Sword, Not Peace?

Has someone ever called you a name that doesn’t fit?! Have you ever been labeled something falsely?
..Or have your words been misconstrued?


Recently, I had an exchange with a dear friend, and we had disagreement …and I felt the ire rising up in me. This week Craig had a friend (literally) yelling on the other end of the line about a difference of opinion; opinions of what we consider reality... What we consider important.


Once upon a time… in our Gospel from today, some people called Jesus “Beelzebul” which means “The Prince of Demons.”
He was called this by other well-meaning, pious, God-loving people.


But they were a people afraid of what Jesus was doing and saying. They were afraid to lose what they had come to rely on, even though the world was changing anyway. The world was changing “with our without” their blessing…and Jesus was bringing his message right into the midst of this change.


The world was chaotic at the time of Matthew’s gospel. He was writing at a time when the destruction of the temple in AD 70 disrupted Jewish community life and tradition.


People’s beliefs were being questioned. The small early Jewish - Christian community was also growing and changing.


But Jesus had already told us "don’t be afraid.” Don’t be afraid of the chaos, and the name calling.


But do understand things are changing.
And the message that Jesus is bringing - is being brought to a changing world that may not appreciate or understand his message of:


Love regardless.


We too, scratch our heads: Why is Jesus saying he is bringing a sword, when the last few weeks he has persistently spoken about peace, the Spirit’s gift of peace, the assurance that Peace is ours to keep - and to give to others?


Now he says he has not come to bring Peace?
Is this hyperbole?
A simple exaggeration?


One minute he sounds like a confident and caring brother and father. Then next, he sounds rather like the fiery prophet Jeremiah, with great exclamation: This isn’t going to be easy!


“For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.”


This isn’t going to be easy! Carrying Love into the world in a time of such chaos is not going to be “a walk in the park.”


There is already animosity and division.


Jesus said, I am bringing a sword (not to kill, but to discern).
…To cut through to the essence of what matters most!


Jesus brings us the sword of discernment.
Being awake to the Love of God helps us to cut through the fog of chaos to the reality of a greater life in God.


Cutting through and revealing…


Jesus says,
“To shed light on what is dark.”
“To make known what is secret”
To uncover that which is covered”


Light and Revelation comes through wading into the differences, the discord, like Jesus did equipped with the knowledge that Love as the highest power above all else will save us.


People are often less afraid (even when they are in crisis) if things can remain the same, even when they are unhappy and persecuted. We act this way, even when the world is always changing.


But do not be afraid because God has counted every hair on your head. Do not be afraid, because you are worth so much more than a sacrificial offering of sparrows (when that offering has become simply a symbol of righteousness.


You are not a symbol. You are a conduit for love.
You have been sealed with Christ.


Walking the path of Christ involves the sword of discernment.


We have discernment to do in our own time, like Matthew’s time when the world seemed upside down.


Love is like a sword that pierces our side deeply.


When we are uncertain and angry and people are calling us by names that do not seem to fit… we can remember the words of Christ: “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.”
We don’t know what God is doing. It is uncertain. But a spiritual materialism, that would suggest we “know,” is as false as sacrificial sparrows.


We don’t know.
What we do know, is that our call is to love.
We not only say but act on these words:
“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”


To carry the cross of Christ that Jesus mentions is to look to that higher love. All of our relationships, even our familial relationships suffer without that higher love. We need to be engaged in the World, thinking, digesting, discerning, all the while with great humility we recognize our limitations.
Oh God your thoughts are higher than my thoughts.


“Forgive them father for they know not what they do,” is a solid prayer; a prayer that brings peace.


It is a prayer that Jesus says from the cross.


It is not a prayer that relieves us of the strife we are in, as it didn’t relieve Jesus his physical strife, but it is a prayer that reminds us to forgive in the midst of what we can’t control. It is a prayer that reminds us of our higher power of God and love above all else.

For:
"Those who find their life [meaning their assuredness, their entitlement, their stubbornness] will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake [for LOVE] will find it.”


Amen.