Readings: Jeremiah 23.23-39; Hebrews 11.29-12.2; Luke 12.49-56
It seems that human beings are naturally disposed to see things in black and white. If I am right, you are wrong! No compromise! I stand on my principles! This is God’s will! Freedom! Democracy! God has given us the victory! We will use this victory now to the glory of God! We have waited a long time. God will continue to ensure to us the power!
The trouble is that we, homo sapiens, human beings, are finite creatures. We have far from full understanding of any situation. Absolute knowledge and understanding will never be ours. We reach out after truth – and together we may move towards it. If I would know freedom, then I must with all my might and main, work and fight to secure your freedom and your place too. You who are different from me, think differently from me, bring even, a new and important perspective to my thinking.
And we see the terror that ensues from our black and white perspectives played out in fierce physical battle, on-going in Egypt at this moment between members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and those who found their different contribution to their community, to society, simply ignored, written out of the new ‘democratic’ equation. No place for you now. Winner takes all! Be that Brotherhood or army.
But the reality is, rather than black and white, our living is shades of grey – with also of course, great splashes of high colour thrown in to delight us! If we would enjoy the Kingdom of God on earth, as week by week we pray, establishing an honoured place for the other will be an essential part of achieving this! Recognising the limitations of our own understanding, keeping an open mind, searching out the thinking and needs of our neighbour.
So where are we when it comes to the fire and brimstone of our gospel this morning? I guess we’re reeling a little, shocked indeed, by Jesus’ fiery outburst! Where is Emmanuel, ‘God with us’, ‘the Prince of Peace’? Division, not just across different segments of society, division right there in the heart of the family if we would follow him. Jesus it seems, is pretty angry! A far cry from the Victorian image of gentle Jesus, meek and mild!
Well, why are we so shocked? Perhaps our shock can demonstrate for us, the limitations of our understanding. Jesus is God incarnate. We know this. Or do we? To be human is to be angry from time to time. When we see things that are deeply wrong this is a healthy initial response. Jesus is fully human – though I think we find this hard to grasp. And if we think that God is never angry we haven’t been focused on our Old Testaments recently! Jesus is passionate about our well-being. So no surprises then, that when he sees the exploitation and destruction of those around him, not only by the Romans, but by the social structures set up by their own religious leaders, no surprise then, that he is angry! We feel the anger in his words throughout this section of Luke’s gospel. But there is a difference from our experience of anger. Though his words are fiery, Jesus’ anger is not directed in violence against others. Rather, it is Jesus who will die for us. A death he chooses to reconcile our self-centred, fear-filled lives. Reconcile us to one another and to God. It is also inevitable that those who will share his passion, his baptism, will find themselves at odds with those who want an easier life. There will unavoidably be division with those who want to prioritise self-regard.
Our passage comes in the context of Jesus’ extended reflections on what it means to follow him, what true leadership is all about. He has just pointed out that of those to whom much has been given, much will be required. Interestingly, President Obama was slated by an American contributor on the Sunday programme last week for using this saying of Jesus to remind Americans of the responsibilities their wealth brings, and the need for higher taxes.
It was common for Jews in Jesus’ day, and perhaps it still is, it was their practice to thrash out ideas in fierce debate and argument. To put everything in it’s most extreme perspective. Hence Jesus’ tirade regarding the in-laws! This was precisely how they found the common ground. The debate was fierce – but, nothing was cast in stone. We need to hold onto this understanding as we hear passages like our gospel this morning. It was also the case that as each new generation remembered the stories and teachings passed down to them, what was given was deeply explored, chewed over together by the religious leaders, seeking to hear as they argued together, what God’s word was into their current, contemporary situation. Hence the writings of the Hebrew Bible have been edited, to use the theological term, redacted, many times. Indeed, the Jews did not close the canon of their scriptures until the tenth century! And we have the gospel writer of John assuring us that the Holy Spirit will continue the work of leading us into all truth.
We, as the Jews, in order to hear God speaking to us afresh in each new situation, we need to be continually pondering our Scriptures together in the light of the knowledge and understanding of our contemporary circumstances.
Western society has absorbed into the fibre of our thinking, Greek perspectives on Truth. In Greek thinking Truth is propositional, points to be proved or disproved. Aristotelian logic. Truth is out there to be found. Absolute. And of course we have a lot to be grateful to this perspective for! Hebrew thinking was rather different. Truth was something to be experienced. You experienced it in the history of God’s dealings with you and your people. You experienced truth in God-revealed stories and myths. Hence Jesus teaching in parables. Hence the style in which the gospels are written. As you entered and joined the story, you would know the truth as a jolt of recognition. We too are invited with those who were physically there in Jesus’ presence, we also are invited to enter the story; to bring into the story our own experience, brokenness, longing. For from within the story God will again speak to us anew. There is division within families. Jesus knows and understands this.
We know that we learn so much from stories. Ancient and modern. They contain truth, profound truth which enlightens us, truth which dissolves the riddle, perhaps in ways we can’t quite fathom. Important truth just as much as the mathematical and scientific to which we tend to accord far more substance and validity. It is vital we remember maths and science have not delivered absolute truth either. Our mathematicians and scientists have continually down the centuries had to modify their thinking, even thinking that was once thought to be utterly beyond question.
God reveals his truth to us as we reach out after it. It is together we may move towards knowing Truth. ‘If I would know freedom, then I must with all my might and main, work and fight to secure your freedom too, you who are different from me, think differently from me.’ In intellectual endeavour, in politics, in family relationships. Brotherhood and secular intellectuals.
This is much harder work, much more demanding, living within the shades of grey, than living with the hammer blows of black and white. Much harder to seek out the deeper meaning behind appearances. As the Holy Spirit leads us towards all Truth to hold our hearts open to the possibility of changing our minds. Amen.