Proper 15 (August 14-20)
Texts: Luke 12:49-56;
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
"GOD'S
WAY OF PEACE -- THROUGH SUFFERING"
Children's Sermon
- Place a bright ribbon (or rope) on the floor to create a dividing
line, and lead the children
in a short game of dividing into two groups by counting off one-two,
one-two, etc.
- Then divide between those who love Jesus and want to follow him
and those who don't.
[Work in VBS, "High Seas Adventure," mast that looks like a cross and
reminds us.]
- Remind them that before Jesus rose from the dead and went to
heaven, he suffered and
died on the cross. Does following Jesus mean that we also need to
follow him through
suffering?
- Here's an example: You see that your friend is suffering and is
very sad. You ask her
why, and she says that her cat died. Well, let's say your dog died a
year ago, and so you
can understand why she's sad. And when you care for her and share her
sadness with her,
that's the first step to feeling better, to finding Jesus' way of peace.
- If we know the choice of following Jesus means suffering like he
did, what side of the
dividing line would you be on? That's really hard isn't it! We might
want to say, "Hey,
I'll sign up to follow you Jesus when it means peace of going to heaven
like you, but I'm
not so sure about having to suffer first. That doesn't sound like Good
News to me." And I
wouldn't blame you. It doesn't sound like Good News to me, either.
- So here's the Good News. None of us can completely avoid sad
times in our lives, so
Jesus shows us how to share those sad times together on our way to the
promise of
heaven, a time when there will be no more sad times. Prayer.
Sermon
An elderly priest, speaking to his younger assistant priest, said,
"It was a great idea to replace the
first four rows of pews with plush leather bucket theater seats. It
worked like a charm. The front
of the church always fills first now."
The young priest nodded, and the old priest continued, "And you told me
a little more beat to the
music would bring young people back to the church, so I supported you
when you brought in
that rock 'n roll gospel choir. We're packed to the balcony!!"
"Thank you, Father," answered the young priest. "I'm glad you're open
to the new ideas of
youth."
"But," said the elderly priest, "I'm afraid you've gone too far with
the drive-thru confessional."
"But, Father, my confessions and our donations have nearly doubled
since that began!"
"I know, son, but the flashing neon sign, saying, 'Toot 'n Tell or Go
to Hell,' just can't stay on
the church roof!!"
The goal of the Christian church has always been to grow -- the more
people following Christ,
the better for the world. But growth has to come in ways that are faithful
to following Jesus. A
drive-up confessional booth might be faithful, but a neon sign
advertising it as, "Toot 'n Tell or
Go to Hell," probably crosses the line!
We're in the midst of trying to understand huge changes going on around
us, both at church and
in our culture -- bigger than we've seen in centuries. So as we enter
the second decade of the
Third Millennium, growing as a church is becoming more challenging than
ever.
Prince of Peace has always sought to grow in ways that are faithful to
following Jesus. But one
of the things we're seeing is that for the first time in generations,
people are leaving and staying
away from church must faster than they are connecting with church. So
growth in this climate is
extremely challenging for a congregation; and it is equally challenging
for pastors and priests to
know how to guide a church into
growing.
There are at least three broad strategies for church growth at this
difficult time we find ourselves
in: one is to go back to being the kind of 'traditional' church that
worked in the 1950's and 60's.
But rather than helping churches grow, that strategy seems to be the
fast-track for closing down
churches. Unless we ignore the fact that folks are leaving traditional
churches faster than any
other, we simply can't go back.
A second strategy is what the young priest in the joke was trying to
do: hanging on to some
traditional content but with contemporary cultural twists -- heavy on
consumerism,
entertainment and convenience, with things like theater seating,
popular music, and drive-up
confessionals. I think that there actually is
some short-term success in this strategy as we can see
in many of the mega-churches' on the scene right now. And as a pastor,
I have to say it is very
tempting to look at those churches and try to imitate them.
But if we did that, I think we would miss the opportunity that our time
provides to ask in fresh
ways: Is what we are doing trying to grow just for the sake of growth,
or grow to be faithful in
following Jesus? So a third strategy that presents itself right
now in this time of great change is
to recognize the unique opportunity we have to get unstuck from where
we've been for
generations, and to ask ourselves what it means to faithfully follow
Jesus. We may need to go
one step further and ask ourselves if perhaps one of the reasons people
are running away from
the church so much faster than they are joining is precisely because we
have not been faithful
enough to following Jesus.
