Luke 12 49-53

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Luke 12:49-53

Change isn’t easy

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"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

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But I have a baptism toundergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!

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Do you think I came to bring peace onearth? No, I tell you, but division.

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From now on there will be five in one family divided against eachother, three against two and two against three.

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They will be divided, father against son and son againstfather, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law anddaughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

Sisters and brothers in Christ,According to the Moody Bible Institute -- in the past 4,000 yearsof recorded history there have been only 286 years of peace. Thisdespite 8,000 peace treaties. In the last three centuries there have been nearly 400 wars in Europe alone.Right now -- there are how many wars going on? Iraq,Afghanistan, Lebanon, Africa, Eastern Europe. Lots -- how muchviolence -- how much bloodshed. How many car bombs. Howmany rockets. How many nukes. Despite being in one of the mostadvanced and progressive times in history.Think about our communities - that are broken by class struggles -- by racism -- by old hurts and rivalries -- by politics. Towns andvillages torn apart.Think about our homes - our families - torn apart by anger, by hurt, by abuse, by divorce...This broken world -- this great big system filled with sin -- longingfor peace. Looking for something to bring it together. To stop thefighting. To stop the hurting. To bring us to a point of unity.And into this whole big mess where we crave bringing peopletogether in peace and unity we find ourselves looking to theScriptures. Looking for the answer. Asking Jesus to come andmake it right -- but here in Luke chapter 12 we Jesus -- who is thePrince of Peace - saying to the world.

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I. Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you,but division.

To which many of us respond -- WHAT?This is a shock to the system -- this is one of the parts of the Biblethat challenge this image of a soft, kind and gentle Jesus becauseright here he's saying I want to set fire to the earth -- I'm here tolight the match. I'm going to break things up -- even families aren'tgoing to be safe from me.It's not easy to hear this in our Bibles -- these words are a hugechallenge for us as we consider the message of peace andreconciliation and forgiveness and love that the Gospel offers to us.So what do we do with this - here in Luke chapter 12. How do wedeal with this challenge?i. One possibility is to say that Jesus didn't say that...couldn't saythat...wouldn't say that...I once heard a sermon that said this once -- about a difficult text just like this -- and the pastor compared reading the Bible to eatinga really good steak. The kind of steak you get on a good summer day - barbecued just how you like it - perfection. Now most of thetime when you're eating - the steak is good and tender anddelicious.But even on the best steak -- every once in a while you run into a piece that's tough - hard to chew - and instead of throwing out thewhole steak he told the congregation -- sometimes you just have totake your knife, cut that piece off and set it off to the side.There is a school of thought that wrestles along these lines. They

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sit down, look at all the things the Bible tells us Jesus said and thenthey try to figure out what is original and what was maybe added by guys like Luke who wrote the gospel stories.They see a text like this -- one which seems to fly in the face of everything else that Jesus has said about peace and unity -- andthey say "This is too radical, too different -- it seems to contradictthe rest of what Jesus teaches. Jesus is all about peace. He's allabout unity. He's all about the reconciliation of relationships.This part of Luke 12 is too hard. It's too tough. It's too hard tochew. So - take your knife and your fork -- do a little slicing -- andset it aside so you can enjoy the rest.Wouldn't that make faith easy -- wouldn't that make life so mucheasier. If you could just take the parts of the Bible that are too hardand set them aside. A verse here a chapter there. I know there a fewtexts I wouldn't mind cutting if I had the chance to start editting......and that's the problem...what would you cut?How about where God commands the Israelites to wipe out theAmelekites -- how could a good and loving God command them todo something like that? Maybe you'd cut Genesis 1 -- no problemwith science then... Or the book of Revelation -- John's Apocalypse-- where you have all these wild and crazy pictures that really don'tmake a lot of sense in today's world.Or how about when you're off by yourself - there's temptationlooking right at you - noone's going to know - and who's it going tohurt - You shall not...cut it away...See the problem -- if we start cutting by our own design -- that'sthe ball game -- all you'd have left is the cover and nothing in between.

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