Luke 12:49-56 on August 17th, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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Friends, if listening to that gospel lesson was difficult, think what it must be to preach on it. We who like peace, who pray for peace, who looked at this past week as an opportunity to further peace, who hate division and what it does to our friendship circles and our family tables. These words from Jesus and the gospel of Luke that began with Jesus' birth, the Prince of Peace and the Angel Course, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good well to all. These words about being divided don't make sense.
Last time I was with you I had a rather easy gospel lesson, Mary and Martha, then itself to a dialogue sermon, sister act if you will. Well that got me thinking about sister act. No, the original movie sister act, the one where Wootby Goldberg starred and she was a lounge singer. She worked the nightclubs, she had a mobster as a boyfriend. She witnessed him murdering somebody and realized he knew she saw it and now her life was in danger. She escaped and a detective decided where can I hide this woman and keep her safe, a convent. My mother superior wasn't too happy with this saloon singer coming into the convent. But while she was there, sister Mary Clarence learned something about the God who loves us all, learned something about herself and her own gifts, led the choir which was abysmal, boring worship, boring liturgies, but not with sister Mary Clarence directing it as she took one of her popular songs, my God, my God, my God and had the whole choir sing it. And at the end of that movie, a really rousing rendition of another great song that those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s remember, I will follow him. By this time it wasn't sung about a boyfriend or a girlfriend, it was sung about God. I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go. There is an amount so steep and ocean so deep. I will follow him because I love him. I love him. I love him and where he goes I'll follow.
Harry Emerson Fostick was a pastor at Riverside Church in New York City and a rather renowned preacher in the 20th century. He one time said, the world tries to get rid of Jesus in two ways. The first way was to crucify him and that didn't work. The second way was to worship him without following him and the jury still out on that one. It's not just a feel good ending to a movie. I will follow him. It's not just a promise we make when we sit in our own liturgies. I will follow him. It's an hour to hour choice where our allegiance will be who has our whole hearted energy and commitment.
Jesus knows that and Jesus has wholeheartedly committed himself to going to Jerusalem when he speaks in Luke's gospel today. Jesus has decided that he will go all the way to a cross for the sake of others and he knows that the decisions he makes, the actions that he takes, the heart that he reveals, the teachings that he shares, he knows these will be opposed by those who are comfortable with the status quo and those who believe they see it right and there's no room to mess it up. So Jesus speaks in blunt terms to His disciples, to you and to me, there will be division. There will be times when we stand opposed to those, even in our family whom we love. There will be those beliefs that we need to have shattered in order to represent God's will in this world. There will be challenges that we will have to face and we're never quite over it. Trust me, I'm old and I'm still a work in progress. We either decide to follow Jesus over and over again or we fail at this thing called Christianity.
And Jesus knew Jeremiah, not personally, but Jesus was a student of the Bible himself and he knew not Jeremiah was a bullfrog, but Jeremiah the prophet and the Old Testament who lived hundreds of years before Jesus but was called from his rather cushy life to the life of a prophet, to speak God's words, God's truth. That's what prophets do. They speak God's word into the present times. And God gave Jeremiah the message that was read as our first lesson today. That God knows what's going on. And God knows that there are false prophets giving pipe dreams out there that everything going on is right and good and should be carried on. But for decades Jeremiah carried a different message and spoke God's truth that God opposed those who were oppressing the weak, that God expected those who had to share with those who had not the widows, the orphans, anyone in need. That God was not satisfied with our making as our idols, our own success and power and strength and wealth.
And as Jeremiah called out to God's people, Israel to become faithful in the way that they followed, Jeremiah gives an image of a hammer crushing a stone. That's the hammer of justice. Jeremiah would say that you and I need to be hammered. If we want to follow Jesus, we have to look at what are the rock solid beliefs that we have, opinions that we have, attitudes that we have, behaviors that we have that need to be crushed by God's hammer in order to soften us, break us apart, to give us new life, where does our pride have to be shattered that somehow I'm better. I don't think I'm alone this way, but I get into this habit of thinking I'm better. And that could be I'm better by my race or I'm better by my nation or I'm better by my gender or I'm better by my wealth or I'm better by my education. It doesn't matter. If we think we're better and we see any of God's children as less, God wants to hammer away at that false idolatry and instill in us a new vision where we are one, where we represent a God who loves all people, all races, where we are not satisfied just securing a comfortable role for ourselves, a comfortable life for ourselves, a comfortable life for our children, but where we make sure everybody has that opportunity to have food and shelter and freedom and education and a chance to rise.
That speaks to us today through the prophet Jeremiah and through the prophetic words of Jesus. Jesus wants to set the world on fire with the baptism that he shares with you and me. He wants it to be a different place, a loving place and he doesn't mince words. It might put us at odds with those who don't agree. And we don't stop loving people because they don't agree. We don't stop praying for them, benefiting them. But to follow Jesus may just mean we have to stand against their opinions, their actions, their false dreams like the false streamers in Jeremiah's prophecy.
Jesus went on to the cross from the cross. He spoke the words father forgive them. Jesus was willing to always look for resurrection in you, in me, in the world. So when things get shattered, when things are burned by holy fires of the spirit, don't fear. That's just preparation for something new to come out of it. Let us follow him. Follow him wherever he goes. Follow him to the people that he loves. Follow him in the ways he gathers. Follow him in our love because not only do I love him, I love him, we love him, we love him. More importantly, he loves us. And for us, rose a new life to give us new life, goes with us to keep his spirit in our world. And what this world needs now is love, sweet love. It's not just a feel good movie, it's not just a sermon of oldies but goodies. It's our calling as disciples. Amen.