Proper 7 (June 19-25)
Texts: Matthew 10:24-39;
Romans 6:1b-11
YouTube Version: https://www.youtube.com/live/GTvX_gB1tko?feature=share&t=705
PowerPoint Slides with Sermon
THE PARTING OF WAYS
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Say wha-a-a-a-t??? What happened to, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”?
Tomorrow we start Neighborhood Camp with fifty kids from our neighborhood, and the theme for the five weeks of camp is “Seeds of Peace.” (Pray for the kids and our staff!) I plan to start tomorrow’s “God’s Time” with “Blessed are the peacemakers” and several other passages from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. So it is more than ironic — puzzling, at the very least — that Matthew’s Jesus only a few chapters later says, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” What gives? Has something changed?
The answer is, “Yes, something has changed.” Jesus’ ministry has begun to already meet resistance. As Jesus gathers the twelve apostles and prepares to send them out, he must warn them about that opposition. Things will even get dangerous. Jesus’ overall mission is certainly one of peace, but among the first reactions to it will be opposition, even in the form of the “sword” — namely, violence. They must be realistic about those who will try to harm them.
In v. 25 Jesus even gets specific; he warns them that opposition will accuse them of being in league with Beelzebul, the “ruler of the demons.” This specificity is not a coincidence because two chapters later we find Jesus’s opponents doing exactly this. Jesus has just cast out a demon, and people are exciting about it. But not everyone. We read,
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.” Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. (Matt 12:24-26, 28)
In Mark’s version of this saying from Jesus, he calls it a “parable.” It has a riddle quality to it — a signal that its meaning isn’t necessarily straightforward. How can Satan cast out Satan? The surface meaning is: if Jesus is the ruler of the demons, then why would he be casting out demons. It sounds like a self-contradiction. But as a “parable” I think Jesus is revealing something very significant. He is actually naming how human beings often operate. First of all, it is helpful to know that the name Satan is actually a title of sorts; it means, “the accuser.” So Jesus is characterizing how it is that we so often accuse each other of being satanic and then use it as a justification for casting each other out. That’s exactly what the Pharisees have just tried to do to Jesus! They accuse Jesus of being in league with Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, as a prelude to their efforts to eventually cast him out on the cross. They think they are doing God’s work by identifying Jesus as a bad guy in need of casting out.
And here’s the key thing: we’re generally well-intentioned people when we do this casting out. We’ve bitten from the apple of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and so we think we know. So we accuse those others of being the bad guys, thus thinking we’re on God’s side when we cast them out. Sound familiar? How often do we do this? But Jesus’s riddle invites us to see that it’s not God’s work when we cast our others. It’s actually Satan casting out Satan. The game of accuse-divide-and-seek-to-conquer is actually Satan’s work. ‘Satan casting out Satan’ is a normal human mode of operation. It is the most common way of human rulers of trying to assert one’s own authority over against someone else as a justification for advocating violence against them.
Consider the politics of the moment. As we witness a rise in authoritarian leadership in our own politics, how common is this game of accuse-divide-and-seek-to-conquer? Of Satan casting out Satan? It’s almost everywhere in our politics right now, isn’t it? It seems to even be creeping into our households, literally seeing what Jesus talks about in our Gospel reading: “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” (Matt 10:35-36). We joke to try to make light of a serious situation that our Thanksgiving meals have become more difficult these days because our politics are so divided. It even comes into our families.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I propose to you that this is one of the chief revelations of the Good News we’ve been talking about in recent weeks. Jesus came to reveal this satanic game deep at the heart of human politics — which makes them so different than God’s politics in Jesus. Our rulers typically reign by operating the strategy of accuse-divide-and-seek-to-conquer. Jesus will ultimately himself become a victim of this deadly game. He will let himself be accused, divided from his followers, and executed on a Roman cross. It’s only because God raises him on Easter, as vindication from our game of accuse-divide-and-conquer, that the world can now begin to see what God’s reign might actually be like. Very different. It’s a reign not built in any way on accuse-divide-and-seek-to-conquer, but on its opposite. God’s reign is based on love even of one’s enemies, on forgiveness, and on seeking to reconcile the whole human family.
In my time with you [as bridge pastor] I will be trying to lift up that, when we look for the effects and manifestations of grace in our world, we can take our cue from the early apostles, especially Paul, that God’s reign is all about trying to bring the human household together, to heal all of our divisions. To bring us a politics from God which is about reconciliation, not accusing and dividing. You will hear me often quote one of my favorite verses from Paul, Ephesians 2:15: “Christ Jesus has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace.”
In short, the primary way of distinguishing between human reigns and God’s reign is precisely on the reality of the human household being perpetually divided against itself. Human reigns are built on perpetual division and the ensuing ‘sword’; God’s reign is built on reconciling and healing. So what does Jesus mean in today’s Gospel? Did he come to bring peace or the sword? In the context of preparing his disciples to meet resistance to their ministry, the answer is both. Their efforts to live into God’s kingdom by working for peace will initially bring a reaction from opponents that puts them in danger of the sword being used against them. It’s Jesus using hyperbole to communicate the seriousness of his warning. Their ministry of trying to live according to God’s reign in the world will bring a parting of the ways — a parting between those who follow Jesus in trying to live God’s reign in the world and those who choose to oppose it — those, in other words, who continue to choose the way of human reigns, the way of accuse-divide-and-bring-the-sword. The short-term effect of Jesus’s ministry will be his opponents bringing the ‘sword’ against him in the form of a Roman crucifixion.
