The English writer G.K. Chesterton famously observed
it’s not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it’s that it has
been tried and found to be difficult.
This may seem like an odd statement given over 2.2 billion people around
the world subscribe to the Christian faith and in our country alone there are
over 1,200 Christian denominations. But
then you read one of Jesus’ teachings like we just heard and you begin to
understand what Chesterton was driving at.
“I have come to bring fire, not peace, and from hence
households will be divided: father against son, mother against daughter, and in-law
against in-law.” Imagine if this morning
we sent our youngest members off to Children’s Chapel and drilled into them the
literal implications of this teaching! I
suspect in short order our families would begin looking for another church to
attend.
And it is not like today’s teaching is some kind of outlier. Just last Sunday we heard Jesus admonish his
followers to sell all their possessions in order to give alms to the poor. Again, if we pressed these teachings here at
St. Paul’s it would create a boon for other churches in the area. The truth is Jesus put forward many
instructions that, when tried, prove to be difficult.
What are we who claim to be followers of Jesus
supposed to do?
Well, one option is to pick and choose from his
teachings, selecting to pay attention to what we want to do while ignoring what
we do not. The degree to which we do
this often says more about us than it does about Jesus. I mean, isn’t it wonderful when Jesus agrees
with something we hold dear!
In meditating on a particular passage of Scripture I
often ask myself a question: if this was the only teaching of Jesus’ we had what
would Christianity look like? Of course it
is a false question, but its value lies in the way it takes seriously what each
part of the bible says or teaches. So,
if today’s reading was all we knew about what Jesus said, how would our faith
and practice be different? Well, for one
thing, Christians would not be as consumed with “family values”.
Family values is a term pertaining to the structure, function, role,
beliefs, attitudes, and ideals related to a family. It is often associated with the make-up of a
“traditional family”, which consists of a bread-winning father, a homemaker
mother, and their biological children. In
1980 61% of all children were raised in a home by their married parents. By 2014 this figure had fallen to 46% - a
minority. The percentage with a
stay-at-home mother is even lower.
Given this decline, is it any wonder some Christians
are concerned about the deterioration of the traditional family? But the surprising truth is Jesus himself
spoke very little about the matter. He denounces
the frivolous nature of divorce in his day, citing the theology of two becoming
one flesh and being concerned a divorced woman often was left financially
bereft. But, as a subject, the Gospels
record the teaching only once.
More on Jesus’ mind were the demands of discipleship
and the pressing need for people to do the work of the kingdom. He understood how leaving your home and job,
selling your possessions, and forsaking the faith of your upbringing would put
tremendous pressure on a family unit.
Jesus’ own mother and siblings confronted him publicly on several
occasions and actually thought he was out of his mind. This reality gives us a context for
understanding today’s reading.
For Jesus, the call of discipleship trumped family values as some talk about them
today. Add to this how St. Paul held believers
should remain single in order to be free to do the work of the Gospel and allowed
marriage only grudgingly for those who are too “weak” to live on there own. While the family unit is important to be
sure, it simply is not a major focus of Jesus and the New Testament compared to
the emphasis some Christians place on it.
Rather than the composition of a particular family,
Jesus seems to be much more concerned about the values and virtues expressed
within every relationship. Is the
relationship marked by honesty, mutuality, truthfulness, loyalty, industry, self-giving,
and a determination to live out the imperatives of the Gospel? Being in a traditional family does not
guarantee this will happen while being in a non-traditional household does not
mean it cannot.
Well, this example raised by today’s reading is just
one of many I could cite to demonstrate how we domesticate the demands of the
Gospel by bending it to support what we believe or to attack aspects of our
culture not to our liking. Chesterton’s
famous quip provides the best insight I know as to why we do this. Quite simply, Christianity – when lived
authentically as Jesus taught it – is no easy task.
If I take an honest look at what Jesus teaches and
compare it to my actual practice, well, I come up wanting. It is not just that I lose my temper or think
bad thoughts or indulge in a little bit of gossip now and again. It is not so much that I am a “bad”
person. It has more to do with the way I
shy from the demands of Christian living: forsaking material possessions,
helping others no matter what the cost, forgiving unconditionally… the list
goes on and on.
I wonder if the most important virtue in the Christian
faith is humility. Acknowledging your
own shortcomings has the benefit of taking one’s focus off the shortcomings of
others. Jesus talked about this when he
wondered why religious hypocrites fixate on the speck in a neighbor’s eye while
completely ignoring the log in their own.
John Newton, the one-time slave-trader and composer of
the hymn Amazing Grace, is remembered
for saying, “I am not what I ought to
be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world;
but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I
am”. I like this. Each of us is on a journey toward
holiness. Some start father afield than
others and we certainly are not all at the same place or moving forward at the
same pace, but we share one thing in common: we are all on the journey.
This is what I think about
when I meditate of a reading like we heard this morning. The journey to follow Jesus is not easy – not
for anyone. I rejoice in progress, find
amazement in how good things once impossible have become ingrained habits,
celebrate God’s unmerited love, and do my best to extend grace to everyone I
meet because, like me, they too are on a journey called “discipleship”.