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Isaiah 5:1-7
God and I have one thing in common: we both have black thumbs. I don't have much success with plants. Whenever I plant something it dies. According to our reading from the Prophet Isaiah God has the same problem. He planted a vineyard and it failed to grow and produce.
There is a big difference between my black thumb and God's though. The reason for my lack of success with plants is that I am not good at gardening. I don't ever plant my plants in the right kind of soil or sunlight. I neglect them by not watering them until they start to wilt. Then I fail to weed them and they get choked out.
God on the other hand is a good gardener. He prepared the soil nicely for his vineyard. He chose fertile land with just the right amount of sunlight. He even built a wall around it to protect it and a watchtower in the midst of it. Despite all the care he took it produced fruit that was unworthy of consumption.
You see God was not dealing with inanimate tomatoes or cucumbers or even literal grapes. God's Vineyard was Israel. And even though God did everything to care for and protect them, Israel did not grow as it was supposed to. The produce of God's Vineyard Israel was not supposed to be mere fruits and vegetables but justice and righteousness. Yet instead of the good fruits of justice and righteousness Israel produced bloodshed and violence.
The Vineyard is a metaphor. Israel was meant to be an example of God's will in the midst of the nations. Israel was set apart by God and planted in the fertile Promised Land. God watered it with his Word through the Law and the Prophets and God established his presence in its midst on the Mount Zion. But Israel imported the weeds of idolatry and instead of the sweet fruit of righteousness and justice Israel became just like the nations around it.
So God sent his word through the prophet Isaiah. God declared his judgment on Israel his beloved vineyard. God will remove its hedged and will stop watering it. God will allow the weeds of sin to overtake it. To put the metaphor in concrete terms God would allow Israel the nation to be conquered and Jerusalem the city to be destroyed. All because they failed to produce what God intended them to produce.
It makes one wonder. Where does the church today stand. Have we produced what God intended us to? Jesus last commands to his disciples were to love one another and to spread the Gospel. Well Christianity is the largest religion in the world. According to the most recent statistics 33% or 2 billions of the worlds 6 billion people identify themselves as Christian. That makes Christianity the largest religion by about 800 million adherents.
But we haven't always spread love. Some of the history of the church involves making converts with the sword. Crusades and inquisitions are hardly examples of the churches faithfulness to the Gospel of the Suffering Servant. Even today self-professed "Christians" kill each other and others over differences in theology. There have been Christians on both sides of almost every conflict and atrocity in the 20th century.
I don't know? Despite shining example of the faith in the saints and martyrs and people like Billy Graham and Mother Teresa, we don't seem to have done very well. Like Israel we have produced bloodshed and violence instead of justice and righteousness. We have spread religion but it has not always been the good news of Jesus Christ.
But that's all rather abstract. What about Grace UMC as a church? For the next few Sundays we will be preparing to celebrate the 16th birthday of Grace UMC. 16 years ago this congregation was established. Perhaps this is a good tome to ask if we have been true to our calling.
The idea of planting a new church in this growing part of Columbia was to start a new center for spreading the Gospel in this community. One of the things that I have heard these past months as we have discussed and began acting on the new Sunday School building is how faithful have we been to our calling. Others invested a lot in starting this congregation. Area churches helped pay the pastors salary for the first four years. Conference funds helped pay for the land and building.
We have an awesome calling to be faithful stewards of these investments. Sure we have spread the gospel. The church has grown and is growing. Bible study, prayer, service and worship are the cornerstones of Grace's life. This church has eagerly participated in outreach efforts.
But perhaps the more important question for all of us is how faithful have we been as individuals? Like Israel, God planted each of us in fertile soil in Jesus Christ. He has watered us with his Word and his Holy Spirit. We should produce the fruits of love and faithfulness, righteousness and justice. Israel in Isaiah's day failed to produce the fruits God intended. Not because God was a bad gardener but because they were an unfaithful garden. And God judged them for that.
Each of us has to ask ourselves if we have been faithful vineyards producing sweet grapes of justice and righteousness. I have to admit to a few clusters of wild grapes myself. I have from time to time been unfaithful and selfish. I think if we are all honest we have all done the same.
Luke 12:49-56
Jesus said, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" Matthew translates Jesus words a little differently. Matthew wrote, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword."(10:34) Either way these words are hard to swallow. What does this mean?
Jesus is the Prince of Peace, so why does he say he does not come to bring peace? Didn't Jesus say, "Blessed are the peace makers?"(Matt 5:9) Didn't Jesus tell us to make peace with our brother or sister before worshipping God? Wasn't it Jesus who crossed racial divisions between Jews and Samaritans? Didn't Jesus say, "when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."(John 12:32)
So what was Jesus thinking when he said he had come not to bring peace but division?
