Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 19, 2007
Sermon by Pastor Alex Treitler
Please
remain standing for the Gospel reading, which is taken from Luke 12, verses 49
through 56.
Jesus said: “I came to bring fire to
the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized,
and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace
to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division! From now on five in one
household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 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.”
He also said to the crowds, “When you
see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and
so it happens. And when you see the
south wind blowing you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of
earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Good morning.
First of all, let me introduce myself.
My name is Alex Treitler. I’m a
proud member of this congregation, and I’m also a Lutheran pastor, ordained in
the
The other thing I’ve got going against me is that I
am currently not serving in a parish nor working in the church at all, so I am
a sometimes preacher. And there’s a big
risk in being a sometimes Lutheran preacher, as I am, because the tendency is
that when you preach you set up the structure of your sermon according to
Luther’s Little Catechism, and you run through each of the articles, brushing
them off and bringing them up to date, maybe reciting a little poem or telling
an anecdote. So after about
three-quarters of an hour or so, for those who haven’t had the sense to excuse
themselves, the rest of you will be asleep.
Now, I’m hoping that that’s not going to happen today. And, in fact I, have resisted doing so this
time.
So I will be referring to three of the four readings
for today, not just because I want to be thorough, but because I think that,
taken together, these readings say something really interesting about the
relationship between humankind and God.
I’ll break this down into five ways that God and humans communicate with
each other, as shown in the Bible. The
first is what we tell God that we want God to do. The second is what we expect God to do. The third is what we expect God to say. The fourth is what God says to us. And the fifth is what God tells that God
will do.
Now, if you think about these five ways of
communicating, these are really very much how communication works within any
human relationship, especially within a close relationship with a friend, or a
partner, or a family member. So to the friend
or partner or family member, we tell them what we want to do; we expect them to
do certain things, although sometimes we don’t tell them that; we expect them
to say certain things, and they say certain things which aren’t always what we
expect. So far, so good.
But there is this fifth thing: God telling us what God will do.
Now, this doesn’t sound so good, if we shift it to its human
relationship. Imagine being in a
relationship where the other person just told you what they were going to do—no
discussion, no compromise, no change of heart—sometimes quite out of the
blue. Is this really how God
communicates with us? Reading the Bible,
it often may seem that way. Sometimes we
may even want for God to be that way.
But I’ll return to this problem in a bit. First, I’ll say a little bit about each of
these ways of communicating, and I’ll save my interpretation for the end.
So we tell God what we want God to do. Here, we need to look in the Book of Psalms,
which is full of conversations with God.
It’s in large part a book of kvetching, which is a good Yiddish word for
complaining, often with a high nasal voice and often about things like
bunions. But in this Book of Psalms, the
issues that the psalmist brings up are pretty substantial. For example, in Psalm 88, the psalmist says,
“My soul is full of troubles. No one
likes me. Even my friends shun me. My eye is made dim with sorrow.” And often as a result of all this suffering
that they’re complaining about, the psalmist will ask God to intervene: “Make
them like whirling dust; pursue them with your tempest, terrify them with your
hurricane.” And it is this kind of
request that comes at the end of the 82nd Psalms, which is one that we
sang. “Rise up, O God, judge the
earth; for all the nations belong to you.”
Now, Psalm 82 is a really interesting psalm, if you start looking at it
a little more closely, because it’s not just about us and God, it’s actually
about us, God and the other gods [with a little “g”]. It’s a really interesting piece of historical
evidence about where we have come in our faith since many, many generations ago
when our brothers and sisters in faith came from a polytheistic culture—not
just one god, but one of many gods. The
difference was, of course, that the god of the Hebrews was bigger, stronger,
and faster than any of the other gods.
So we’re listening in on God’s conversations with the
other gods, in which he chastises them for not doing their job right. They are judging unjustly; they are not
championing the weak and the orphan, or the lowly and the destitute. But the way this conversation is framed, you
could say that God is really playing for the fans in the bleachers; he’s
playing for the people in the third balcony.
What God address to other gods, he really means for us to hear. So this talk of justice in Psalm 82 is very
consistent with how we hear God in the voice of the prophets, like Isaiah, in
the Gospels like Matthew, and in the Epistles like Galatians.
