WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE CHURCH: NO WAVES—NO BAPTISM
A Sermon by
Luke 12
49“I came to bring fire to the earth,
and how I wish it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I
am under until it is completed! 51Do
you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but
rather division! 52From now on five
in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
54He
also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising
in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. 55And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will
be scorching heat’; and it happens. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky,
but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Ministers have secrets.
There are things that go on during worship services that the
congregation never notices, but which can really crack you up if you are the
minister. They don’t teach you to get
ready for these in seminary. For
example, several years ago when Colette and I decided that we would share in
the baptism of our Pastor’s Class we didn’t do our engineering study ahead of
time. We both put on our waders and
climbed into the water and motioned for the first of many young people being
baptized. I had never had any problem
with the water level and the height of my waders and the waves created by
dunking a human body under the surface of the baptistery. Of course, Colette is not 6’3” tall, as you may
have noticed. When I drug that first
dripping neophyte up from those liquid depths, a small tsunami hit Colette and
went right over the top of her waders, soaking her from the waist down and
giving new meaning to the old song, Fill
My Cup, Lord. And we still had about
10 kids to baptize. And she had no other
clothes to change into. We should have
known. You can’t have baptisms without
making waves.
Our text is from Luke’s long discourse on the teachings of
Jesus after Jesus had set his face toward
I hate conflict. When
it arises, my blood pressure shoots up and my brain shuts down. I get a knot in my stomach and a lump in my
throat. And my response to it is
usually, “Ooooh, you, you,…you…..ooooooh.” Eloquent, no? I would
have made a terrific trial lawyer, wouldn’t I?
But the truth is that whenever you bring the truth into a
truth-indifferent situation, it is going to cause waves. After the death of Martin Luther King Jr., when
the non-violent approach didn’t seem to be working any more, liberal thinkers
like myself tried to preach patience and calm to generations of
African-Americans who had had enough and who rightly felt that the time was
now. We liberals wanted everyone to have
equality; we wanted everyone to have a place at the table together; we wanted
everyone to get a slice of the American dream--but we didn’t want to be too
pushy or to alienate anyone. We wanted
everything to change and yet we wanted everything to stay the same all at the
same time. But truth had crashed up
against culture. It was baptism time for
our nation and you can’t have a baptism without making waves.
You see, the church wasn’t created to be at peace with the
culture. Jesus didn’t command us to “go
into all the world and smile,” but to “go into all the
world and teach them to OBEY all that I have commanded you.” Too often we think that whatever is the will
of our beloved society is surely God’s will as well. But it doesn’t work in that direction. Paul Simon’s song describes our attitudes too
well: “So God bless the goods we was given, and God bless the U.S. of A., and
God bless our standard of living, let’s keep it that way, and we’ll all have a
good time, baby, have a good time.” But
into that good time, into that tranquil sea of materialistic self-concern,
Jesus plunges himself and makes waves.
We want to live in both the cradle of society and the arms
of God, but we can’t. We have to choose. A witty fight attendant, who had grown bored
with giving the same pre-flight speech every time, altered her presentation
with a little humor and said, “In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure,
masks will descend from the ceiling.
Stop screaming, grab the mask and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you,
secure your mask before assisting with theirs.
If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your
favorite.” We may love the Lord and we
may love our place in the world, but when they conflict, we have to pick our
favorite.
Fred Craddock says that Jesus is “the crisis of the world.” By that he doesn’t mean that Jesus prompts an
emergency but that Jesus brings us to a moment of truth, a place where the
paths diverge, a time of choosing. The
Prince of Peace rocks our boats. Peace
defined as maintaining the status quo is disrupted by a radical new vision of
how society is to be ordered. What was
important and what was not important is flipped upside down. “Do you
think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you but rather division!” Sometimes what is wrong with the church is
that you can’t tell the difference between the church and the culture. Now, I hope for a day when you can’t tell the
difference. But my hope is based upon
the culture changing to meet the standards of the church, not the church giving
in to the culture. During the civil
rights struggle, some churches barred their doors to blacks. Other churches invited their ministers to
hear God calling them somewhere else because the minister was causing waves in
the community. But other churches opened
their doors and their hearts and their mouths.
Each church chose. We all have to
choose. I preach about civil rights so
often because it was the defining moment in my life; it was when I saw God’s
hand move across our nation so clearly that no one could mistake it. It was baptism by fire and the waves continue
to roar upon our shores today because the struggle is not finished. What other waves of Godly change are pounding
unheeded at our feet these days?
So, let the church celebrate the many good actions of our
culture, which contains compassionate elements not found in most countries on
earth. Let us rejoice at opportunities
provided and care extended and justice meted out. But let us not get so comfortable in bed with
the culture that we cannot see where the paths diverge. Peace is not just a matter of wanting
everyone to get along, of not having to face conflict. But instead peace is when the intentions of
God have been realized in daily life, when God’s kingdom has come and is
accepted as the ultimate truth.
If you were going to start on a trip today, what would you
do first? You would probably tune to the
weather channel or go online and find out what kind of conditions you are going
to encounter on the road. We know how to
get that information. If we are flying
from