Jesus sounds quite angry in today’s gospel. One thing I love about him as a person is that he has so much anger. He doesn’t present himself as someone who is always calm and peaceful. He can get feisty. He can become quite impatient. He’s quite skilled at turning over tables. In today’s gospel, he does it again. He wants to say what’s in his heart not simply to express himself but to awaken people from illusions that God is somewhere up there.
This morning I want to do something different than usual. I like to share with you how Jesus would say if he were born in our time. I imagine him saying this morning, “Don’t you ever think I’m like those “holier-than-thou” people. You know who I’m talking about. You don’t know? Well, I’m specifically calling out you Pharisees, Sadduccees, theologians, and those in power. I’m not one of you. I see you as hypocrites. I’m not going to water down how I really think of you.” Then Jesus continues, “You think I’m going to be that peaceful, all around nice guy? You got me wrong. I’m far from it. I’m here to bring division. Yes, you heard me correctly. Division. But this division in your family is just an example that has been happening even before I was born. Don’t get too caught up literally in all this talk of ‘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 her mother-in-law.’ This has been happening. Look at your own family. Look, I didn’t cause it. You all caused it all. What I’m really talking about is from now on, you will see more clearly all the divisions in your lives, in your world.” Jesus is not done yet so he goes on, “Get this right, my friends. I’m not saying I won’t bring any peace. I will. But peace comes at a price. This peace I’m talking about comes only after I reveal all the divisions in this world and in yourselves. My mission of revealing all the divisions among people, particularly the division between you and God, will get me killed. You will hang me on the cross because of the division in you. I reveal today how far you’ve been walking away from the loving God even though he is already within your heart. I also reveal even if you want to be far from God, you really can’t because God loves you just too much! My resurrection is God’s eternal and unconditional love for you.” Jesus then looks at those religious and political leaders in the crowd. I told you he’s fearless. Once he gets angry or pissed off, especially when facing injustice done to people, he doesn’t stop. Let’s listen to him, “Now, I’m talking to you religious and spiritual hypocrites. You teach people wrong things. You mislead them to believe that they have to do something to get closer to God, that they have to obey your teachings and rules to feel closer to God, that they have to look for God outside. You are an obstacle between God and people. You try to divide God and people when you yourselves haven’t experienced God in you! I’m exposing the division you’re creating in people. And you will kill me for this. This is why I say I have a baptism to undergo. I got physically baptized before by my cousin John at the river Jordan. This baptism I’m talking about is how the division you’re creating in people and God will kill me. This baptism is my death and resurrection. Only through this baptism, I will then bring peace!” Up to this point is the first part of today’s gospel lesson. Now we may be the audience for the second part. Jesus asks us whether we ourselves know how to interpret the present time. This task of interpreting the present time of our own requires a very special skill. That is to see things as they are. When Jesus talks about division in the family, I imagined Jesus saying that we shouldn’t get too caught up in that provocative image of son and father going against each other and so on. Simply because that kind of family dispute has been going on all the time ever since there was any understanding or concept of what a family is. Don’t we all have a dysfunctional family whether we like it or not? What is more important is naming the obvious. Without actually interpreting what’s happening, we must see what’s actually happening. This is why we need to see things as they are if we want to interpret the present time. So, how do we interpret the present time? First, see what’s really happening. So, Jesus talks about families. I’m not sure when but I frequently hear the most important thing about our lives is our family. I’m sure most people would agree with this. But the reality of that most important thing in life is rather messy. Not just son against father but son against mother as well as son against his siblings and so on. We see division in our families all the time whether it is small or big. The key to Jesus’s example of family isn’t how we come to peace with our family members but simply to name what’s happening in the family. That is division. We are somehow divided in the most fundamental human unit which we value so much. So in order to accurately interpret our own family, we must see what conflicts or divisions are there rather than glossing them over as if nothing happens and we are a happy family superficially. You see a cloud rising in the west and accept that there really is a cloud rising in the west. Then you’ll say, “It’s going to rain.” When you see the south wind blowing and really accept that it is really blowing, then you will say, “There will be scorching heat.” Seeing a cloud as it is is the first step to interpret the weather correctly. Seeing the wind blowing southward as it is is the first step to interpret the weather correctly. But let’s say you don’t want to see it, that you don’t want to accept it. Even though you see a cloud rising in the west but don’t want the rain, then you’ll falsely believe it will not rain. This is self-deception. Say you don’t want scorching heat tomorrow. Then you’ll deny the south wind blowing. All these examples point us to one thing. How do you interpret not the present time in general, but your present time, your here and now? As I said, the key to interpret correctly is to see things as they are. So, looking at yourselves, what do you see things around you and within you at this present time? What is your life filled with right now? Is it a worry about tomorrow, dissatisfaction, happiness, sorrow, resentment? What is in your heart at this present time? Is there any division in you? Are your minds divided and fragmented? You can name those things and people in your hearts before making any kind of judgment whether negative or positive. See what they are. But most importantly, remind yourselves and believe it is the Holy Spirit who is most intimately present within you here and now at this present moment while forgetting all your thoughts and feelings. Through your baptism, you have received the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. And no one can take away from you. This intimacy of the Holy Spirit who is at the core of our existence is what we must see first at the present time. Then we can interpret our present time, which means we know what we ought to do at this present time that we’re given. As we see things as they are, as we see the Holy Spirit within us as she is at this present time, we interpret the present time, meaning we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our world. Without seeing the Holy Spirit resurrecting us in our very existence, we become hypocrites. Joining God’s mission in the world without first seeing the Holy Spirit in us is impossible. So, my friends, let us first see and experience the Holy Spirit in us. See the fire in us that Jesus has brought through our baptism. Receive the body of Christ and drink his blood, sacramentally becoming one with you, living in you. Then we will have the eyes of wisdom to see things around us clearer than ever. With the eyes of the Holy Spirit, we can see divisions all around our country, which gives us a reason to talk about peace, not just any peace but the peace that our crucified and risen Christ has brought. With the help of the Holy Spirit eternally working in us, we can truly follow daily in the blessed steps of Jesus Christ in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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