SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS

Transcription

1 Isaiah 5:1-7; Luke 12:49-56 SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS by Randy L. Hyde, D. Min. Senior Pastor Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, AR August 14, 2016 DOPPLER RADAR A few weeks ago I began a sermon by discussing some things we wish Jesus hadn t said, things that are not only difficult to understand, but when we do understand them are even more difficult to accept. I suggested that perhaps I should write a book about them, and one of our church folks encouraged me to do just that. If I ever do, this passage will definitely be included. Jesus is recorded here as having said some pretty tough things... $ I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! $ Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! $...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 her mother-in-law. Doesn t sound like Jesus, does it? I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! My goodness, where did that come from?! Is this the same Jesus who encountered the Samaritan woman at Jacob s well and offered her grace when no one else would? Who said to the accusers of the woman taken in adultery, Let him who is without sin cast the first stone? 1

2 Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! Is this the same Jesus who said, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you? Doesn t sound like it, does it? And it doesn t sound like gospel, if indeed the gospel is to bring people and God together. Instead, it comes across as alienation and division and fear, and we ve already got enough of that. If we didn t know any better, we d think Jesus had been influenced by our present political situation. We don t need Jesus to bring alienation, division, and fear. We do a good enough job of that on our own. This is the same person who told the parable of the prodigal son and made a hero of the Samaritan on the Jericho Road. These difficult words come from the same lips of the one who said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. What gives? Boy, if Jesus mama had been there, I bet she would have given him a look...! Let me ask you, are you interested in this Jesus? If Jesus is the template for our lives, as Barbara Brown Taylor has put it, 1 when it comes to this passage, we might just be tempted to look for another hero somewhere else. Judging from today s religious landscape, evidently a lot of people have. We ll take the Jesus who came to save our souls, but we re not too keen on the One who challenges us and says things that make us uncomfortable. We are certainly troubled by the Jesus who seems to contradict himself by saying one thing one time and something else entirely at another. Maybe that s because, when it comes to things religious, we like to have it all bundled up in a nice, tidy, neat little package. And that means we want Jesus, our Jesus, to be peaceable, predictable, pleasant, certainly non-controversial... and nice. John Killinger says that Jesus is often portrayed as a weak, effeminate man with slender hands, delicate features, and soft, flowing hair that would look marvelous in a Clairol ad. 2 Is that something like the way you picture him? I hope not, because that is definitely not the Jesus we get, not in any of the gospels, but certainly not in Luke s. There have been times when I ve talked to people who don t have much use for any kind of religious expression in general, while others are rather vague about 2

3 expressing their beliefs. Some of those are referred to with the acronym SBNR, spiritual but not religious. I get that. I don t agree with it, but I get it. Some of them don t care much for Jesus in particular. So I ask them to tell me what kind of Jesus they think he might have been. Inevitably, when they tell me, my response is, I don t believe in that kind of Jesus either. Here s why... Jesus came into a tough, tough world, just as tough as the world in which we live, if not more so. If we think our world today has its problems, we ve got nothing on those who labored under the heavy-handed government of the Romans, and faced obstacles put in their place by their very own people, people who had much to gain by keeping them down on their luck and at the mercy of those who lorded it over them. Think about it... for centuries the Hebrews had not known any peace. In fact, things began pretty much unraveling when King David died. By the time Jesus arrived that had been a l-o-n-g time. They never were really the same after King David was gone, which is why they longed so desperately for a messiah to come. They had been taken into exile, not just once but a number of times, largely because of weak, ineffectual leadership from their kings. If it wasn t the Egyptians who were hauling them off in servitude, it was the Babylonians. If it wasn t the Babylonians, who took the Jews into exile twice, it was the Assyrians. Israel had more political enemies than Carter had liver pills (and if you don t understand that analogy, talk to anyone in this place with gray hair and they will tell you what I mean). The Romans were simply the latest in using their heavy-handedness to take advantage of a people who had suffered for centuries. It was like surviving one wave of a tsunami only to be hit immediately by another. It is no wonder that the Galileans were always plotting ways to get back at their enemies. They were simply sick and tired of others whose purpose in life was to take advantage of them. The Romans may not have taken the Hebrews away from their homes, but they have taken over their homes, run roughshod over their villages and towns, made them adopt their language, forced them to put up with their culture and their rules, and turned God s chosen people into their indentured servants. 3