I’d like to illustrate what I think is happening in our Gospel Reading through a literary example that I consider to be one of the most significant Christian literary achievements in history. I’m talking about J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter saga. Surprised? If you haven’t read the books — the movies don’t do justice to the overall story — then I’d like to briefly fill you in. I might compare Rowling’s work to the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible: Like John of Patmos, Rowling uses fantastical creatures and a rich symbolism to paint a picture of the ultimate clash, the ultimate parting of the ways between human kingdoms and God’s kingdom.
If you know nothing about Harry Potter, let me briefly sketch some important details. It takes place in modern-day Great Britain. The main villain in these books is Lord Voldemort, who’s kind of the Adolph Hitler of wizards. He epitomizes what we’ve been talking about today. He’s the quintessential human dictator deftly using his magical powers to accuse-divide-and-conquer. His goal is to have witches and wizards come out of hiding. They have mostly been in hiding because of that little matter of our tendency to burn witches at the stake. Voldemort wants witches and wizards to come out of hiding and then use their magic to take over the world through violent domination. Another nice touch by Rowling: Like Nazism, Voldemort’s movement emphasizes the purity of blood in wizarding families.
Voldemort’s main opponent is Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry’s teacher. Throughout the seven books, we learn that Dumbledore is a proponent of what he considers the most potent power on the earth: the power of Love. He relishes giving people second chances and then guiding them into being better versions of themselves. He values diversity — all the ways in which the diversity of human talents and perspectives can add to creativity and to human flourishing. He certainly advocates having the courage to stand against brutal dictators like Lord Voldemort. But when we see Dumbledore dueling Voldemort at the end of Book Five, Voldemort himself taunts Dumbledore for not trying to kill him because he believes in love. When Harry finally vanquishes Voldemort at the end of the seventh and final book, it will not be through Harry’s trying to kill Voldemort. Harry learns well the lesson from his headmaster about the prevailing power of love.
I want to call our attention this morning, though, to a scene from the middle book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. As a prelude to the beginning of the saga, we learn that Voldemort had been defeated by the infant Harry Potter because of the spell of his mother’s love. She gave up her life trying to shield Harry, and so when Voldemort tries to kill one-year-old Harry, his killing curse rebounds upon himself. Voldemort’s not dead but greatly diminished. In Book Four, Harry witnesses Voldemort’s return to full power. Dumbledore immediately believes Harry and begins to plan for how to fight Voldemort. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, however, refuses to believe. There’s been peace for fourteen years, and Fudge doesn’t want to believe that the evil has returned, never having fully gone away. So here’s a short conversation between Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge:
“If your determination to shut your eyes will carry you as far as this, Cornelius,” said Dumbledore, “we have reached a parting of the ways. You must act as you see fit. And I — I shall act as I see fit.”
Dumbledore’s voice carried no hint of a threat; it sounded like a mere statement, but Fudge bristled as though Dumbledore were advancing upon him with a wand.
“Now, see here, Dumbledore,” he said, waving a threatening finger. “I’ve given you free rein, always. I’ve had a lot of respect for you. I might not have agreed with some of your decisions, but I’ve kept quiet. There aren’t many who’d have let you hire werewolves, or keep Hagrid, or decide what to teach your students without reference to the Ministry. But if you’re going to work against me —”
“The only one against whom I intend to work,” said Dumbledore, “is Lord Voldemort. If you are against him, then we remain, Cornelius, on the same side.”
A parting of the ways. A time to choose sides. That’s what I think Jesus is talking about when he says he hasn’t come just to bring peace. His way of peace is meeting resistance, and it’s time to choose. His naming of human violence as Satan casting out Satan will not be heeded even by the well-intentioned people like the Pharisees. We human beings don’t want to admit to ourselves how deep this goes. And so, like Cornelius Fudge, we try to pretend it’s not really that bad. When we do that, we risk not only losing our bodies but also our souls. We risk losing our souls to that Satanic game of Satan casting out Satan. When we not only underplay the power of evil, but then even unwittingly stand aside for its blossoming, the result is usually coming to a climax of hellish violence in which many people die — like the rise of Hitler in Germany. Like we mentioned last week, Dietrich Bonhoeffer named the evil and tried to call his fellow Germans to resist, to choose the right side.
Tomorrow, we begin Neighborhood Camp, and the first hero we’re going to lift up is Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement, and the kind of courage it took to stand against the evil of racism. Brothers and sisters, let me end with this question: now fifty years later, are we listening to the Cornelius Fudge’s around us, who say, ‘We solved that problem fifty years ago. We don’t have a problem with racism anymore. We’re not racist.’ Or is there a parting of the ways? Will we as followers of Jesus stand up against those kinds of evils in our time? Amen
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Lutheran Church of the Resurrection,
Racine, WI, June 25, 2023
YouTube Version: https://www.youtube.com/live/GTvX_gB1tko?feature=share&t=705
PowerPoint Slides with Sermon
