Pentecost XII
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 15
19 August 2007
Text: Luke 12:49-56 Other Readings: Isaiah 5: 1-7; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
I must confess to you that the scripture lessons assigned for today have not been easy ones for me. I'm glad we have a lectionary & don't just preach on our favorite passages, but on Sundays like this, I'm tempted to ignore the inevitable.
The gospel lesson for today is a series of sayings which were probably not originally spoken at one time. They are scattered in various parts of the other gospels. They seem connected here by the urgency for preparation for the future which Jesus expresses to his disciples in their journey toward Jerusalem. He knows there isn't much more time before his death, so he urges the disciples to wake up, pay attention, and commit to Jesus' new way of life, no matter the cost. Jesus knows crises are ahead for the disciples, not crises in the sense of emergencies, but moments or occasions of truth when they must make decisions about the meaning of their lives & how they will lead them. Jesus wants his disciples to be ready, strong enough to face the crises, even when Jesus is no longer physically present.
Thus, he uses the images of baptism & fire. Jesus' own life following his baptism has been anything but easy or even successful. Indeed, due to the degree to which he has lived into his baptism, he now faces suffering & death. Many of his disciples face the same future—experiencing the fire that will reveal whether they are true disciples or cheap imitations, for fire can determine the difference between real & fake metals. We know that metals placed in extreme heat are strengthened by that heat. Living in Houston all these years, I've often wished I were strengthened by the summer heat here, but instead, I think I've just melted. At any rate, we in Houston certainly understand the hardships of heat, especially with no air conditioning in the church this summer.
Jesus says he has not come to bring peace to the earth but rather division. Ouch! I really don't want to hear that. I want to hear that things will be easier for me & my family if I follow Jesus as my savior & guide. But Jesus knows that if we follow him, life won't always be easy. Life as the disciples know it will be forever changed; what we call the "status quo" will be turned upside down, & others didn't like the priorities chosen by the disciples then any more than they do now. In Jesus' prediction of the separations which would occur within families where one but not all were his disciples, he was simply describing the reality. What may be hardest is for the disciples to have to choose their life in Christ above the life they've always known. Family may be important, but it can no longer be more important than obedience to Jesus' way of life.
Over & over again, I hear people in prison tell me that, as much as they miss their families & would like to be with them when they come out of prison, their returning to the old haunts & the influence of their families & friends often returns them to temptations which led to their imprisonment in the first place.
I had to laugh at Jesus' comments on weather predictions in today's passage since every newscast these days begins with the latest update on where Hurricane Dean is headed. We all know that, regardless of where the hurricane makes landfall, any more rain in Houston will certainly cause more severe flooding. Even with our sophisticated weather tracking systems, our ability to predict the path of the hurricane is limited. At this point, I don't even know HOW to prepare, especially now that I live in a new house & in a new neighborhood.
Jesus is talking here, I think, about people's ability to make good choices. We don't use the same abilities in preparing for a hurricane that we do to recognize the evils of the present & turn away from them. Probably our biggest danger is denial. Jesus' disciples were in denial about his upcoming death, even though he predicted it 3 times. Isn't it interesting that some people think disasters will never happen to them, only to others? People who choose to drive while intoxicated believe accidents happen only to the other persons. It's often the people whose young lives were torn apart by their parents' abuse of alcohol or drugs who follow in their parents' footsteps & repeat the cycle with their own children, all the while saying they didn't want to be like their parents. Jesus cuts through all that petty gambling with life & says the disciples need to listen up, that life as they have known it is almost over. The reign of God will require that their allegiance be to the priorities Jesus taught.
Let's look at the commonalities to be found in all the scriptures for today. Isaiah describes the bridegroom's preparation of the vineyard, his bride, which, despite the loving care the groom lavishes upon his vineyard, it still yields wild grapes—sour grapes. God, the groom, is willing to let the vineyard be ravished—to let it lie fallow, be left for dead, if the people are not capable of choosing justice & righteousness as a way of life. The psalm tells the same story—God's care & love for the people of Israel which God transplanted from Egypt, even when they disregard God's protection & turn away from God. The people plead with God to restore them that they may be saved. They are unwilling to turn to God & call upon God's name until their way of life has died. Only then can there be rebirth.
The Preacher who wrote the letter to the Hebrews catalogues those who lived by faith, who chose Christ's way of life, but who may not have lived to see the results of such faithfulness. Death does not have the last word, however, for Christ is raised from the dead. We, too, often undergo small deaths in our lives before resurrection can occur. We're invited to gain strength from the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us to persevere in running the race through death to be able to celebrate the resurrection with Jesus Christ.
Four of us from Hope have just been through training in Los Angeles so we can lead our community beyond simply being multi-racial & multicultural into the place where we genuinely celebrate the diversity among us & are progressively inclusive, both between ourselves & with others. We'll begin to include some new exercises & processes in our various groups this fall, & I encourage you to embrace the opportunities for us all to grow among ourselves as well as to become more open to new folks, offering radical hospitality to the outside world.
As I began to pray with these scriptures this week, I realized they are pointing us in a direction which I often deny because I avoid acknowledging things dying in my own life as long as possible. It's been almost a year since my dear husband Bill died, yet I'm just now dealing with that grief. Many of you have lost folks close to you since we've been together as one church, & further, part of coming together as one has meant that both groups have had to die to much of the old in order to accept the new. In some ways, our grief process has only just begun. We'll be offering opportunities this fall for living into that bereavement more fully, recognizing its appropriateness and gently closing some doors so that we are open to the resurrection offered by Jesus Christ. I pray you are able to enter this process with me in order that we may move forward as one—surely surrounded by that great cloud of witnesses—into a new, stronger Hope.
