Sermon 2007 08 19

Today's Gospel lesson presents a problem to preachers. The problem is that Jesus' words don't sound very much like Jesus, do they? Whatever happened to gentle Jesus meek and mild? Whatever happened to the birth narratives from Luke's Gospel which has a host of heavenly beings proclaiming this little child to be, among other things, a prince of peace?

Today we have Jesus seemingly attacking family values. What could be more pure than that: family values? So that's my problem as a preacher. So how can we make sense of today's Gospel lesson. Isn't the word "Gospel" supposed to mean Good News? Today's lessons sounds more like Bad News doesn't it? Jesus pictures a household of five in which two will be against three, and three against two. Jesus came to bring fire on the earth.

A seminary professor (Stanley Hauerwas) likes to opens one of his classes by reading a letter from a parent to a government official. In the letter the parent complains that his son, who had received the best education, gone to all the right schools, and was headed for a good job as a lawyer, has gotten himself mixed up with a strange religious sect. This sect controls his every move. It tells him whom to and whom not to date, and it has taken all his money. In the letter the parent pleads with the government official to do something. "Who," the seminary professor then asks his class, "is this letter describing?" Some think it's describing the Moonies or some other sect. The answer: It's a letter from the 3rd-century written by Roman parents complaining about a group known as the Christians.

Evidently in the third-century the Gospel still set mother against daughter, father against son. It doesn't usually have the same effect for most people who live in Canada in 2007. Why is that? We have to ask ourselves what is it that Jesus says here that sets mother against daughter, father against son? What's so radical about it that 3rd-century Romans considered Christianity a dangerous religious sect? Have we watered down our faith to the point that it is innocuous? Does faith have to be offensive to be real?

I have had some friends who have suffered rejection from their families because of their faith in Christ. I remember one friend in particular who spoke to me about his experience upon visiting his family for Christmas dinner. His name is Dan. His family had never been particularly religious. They went to Church once or twice a year, and mostly complained about the changes that they saw there more than anything else. Dan never went to Sunday school - he had been to church more when he visited his grandparents than with his parents- and Church was frankly unimportant to him. He wasn't against it - but he wasn't for it either. He really didn't have an opinion. Church was a tradition - not about faith.

Then Dan joined the military and was invited to come to a meeting of the Military Christian Fellowship. This was a group of young adults his age (18-20) for whom Christ was an important element of their lives. Dan came to have a living faith. For the first time in his life - going to Church wasn't just a tradition, but it was about worshipping God - a living God. Dan felt to be truly a child of God. His baptism as a child suddenly took on incredible meaning for him.

So what happened that Christmas dinner? Dan's family had been celebrating Christmas every year for all of Dan's life, but this Christmas was the first time that the true meaning of Christmas came through to Dan. For Dan, this was truly about celebrating the birth of his Lord. For Dan, it was also about celebrating the coming of Christ to his own heart as well. Christ had been seemingly re-born for Dan in those months before Christmas. Or perhaps Dan himself felt re-born in some kind of a way.

Dan came home two days before Christmas and didn't really know how to tell his family about what he had been experiencing at Military college those few months. The courses were going well enough - he was meeting new friends. They spoke about that mostly. He told his family that he wanted to go to midnight mass and so some of them went along with him. They thought that to be a little strange for Dan - but they enjoyed the beautiful music.

Finally they sat down to Christmas dinner and Dan asked if he could say grace. A look passed between Dan's Father and Mother as his Mom said sure. They had never said grace in their family. Dan prayed a prayer of thanksgiving over the food and also a prayer of thanksgiving for the birth of their Lord which they were celebrating.

Perhaps it wouldn't be profane in this case to describe what happened next as 'all hell breaking loose'. Dan's dad interrupted with "My son has become a fanatic." Dan's mom burst into tears. His brother said to him, "Just what the hell kind of Jesus freaks do they have at Military College anyway?" Afterwards Dan's mom said to him in anger: you have ruined our Christmas. Yes, Dan had ruined their Christmas by praying in thanksgiving for Christ's birth.

Perhaps all of us can see the craziness of this situation. This was the first time that Christmas had been taken faithfully in that family. How can praying in thankfulness for Christ's birth ruin Christmas? Yet that's what it did. And even though we can see how nonsensical the crisis was that Christmas dinner, I bet all of us can see how easy it would be for that to happen. In our society today this situation can easily happen.

I don't believe for a second that it was Christ's purpose to bring such division to families. I think Christ was describing what would happen - not what he wanted to happen. I think Christ would prefer that at that Christmas dinner, all of them in that family could have celebrated his birth in prayer.

But Christ would prefer that whatever our family situation, we should be people of faith - even if it may be a cause for division in our own family - it is better to have a living faith. So what about us? Who do we sympathize with in this little story? And how are we doing regarding the living of our own lives of faith in our families?

It is important to understand that when Jesus said, "Do you think that have come to bring peace to the earth? Now, I tell you, but rather division!" He didn't mean that in the sense that division was his purpose. He meant it in the sense that division would be the natural consequence on his coming.

Our faith is supposed to get into our lives and mess it up a bit! It is supposed to make a difference to the way we live our lives. It is supposed to affect our actions, our words and our budget. And as the saying goes, "Money talks." Some people - sometimes within our own families - don't want to hear that talk. Amen.