Sunday, August 18, 2019 ~ Tenth Sunday of Easter

Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

 Sermon: “Tough Teachings”

Gospel Lesson: Luke 12:49-56

© 2019, Dr. Tamilio

When I was a student minister in West Gloucester some twenty-three years ago, there was a member of the youth group who wasn’t a problem child, per se, but she often butted heads with her parents.  She was a smart kid, too — so smart that she found a Bible passage to justify her defiance.  That passage is part of today’s Gospel Lesson:

Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but division.  From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

Two chapters later, Jesus would say, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life — such a person cannot be my disciple.”

Hate.  Dem be some strong words!  A lot of people (not just my difficult youth group attendee) read such passages the wrong way.  Jesus is not saying that to be a Christian you have to literally hate your family members.

This passage is more about prioritization.  Jesus is saying that he comes first.  If family members stand in the way of your discipleship because they do not share your beliefs, then you need to decide — and the correct choice is to follow Jesus.

This does not seem to be an issue for most of us.  Many of us have family members who attend church with us.  Those who don’t are probably not given a hard time by a spouse or parent.  They probably don’t really care.  That is not the case for everybody.  However, that is a different sermon for a different time.  Today, I want to focus on the fact that what we read in Scripture can sometimes challenge us to the core.

 Think about it.  Just look at Matthew’s text:

• “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:28)
• “…if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matt. 5:30)
• “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)
• “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:20)

Some of Jesus’ difficult teachings are hyperbolic: meaning that Jesus is using hyperbole — an exaggerated statement that is not meant to be taken literally.  Maybe he did this to emphasize a specific point in his teachings.  Maybe he did this to point out flaws in the people he was teaching.  Maybe there are other reasons.

Some of Jesus’ teachings are difficult, because he set the bar incredibly high.  Even if we fail to reach the goal, we’re still better off for trying.  Remember the rich man who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life?  Jesus eventually tells him, “sell your possessions and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  Did Jesus want him to literally sell all of his possessions and give his money to the poor?  Probably.  Does Jesus ask the same of us?  Maybe.  How many of you are about to do this after you leave worship today?  Come on: a show of hands.  Yeah, right.  Me neither.  But if we give more to the poor than we already are — if we give some of our possessions — are we not better off than we are now?  Isn’t something better than nothing.

Runners and golfers often try to exceed their “personal best.”  It isn’t so much about beating other people in a race or trying to defeat your partner on the green.  It is about doing better than you did last time, trying to improve, pushing and challenge yourself.  Only then will you get better.  When he was ninety-three years old, the great Spanish cellist Pablo Casals was asked, “Why do you continue to practice three hours a day at your age?”  Casals responded, “I’m beginning to notice some improvement.”  In the words of the neo-folk guitarist David Roth, who played at our church a few years ago, “Practice makes…progress.”  (You thought I was going to say “perfect,” didn’t you?)

I think Jesus wants does not want us to get too comfortable, to think we have all the answers, to act as if we’ve mastered this Christianity thing.  You could have multiple PhDs in the New Testament — one from every Ivy League university — but you still wouldn’t know the mind of Christ.  You would not be above reproach.

We will never be perfect, but I do not think that the point is to be perfect.  T.S. Eliot once wrote, “For us, there is only the trying.  The rest is not our business.”[1]  Reflecting upon this verse, Father Andrew Stephen Damick (apparently I am not the only clergy person who quotes Eliot) Father Damick writes, “The rest, indeed, is no business of ours.  We are called to have faith and to be faithful.  We are not called to be successful, not even with what is ostensibly God’s work.  After all, it is God’s work.”[2]

People get too hung-up on what the Bible says and what it doesn’t say.  They bicker over apparent contradictions, and commandments that seem to be archaic.  Instead, we need to read it with the eyes of the spirit to discern how God is speaking to each of us directly through the text.  Sometimes his word is a word of comfort.  Sometimes it is a challenge.

God’s Word is a living word.  It isn’t some monument cast in stone that says the same thing over and over again.  It always speaks to us anew.  I may have shared this with you before, but I love what the great twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth said about Scripture.  Barth did not believe that the words on the pages of the Bible were literally God’s words, as if God sat down and wrote them with a quill.  He did, however, believe that God’s Word (with a capital “W”) spoke through the words on the page.  You don’t have to take every word literally.  That would be impossible.  You can read it with fresh eyes, though, and listen carefully to how God is speaking to you — and you, and you, and you.

Look for the more “excellent way,” as the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians.  You don’t need to get there on your own.  God will lead you the entire way.  Amen.

[1] T.S. Eliot, “East Coker,” Part V, Four Quartets.

[2] Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, Roads from Emmaus, September 16, 2009.  Online.