Now, let’s go to number two—what we expect God to
do. The reading from Luke is a
pretty good example. There are at least
two of our expectations of God that are expressed in this text. And let me read a part of this to remind
you. Jesus said, “I came to bring
fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. Do you think that I have come to bring peace
to the earth? No, I will tell you, but
rather division. From now on, five in
one household will be divided, three against two, and two against three.”
The first of our expectations is probably that God
will bring peace. The second is that God
will preserve families. I’ll say a
little bit about each. Our expectation
that God will bring peace has a lot of worth; after all, we do at the time of
Christ’s birth hear how he fulfills the prophecy found in Isaiah about the
Prince of Peace. Also, in the Book of
Matthew, the famous Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says, “Blessed are the
peace makers for they are the children of God.” Now, our second expectation that God loves
families has long roots in the Bible.
Think of our image of the Holy Family at the birth of Christ, or their
flight to
Well, both of these expectations are brutally dashed
in what must be one of the most shocking texts in the Gospel. To our expectation of peacemaking, Jesus
says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to earth? No, will tell you, but rather division.” And to our expectation of family values,
Jesus said, “From now on five in one household will be divided, three against
two, and two against three.” And
then he gets even more specific. “They
will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother
against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against
daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” So in this text it’s not just about a
generation gap—the younger rejecting the older—it’s about everyone rejecting
each other.
Now, for the third point: what we expect God to
say. And I’m going to combine it
with the fourth, which is what God says.
They are really two sides to the same coin. We have a few examples, like from Jeremiah. Jeremiah, using the word of God, says, “Is
not my word like fire and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces.” And the word of God continues, “See, I’m
against those who prophesy lying dreams and lead my people astray.” Now, this is not so surprising. This sounds like the God we know; a God of
justice who condemns false prophesy, who exposes lies and hypocrisy, who speaks
with a word like fire and like a hammer.
“Give justice
to the weak and orphan”—okay, this is from the Book of Psalms, another
statement from the God of justice, “Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them
from the hand of the wicked.” I
won’t say anything more about these texts here.
Now, finally, we come to what God says God will do. So, recapping, we have looked at what we tell
God that we want; what we expect God to do and say; what God says; and,
finally, what God says that God will do.
This is where we can again look at Jesus’ words that challenge our
expectations. Jesus says that he has
come not to bring peace but division, and not to unify families but to break
them apart. Now, this would be a great
moment for the psalmist, who expresses what we want God to do, to face off with
Jesus, who tells us what God is going to do.
Jesus says, “I have come to bring not peace but division.” And the psalmist comes back with, “Now,
you listen to me! After a thousand years
of displacement, slavery and occupation, don’t you think we’ve had enough of
division?” Jesus says, “I will
turn father against son and mother against daughter.” And the psalmist comes back with, “You
what?” You’re going to turn mother
against daughter, after all your mother did for you? Besides, what do you know about this kind
of stuff; I don’t see you with any kids.”
Well, fortunately, or unfortunately, this particular exchange is not
found in the Bible, although I am sure that Jesus met with plenty of resistance
when he came out with statements like these.
But let’s go on to see what else Jesus is saying
here. He also said, “When you see a
cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it
happens. And when you see the south wind
blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance
of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
Now, we know that Jesus often used the language of
comparisons. He compared himself to a
mother hen; he compared God to a farmer, or father. Here, he compares the signs of the times to
weather signs or weather portents, or especially as they apply to the growing
seasons and the harvest. It’s an
interesting comparison, because the one thing about the weather is that we
cannot affect it. Often enough, we can
hardly predict it. When Jesus is making
this comparison to weather signs, it seems as though that one of the points
that he is making is that we can’t change the weather, but we can change how we
prepare for it. Now, there’s an old
Swedish saying—and for all I know it’s a Norwegian saying, too—“There’s no such thing as bad weather, but
there is such a thing ands being poorly dressed.” Well, that’s kind of true. And with the right of gear, we can manage through
most of the
Now, remember, we’re talking about what God says that
God is going to do. So in Luke, what is
Jesus saying that God is going to do?
And equally important, what is Jesus saying that God wants us to
do? In this text, it doesn’t exactly
seem clear. We get a whiff of something
bad and threatening. “You don’t know
how to interpret the present time.”
