BuiltWithNOF

Readings (click here for full text of the readings):
 

I.       Some days you look forward to preaching: this isn’t one

    A.  Gospel reading is a real downer

    B.  Some people try to wiggle out of it

      1.    Talk about how it’s actually upbeat, because it says that anyone can be our brother or sister

    C.  Honestly, though, it’s sobering

      1.    Bring fire to the earth

      2.    Bring division, not peace

      3.    Turn fathers and sons against each other

      4.    Mothers and daughters

      5.    Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, although that might be a little easier to understand and not worry about

II.    This isn’t what we expect Jesus to say, or Christians to act

    A.  We like to think of Christianity as all sweetness and light

    B.  Love your neighbor

    C.  Everyone’s your brother

    D.  Be good, do good, feel good

    E.  The words spoken at Jesus’s birth earlier in Luke

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will towards men.

III.  So what happened?  What changed?

    A.  3 things, actually

      1.    First, the context changed

        a)    Back when the angels were talking about peace on earth, everything was looking up

          (1)  John the Baptist
          (2)  Jesus and His ministry

        b)    But now the rubber is hitting the road

          (1)  John the Baptist has been executed
          (2)  People aren’t exactly getting Jesus’s message
          (3)  Sequence of sobering passages
            (a)    Jesus denounces lawyers and Pharisees
            (b)   Warns against hypocrisy
            (c)    The parable of the rich fool who stored up treasures on earth
            (d)   The warning to keep watch because the Lord will return at an unknown hour (that we heard last week)
            (e)   And now, this talk of dividing families, one against another

        c)     Now’s not the time for polite words

          (1)  Now’s the time for hard work
          (2)  The crucifixion is approaching
          (3)  We will all be tested.
          (4)  We need to be ready
          (5)  There’s not much time left

      2.    Second, Jesus changed

        a)    It’s funny how people seem to need Jesus to be the same all the time, everywhere

        b)    They get worried when He says one thing at one time, and says the opposite another time

        c)     We need to remember that He’s telling us what we need to hear

          (1)  To the people who are overcome by the depth of their sin, He proclaims forgiveness
          (2)  To the people who couldn’t care less if they’d sinner, He tells them they need to repent, and now!

        d)    So in this passage Jesus is telling the people what they need to hear

          (1)  Buechner story: racism; “as best as you damn well can!!”

      3.    Finally, our way of looking at things changed

        a)    At some point in the past, we took Jesus seriously

          (1)  We viewed ourselves as Christians first and foremost, and only second husbands, wives, children, parents, etc.
          (2)  We took our responsibilities seriously
            (a)    Regular prayer
            (b)   Church on Sundays
            (c)    Giving 10% of our income to the poor, if not more
            (d)   Confessing our sins, one to another

        b)    But now we’re much more “balanced”: Christianity is just one part of our lives

          (1)  We pray if we have time
          (2)  We go to church if nothing else needs to be done right then
          (3)  We give some money away, but 10% is kind of extreme, don’t you think?
          (4)  And we ignore our sin
            (a)    We call it different names: lapse of judgment, human nature, forgivable (but we forget that we need to ask for forgiveness, and hope to God we get it)

IV.And that’s why Jesus says what He does today

    A.  The times have changed

    B.  He’s changed: He doesn’t have much time left

    C.  And we’ve changed, and not for the better

      1.    We like our Christianity to fit neatly in a box, so we can control it

      2.    Ours is a polite faith, which doesn’t ask any more of us than is comfortable for us to give

      3.    We want to have it all: wealth, family, God, salvation: everything

    D.  But Jesus is telling us that we can’t have it all

      1.    Actually, we can only have one thing for sure

        a)    We can have money, if we work hard and hoard

        b)    We can have family, if we care about them more than God

        c)     Or we can have God, if we’re willing to give up everything else

          (1)  Our wealth
          (2)  Our loved ones
          (3)  Our comfortable lives

        d)    Parallel passage in Matthew

      Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

V.   What’s the take home message from this disturbing passage? – THERE ARE TWO

    A.  First, Jesus isn’t telling us not to care about our parents or children

      1.    If He was saying that, I’m not sure if I’d listen to Him

      2.    Because even if I wanted to do that, I don’t think I could

        a)    Telling me not to love Pam and Catie would be like telling me to swim across the Atlantic, or draw a square circle

        b)    There’s no way I could do it, even if I wanted to

      3.    But all Jesus is saying is that we can’t love anything more than we love God

        a)    Which means we either love our family less

        b)    Or we love God more

          (1)  That’s what He’s really getting at
          (2)  He’s telling us we don’t love God enough
          (3)  That other things are getting in the way
          (4)  And we need to refocus on God

    B.  Which brings us to the second take-home point: God has to be everything to us

      1.    Christianity isn’t a hobby that we can pick up when we feel like it

        a)    It’s not just one of many parts of our lives

        I’m 37 years old, I live in Vermont, I have a wife and child, I’m a pediatrician; oh, and I’m a Christian, too.

      2.    And the Christian life isn’t all sweetness and light

        a)    It’s not all peace and good will and salvation

        b)    It’s hard work, and commitment, and doing things there’s no way we’d do if we weren’t Christians

          (1)  Like giving of our time to people who need help
          (2)  Like giving away more of our money than we really should, because other folks need it way more than we do
          (3)  Like praying when we don’t feel like it
          (4)  Like forgiving when we’d rather bear a grudge

    C.  Nowadays a lot of people view Christianity as being extra nice, being polite, doing the honorable thing

      1.    But Jesus is saying that there’s nothing nice and polite about following Him

      2.    Following Him demands everything from us

      3.    Being a Christian means acting unnaturally, like by forgiving others when you know they’re just going to treat you badly again; and spending more time focusing on our own sins than on those of others

      4.    All this talk of fire and division?  It’s Jesus’s way of making sure that we don’t fall into the trap of believing that when we chose to follow Him, we were making the hardest, craziest, and most wonderful decision of our lives.

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