try to shine the light of the Scriptures into our fellow Christians’ lives, sometimes a fight breaks out. Do you, dear saint, truly love your neighbor? Then LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, even if it means you must cross swords with your neighbor. Do not fight for yourself, or for your position, or for your own gain. Leave that all that to your Lord Jesus Christ! Leave all that to your neighbor, who must faithfully fight on your behalf. When you fight with one another, do it for love—NOT for the love of the fight, but for the love of your neighbor. Make no mistake about it: There is plenty of sin when it comes to the conflicts we have in our families, in our congregations, and even in our church body as a whole. Jesus wants you to know that not ALL conflict is sin. Sinless Jesus Himself came and engaged in combat for you and for me. Sinless Jesus Himself fought with sin and He fought with death and He fought with the devil for you and for your salvation. Jesus fought and Jesus won and now you are forgiven all your sins. Look at your conflicts with your loved ones and your fellow Christians in the same way. No, conflict is not enjoyable—our fights are certainly no more enjoyable than our Lord’s fight on the cross. Conflict is, however, necessary for love. Love your neighbor in the same way that Christ loved you. When all the dust settles, forgive your neighbor, even as your Christ has fully forgiven you. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? 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