Year C, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 15
19 August 2007
Text: Luke 12:49-56 Other Readings: Isaiah 5: 1-7; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
I must confess to you that the scripture lessons assigned for today have not been easy ones for me. I'm glad we have a lectionary & don't just preach on our favorite passages, but on Sundays like this, I'm tempted to ignore the inevitable.
The gospel lesson for today is a series of sayings which were probably not originally spoken at one time. They are scattered in various parts of the other gospels. They seem connected here by the urgency for preparation for the future which Jesus expresses to his disciples in their journey toward Jerusalem. He knows there isn't much more time before his death, so he urges the disciples to wake up, pay attention, and commit to Jesus' new way of life, no matter the cost. Jesus knows crises are ahead for the disciples, not crises in the sense of emergencies, but moments or occasions of truth when they must make decisions about the meaning of their lives & how they will lead them. Jesus wants his disciples to be ready, strong enough to face the crises, even when Jesus is no longer physically present.
Thus, he uses the images of baptism & fire. Jesus' own life following his baptism has been anything but easy or even successful. Indeed, due to the degree to which he has lived into his baptism, he now faces suffering & death. Many of his disciples face the same future—experiencing the fire that will reveal whether they are true disciples or cheap imitations, for fire can determine the difference between real & fake metals. We know that metals placed in extreme heat are strengthened by that heat. Living in Houston all these years, I've often wished I were strengthened by the summer heat here, but instead, I think I've just melted. At any rate, we in Houston certainly understand the hardships of heat, especially with no air conditioning in the church this summer.
Jesus says he has not come to bring peace to the earth but rather division. Ouch! I really don't want to hear that. I want to hear that things will be easier for me & my family if I follow Jesus as my savior & guide. But Jesus knows that if we follow him, life won't always be easy. Life as the disciples know it will be forever changed; what we call the "status quo" will be turned upside down, & others didn't like the priorities chosen by the disciples then any more than they do now. In Jesus' prediction of the separations which would occur within families where one but not all were his disciples, he was simply describing the reality. What may be hardest is for the disciples to have to choose their life in Christ above the life they've always known. Family may be important, but it can no longer be more important than obedience to Jesus' way of life.
Over & over again, I hear people in prison tell me that, as much as they miss their families & would like to be with them when they come out of prison, their returning to the old haunts & the influence of their families & friends often returns them to temptations which led to their imprisonment in the first place.
I had to laugh at Jesus' comments on weather predictions in today's passage since every newscast these days begins with the latest update on where Hurricane Dean is headed. We all know that, regardless of where the hurricane makes landfall, any more rain in Houston will certainly cause more severe flooding. Even with our sophisticated weather tracking systems, our ability to predict the path of the hurricane is limited. At this point, I don't even know HOW to prepare, especially now that I live in a new house & in a new neighborhood.
Jesus is talking here, I think, about people's ability to make good choices. We don't use the same abilities in preparing for a hurricane that we do to recognize the evils of the present & turn away from them. Probably our biggest danger is denial. Jesus' disciples were in denial about his upcoming death, even though he predicted it 3 times. Isn't it interesting that some people think disasters will never happen to them, only to others? People who choose to drive while intoxicated believe accidents happen only to the other persons. It's often the people whose young lives were torn apart by their parents' abuse of alcohol or drugs who follow in their parents' footsteps & repeat the cycle with their own children, all the while saying they didn't want to be like their parents. Jesus cuts through all that petty gambling with life & says the disciples need to listen up, that life as they have known it is almost over. The reign of God will require that their allegiance be to the priorities Jesus taught.
Let's look at the commonalities to be found in all the scriptures for today. Isaiah describes the bridegroom's preparation of the vineyard, his bride, which, despite the loving care the groom lavishes upon his vineyard, it still yields wild grapes—sour grapes. God, the groom, is willing to let the vineyard be ravished—to let it lie fallow, be left for dead, if the people are not capable of choosing justice & righteousness as a way of life. The psalm tells the same story—God's care & love for the people of Israel which God transplanted from Egypt, even when they disregard God's protection & turn away from God. The people plead with God to restore them that they may be saved. They are unwilling to turn to God & call upon God's name until their way of life has died. Only then can there be rebirth.
The Preacher who wrote the letter to the Hebrews catalogues those who lived by faith, who chose Christ's way of life, but who may not have lived to see the results of such faithfulness. Death does not have the last word, however, for Christ is raised from the dead. We, too, often undergo small deaths in our lives before resurrection can occur. We're invited to gain strength from the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us to persevere in running the race through death to be able to celebrate the resurrection with Jesus Christ.
Four of us from Hope have just been through training in Los Angeles so we can lead our community beyond simply being multi-racial & multicultural into the place where we genuinely celebrate the diversity among us & are progressively inclusive, both between ourselves & with others. We'll begin to include some new exercises & processes in our various groups this fall, & I encourage you to embrace the opportunities for us all to grow among ourselves as well as to become more open to new folks, offering radical hospitality to the outside world.
As I began to pray with these scriptures this week, I realized they are pointing us in a direction which I often deny because I avoid acknowledging things dying in my own life as long as possible. It's been almost a year since my dear husband Bill died, yet I'm just now dealing with that grief. Many of you have lost folks close to you since we've been together as one church, & further, part of coming together as one has meant that both groups have had to die to much of the old in order to accept the new. In some ways, our grief process has only just begun. We'll be offering opportunities this fall for living into that bereavement more fully, recognizing its appropriateness and gently closing some doors so that we are open to the resurrection offered by Jesus Christ. I pray you are able to enter this process with me in order that we may move forward as one—surely surrounded by that great cloud of witnesses—into a new, stronger Hope.
posted by
Hope Episcopal Church
at 11:38 PM
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