Something is brewing. In the
series of conversations that Jesus is having with his disciples in this part of
the Gospel of Luke, he talks about judgment and about the end times. It was a topic that people were very much
aware of during Jesus’ lifetime and during the generations before and
after. And “Judgment is harsh and will
come suddenly.” So here is
another comparison drawn earlier in the conversation: “The master of that slave with come on a
day that the slave does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with
the unfaithful.” Or “That
slave who knew what is master wanted but did not prepare himself will receive a
severe beating.” Now,
remember that the disciples lived in a slave culture. They lived in a culture of repression and
obedience, and they probably translated that relationship to their relationship
with God. Jesus uses comparisons like
these because he knows that understanding will come more quickly to his first
hearers, his first audience. What is
similar in the relationship between a master and his slave and the weather
signs and the weather is that neither can be changed. A master will punish his disobedient slave; a
cloud rising in the west means rain, and this is the natural order of things. Knowing this, you should also know what to do
when you see the signs of storms brewing.
Do we need to frame our relationship with God in the
same way? Are we slaves to a
master? Is punishment sure when we disobey? I don’t think that this is ultimately what
Jesus shows us about our relationship to God, nor do I think that this is what
Jesus is telling us to do about judgment.
So let’s think carefully about this again. What is Jesus saying that God will do? Will God’s judgment strike, no matter
what? Are we just doomed? Or is Jesus saying that if we are good and
obedient we can avoid \punishment? Is
Jesus saying that God is threatening disaster, but that we can change our
behavior and so change the will of God?
What is Jesus saying that God will do?
Let’s read on, and what I’m reading is beyond our
reading for today. Jesus says, “Why
do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
When you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an
effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge
hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until
you have paid the very last penny.”
Again, here is a comparison.
Because Jesus has spoken of judgment, here is the language of the
courtroom. And you can see that the
business of God’s judgment is not so simple.
God is not single-minded about judgment, it seems, nor can God be bribed
by good behavior. It’s more about, well,
plea-bargaining.
So what is Jesus saying that God will do? In the beginning, Jesus talks about what we
can do in the face of judgment. “Judge
for yourselves what is right.” So
before we even get so far that we are faced with the horrors of judgment and
sentencing, Jesus turns it all back to us: in the face of judgment, we can be
responsible. We know what is right; we
know what is just, we know what justice means.
As it says in Psalm 82: “Bringing justice to the weak and the orphan,
maintaining the right of the lowly and the destitute, rescuing the weak and the
needy; delivering the weak from the hand of the wicked.”
What we can do in the face of judgment is to begin
judging for ourselves, reminding ourselves of what is right. What is Jesus saying that God will do? He is saying that God will listen. God does not only judge; God does not only
condemn. If we make ourselves deaf to
what God tells us about justice in the words of Moses and the prophets and
Jesus, it’s then that we start a process that can only end in disaster. In talking about judgment and the end times,
Jesus is unforgiving; he is talking about what God will do. When he is talking about what God will do,
Jesus begins with what we can do. He
shows us that judgment begins with us.
The poor judgment becomes justice.
And we know what is just, we know what is right, and we can act upon
this.
So let me conclude:
When Jesus uses the image of interpreting weather signs, it seems like
he is setting up a comparison between living your life and framing your life in
an ongoing conversation with God. Jesus
shows us that we are very good at the business of our everyday life. For his first audience, it would have been
looking at weather patterns and acting accordingly, to guarantee the greatest
yield and the best harvest. For us, it
could be our daily tasks, our daily duties and routines, getting to work,
getting the kids to school in the morning, getting household chores done,
paying the bills. Often it seems like
just getting this done is quite enough.
But Jesus tells us that it isn’t.
We have to look at the larger issues that affect us
and the world around us. We know what is
just, we know how God’s word can guide our lives. Let us remind ourselves of this in our
everyday conversations with God.
Finally, all five of these ways of communication between
humans and God are interdependent and intertwined. What we say to God, what we expect God to say
and do, what God says, and what God says that God will do, all of this make up
how we live with God.
So let us kvetch and complain. But let us also hope and pray that God will
keep what God taught foremost in our minds.
Let us hope that this way of living with God never becomes fixed or
one-sided, but is renewed everyday in our everyday conversations with God.
Can we pray together:
Dear God, help us to exercise our voice with
you.
Teach us to listen to your word.
Help us relearn your teaching of justice, today
and everyday,
to the end of our days.
Amen.