The Prince of Peace?

 Luke 12:49-56

 I don’t know about you, but when I read this Gospel passage, I start by wondering who is this?! and what have you done with my Jesus?

Jesus tells the disciples that he has not come to bring peace but a sword. Because of him, families and communities will be disrupted, torn apart. Truly, because of Jesus, the world changed.

What Jesus says in this scripture became the truth.  Immediately after his resurrection, some people in a family believed in Jesus, and some thought he was a heretic. The result was that families split apart. In some families, the believers were kicked out of their homes. By the time the Gospel of John was written, those who believed in Jesus were also kicked out of the local synagogues. It was a painful time in the new church.

It didn’t get any better over the centuries. As believers tried to figure out what it meant that Jesus lived, died, and was raised again, there were many different interpretations. And some of these differences led to violence. Some of the violence came from persecutions, leading to martyrdom. For example, Paul began his career as a hunter of those who followed the Way of Jesus, though he died defending his faith in Jesus.

The Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition were radical, and incorrect, interpretations of this quote from Jesus. This passage has been used to defend the conversion by literal or figurative sword of native people all over the globe for 2,000 years.

Today, congregations may be split by the way members believe in Jesus. It is common for the way people think about Jesus to be polarizing. We can read or listen to the news every day and see how this is.

In a previous congregation, some folks left the church in an election year because they believed that I was too liberal. I told them what I will tell you. I say, “Think about the things Jesus valued and vote for people who value the same things.”

I know, and you all know, that it isn’t easy lately to have a conversation with people who disagree with us. So many folks have made up their minds on a topic and aren’t interested in hearing a different opinion.

I recently commented on a post about how evil liberals are in comparison to conservatives. My comment was on how the post stereotyped both groups. A follower replied to me that they didn’t know any liberals who were not like the stereotype.

My follow-up reply was that I was a liberal, that I had opinions different from the post. And I asked, could they have a conversation with me without making assumptions about my beliefs. There was no further reply. It is hard, almost impossible to have an open conversation when we are not willing to learn from each other.

It is truly a challenge. … Jesus said, I have come not to bring peace but a sword. Certainly, we sometimes use words like swords. And we set up shields to defend ourselves from words we don’t want to hear.

We tend to hang out with people who agree with us, and avoid those who differ from us. We want to be right. We don’t like to argue, to debate, to consider other people might have some truth behind their statements.

How can we navigate in such a polarized world? We have to learn to be open, to listen to each other, to admit that we both could be right and we both could be wrong.

I recently watched the movie Awakenings, with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro. Williams played Dr Sayer, who worked in a psychiatric hospital ward with patients who were catatonic. Other doctors called the patients “statues”.

After some research, Dr Sayer tried dosing the patients with a medication called L-Dopa. It took some experimenting, but they finally found the right dose and one night, the patients awoke. It turns out that while the patients were in a catatonic state, they could hear and see and feel, but they were unable to respond to their family members and caregivers. They were not statues, they were still people, inside their frozen appearance. Fortunately, the doctors were open to being taught.

Jesus came to bring peace, but not the peace of a lack of war. He came to bring the peace that values every person for who they are. He came to challenge the laws and behaviors that undervalue some people and over-value others. Sometimes, such changes happen peacefully, but too often, it takes violence, division, to make the changes possible.

Let’s be people willing to listen, to hear other opinions, and open to revising our own opinions. Let’s listen to Jesus urging us to seek peace with each other, and the welfare of all people.

Amen