Scripture Readings: Isaiah 5:1-7

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon Title: "The Unsettling Challenge of Being the Children of God"

Sermon Text: Luke 12:51: Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

The whole issue of what is the other side of love, and what is so loving about anger was complicated even further for me when I turned back to the front of the book and in the midst of the heart which is seen so often as the symbol of love the words read, "Handling anger in a Godly way."

I do not know whom Dr. Gary Chapman may have used as his marketing people in designing the front and back covers of this book, but I found that the words on the front and back covers of this book had created sufficient interest for me that I decided I had to read it, or at least listen to the audio recording of it since these cassette tapes were on special.

After listening to this book by Dr. Gary Chapman, and then later purchasing the hard copy I found that my thoughts were immediately drawn back to it when I read both the words of God’s love song to the people of Israel spoken through the prophet Isaiah, and also the words of Jesus that we have just heard. Certainly these words of Jesus are not ones that we would expect to hear from him. After all, how can someone to whom people readily give the title, "Prince of Peace," have ever said, "Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No. I tell you but division!"? Many of us grew up with the picture of Jesus as "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." But such a picture does not seem to match these words of Jesus. Many people would like to suggest that these words may not even be original to Jesus, but that they were added later by the Gospel writers when they came to see the division that the followers of Jesus were creating in families and in communities as they proclaimed the love of God in Jesus Christ. As we look, though, at his life, even as the Prince of Peace, we are forced to recognize that even the reaction to Jesus himself and to God’s ways of love that he sought to present were the cause of division. In fact people reacted to him and all that he had to say in such negative ways that all they wanted to do was to get rid of him. As they hung him on the cross to die they must well have thought that they had silenced him forever, and that no longer would they ever have to listen again to the unsettling challenges that his words and actions brought to their own words and to their own actions.

If there is one thing that is clear from the life of Jesus even as the Prince of Peace it is that he was not so much on the side of peace if peace meant simply maintaining and blessing the status quo. What is very clear in God’s love song to the people of Israel is that God is not pleased with all that has taken place. Using this analogy of the vineyard God reminds them that he has done everything for them that should result in good grapes, or in loving, caring, just and harmonious relationships with him and with one another. But even after such loving care and attention God finds bloodshed rather than justice, and people crying out in distress rather than righteousness and right dealings one with the other. When we listen to these words we have to wonder whether God got the whole thing wrong. After all this does not sound like a love song. There are no words here of affirmation for what people have done. There are no words here of appreciation for all of the ways that people have reacted to his concern for them by showing their love for him and for other people. These are words of judgment. These are words of condemnation. God is clearly disappointed with the way in which people have reacted to all of God’s loving care and attention towards them. God is clearly ready to let them go their own way, the way they have chosen, and let them fend for themselves without all of God’s loving care and attention for them. Rather than being what we would so often think of as a love song, this is a song in which God expresses more of his disappointment and his anger with the people of Israel. The song reminds us of the first fact that the book on handling anger in a Godly way suggests, namely, that it is to recognize that even God gets angry. Indeed of the 475 times that the word anger is used in the Old Testament, 375 of those times it is used of God’s anger. (The Other Side of Love, page 20)

As we hear the words of this song and see how they express God’s disappointment and anger with the people of Israel it is interesting to note again the way in which the song is introduced. The opening words are significant when they say, "Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard." The song is sung to God’s beloved. The people of Israel have disappointed God. They have let God down. But still they are God’s beloved. God is angry at them, but God still loves them. The very fact that God could be anger with the people of Israel but still love them reminds us of the second fact that the book affirms about handling anger in a Godly way, namely, that anger in and of itself is not sinful. If God can be angry then anger is not intrinsically sinful. Indeed we find that the Gospel writers often speak of Jesus as being angry. Yet as we heard again in our Call to Confession this morning the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of what Christians have affirmed down through the centuries, and still affirm today, that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) Such a description of Jesus reminds us of the words of Paul to the Christians in Ephesus when he says, "Be angry but do not sin." (Ephesians 4:26) The sin is not being angry. The sin comes if we allow our anger to lead us to hateful and abusive actions, or even to unkind and condemning words.

How then does God handle his anger? Not with condemnation and destruction but with mercy and forgiveness. How does God handle his anger? By overcoming the desire for revenge and for getting even and showing amazing grace to those who do not deserve it. How does God handle his anger? Not by blessing the status quo, and being apathetic and indifferent to the way in which human beings were treating one another, but by being caring and being concerned and loving enough to send Jesus to be the model of what it truly means to be the children of God. The way in which God acts even in the midst of his anger highlights the third fact that the book affirms of handling anger in a Godly way, namely, that "God’s response to anger is always to take loving action, to seek to stop the evil, and to redeem the evildoer." (The Other Side of Love, page 28)

The shocking thing and the amazing thing, of course, is that when God did all that God could possibly do to show his love for them despite how they may have failed him and made him angry, and to show his desire for them to know a better way of life, people said, "No thank you. We want our world of injustice where all people are not treated fairly. We want our world where some people are seen as worthy of God’s love and others clearly are seen as far beyond the pale of God’s love. We want our world where people fight and kill each other rather than a world that might know peace and loving relationships between all people." It is knowing how people are going to react even when God offers them something far, far better than they knew and were experiencing that prompts Jesus to say, "I came to being fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. I have a baptism with which to be baptized and what stress I am under until it is completed!" Jesus comes not to bring the peace of the status quo with all of its injustice and its unrighteousness, but to be the Prince of Peace who shows to people a better way of wholeness of relationships with one another and with God. The division he creates comes as some want to cling on to the status quo, and some are ready to move with him into the brave new world that in love God is wanting to create in this world.

In his book, Gary Chapman, goes on to remind us that God is not unique but that as people have lived as the children of God, following the model of Jesus, all great social and religious reforms have been born out of anger. Change has come when people like God have handled their anger at what is happening to them and to other people in positive ways to create change for the betterment of the lives of other people. In the midst of the many examples he could use he cites the work of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, the work of those whose action led to the abolition of slavery, and the whole reformation movement begin by Martin Luther. (The Other Side of Love, pages 28-30) As we think about each of these groups, and so many others we could name, we recognize that like Jesus their work has also caused division and opposition because they were not ready simply to bless the status quo, but in love sought to change the status quo that made them so disappointed and angry with their fellow human beings.

Their actions remind us that God does not want us just to be angry with the inhumanity that we see around us day in and day out. The unsettling challenge that God presents to us as the children of God is to use our anger at what we see and hear in positive ways for the good of those who are suffering from injustice, from lack of freedom, and from the ravages of war and discrimination in our world. In a broken and fearful world that still disappoints and still makes God angry, and that so often disappoints us and makes us angry, God comes in love to each of us to invite us to handle our anger in a Godly way as we consecrate our lives to living out God’s vision of what this world could be, despite the opposition we too might face. We pray for the strength of the Holy Spirit to build that vision of God’s brave new world, of which we will sing in our next hymn, because we know that on our own we cannot handle our anger at all we see around us in a Godly way. We pray for the power and courage of the Holy Spirit to equip us and to empower us to be who we claim to be, the children of God in this world, as we remember it is a world that God is angry enough still to love, and a world in which God prompts us to pray that we might be given the strength to be angry for love. Let us claim the power and courage of the Holy Spirit using the words of affirmation printed in the bulletin. Let us stand and affirm our faith together..

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: From the Brief Statement of Faith of the

In a broken and fearful world the Holy Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace. In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, "Come, Lord Jesus!"