The Rev. Robert Lundquist VI after Pentecost 6/26/05 St Paul’s, Ft Collins

There are some amazing stories around us. Amazing stories of God’s grace and love. When we listen we can hear them.

Just two days ago I met a nurse at Presbyterian/St Luke’s Hospital. As we were waiting for a translator she began to tell me about herself. She had studied nursing in England, graduating at the age of 15. I asked her about her country of origin, since she appeared Indian and spoke with that winsome British accent. “I was born in Kenya, to a Muslim family.” She had completed her primary education at age 12, also in England, before she entered into an arranged marriage. Her husband was terribly abusive, causing her to miscarry three times. “One day I picked up a Christian Bible and read it, and I became a Christian.” She fled both her marriage and her country. “Otherwise, I would be dead meat.” It must be difficult to have lost so much, I said. “I rely on the Lord. I have this job in Labor and Delivery, and I have my church. God takes care of me.”

“I have come not to bring peace, but a sword,” said Jesus. “I have come to set daughter against mother… One’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” This young woman experienced a conversion out of violence. Her story of her flight from oppression makes a particularly poignant illustration for today’s Gospel passage.

Passion Priority Purpose

These are the qualities called forth from us as we follow Jesus. For Jesus brings the sword of faith, not a butterknife. He urges us to take this seriously. In the language of dreams, the sword is a symbol used for dividing, for separating, for discerning. The good from the bad, the right from the wrong. Jesus is clear that he did not come to call only the nice people. He did not come to call the CEO’s (Christmas and Easter Only) or the hatch, match and dispatch crowd (who only attend the baptisms, weddings and funerals). Jesus is seeking passionate followers.

For the cross he carried to Golgotha was large and awkward. “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Taking up a cross, the instrument of excruciating execution, changes one’s gait, changes one’s gait, and changes one’s priorities. Do you detect a certain urgency in Jesus’ words this morning?

This tenth chapter of Matthew is known as the missionary discourse, Jesus’ instructions to his followers on the qualifications, tasks and challenges of the job. He notes that “prophecy” and “righteousness” are dangerous words, revolutionary ideas. Be prepared for conflict, be prepared for loneliness, be prepared for the loss of your relationships – even your relationships within your own family. For your loyalty to your clan and to your family is forfeit when you make God your priority.

Passion Priority Purpose

What do I love in relationship to Jesus?

Who do I love in relationship to Jesus?

What are my priorities?

What do I choose to do?

These are not idle questions in a world turned upside by Jesus. They are not idle questions in the life of a convert, nor in the life of a passionate follower of Jesus. Look around you, listen to the news. War and terror have entered our vernacular, even though we may not have been touched directly by them. The names of places little know just a few years ago are on our lips – Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Banda Aceh. Sudan. All places now of disaster, death and disease. Where is Jesus?, we ask. Where is Jesus? In the upheaval, in the midst. In our own Communion there is not peace, but conflict. As the Anglican Consultative Counsel meets in Nottingham, England, this week, we pray for our Church, “that we all may be one, as Jesus and God are one.” Yet there has never been a time of utter peace in our church. Where is Jesus? In the thick of it all.

A Bishop from Latin America a few years ago was quoted as saying, “When I feed the hungry, I am called a saint. When I ask why they are hungry, I am called a communist.” I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

What is your passion?

What is your priority?

What is your purpose?

Radical obedience to Christ Jesus does not bring peace – it brings the sword, it brings division, it brings conflict. Whenever we disclose the presence of God in our midst, we meet resistance. For there are many who are profoundly uncomfortable with being reminded of the immanence of the Divine, and the fact that the Savior is present, right here, right now. Why is it that the Prince of Peace must bring a sword? Remember, he blessed the children, he healed his dear friend Lazarus, he commended his mother to the care of the Beloved Disciple with his final breaths. This is the challenge of the Good News, this is the paradox of Jesus’ life and teaching. We must hold together the seeming opposites and continue to seek the truth.

Our purpose is not conflict – it is singlemindedness, it is dedication to becoming agents of Jesus. We are called to be Christians, literally “little Christs”, for that is what Christian means. Jesus brings conflict by decisively , forcefully presenting God around us, God within us. He has come to set us against the world we have made, and to put us at peace with the world God has made. It is not, ultimately, contentiousness to which we are called, but to the willingness to love God more than everything and everyone else.

There’s a beautiful hymn that captures the Gospel precisely. It’s #661 in our Hymnal, one you may know by its first line, “They cast their nets in Galilee.” In verse 4 we find:

The peace of God, it is no peace,

but strife closed in the sod.

Yet let us pray for but one thing –

the marvelous peace of God.

Passion Priority Purpose

Some have left all for Jesus. Some have died and been raised to new life, for “those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” AMEN.

A Parish For All People!