This is not a favorite passage for preaching. "Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth?" (Luke 12:51). Well, now that you ask, Jesus, yes. I mean, we call you the Prince of Peace, and I remember the angels at your nativity and their anthem about "Peace on earth." What's going on?
From now on five in one household will be divided, 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 her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. — Luke 12:52-53 (NRSV)
Well, Lord, the in-law against in-law conflict is not exactly unheard of. Come to think of it, the father-son and mother-daughter clashes are not news either. And, yes, even over matters of faith.
Early in my ministry I served a church that had been born out of conflict. It was a serious theological issue about what was permissible to sing in church. By way of background, some traditions insist to this day that the only thing that should be sung in worship is the psalter — psalms set to music. Others (including the mainline Presbyterian church) disagree and are more than willing to allow for greater variety. The church I was serving had been formed by a group in the psalm-singing tradition that wanted more. They argued for it, lost the battle, and left in a huff to form a new church. Mothers against daughters, fathers against sons, wives refused to cook for their husbands. It was a mess. All was calm by the time I arrived, but it had been bloody.
On the subject of music in church, this is from an old article on 150 years of Presbyterianism in Illinois:
In the early days the use of instruments in the church was also frowned upon. Dismal as the congregational singing must have been, still the authorities refused to use organs or pianos for some years. We are told that in one of our mid-Illinois churches, as one Mr. Robertson entered the church on sabbath morning he was scandalized to hear strains of organ music, and with a face red with anger and voice choked with outrage, shook a bony finger at the minister, demanding, "Mister Johnson, by whose authority was this vile thing brought into the Kirk?" [Robertson] was brought before the Session and suspended for disorderly conduct and interrupting a service of worship.[1]
Along that same line, Flynn Long, a former Associate Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church, US (the southern Presbyterian church), used to tell a wonderful story about an Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregation in South Carolina, which decided to make the break and get an organ. The old elder who more or less ran things had refused to allow it, saying, "Ye'll nae put up one o' them newfangled contraptions wi' all the bells and whistles on't in the hoose o' God!" Those in favor of the move pleaded with him, told him about the instrument the Methodists had, and so on, all to no avail. He would nae hear o' it.
As it happened, the old elder was called on an extended business trip to Chicago, and while he was gone his congregation got themselves an organ. Nearly everyone loved it. When he got back and found out about it, he refused to attend church, because they'd put up "one o' them newfangled contraptions wi' all the bells and whistles on't in the hoose o' God."
A little time went by and the other elders learned our hero was attending a Baptist church on Sunday, so they went to his house to try to convince him to return. "Nah," he said. "Ye put tha' organ up in the hoose o' God."
"But," they said, "the Baptists have an organ."
"Aye," he responded. "But tha's nae the hoose o' God!"[2]
"Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?" Jesus asks. "No, I tell you, but division" (Luke 12:51). How many family crises have come because a Baptist daughter wants to marry a Catholic boyfriend or some such other relational disaster? Or with a wider scope, think of some of the controversies that have beset our society in recent years: abortion, gay rights, embryonic stem cell research, and the like. The roots of those disputes are all religious, and the various positions that people take are based on their understanding of scripture. Indeed, it has often resulted in father vs. son or mother vs. daughter as one generation sees an issue one way while the next generation sees it differently.
Several years ago, at our Presbyterian General Assembly meeting, the subject of debate was the place of gays and lesbians in the life of the church. The verbal sparring was vigorous and rancorous, as is often the case when two sides passionately defend diametrically opposite positions, and especially when each side is positive that their position is the one that reflects the mind of Christ. Finally, one of the youngest delegates in attendance spoke up and said, "You folks can keep fighting about this issue if you want to, but one day soon, my generation will be in charge, and when we are, we will fix it. 'Nuff said."
If it is any consolation, our day and age is not the only one that has experienced faith-based conflict. A century and a half ago, America was embroiled in the bloodiest confrontation this nation has ever experienced. It was over an issue that, viewed through the prism of history, we find incomprehensible — human slavery. This was more than an economic issue; this was an issue of faith.
As we might expect, there were powerful prophetic abolitionist voices in the church. Although it is difficult for us to imagine today, there were equally powerful church voices who supported the "peculiar institution." We know what happened. It took the bloodiest war in American history to settle the issue.
Again, we hear Jesus' words in our text, "I came to bring fire to the earth...." We know what a conflagration occurred 150 years ago.
... father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.— Luke 12:52-53 (NRSV)
Oh, right — we were warned, were we not?
Jesus says to the crowd,
When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, "It's going to rain," and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, "It's going to be hot," and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? — Luke 12:54-56
This is a good point. The message is that there is more out there that needs to be set on fire, if we would just bother to notice. How dare we as Christ's church not notice! And to get right down to it, if we are not helping start fires, we are complicit in the status quo. We are the change we have been waiting for. God help us to do better.
1. Barbara Bundick, email note to PCUSA Polity Discussion on Ecunet, 6/20/07.
2. Shannon Webster, email note to PCUSA Polity Discussion on Ecunet, 6/19/07.