12 Pentecost, August 18, 19 2007
The Rev. Barbara Schlachter

I bring you greetings from Lake Erie—not Lake Woebegone—but I feel that I am beginning to give you a cyclic update every year, like Garrison Keilor does every week on The Prairie Home Companion. 

The Lake is great; the beach was wonderful, my family was all terrific, and I come back to you with such a sense of blessing.  My last morning there as I was beginning to think seriously about this sermon I imagined you all lined up on the beach to worship in God’s original cathedral.  So pretend for a moment that you are by water—the sea of Galilee, Lake Erie, your favorite water place, and shut your eyes and listen to the sounds of the water. 

Pause.  Roll, ocean roll.  There is nothing like the sound of water.  It must remind us of our first home where we swam in amniotic fluid.

The waves are roiling in today’s Gospel, however.  There is no gentle lapping but a reminder that a fierce storm was waiting for Jesus in Jerusalem and a reminder that we who can read the weather, who check in for the latest reports on our tv and computers need to be concerned about other signs of the times. 

Jesus is talking about a baptism of fire—which is what he will endure, and what we all receive when we are baptized.  The Holy Spirit is characterized by fire, the tongues of fire that came at Pentecost.  When fire meets water, it is baptism.

The Gospel of Thomas attributes this saying to Jesus:  “Whoever is near me is near fire; whoever is distant from me is distant from the kingdom.”  The fire of passion is part of our baptism.

If this language of bringing fire to the earth doesn’t grab you, what about Jesus saying that he is not bringing peace to the earth but a sword?  Doesn’t that sound the opposite of what Jesus was all about?  How are we to interpret this?  As a Holy War?

There will be division he says, in the household itself.  There are five people—father, mother, daughter, son, daughter-in-law and they will be divided two against three, three against two.    Is this Good News for those of us who like harmony in our family life?

Jesus was looking ahead to what would happen when people began to understand what he was advocating.  In the earliest days whole households were baptized together.  But as time went on and it became apparent that one was either a synagogue Jew or a Christian Jew, there was a great deal of conflict in the home.  This conflict came into a culture where the father was the patriarch and his word was law.  He could be a tyrant but he was the father and what he said, went.

But when people began to understand what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, a follower of his way, of the one who John claimed was the way, the truth and the life, it was a decision that people had to make for themselves.  It is a commitment that goes bone deep.  It changes everything, and so if two people in the family are baptized and three are not, there is going to be conflict. 

The sword of truth as Christians would understand it cut through the bonds of family.  Jesus was fairly clear in the gospel of Luke that ties of spirit had to be more important than ties of blood.

I think of some of the conflicts my parents and I had in the days of the Vietnam War, and how difficult it was to have a conversation about anything meaningful because we found ourselves in opposite camps on just about everything.  My religious faith informed my life in a far different way than my parents’. 

Many families have a hard time letting their children go onto paths that are different from the parents.  Family loyalty can be about small things or large things, but one who goes their own way often pays a price and there is often conflict because of their decisions.

Yet, when one begins the work of consciousness, which is what I think the real call of Christ is, there is bound to be difference.  This work is called in psychological terms “differentiation” or “individuation.”  It is work that can only be done by the individual, although it is helpful to have a supportive community—ie family or church—to remain connected to.  In this work Jesus can be seen as an elder brother who shows us the way of finding our own truth.

It is the task of maturation for each person.  Sometimes we fear where the paths our siblings or children take may lead them.  Yet, we cannot ultimately judge what they are learning about themselves and their place in the world.  It is best if we can be a listener, an open set of ears, someone who can share from our own experience if we are asked.

Division precedes reconciliation.  We can see this happening in the Anglican Communion as different branches of the Anglican Church differentiate in different ways.  The conflict itself is healthy even if the ways we handle it are not always so mature.

Sometimes we even wonder about our own selves, and where our thoughts or understanding may be taking us.  Could we possibly outgrow our Christian faith in this secular world?  Do we need to stop our development intentionally if we fear that we may not believe quite the way we used to?  After all, while change is inevitable, growth is not.  We can refuse to be open to new ways of thinking and behaving. 

I want to reassure those of you who think you may have “heretical” thoughts from time to time not to be afraid of them.  Not to be afraid of your doubts, your questions, but to see them as ways that Christ may actually be working to take you into a deeper life with him.  The one who calls you to go deeper will go with you, even into uncharted waters, and will help you in your discernment of what is important and essential to Christian faith and what is not.

The changes occurring in this world are happening so rapidly that we have to trust that our deep roots in the Christian faith will enable us to sort through all the other truths we are learning about how the world is put together, in both a physical and human way.  In fact, to be faithful, we have to be ready to learn new things and take new challenges.

If we stay where we are, we are going backward, stagnating.

We need to be willing to read the urgent signs of our times.  The world needs all the love and intelligence we can possibly bring to it.  What are the signs you are seeing and what are you ignoring?

We probably pay pretty close attention to some things, but we also probably ignore others, perhaps without realizing their importance or perhaps because we feel we cannot do anything about them.  Sometimes the news of the world is enough to make any of us think we are living through a hurricane that won’t stop.  Yet, it is better to know and to pray and to listen to how we are being asked to live our lives in this time than to ignore the signs.  And closer to home are many signs that we need to pay attention to as well.  Our health?  Our spiritual disciplines?  Our family members that we don’t really see so very often even if they are close by?  Or those we live with that we don’t truly take the time to look at with deep eyes?  The communities we live in?  The people who tend to be invisible in our society? 

The fire of our baptism means that we get to stay by the still waters only so long.  Then it’s time to get back and get going.  I hope that this summer has been the kind of time for you that has refreshed you so that your reserves are full and you are ready to fully read and engage the signs of the times, even when that brings difference rather than harmony.

Amen.