As your pastor, I'm trying to lead us in the third strategy, which,
even if churches using the
second strategy outgrow us in the short-term, I believe is the best
chance for growth in the long-term. But first we need to try to
understand what makes people run away from the traditional
church, and especially ask how the traditional version might not have
been fully faithful to
following Jesus in the first place. One key piece is that more and more
folks see the church as
historically perpetrating violence in the name of God instead of being
a leader in the way of
Peace. Especially as weapons have become more and more deadly over the
past centuries -
especially the last one that ushered in "weapons of mass destruction" -
the stakes are much
higher!
Albert Einstein said, "The unleashed power of the atom has changed
everything save our modes
of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophes." In
other words, if we don't
begin to think differently about finding the way of peace in today's
world, with the power of
modern weapons, humanity cannot survive for long. Do you agree?
Disagree? Or simply try not
to think about it? I think that most young people agree, and for the
most part are doing one of
two things: either they are resigning themselves to it and living for
the moment trying to enjoy
the mind-numbing entertainment-of-the-day; or they are hoping to change
it before it's too late
but looking for answers outside the church, because
the church in the past 500 years has too
often been front and center when it comes to our descension into
greater and greater violence.
When people disagree with my view on this, they often specifically cite
this morning's Gospel.
They say, "Pastor Paul, if Jesus was really all about bringing God's
way of peace, then why does
he say, 'Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No,
I tell you, but rather
division!'"
I can see why they ask! Especially as this text is so often taken out
of context. It often gets
removed from the context of Luke's entire Gospel. For
example, Luke is the only Gospel writer
that tells us Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem after his last,
dramatic Palm Sunday entry into
it. He wept, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the
things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon
you, when your
enemies ... crush you to the ground...; because you did not recognize
the time of your visitation
from God." God in Jesus Christ visited us to show us the true way to
peace, and we missed it.
This is where we meet up with our children's time this morning, and so
we end where we began.
Luke's words from Jesus come at the point of the journey when Jesus is
desperately trying to
teach his disciples that if they want to follow him in a way of peace,
it must be through suffering
-- not around it, but through it. Above all, his followers must not
deflect suffering onto someone
else, but suffer it themselves. But once again his disciples are not
getting it, so, as he often did
when they did not understand, Jesus presents us with a parable - or a
riddle.
Jesus was frustrated! God's own people expected a Messiah who would
lead the way to peace by
military victory; even his closest disciples did not understand that
Jesus' way of peace involves
taking on suffering, not deflecting it onto anyone else. Admittedly, to
most of us, that doesn't
seem like a way to peace. That's why it takes faith, I guess -- faith
in God's raising Jesus from
the dead as a promise that new life does come through the way
of suffering. Jesus went through
suffering utterly alone; as followers of Jesus, we can go through it
together - and when we share
suffering, it is the beginning of peace.
This is what our reading from Hebrews is about today, too. The writer
catalogs for us heroes of
faith by the suffering they endured. The great cloud of witnesses are
those who have gone
through the suffering and come out on the other side -- all because
Jesus pioneered this way of
peace by enduring the shame of the cross.
We have the seeds planted to understand this in new ways at Prince of
Peace. Just last month
forty-five folks went to Guatemala - a place where global economics and
politics put
tremendous suffering of poverty on others. Yes, our travelers found the
suffering and violence of
poverty imposed from a global economics that favors a few and leaves
the vast majority out. But
they also found a people who share their suffering together, and so
find the beginning of God's
way to peace in Jesus Christ. Will we have the courage in the weeks and
months ahead to
continue the friendships made in Guatemala by addressing the violence
of a global economics
that favors a few and leaves the vast majority to suffer?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I believe with all my heart and soul
that, in this unique moment of
history in which we find ourselves, we are being given one more chance
to see how our modern
ways of doing church over the past 500 years missed God's way
of peace. Just as we've created
weapons that give us the power to destroy ourselves and God's entire
creation; and economies
that create abject poverty the likes of which most of us cannot begin
to imagine, we've also been
given a precious window through which to read the Gospel with new eyes.
Following Jesus
means following him into God's way of peace -- sharing the suffering of
others on a way of
peace that just might yet save us. Amen
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran,
Portage, MI, August 15, 2010