"Loyality & Division" - Pentecost 2A

Trinity Lutheran Church
Des Plaines, Illinois

Jeremiah 20:7-13
Saint Matthew 10:27-39

I would be willing to wager a considerable sum of money that when you woke up this morning, had your breakfast, put down the paper, turned off the television and got all dolled up to drop by  you were not hoping to hear a sermon about divisions.

 Trust me, as a guest preacher.  I wasn’t ready to preach one.

 Guest preachers are supposed to come in say nice things about Jesus, have a little coffee, chat up the crowd a bit, and go home.  We are not supposed to talk about such a divisive issue as divisions.  And we are certainly not to do so in the midst of our divided culture.

 I need not go into a lengthy list of these divisions.  Just a mere mention of them should do the trick.  Democrat/Republican.  Rich/Poor. Male/female.  Black/white.  Gay/straight.  All of these, and a thousand other things can tare communities, families, and even individual psyches apart.

 It is not only that we are war with each other but it seems sometimes that we are divided from ourselves.  Our conversations become snarky and we, as human beings, become diminished.

 So, we pick up today’s gospel and cringe.  Lo and behold, Jesus, is talking about divisions.  Our divisions.  That’s one of the problems there is with Jesus - sometimes he stops teaching and gets to meddling.

 We may feel a little like crying out the words of Jeremiah: “You pushed me into this God, and I let you do it.” 1

 Out of a sense of guilt, obligation, or just plain habit, God, you got me up and out of bed and I came to church and, here I am, stuck with some preacher I don’t even know who is going to talk about divisions.

 Lordy, what was it I heard  in the Gospel? 

 I hear Jesus saying: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” 2

 Sadly, that is what the first Christians experienced.

 In the first century the household, functioned as the foundational unit of the state. It was how life was ordered.  Marriages were arranged.  The father was the unquestioned head and the rest of the family was to be subservient.  It was a top down chain of command system.

 Jesus life and ministry changed all that.  He spoke with people who would have never been welcomed into Greco-Roman households and (Worse than that!)  he treated them all the same.  Women were welcomed into his circle not as inferiors but as equals.  Societies outcasts - tax-collectors, sinners, schemers and frauds were welcomed.  Children were welcomed into his family as were all who were ever looked down upon by society.

 Christianity crossed a lot of Greco-Roman cultural lines and sometimes this line-crossing caused divisions.

 In a world where marriages were arranged like corporate mergers children were bringing home partners whom they said they “fell in love with.”  Women were talking to men who were not their husbands.  Children were being treated as persons and not property.

 Things were changing and Jesus knew that some people would not be happy about it.  We all know that some people will resist change no matter what.

 During the month of June I am proud to say that the church to which I belong is bolding flying the Gay Pride flag above it’s main entrance for all the shoppers on Michigan Avenue to see. 
 Flying that flag was the topic of much debate.

 What pushed the flag flying across the finish line was the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Atlanta.  That made it a time to declare which side we really were on.  The side of unity or the side of division that leads to violence. 

 But violence as Jesus’ said is most often not on a mass scale.

 Consider this painful post by a “Christian Blogger” named Kim Higginbotham, who announced on her son’s wedding day that he was dead to her.  That sounds a bit more like the dialogue from a old time gangster movie than what a mother would say about her son in 2017 but she not only thought it she wrote about it.

   What made the post so anachronistic is that her only problem with the young man was that he was marrying another young man.

Using today’s text as a pretext she writes: (And I am not making this up!)

Someone may ask, “Why would anyone break ties with her own child?” The answer is, “loyalty to Jesus.” Being a disciple of Jesus demands our relationship to him be greater than our relationship to our own family, even our own children. I pray that you never have to make such a sacrifice, but I also pray that you love the Lord enough to choose Him over your children.3

In some ways this is Jesus’ prediction come true - a young man being abandoned by his parents because of his beliefs or actions. As another blogger wrote:  

When people are brainwashed into thinking certain sins are unacceptable, it can tear apart families for no good reason. For all we know, Higginbotham’s son would love to have a relationship with his parents. But his mother, despite everything she says she misses about him, won’t reciprocate because she fears it’ll upset her God.4


I think what may upset God more is when we participate in this cynical, demeaning, vitriolic discourse. Being full of critical judgements of one another is not how God wants us to live. But that is the way more and more of us are choosing to live our lives.

