LIVING JESUS' VALUES COUNTERCULTURALLY

20th Sunday C Aug 19 Luke 12:49-53 10:30 Story: A Protestant minister was hired by a congregation. The first Sunday he delivered a sermon that everyone agreed was quite good. The next Sunday he preached the same sermon. The third Sunday again the same sermon. The deacons of the church approached the new minister and asked why he was preaching the same sermon every Sunday. The minister replied, “I’m going to preach this sermon until I’m satisfied that the people are living it. It’s as obvious as a boil that the people in that congregation did not want the Word of God to disturb the complacency of their lifestyle and value system. But listen again to Jesus in our gospel story: I have come to bring fire to the earth. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. What Jesus is telling you is that his value system, the lifestyle he wants you to live are not easy, are not comfortable. Rather his gospel is challenging and demanding. It can be confrontational and divisive. Sometimes, for example, the divisions that occur within our faith community are due to one group with its misguided fervor or even fanaticism is trying to control everyone else. Story: The fourth graders were studying the Pilgrims coming to America. The teacher asked, “Why did the Pilgrims leave England for America?” One little girl answered, “So that they could practice their religion in freedom and in their own way and force others to do the same.” Sometimes, for example, the divisions are due to a breakdown in communication. Even in a one on one conversation, it is necessary to know what each person means by the key words they use in order to avoid a disastrous split in their communication. For example, a father and mother may get into an unnecessary argument because each one is using the word, discipline, in two different ways when they are talking about disciplining one of their children. They need to work toward a common understanding of the word, discipline, before they discuss what consequences their child will have for her or his actions. Communication is not always easy. I have found that what I say and what people hear can be as radically different as sun and the moon. I remember back in 1960 I gave a sermon (that’s what it was called then) on the right, the duty and the privilege of voting. Later that Sunday afternoon, I was deluged with phone calls. Some saying I was telling to vote for Nixon; some saying I told them to vote for Kennedy. I did not mention either candidate nor either political party. In preparing my sermon I was extremely careful to make sure it was non partisan. But people interpreted my sermon through the earphones of their ideological outlook. Within a Christian community of faith, for example, there can be divisions because people don’t recognize that there are a variety of spiritualities. Gerald Broccolo in his book, Vital Spiritualities: Naming the Holy in Your Life, wrote, “As long as we measure each other’s shortcomings by an imaginary ideal we will not encounter Christ in our Christian communities.” And it’s not just a matter of shortcomings but of preferences in the kind of spirituality we decided to follow. For example, some enjoy praying in private, others in small groups; some want their spirituality to deal with social justice issues, others do not; some want the rules to be kept absolutely with no exceptions, others want the rules to be applied to varying human conditions; some will join established groups like Cursillio or charismatics or Third Orders, others will avoid such groups because they find them too emotional or too directive. The point is that no one kind of spirituality is better than another. But all spiritualities should be countercultural. This is what Jesus means when he says he has come to bring division. You are challenged to live Jesus’ value system each day in opposition to those values in our culture which contradict or deny Jesus’ value system. For example, when our culture’s value of getting ahead no matter whom you might have to crush along the way, it contradicts Jesus’ value of being meek and humble. Or for example, when our culture’s value fosters runaway consumerism, it contradicts Jesus’ value of being poor in spirit. In fact, Edwina Gateley in her book, A Warm Moist Salty God: Women Journeying Towards Wisdom, says, We must refuse to acknowledge a god whom we have shaped in our own image and likeness, a god and a spirituality which condones and endorses all manner of violence and oppression in the name of God. It’s incumbent upon you to know the gospel well enough to recognize which values in our culture are opposed to the values of the gospel. But when you live the gospel counterculturally, you can be certain that you will be divided from the mainstream of our culture. This division can be a heavy cross. But when you bend your cross down and outward toward others, you find that crosses make excellent bridges. Ask Jesus, your friend, dwelling within you, to give you the courage and fiery zeal to one, heal the unnecessary divisions within your faith community, and two, to live the gospel counterculturally. HUMOR A little boy came home with his parents from church one Sunday. He seemed a little depressed, so his mother asked him if something happened in Sunday School class that he would like to talk about. He told his mother, “Well, we were singing songs and the teacher made us sing about a poor bear named Gladly that needed glasses and I can’t stop thinking about him. She The mother couldn’t understand why the teacher would teach such a song in Sunday school, so she decided to call her. To the woman’s amazement, the teacher said she only taught hymns that morning. Then the teacher began laughing out loud and said to the mother, “I know what Jeffrey’s talking about! We learned the hymn ‘Gladly The Cross I’d Bear!’” THOUGHT Always choose to live the gospel counterculturally.