Commitment

Sometimes in the Bible we look for comfort and for peace. We look for words of hope and inspiration, for words of joy, and within the Bible there are plenty of places to find such words. It is the right place to look, but today our gospel reading (Luke 12:49-56) offers us something very different. Here we see Jesus talking about bringing fire to the earth, and about bringing division between families. It’s not the pleasant and comfortable picture we often like to think of when we’re thinking about Jesus.

And to be honest it seems very different from most of the messages that he offers. Some have even speculated that it wasn’t even Jesus who spoke these words, but they were the words of Luke interpreting some thoughts of Jesus.

I suspect they were the words of Jesus himself though because I’m sure the sentiments that were expressed were very real to him. Thewords were not really about breaking up families but about firstly the need for commitment, and secondly the acceptance that sometimes following the way of Jesus will bring us into conflict with those close to us. They were not the words of division that we might immediately think of but they were words that were tough.  

Some people choose to enjoy a comfortable faith – a faith where things move along easily, a faith where God behaves exactly as we expect and want him to. But the God of love demands more than just the happiness a loving relationship might bring in human terms – he demands love for our neighbour whoever that neighbour may be; and the God of justice doesn’t just ask us to seek justice for others but to accept justice for ourselves and others; and the God of grace offers unlimited grace – in a way we often don’t understand – the sort of grace that allows the possibility for anyone the chance to turn back on what they’ve done in the past and start again.

God loves each one of us with an incredible unbreakable love, a love that knows no limits – God wants the best for us. Jesus came to bring life to all – life in all its fullness. Jesus showed love, kindness and compassion – but he was also incredibly strong. He willingly argued with people who it seemed he shouldn’t, he challenged authority, and he accepted the torture and humiliation that he faced on his journey to the cross.

He knew about commitment, and he calls for commitment from his followers. He doesn’t expect that we should be perfect, he doesn’t even expect us to be the best people around, though he may hope we will be – but he does demand that we follow him – and that we commit ourselves to seeking to live as he wants us to live.  

Someone who moved into a new area once called a Minister to say he wanted to join the parish. He went on to explain, however, that he did not want to have to go to Church every Sunday, or study the bible, or join any of the Church groups, or help out around the Church, or in fact do anything other than come along whenever he felt like it.

The Minister commended him for his desire to be a member of the parish, but told him that the church he wanted was located on the other side of the town. The man took the directions and put the phone down. When he arrived at the address the minister gave him, he came face to face with the logical consequence of his own apathetic attitude. For there stood an abandoned church and several other buildings, all boarded up and ready for demolition.

If we live our lives as a response to the sacrificial love of Jesus, we must live our lives with a willingness to accept sacrifices of our own, and one of the biggest sacrifices we can make is the sacrifice of a quiet life. Following the way of Jesus shouldn’t be quiet. It will lead us to go to difficult places or people and share the gospel, it will lead us to challenge indifference, or poverty or injustice. It should lead us to question our own attitudes in line with the way of Jesus.

Recently there have been a number of readings which emphasise our need to be guided and governed by God rather than by the standards of the world, and this is a call that we hear again today… Commitment is, and never will be, the easiest thing to give, but our willingness to commit our thoughts, actions and our prayers to God is a measure of our commitment to him.

I read a very powerful meditation from the American writer Max Lucado which said,

‘He looked around the carpentry shop. He stood for a moment in the refuge of the little room that housed so many sweet memories. He balanced the hammer in his hand. He ran his fingers across the sharp teeth of the saw. He stroked the smoothly worn wood of the sawhorse. He had come to say goodbye.

It was for him time to leave. He had heard something that made him know that it was time to go. So he came one last time to smell the sawdust and wood. Life was peaceful here. Life was so… safe…

I wonder if he wanted to stay… I wonder because I know that he had already read the last chapter. He knew that the feet that would step out of the safe shadow of the carpentry shop would not rest until they’d been pierced and put on a Roman cross.

If there was any hesitation on the part of his humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of his divinity. His divinity heard the voices…. And his divinity saw the faces… From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the world as you hear these words, he saw them all.

And you can be sure of one thing. Among the voices that found their way into that carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice… And not only did he hear it. He saw your face aglow the hour you first knew him. He saw your face in shame the first hour you fell. The same face that looked back at you from the mirror this morning looked at him. And it was enough to kill him. He left because of you.

He laid his security down with his hammer. He hung tranquillity on the peg with his nail apron. He closed the window shutters on the sunshine of his youth and locked the door on the comfort and ease of anonymity.

He chose to leave. It wasn’t easy… leaving the carpentry shop never has been…

(From God Came Near by Max Lucado)

Jesus knew all about commitment and he knew all about the risk of setting himself against family or friends who may have thought he was mad or deluded, or perhaps even thought he was evil in some way, because that’s what he had to do… for us.

Today we are called to come out of the carpentry shop whatever that may be for us. Nicky Gumbel recently wrote, ‘The safest place for ships may be the harbour, but that is not their purpose. If you want to get anywhere you have to take a few risks.’  To live as God hopes we will live we are challenged to move away from our places of comfort and tranquillity, to move away from security, and recognise that all around us there is a need for people to see God, and we are the ones who can help show him to them.

It won’t be easy. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews (12:1-2), talks about running a race with perseverance, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith. The Church that he was writing to was facing all kinds of persecution and needed the assurance that Jesus was with them. That knowledge would give them the strength to keep going.

Jesus is here with each one of us, and we can look to him for guidance and for inspiration. Because he lives, we live, and with that knowledge we can go out and proclaim his name. As that meditation said, ‘leaving the carpentry shop has never been easy’, but it’s something that we must do because Jesus did for us…

In our commitment we are responding to his love, and in committing we are growing closer to him and closer to fully recognising the peace and strength he gives us... May we run the race with perseverance, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith…AMEN