Proper 15 / Pentecost 13 / Ordinary Time 20
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
-- Luke 12:50-51
These are hard sayings for the church. In many churches the emphasis is on not upsetting people rather than challenging them with the urgency of the gospel. Many a pastor has felt the pressure of the church to not say any words that might be considered controversial and certainly not to engage in any activity that might upset some of the members. Most mainline denominations are repeatedly criticized for taking positions that have upset people and are urged to adopt policies that will be more acceptable to their membership.
None of us like to have our assumptions about life challenged, and yet the gospel described Jesus as having repeatedly challenged the mores of his society and the accommodations that many of the religious leaders of his day had made with the society within which they lived. One can imagine the response in a church if the pastor said, as Jesus did, "Now you [church officers] clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness" (Luke 11:39) or "Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them" (Luke 11:46). While Jesus was referring to scribal lawyers, it might apply to our members who are secular lawyers as well.
The danger, of course, is that we will justify every conflict as a sign of our righteousness and fail to listen to anyone who disagrees with the wisdom of our behavior. While the gospel recognized that faithfulness might well cause division within the church as it challenged people's comfortable accommodations with society, the gospel also lifted up Jesus' life as the guide for our behavior. The baptism with which Jesus was baptized was a life that continually was lived out in compassion for others. While Jesus lost some disciples because the good news he proclaimed was too upsetting for them, he did not lose any because he lacked compassion for them.
In the story of the rich man who wanted to inherit eternal life, Luke 18:18-26, Jesus was clear about the false attachments that separated the man from what he wanted and compassionate in urging him to take steps that would bring him closer to God. No one should take delight in causing division among believers or in upsetting those who hunger for the gospel, but one must also recognize the urgency of the time and not be afraid to speak the words or exercise the ministry that the gospels make plain.
-- Luke 12:50-51
These are hard sayings for the church. In many churches the emphasis is on not upsetting people rather than challenging them with the urgency of the gospel. Many a pastor has felt the pressure of the church to not say any words that might be considered controversial and certainly not to engage in any activity that might upset some of the members. Most mainline denominations are repeatedly criticized for taking positions that have upset people and are urged to adopt policies that will be more acceptable to their membership.
None of us like to have our assumptions about life challenged, and yet the gospel described Jesus as having repeatedly challenged the mores of his society and the accommodations that many of the religious leaders of his day had made with the society within which they lived. One can imagine the response in a church if the pastor said, as Jesus did, "Now you [church officers] clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness" (Luke 11:39) or "Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them" (Luke 11:46). While Jesus was referring to scribal lawyers, it might apply to our members who are secular lawyers as well.
The danger, of course, is that we will justify every conflict as a sign of our righteousness and fail to listen to anyone who disagrees with the wisdom of our behavior. While the gospel recognized that faithfulness might well cause division within the church as it challenged people's comfortable accommodations with society, the gospel also lifted up Jesus' life as the guide for our behavior. The baptism with which Jesus was baptized was a life that continually was lived out in compassion for others. While Jesus lost some disciples because the good news he proclaimed was too upsetting for them, he did not lose any because he lacked compassion for them.
In the story of the rich man who wanted to inherit eternal life, Luke 18:18-26, Jesus was clear about the false attachments that separated the man from what he wanted and compassionate in urging him to take steps that would bring him closer to God. No one should take delight in causing division among believers or in upsetting those who hunger for the gospel, but one must also recognize the urgency of the time and not be afraid to speak the words or exercise the ministry that the gospels make plain.