The glorious thing is the Bible tells us what Jesus was thinking. Or more precisely Jesus tells us what he was thinking. Jesus makes several comments in the verse right before the one where he says he has come not to bring peace. These comments give us a window into Jesus' thoughts. And they define the context of this troublesome verse.
Jesus says, "I came to cast fire upon the earth!?" Fire! What is this fire all about that Jesus says he came to cast upon the earth? In the Bible fire is often seen as an instrument of God's judgment. The fire of God's judgment consumes the unrighteous like chaff. But the same fire purifies the righteous like a furnace smelting gold. So Jesus is thinking of the judgment that will be part of the coming of the kingdom. The Kingdom that he is issuing in will be a time of destruction for the unrighteous and a time of cleansing for the righteous.
Then Jesus says, "I have a baptism with which to be baptized with; and what stress I am under until it is completed!" Now Jesus had already been baptized by John so he is not referring to that. What he is talking about is the Baptism of this death. He knows that he will go to Jerusalem and die and that knowledge created stress in him. He also knows that like him his followers will suffer.
Put simply Jesus is thinking that the coming of his kingdom will not be all peaches and cream. For those who have not tuned to God it will be a day of torment. And he knows that bringing this kingdom about will be no picnic either. He himself will have to die on a cross to ransom the faithful. And many of the faithful will have to give their lives to witness to the power of God's kingdom. It is in this context that Jesus makes this statement about peace and conflict.
"Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" You know there are two kinds of peace: peace without justice and peace with justice. Peace without justice is simply a lack of open conflict. During the high point of the Roman Empire they spoke proudly of the "Pax Romana" or Roman peace. For centuries Rome kept the peace throughout the known world. But they did it by conquering and oppressing. The countries were not fighting each other because Rome had them by the throat. That is Peace without justice. It is a period of international peace. But it is also a time of injustice and oppression.
There is a personal parallel to this. An individual can be at peace and there be no justice. When people are not personally disturbed by injustices, that is a state of peace without justice. When people are comfortable turning their backs on the pain of the world, that is a peace without justice. When people fail to speak up and speak out against wrongdoing and sin, there is a lack of interpersonal conflict, but God's justice is not realized.
Peace without justice is not a true peace, but peace with justice is. Peace with justice is the peace that people and nations experience when justice is done, when righteousness is sought. But often times perusing peace with justice requires conflict. One has to stand up to powers that be and speak against the evils of this world. When you tell the world that their lifestyles are wrong it creates interpersonal conflict, or when you tell an oppressive government that it is wrong they will retaliate. The result is conflict. But that conflict is the only way to bring about true peace. Seeking true peace sometimes means making war upon evil.
Jesus said, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" This doesn't mean that Jesus didn't come to bring peace to the souls of those who believed. Because he does that; he gives a peace that passes understanding. But this peace is not cheap. It's a gift of God's grace, but it is a costly gift. Jesus had to enter into conflict with the evil powers of the universe and be crucified to buy you that gift.
This also does not mean that Jesus does not call us to make peace between people. It means that sometimes we have to make the ultimate sacrifice to seek true peace: peace with justice. It means that reconciling people often entails conflict. So people are dying to bring peace with justice all over the world. Many people died to bring an end to racial apartheid in South Africa and America.
"I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" does not mean that God does not bless the peace makers. But it does mean that those blessings are not always evident in this life. Dietrich Bonhoffer was a Christian in Nazi Germany who stood up against the Nazis. He sought justice for those who were being oppressed by the Nazis. As a result he was put in a concentration camp and was hanged only days before that camp was liberated. Was Bonhoffer blessed? Yes! Just read some of his writings. He suffered in this life, but it was a suffering born of a struggle to live God's will. And because he believed in Christ we know that he is blessed.
Jesus said, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" That means we have to make divisions. We have to divide between right and wrong. We have to say racism is a sin. We have to say sex outside of a heterosexual marriage is a sin. Even if state sponsored gambling promises benefits, we have to say gambling is a sin. We have to say, "Jesus is the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through him." And then we have to back those words up with actions.
People will not like this. I have seen such issues divide families. I have seen friendships strained because someone has stood up for the Gospel. People will hate you for telling them that they are wrong or that their way of life is sinful. But people hated Jesus for the same reason.
The time is coming and is already here when Christians are in the minority. Sunday is no longer the Lord's Day for most people but just another day of recreation or work. God's Word on any subject is disregarded if its proclamations are inconvenient. Yet Jesus, here in this lesson, calls us to stand up for God's Word in the midst of a hostile world. To make peace, real peace, we must make war on the forces of evil.
"Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" Which side of the dividing line are you on? The side that makes a false peace by not standing up to injustices. Or Jesus' side that makes war on evil and finds true peace. You decided.