4 All the while, the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, the powerful gained even more power, and the weak continued to labor under the thumb of those who lorded it over them. It was a miserable, miserable world into which Jesus came, and he decided to do something about it. You can only take such things for a certain time until there is the need to rebel. So, if you have a picture in your mind of little Jesus meek and mild, you might want to think again. He could have blended into the woodwork (literally, since he was a carpenter) and not made any noise. Plenty of people, especially the religious leadership, did just that. But instead, he chose to confront the inequities of his day and throw his shoulder against the evil he encountered. In the process, Jesus created crisis because...crisis is that edge where change is possible. 3 That may be why he was so incredibly demanding of his followers. Whoever would come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow after me... Anybody who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is not fit for the kingdom. And now this: From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three... After saying this, Jesus turned to the crowds who had been following him. Some, no doubt, had been doing so because of what they thought they could get from him. Perhaps a few were there out of curiosity, maybe some others because they had nothing to do and up to now the Nazarene had been the best show in town. Jesus said to them, When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, It is going to rain ; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, There will be scorching heat ; (rather appropriate for mid-august, don t you think?) and it happens. If we didn t know any better we d think Jesus had access to Doppler Radar. Just put him on local TV and he d be right at home. Seven years ago, when I had a knee replacement, I jokingly accused my surgeon of implanting Doppler Radar. My guess is that those of you who have titanium in you can tell, as I do, when the weather is going to change. How have you been feeling the last couple of days with all the rain? 4

5 Is Jesus going to take it easy on these weary, misbegotten souls who are looking for just a bit of good news in the bad news world that surrounds them? Not on this day. On this day Jesus is not prepared to show his tender side. Not at all. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And still, they just don t get it. He is on his way to Jerusalem to confront the forces of Rome and everything that is wrong with his religious tradition, and those following him are concerned about where their next meal is coming from. Will Jesus perform a few miracles today, will he show his evident power, will he give some of his power to them, will he tell them only what they want to hear? Jesus is losing patience, if he ever had any, with those who aren t willing to grasp the significance of his mission. There s a storm brewing (Doppler Radar!) and the people are thinking in terms of eternal sunshine. They just don t get it, do they? The question is, do we? I once read an op-ed piece that was originally published in The New York Times. The subject was clergy burnout, and was written by a pastor. What do you think are the causes of clergy burnout? Is it overwork, lack of exercise, not enough time off, poor management abilities, bad habits? Yes... maybe... But those aren t the major contributing factors, according to this pastor. It is because religion, and most people s involvement in church life, has become a consumer experience. Churchgoers, he says, increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them. He tells about the time the advisory committee of his congregation came to him and told him to keep his... sermons to 10 minutes, tell funny stories and leave people feeling great about themselves. The unspoken message in such instructions is clear, he says: give us the comforting, amusing fare we want or we ll get our spiritual leadership from someone else. He continues: Congregations that make such demands seem not to realize that most clergy don t sign up to be soothsayers or entertainers. Pastors believe they re called to shape lives for the better, and that involves helping people learn to do what s right in life, even when what s right is also difficult. When they re being true to their calling, pastors urge Christians to do the hard work of reconciliation with one another... They lead people to share in the suffering of others, including 5

6 people they would rather ignore... At their courageous best, clergy lead where people aren t asking to go (my emphasis), because that s how the range of issues that concern them expands, and how a holy community gets formed. 4 I wish I d had the courage to say that. Even by quoting him in this sermon I feel as if I m hiding behind someone s skirts, so to speak. In a congregation challenged by dwindling attendance, the temptation is to try and keep peace and make sure no one gets upset and threatens to leave. We can t afford to lose any church members. But I don t think that s the way Jesus approached his life and ministry, do you? So, if it was Jesus standing in this pulpit today instead of me, what do you think he might say to us? To be honest, I don t know, or at least I m not sure. But I would think he might remind us, in the words of Soren Kierkegaard, that he wants followers and not admirers. 5 He might also tell us to leave the weather predictions to Ned Perme and his colleagues. We ve got another job to do. Admittedly, sometimes that job is not an easy one to do. The journey together is figuring out what that job is, and the question is, are you willing to do it? Well, are you? Lord, give us the courage not to take the easy road of life and faith, but to go wherever you take us. And then, may we leave the consequences to you. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Notes 1 Barbara Brown Taylor, Something About Jesus, The Christian Century, April 3, 2007, p John Killinger, "Jesus In a Plain Brown Wrapper" (unpublished sermon, April 23, 1989). 3 Teresa Berger, Disturbing the Peace, The Christian Century, August 10, 2004, p G. Jeffery MacDonald, Congregations Gone Wild, The New York Times, August 7,

7 5 Soren Kierkegaard, cite unknown. 7