As David L. Brooks said a couple of weeks ago on The News Hour:

"In 1970, people were asked, would you mind it if your son or daughter married someone of the opposing party? And 5 percent would mind.

Now 40 percent (say they would) mind, because people think your political affiliation is a sign of your worth, your values, your philosophy, your culture, your lifestyle. It’s everything. All of a sudden, we have been reduced to politics and we have made politics into the ultimate source of our souls." 5

Politics is not the source of our souls and neither is our religion if it divides us from one another. 

Christ doesn’t want that mother to be divided from her son in his name. He wants her to pick up the phone and call him and tell him she loves him no matter what. 

 Christ doesn’t want us to define ourselves by what political party we belong to but rather be united by our baptismal belonging to him. 

 My pastor, The Rev’d Shannon Kershner, said: “In these days of heightened polarization, we are inclined to see the message of the gospel through our already determined political lens, rather than viewing our politics and policies through our gospel lens.”6

 Do you see what a difference that can make? 

If we saw life through our gospel lens things would seem different. Our divisions would be transcended when we began to see each other as the beloved children - sons and daughters of God - that Christ says we are.

 And how might this work?  Let me tell you in a story that I have been saving up for awhile.

For several years the fifth grade boys basketball team from St. John the Apostle Catholic School had girls on it.  (It’s a small school in New Jersey that didn’t have enough boys to fill out a roster so they used girls.)
  
For most of last season it went unchallenged until their final two games when it looked like they would make the play-offs.  It was only then that some parents got involved.

Out to spoil their children’s good times some parents on opposing teams cried foul. This was a boys league, no girls allowed.  The team was faced with a momentous decision: Drop the girls or forfeit the season. The team’s decision was unanimous, courageous and inspiring.

“It’s your decision to play the game without the two young ladies on the team, or do you want to stay as a team as you have all year?” asked parent Matthew Dohn. “Show of hands for play as a team?”

 Eleven hands shot up in unison. No one raised a hand when asked the alternative.

 Assistant coach Keisha Martel, who is also the mom of one of the girls, Kayla Martel, reminded the team of the consequences. They had been told that playing the girls in any game would mean the rest of the season would be forfeited.

 “But if the girls play, this will be the end of your season. You won’t play in the playoffs,” she warned.

 “It doesn’t matter,” one boy replied and others echoed, before the team began to chant, “Unity!”

 In the crowd, supporters cheered along. Several parents began to cry.7

 I think those young men and women had the message of the Gospel down better than anyone, don’t you? 

 In a society where rules are rules and anybody who disobeys the rules must be ostracized - Christ does not unify. 

In a society that views politics as the number one priority Christ cannot lead. 

In a society where even one’s orientation can become a topic of discussion, descension and even division between family members Christ’s love cannot prevail.

 But on a basketball court in New Jersey young men and women can teach us all there is to know about seeing the world through the gospel lens and what they saw was unity and not division.

 They were united as a team that played side by side with each other and on the same side as their Lord and ours, Jesus Christ.

 Wouldn't it be great if every member of every church committed themselves to do the same?

 Thanks for listening.

__________

1.   Jeremiah 20:7.  (MSG) (MSG=The Message)

2.   Saint Matthew 10:34-36.  (NRSV) (NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version)

3.   Kim Higginbotham, “Giving Your Child to the Devil.”  teachinghelp.org. May 6, 2017.  http://www.teachinghelp.org/giving-your-child-to-the-devil/#more-2617

4.   Hemet Mehta, “Christian Mother Mourns Loss of Son She Abandoned for Being Gay (On His Wedding Day).”  Friendly Athiest. pathos.com.  May 15, 2017.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/05/15/christian-mother-mourns-loss-of-son-she-abandoned-for-being-gay-on-his-wedding-day/

5.   Mark Shields & David Brooks, "Shields and Brooks" The Newshour  ( June 16, 2017).
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/shields-brooks-trumps-response-russia-probe-scalise-shooting

6.  Shannon J. Kershner, “Politics and the Pulpit.” Sermons from Fourth Church. February 5, 2017. http://www.fourthchurch.org/sermons/2017/020517.html

7.  Andrew Joseph, "5th grade coed basketball team chooses to forfeit season instead of kicking girls off the team," USA Today (New York), February 12, 2017, February 12, 2017, accessed June 24 , 2017, http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/02/5th-grade-coed-basketball-cyo-st-johns-new-jersey-forfeit-girls.