My Dad used to tell the story of how when he was in college training for the ministry, at morning prayer the principal would make some announcements. This doesn’t sound that bad but he would do it during the prayers by praying for people. So, he would pray for the students and then would mention one by name so his prayer would be something like – ‘ we pray today for Harry who is leaving us this morning.’ The problem was this would be the first that Harry had heard of it !
Talk about being shocked into action !
Our readings today are best described as being shocked into action ! The readings are a bit like a story I read of the composer Beethoven. Beethoven would play a trick on his audiences by playing a nice gentle movement of one of his pieces, and as people were getting comfortable he would then play a loud chord that woke everyone up. Now that’s a shock !!
This is what the readings this morning are about. How will we choose and who will we choose ?
In our readings this morning we have been shaken up out of any danger of comfort or of thinking that following Jesus is a comfortable way to be. In the gospel reading (Luke 12:49-56) we heard of the divisions that following Jesus could cause.
The gospel reading talks of divisions, people being against each other, families breaking up, people not seeing what is going on around them. It’s not comfortable reading or hearing.
In order to understand it a bit better we need to put ourselves in the shoes of Jesus’ listeners. As Jesus preached he was in an occupied country with people who were being downtrodden. Jesus was pointing out to the people that they were not necessarily taking into account the difficulties of the oppression they were under from Rome, or the harsh regime imposed by Herod or the excessive rules laid down by their religious leaders. They were clueless in a way, they were so busy doing want they had always done they didn’t notice who was right before them.
It seems like a strange passage, we aren’t used to Jesus being so harsh but what He was doing was trying to make people see what was going on around them and warn them that if they followed Him life was not going to be easy but it would be better and a choice had to be made.
Certainly if you were reading a description of a new life and it said that you would be persecuted, the world would fall apart as you know it, you would not really be wanting to say yes please to it ! But the biggest point is that we are not alone. In the reading from Jeremiah (23:23-29) we were reminded that God is close to us. In Hebrews (11:29-12:2) we were reminded that we are part of something bigger and that something is the great cloud of witnesses the people who have gone before us, the people for whom life wasn’t always easy but they knew following God was the best.
The way that we are to live is by looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith.
When it is hard to follow Jesus we are to keep our eyes fixed on Him, to turn to Him. Yes, it can be hard to be different to the people around us as we seek to be more like Jesus, and yes, our views can make us quite different from everyone around us.
In the passage Jesus was pointing to the violence that would come to Him. He was disappointed that the people couldn’t see what was going to happen to Him. He was upset that people were not being brave enough to make the decision to follow Him, even though it could initially spell danger for them. This is the division that Jesus is talking of, His followers would suffer.
For us as followers today the suffering is different. There are Christians who are persecuted for their faith today, people who live in danger because of their faith but they keep going because they have made a decision to follow Jesus. In our country we are able to talk about our faith without fear for our lives. This isn’t too say that we never suffer though. For uswe can still suffer as we are different to those around us because of our beliefs. Our biggest danger is that we could get much too comfortable.
When we follow Jesus we will be rejecting some of the ways of the world but our gain will be so much better. This is what being a follower of Jesus is about, it is about love, it is about making a change in our lives and it is about a better way, noticing Jesus around us, maybe in the words we hear or say, the people we meet, the comfort we feel. Jesus is all around us, Jesus is with us and we need to remember that we can turn to Him, and keep our eyes fixed on Him.
As followers of Jesus we are disciples trying to be like Him. Last week I spoke of how we belong to the family of God and we think of all those who have gone before us. Today we heard of the people who had taken risks for faith and once again been proven to have made the right decision. Today we have been reminded that we are not alone as we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
May we be people who aren’t complacent in our faith but shaken up as we seek to be closer to God as we fix our eyes on Him more and more. AMEN
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