The Myth About The Peace Of Jesus

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I have a question for you this morning. How many of you believe that the church and for that matter the world should be a place of peace? And that unity should abound not only in church but in our families.

After all, don’t we worship and follow Jesus. Think of all the peaceful titles we give him the lamb of God, the Lilly of the valley, the prince of peace.

When we think of Jesus, we think of peace. Jesus in Luke 12:49-56 busts the long-established myth about him and peace establishing the true meaning of his mission on earth and redefining what peace is. Listen to what he says, 49 “I’ve come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already ablaze! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and what stress I am under until it’s completed! 51 Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? Not at all, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five people in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Dr. King said, True Peace Is Not Merely the Absence of Tension. It Is the Presence of Justice.

While we may not like it Jesus is telling us that the conflict, the tension the difficulty must happen. The Justice that the civil rights movement brought only came about because of the conflict, the tension, the difficulty of the actions on the Edmond Pettus Bridge, The March on Washington, and the strike by the trash men in Memphis.

Later in the passage Jesus offers a stinking assessment of our ability to interpret the time that we are in. Jesus says “When you see a cloud coming in from the west, you immediately say, ‘There’s going to be a storm,’ and that’s what happens. 55 When you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and so it is. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, yet you don’t know how to interpret the present time?”

The interpretation of the present time by this humble slave of the Lord tells me it is time for Jesus.

It is time for Jesus because we have messed up and polluted the planet that God has given us dominion over.

It is time for Jesus because despite the marvels of medicine and the goodness of higher education we have priced both so high that folks go in lifelong debt trying to get well or educated.

It is time for Jesus because this week the Republican party again showed what it is and who it is made up of not only right wing raciest, nut jobs and anti-democracy folks, hell bent on defending the lies of a formal President whose lies and theft of classified documents has endangered national security but those people except for Liz Chaney who know what he had done is wrong to decide to remain quite.

So, saints go ahead and bask in the glow of the myth of peaceful church, and the myth of a peaceful Jesus.

However, for me I will follow and act like Jesus keeping in my heart and mind his words:

“I’ve come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already ablaze!

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