"Stirring the Collective Conscience"
Sermon Presented August 19, 2007
Luke 12:49-56
This morning we are looking at another text that is difficult to preach. It's a text that doesn't set well with someone who believes that Jesus is the Prince of Peace - the one whose birth was announced with the angelic words of "Peace on earth, good will to people." We want to think of Jesus as a peacemaker rather than a home-breaker. So when you hear this text, you'll understand why I have problems with it. I've avoided it because if I avoid it, I don't have to deal with the problems it creates for me. However, I've avoided it long enough. Hear the text as written in Luke 12:49-56.
What do you think? Have you ever thought much about what this text claims, or have you avoided it too? Because we want to hear a soothing voice of peace, we try to skip contentious words - especially from Jesus. But Jesus wants to shake his followers from their complacency and invites them to face reality with a jarring, unwelcome word.
How do we resolve this conflict, because resolve it, we must? Avoidance isn't an option! Because I don't like to confront controversy, I wait until the last minute - hoping problems will work themselves out. However, when I do confront and expose problems to the light of day, they are usually resolved.
Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law and yet he breaks the law and heals on the Sabbath. He came to teach love and nonviolence and yet he cleanses the temple with a whip. He said to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us and yet when we read this text, we realize that our enemies may be those closest to us. Our enemy may be a verbally abusive spouse, a parent, a daughter-in-law or son-in-law or an angry teenage child. Conflicts can arise when we fail to follow Jesus or when we stand up for what's right. The prophetic voice of Jesus comes to us in our family relationships, but his words are appropriate for all of our relationships. There will be conflict and divisions. Just as Jesus took a stand on unpopular issues, he calls us to take a stand. Because Jesus calls us to follow him, when we follow, we will find that our actions will sometimes alienate others.
To Jesus, there was something more important than peace and that was justice. I received an e-mail message Friday from Lamar Cope, who with his wife Sandy, lead the Wisconsin Baptist Peace Fellowship. The notice concerned the Southern Poverty Law Center - an organization that fights justice issues in the courts. Morris Dees, its director, reported that because of their efforts to eliminate hate groups by suing and bankrupting them, they are receiving death threats from Klan members. Because of their stand for justice for racial minorities, they are in danger of physical harm or death.
Last Wednesday night, we looked at Philip Yancey's chapter on Mahatma Gandhi in his book Soul Survivor. Gandhi, who lived between 1869 and 1948, led one-fifth of humanity - the nation of India - to freedom from British rule through nonviolent actions. He was greatly respected - even by those who didn't support his acts of work stoppages and personal fasting.
One of Gandhi's fasts was aimed at his own people. He refused to eat until those who committed violence repented and vowed to stop fighting. At first no one responded but as his vital signs plummeted, rioters stopped to listen to news reports of his blood pressure and heart rate. Soon everyone in Calcutta was focused on the straw pallet where he lay, too weak to speak. The violence stopped. The gang responsible for the murders came to Gandhi to confess, ask forgiveness and lay their arms at his feet. Only then did he break the fast. Sometimes it's imperative that an individual or a group stir the collective conscience of their families, church, city, nation, or world by taking an unpopular stand or action.
John Woolman, a Quaker, began working among people in his denomination in the 1700's to convince them to abolish slavery in their own households. More than a hundred years before the Emancipation Proclamation, the Quakers freed their slaves. When Woolman first began this effort, he was not well received. Divisions came! And yet by peacefully holding his ground and going from congregation to congregation, he eventually accomplished God's purpose. Woolman stirred the collective conscience of a denomination! Baptists split over this issue in 1848 rather than to present a united front for justice.
When a person or group takes an unpopular and just stand on a controversial issue, that stand isn't readily accepted. When we look at the political arena on a local, state or national level, we see that most politicians are unwilling to take a stand on a controversial issue - even if they believe it's right - because they don't want to lose votes or financial support. The same thing happens with ministers. It takes courage to confront a controversial topic when you know that some church members will leave. But if there is no courage to confront an issue that needs to be addressed, justice will be delayed or denied.
Politicians take polls and listen to the direction the political winds are blowing, just as we check the weather reports of meteorologists like John Malan and Mark Baden to see what tomorrow's weather will bring. The actions of the Federal Reserve have been carefully monitored these past weeks for clues on the direction of the economy - and in particular, the stock market. And yet, like people in Jesus' day who couldn't read the signs, we don't see and act on present-day issues of peace and justice like we should. We choose to look at life through rose-tinted glasses or in ways that absolve us from acting. We don't like to hear the pessimism of another point of view or the words of the preacher who calls us to change our ways. And yet, issues of injustice must be confronted and changes made in order to be true to Jesus' call on our lives.
If the Gospel is to be considered good news, how can Jesus' prediction of strife be good news? It's good news when family, political and religious conflicts bring injustice to a head - to the attention of the offenders or the ones allowing the injustice to occur so that something is done about it. Redemption comes when injustice is confronted and shattered. People like Mahatma Gandhi, Dietrich Bonnhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Woolman, Sojourner Truth, and Jesus publicly addressed issues that needed to be addressed and some died for their faithfulness. When we continue to live with a "business as usual" attitude, we face a spiritual and moral crisis.
I reported earlier that Grace Morgan was seriously injured in an automobile accident a week ago. Grace, who will be 89 years old next month, is like the Energizer Bunny; she just keeps going and going! Grace heads up the American Baptist meal program when we serve at St. Ben's. She is on the board of Habitat for Humanity and other ecumenical service boards. She serves on justice committees and is active wherever help is needed. She makes waves and speaks out for justice whenever she has the opportunity. She fits our text!
Another woman - Sojourner Truth faced the divisive issues of race and gender in the early 1800's. She was born a slave in 1797, her mother having been brought from the Gold Coast to New Amsterdam and then to the United States on a slave ship. Her sir-name changed often to reflect the change in her ownership. As a child, she was beaten and scarred because she couldn't speak proper English.
Because she was strong, she began unloading boats on the wharf in New York City at the age of 13 - later working in the fields in the daytime and doing her owner's laundry at night. She argued with God a great deal about how she was forced to marry, forced to breed like an animal, and forced to watch her children sold away from her. After she was freed she took injustices to court and won, forgave her owners, became a messenger for Jesus, spoke out on social issues, and became friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln.
Sojourner Truth (who said God gave her that name) became not only an advocate for rights for racial minorities; she also spoke out for voting rights for women. She believed that God sent her on that journey and her desire was to be faithful. She listened to the word of God and then preached to our nation a much-needed message of change. (Ann Weems, Searching for Shalom)
The absence of conflict isn't necessarily peace. Sometimes crises are necessary to bring about change: the melting of the polar ice caps, the discovery of lead paint in Fischer Price toys, water pollution in Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River, and long waits for uninsured people in emergency rooms are such crises. When we see a crisis in the making or one that is full-blown, we as Christians need to assess what Jesus would have us do to face the crisis, and then act as we are able. When we stir the collective conscience through our words and actions, divisions will occur, but so will change. If we listen, we can hear! When we act, God will honor our faithfulness.
