Peace and division (Lk. 12:49-56)
The declining church
There was a time when just about everyone you knew was connected to the Christian church in some way and probably even went to church somewhere; a time when the people least like us were the Catholics; a time when you could put a sign out the front that said “Lutheran Church” and people would come; a time when you could safely assume someone’s denominational ties based on their last name. Many of us remember that time and cherish those memories. Some of these things still resonate today.
In 1966, when the Lutheran Church of Australia was unified, some 35% of our population attended Christian church services (across all denominations). Today, it’s steady at around 15%. Just under half of the population ticked “Christian” on the census in 2021, but only 15% actually attend a local church.
So, if 15% of the whole population are church-going people, 85% are not. That’s a massive proportion of people. It might still seem very normal to us to come to worship on a Sunday, but 85% of Australians don’t. Does that surprise you? Does that make complete sense?
Jesus speaks straight into that context today. Jesus, who we call the Prince of Peace and who said “peace be with you” to his apostles, says today that he actually came to bring division and separation. This all sounds a bit too aggressive for Jesus, doesn’t it?
Think about the world we live in. We Christians are now the minority. Anywhere you go when you leave your home during the week—the shops, school, work, the footy club—there are likely to be more people that disagree with what you believe than people who are like-minded. You are more likely to find a non-Christian at the checkout than a person of faith. In that sense, our world is divided. There are people who believe in Jesus Christ and those who don’t. That’s just a fact of life, and it has always been that way.
This division is the reality of being a disciple of Jesus. Being a person of faith has a cost. Our choice to believe in Jesus and come to church separates us from most of our community. We don’t do it for that reason, but it’s an outcome that Jesus says is inevitable.
The divided families
Jesus says that families will be divided among themselves. You might be blessed to be a part of a family that come along to worship together—what a wonderful thing that is. Not everyone gets to experience that joy. For some, being a Christian and living it out is a daily battle. For some, deciding to come to worship means separating yourself from your family. For some, faith causes irreparable damage to relationships.
I had a phone call recently about a man who had died who had a connection to the Lutheran Church. One son sought out the nearest Lutheran pastor to officiate his father’s funeral service, while the other wanted no funeral service at all. It’s not uncommon to hear about division among families when it comes to planning a funeral, is it? We might get along with our siblings just fine for most of our lives, but when it comes to this sort of stuff, our true beliefs come out.
If you are fighting a battle for your faith at home, take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows all about it. He names it right in front of the disciples. It’s not a new thing and it’s not unexpected either. Being a disciple of Jesus has a cost—for some, it can cost relationships within families.
Jesus doesn’t promise to win over our families and take away the cost of being a disciple. He doesn’t promise to make our life as Christians easier, necessarily. So where’s the good news? Where’s the love of God at work?
Pastor Shaun and I attended a District Pastors Retreat last week. We opened the retreat with a Holy Communion service on the Wednesday night, and Assistant Bishop Steve Schultz preached to us pastors. In a fairly Jesus-like way (don’t tell him I said that), he laid out the truth: pastors are tired, anxious, and many desperately need rest.
The pandemic has accentuated some of it, but ministry is hard work anyway, and requires the whole self. The pastoral and practical needs of our people have increased, so pastors and others involved in ministry have more demanded of them.
Among all of the tiredness, exhaustion and heavy burdens, Pastor Steve pointed us to one piece of Scripture in particular: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28)
We all need to hear those words from time to time. Pastors are tired, but my read on things in my extensive wisdom and experience in the ministry is that we are all tired. We’d love to start up programs that we used to have running pre-COVID, but it’s often just too hard to find anyone to run them. Small groups are often a bit trickier to make work for everyone. Less people attend major church events because of sickness or fatigue. People have to drop out last-minute because they have to self-isolate. Many of these challenges are partly to do with an ageing church membership, but also because of the last 2–3 years we have experienced.
On a whole community level, we are exhausted. It’s unusual for an event like a Zone Family Festival to take place at the moment. Many of us would prefer to have a quiet day at home at the moment.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
The healing peace
These words about division and failing to interpret the times might seem pretty harsh or even brutal at the moment. They are to a degree—we know Jesus isn’t one to mince his words. Like any piece of Scripture, though, we need to take his words in their context to be able to apply them to ours.
The Jews expected a king to come and put an end to Roman oppression, giving Israel back its country for good. They expected a great battle and military victory, and they expected a long period of political peace to follow. Jesus was a king alright, but not the kind they expected of course.
Jesus is pointing out that he did not come to this world to bring that kind of peace. Rather, he came to separate people from their misconceptions and unbelief. Simply by being himself, the Son of God who would win the victory over sin by dying on a cross, he would cause division.
Any controversy divides opinion, but Jesus caused controversy because he claimed to be God. He brought people’s entire faith into question. The Spirit worked in the hearts of the apostles and many other Jews who were willing to separate themselves from the status quo. Unlike today, religion was absolutely central to the lives of the Jewish people. It was their national and cultural identity. To walk away from that to follow Jesus had a serious cost.
Despite the cost of following Jesus, Christianity grew from a dozen average blokes to hundreds of thousands of believers all around the world and still survives to this day. It’s not a very attractive way of life—it has potential to isolate you from social groups and even families. It demands your whole self. Yet, we do it.
Chat time: Why do you bother coming to church when you could be anywhere else?
God has so much to give us, more than we even think to ask for. Above all, he has given us his Son who died for the sins of the world, and the Holy Spirit who produces faith in us. Among all of the division and struggle that our faith involves, Jesus offers us his peace today.
As if the division between believers and unbelievers wasn’t enough, we so often become divided among ourselves within the church as well. What music should we have? Should we replace the carpet or not? How much money should we spend on our building? What pastor should we call?
Human beings will have differing opinions—there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s how we deal with our own division that’s important. It’s Jesus call if he wants to divide people when it comes to faith, but he calls for peace within the church, among believers. When there is division among ourselves, that’s all we can see. Internal conflict is debilitating and crippling. When we have peace and unity, we can start to see beyond ourselves.
OK, pastor. How do we find that peace?
Although being a Christian divides us from the world, we have the peace that only Christ can give. Through faith in Christ, granted to us by the Spirit, and by the forgiveness he offers, we have peace with God. Through our common faith in the Triune God, we agree on what really matters. We’ll disagree on how we use our money or what colour carpet we get, but we have peace and unity where it counts. When we know that, our disagreements become less important.
Some of us can be stubborn at times. We refuse to budge on things that are important to us. Jesus says to never budge when it comes to faith. Even if it causes problems within your family or costs you friendships, your faith in Christ is something that you should be stubborn about. Be strong on that so that when it comes to those other internal issues, you have the patience and humility to make compromise. And don’t we love compromise…
Jesus says that he brings division when it comes to faith and the world. When it comes to the church and those who believe, he gives his peace as he gave it to his disciples. When he forgives our sins through Word and Sacrament, we have peace with God and we share it with each other.
Anything good within us—our love, our generosity, our patience, our humility, our peace between each other—all stem from his love, his generosity, his patience, his humility, his peace toward us.
The peace Jesus gives is eternal. It’s beyond the political peace in our world, which we continually pray for. It’s beyond peace within our families. It’s beyond peace within our churches. It’s the peace that is far beyond our understanding.
May it keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
