Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.              Psalm 119:2

Expectations

Luke 12:49-53

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

August 19, 2007

            ⁴⁹ “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. ⁵² For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ 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.”

            As we look at our text for today’s message, many of you may be thinking, “Who is this Jesus that is speaking? “ It doesn’t sound like the Jesus we have come to know and love.  I can guarantee that the same thing was going on in the disciples’ minds as well. Here they are sitting at the feet of the Messiah, the one that they were promised for so many years, and here he is telling the disciples that he didn’t come here to bring peace on the earth, but he came to cast fire! He came to be baptized with a different baptism and he came to bring division between family members. Who is this guy?

            Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, PRINCE OF PEACE”. Zechariah prophesied earlier in Luke 1:79 that Jesus will “give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace”, and the angels proclaimed to the shepherds, “glory to God in the highest, and peace among those with whom he is pleased”.

            The people of Israel were expecting peace to come with the Messiah. They were eager for Jesus to set up his kingdom here on earth, overthrow Rome and bring peace throughout the land, and in our text Jesus is telling the disciples that they had gotten it all wrong.

            Jesus mentions that he is here to cast fire on the earth. In this passage, the fire that he is referring to is the fire of judgment day, the day when all men will be held accountable for their sins. The fire is the wrath of God for the sin of mankind. We deserve nothing but fire and death as punishment for our ghastly sins in the sight of our Holy, Perfect God. The baptism that Jesus mentions here is pointing us directly to the cross, his bloody death on the cross.

            Jesus was amidst his ministry, his mission here on earth. Everyone was waiting for Jesus to start setting up his earthly kingdom and to restore peace to Israel. When his three years of ministry came to a close and the people nailed him on that cross, the disciples and all that followed Jesus were left wondering, who was this guy?

            They were not left wondering for long. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead, and we see in Luke 24 that Jesus then opened their eyes to all the things on the road to Emmaus. He showed them that the Son of Man needed to die in order to enter into his glory. Jesus was glorified on the cross. On the cross is where we see the Son of Man in all his glory and splendor—dying for each one of us on that tree.

            And now we come to the division, the part that stumps us all. Why isn’t our God, our Lord Jesus Christ perpetuating a message of peace and hope, like we want, and like it says in scripture? Where is this prince of peace? It doesn’t sound like he is in this passage.

            Micah prophesied familial division in 7:6 saying, “For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies are the members of his own household”. This by no means gives us all excuses to go out and defy our parents, in-laws or out-laws. The division has nothing to do with how we raise our children or how we broil our fish. This is a spiritual division that we may find within our own homes and families.

            The result of Jesus’ coming into this world is conflict.  Everyone was expecting Jesus to bring peace to this world, but what he truly brought was division. He divided the religious authorities who rejected his teaching and the sinners and tax-collectors who were receiving Jesus in faith. This is the division that Jesus is speaking about in the text. Jesus’ coming into this world divided the people. He turned peoples thinking upside-down.

            Luke reports in chapter 5 of his Gospel that the disciples left everything and followed Jesus. They left their jobs, they left their families and they followed Jesus. In Luke 9, Jesus tells two different men the cost of following him. One man wanted to follow Jesus only after he buried his father, and another wanted to say good-bye to his family.  Jesus told both of these men that in order to follow him they needed to drop everything and just follow him.

            When Adam and Eve defied God by doing the one thing that he told them not to do, they brought another division into the world. Mankind was then forever divided from God. Our sin divides us from God, our heavenly father. We are separated from Him every time our eyes drift off to look at those things we know we aren’t supposed to look at; every time we decide that soccer, basketball, hockey or baseball practices and games take precedence over regular worship attendance and Bible study; every time you decide to spread that juicy piece of gossip you heard about someone.

            We like to play the blame game just like Adam and Eve did in the garden. “The snake made me do it!” Eve protested. Adam quickly retorts, “this woman you gave to me, she made me do it!” However, when push comes to shove there is no one that we can blame but ourselves. We bring judgment upon ourselves every single time we defy God and try to do it our own way. God has high expectations for us, his children. God expects perfection from each one of us. Every one of us falls very short of meeting that expectation.

            As I drove our big yellow Penske truck across the state of Pennsylvania, I began to think about my expectations for New Englanders. Since this was my first time to New England, I had no idea what to expect. The common thing that people told us about New Englanders was that it was a completely different culture out here, compared to the mid-west.

            Some of the stories we heard was that, while driving, the shoulder could double as another lane for traffic if needed. They all talk with such thick Boston or New York accents that you can hardly understand what they say. Everyone is in a hurry, and no one has time for anything.  All they eat is seafood.

            Now I know that if I leave this hanging, the comments I will receive after service today are, so… were they right? I will say that yes, the shoulder becoming a lane of traffic we experienced our first day here. The accents- yes I can sometimes detect a Boston or New York accent; however, I can understand you all just fine. And the seafood, well Pastor Yeadon had a party last weekend and we had bratwurst so the jury is still out on that one! J

            Some of my expectations were right on, some were a little far-fetched. However we all have expectations for people. You had expectations for me. You expect me to be a man of my word, and a man of God. You expect me to be in this pulpit and preach the Word of God to you. Since I am vicar #10 at St. Paul’s, you expect that these first few months of preaching, leading worship and public prayer are going to be a bit rocky but that I will get better in time with more practice.

            God has his own expectations for us. He doesn’t expect our lives to mirror everyone else in this world. We shouldn’t be a mirror image of the neighbor down the street or the guy next door. We as Christians need to be different. We need to be an example to the world. We need to be a shining difference in this dark, dark world. We need to be different. We are living to higher expectations.

            We might think that this gospel text is covered in law and there is no gospel to be found. The Gospel is here! Remember how I told you about the division that Adam and Eve brought on the world?  Remember that division with God that we bring on ourselves each and every time we sin and do those things that God does not want us to do? Our division has caused war with God. Because of that division, we are not at peace, we are at war. Our sinful flesh is battling within us every minute of every day and we cannot win the war that is ripping each of us apart.

            That is why Jesus came into this world. That is why the Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ into this world to end this war that is battling within us. Jesus came into the world to end that battle and to bring peace with God. Jesus came to destroy sin. When Jesus was nailed on that cross he was there destroying sin for each and every one of us. Our sin was destroyed on the cross. That is the baptism that Christ is speaking of in this passage.

            When you were brought or you came yourself to the baptismal font, Jesus Christ used the water of baptism to claim you as his child, and when you kneel before this altar and eat the body and blood of Christ our sins are being washed away. We cannot do anything to take our sins away. Christ already did it on the cross. The war within ourselves is over. The war over sin and death has been won. Jesus Christ won that war for us. 

            A hard truth that we all need to come to terms with is that while we may lose family and friends in this division, we have gained something so much greater and so much more: we have gained God, and the free gift of eternal life that Christ won for each of you on the cross. We have gained life eternal with our savior Jesus Christ.

            So how do we help our neighbors, friends and family see the light of Jesus Christ? Your life is a shining example of the One that you represent as a baptized child of God. The things that you say and the things that you do will point your family to Christ. Your actions do not go unnoticed.  People will see a difference when you are living for God and not for this world.

            Go, share the Gospel with all people. When needed, use words.  Amen.