10th Sunday after Pentecost

Well, my friends, today’s gospel is one of those “disturbing” readings we prefer to ignore because it’s so uncomfortable and sounds so contrary to the image of Jesus we’re drawn to and prefer – Jesus, the Prince the Peace; Jesus, the Good Shepherd; Jesus, the lover of outcasts and sinners.

But you know what? There’s something I actually like about today’s reading. I like that Jesus is more complex than our comfortable, narrow stereotypes can accommodate. I like the fact that there’s a little meat on the bones, that Jesus’ message is costly and consequential.

And he knows he’s being controversial: Do you think that I’ve come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!

But it does beg the question, doesn’t it: How can Jesus be the source of both peace and division?

So to answer that, let’s look at a story that’s told just a bit earlier than this one in the gospel of Luke.

A Pharisee invited Jesus to come and eat at his house, which he did. And the word must’ve gotten out, because after a while a woman showed up and also made her way into the house. She was a “sinner” of some repute. We don’t know exactly what stripe of sinner she was. It doesn’t matter. This was the woman who brought an alabaster jar of ointment and began washing Jesus’ feet, weeping all the while, and drying his feet with her hair.

The Pharisee watches all this and grunts to himself, Some prophet. If he were a real prophet he’d know what a sinner this woman is. (Meaning, of course, that no man of God would ever permit such a sinful woman to touch him, especially in such an intimate, public way.) So, Jesus (who is a prophet) and knowing exactly what this guy was thinking, tells this parable,

Once there was a man who was owed a lot of money by two different guys. One owed him about a year’s salary; the other about a month’s salary. And the man decided to forgive both of their debts – wiped them totally clean. Which one, do you think, was more grateful?

Well, the Pharisee mumbles, I guess the one with the bigger debt.

Exactly, says Jesus. Do you see this woman? She’s done nothing but love me here in your house tonight. But you, the owner the house, who ought to be showing me hospitality, have been nothing but rude and judgmental and arrogant – all night long.

She’s been forgiven much and all she’s doing is showing an appropriate expression of gratitude.

And then he looks at the woman and says loudly, for everyone to hear, Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

Go in peace.

Do you see what has happened here? For Jesus, this is exactly what it means to be simultaneously the Prince of Peace and the sword that brings division. For in that one moment he was peace for that woman and division for the Pharisee – that Pharisee who sneered at the so-called prophet from Nazareth, and his mamby-pamby ways.

The Kingdom of God Jesus inhabits and manifests is one of mercy; it is one that sees deep into the hearts and lives of those who are broken and cast out, whoever suffers under the burden of sin. Jesus’ mercy is one of compassion and complete forgiveness. It is the Peace of God poured out freely for this world.

And for those who receive this mercy and for those who choose to participate in living such a Christlike life, they will know the peace of God. And they will join God’s renewal of every broken thing under the sun so that all might flourish.

And, just to be clear, there is no one for whom this not an option. There is no one in this life without need of God’s forgiveness. It was just as available to the Pharisee.

But like the Pharisee, there are many who regard God’s forgiveness as not all that significant of a thing, really. They may be grateful to be forgiven as a general catch-all for their little slip-ups, but – by and large – they know they’re solid citizens. Good people. Good people for whom it is justifiable to look down their noses at those genuinely bad people. At the “sinners.” At the criminals. At the meth addicts. At the foreigners. At the members of the other political party.

But let me assure you, if in our heart of hearts, we are differentiating in this way, if we believe ourselves to be God’s preferred citizens, approved by our uprightness, while showing no genuine compassion for those whose struggle looks different than ours, then we have become those for whom Christ is bringing division. The people who participate in forgiveness and mercy are on one side, and we are on the other.

You hypocrites! says our Lord. Don’t you know how to read the signs? The peaceable Kingdom of God is being revealed where there is humility and where there is compassion. And if you can’t see that, if you don’t want to become a part of that, then you are refusing me and you are separating yourself from my kingdom and you ought to be frightened. But you’re too hard-hearted even to tremble.

Consider the vineyard of the Lord that the prophet Isaiah described:

The Lord dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines….

He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes….

[So] judge between me and my vineyard, [says the Lord]

What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?….

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

I will make it a waste….

I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,

and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting;

he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;

righteousness, but heard a cry! (Isaiah 5:1-7)

And so the warning remains for the people of God in every place and every time. If we truly believe ourselves to be the people of God, living in the peace of God, then there is only one option for what that looks like:

As God has loved us, so we are to love one another.

As God has forgiven us, so we must forgive one another.

As God in Christ has laid down his life for us, so we must lay down our lives for one another.

So why don’t we? Why are we humans so intransigent in our judgment and indifference?

Probably, in part, because we have yet to believe or experience with any real depth how God’s love and forgiveness has already molded itself to every fissure of our wounded souls. We’re like the Pharisee, still comparing ourselves to those “legitimate sinners” – completely blind to, or denying, the darkness of our own hearts.

It can be a very difficult work even to admit to the pain or fear or shame that resides within us. We’ve spent so many years covering it up, finding ways to cope – ways that are typically destructive for us and those around us – that we’ve forgotten what it is we’re hiding from. Honestly, as a pastor, this is often the most difficult part of my job: coming alongside a person, who’s obviously hurting, yet completely incapable of admitting to the true source of that hurt.

We all have within us wounds that need healing, sins that need forgiving. It is for these that God’s peace waits.

And if we finally summon the courage, simply to admit to the shame within us, we often discover, we’ve known what it was all along. We’ve spent our lives concealing it. And if God can love us, in this, then that truly is a God worth loving in return.

And that is a God worth resembling.

The world has no need or interest in smug Christians, trumpeting their brand of righteousness. It is grace alone that will and must define the people of God.

And today, Patrick and Rory are being baptized into this faith.

It is a sacrament of grace – the tangible water, poured over their heads – that promises the forgiving love of God, a forgiveness sealed upon them, forever.

And we, too, make a promise:

Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?

And in replying, “We will,” we as their family and church are committing ourselves to living with one another and in this world, with a gracious integrity befitting the people of God. We are committing ourselves afresh to living in such a way that these two boys will be raised knowing what the grace of God looks like because of the way they have been treated by us, because of the way they have observed us behaving with one another, because of the way their family and their church are bringing grace to this wounded world.