The Prince of Peace comes with a sword? The same one that knows the value of every creature and the number of hairs on my head?
The words of this Sunday’s Gospel are confusing and on that we can probably all agree.
Beyond that so what?
First this …
The sword Jesus brings is the sword of love, the sword that cuts through hierarchy. The sword that may indeed divide. Yet I believe the sword and the one who wields it are done with righteousness.
This Sunday the message of the gospel takes away the hierarchy of the world, the ordering done by culture. Gives us an opportunity to examine the power structures in our lives.
Who is on top, who has power? And how does that hierarchy differ from the Kingdom of God.
The life of a disciple is different than other ways of life. The competition in the spiritual life is not a one upsmanship we so often experience in our daily life.
On this path of discipleship it is difficult to figure out the right answer. And I’m someone who likes to have the right answer, to do the right thing, to get it right, in short to be right.
My needs around rightness or my desire to do or be right are a very real sticking point on my spiritual path; because it moves the center of my spiritual gaze not on God, not on the good, not even on the needs of others but on my own safety and comfort, on my own security. Trusting that God is looking out for me, right down to counting the hairs on my head … hmmm.
This gospel is a clearer window into why my gaze needs to shift . Not just once but always.
So I hear again there will be, as I’ve certainly known there to be division even as I want to get it, right.
What is our role?
It is not enough beloved to just put a sign in your front lawn. The way, the path, the road to justice, to mercy to compassion will require deep listening and deep change. There will be division hen the Prince of Peace shows up. Not advocating violence but acknowledging the tension and the attachment to what has been and the promise of what God calls us all toward.
I know that I must be pliable enough, fluid enough, vulnerable enough to receive the word of God in the gospel and in the increasing cries of the those who suffer, who have been suffering.
Yes conversations are happening and I pray they continue but realize beloved the changes will be difficult because the injustice of our world is difficult.
Christ came to expose the places many wanted to stay covered up. The economics of oppression were working for the Romans in Judea, the politics of the temple were working to keep faith ‘safe ’ in an occupied land. Christ did not favor one group over another – except in love. He favored the practice of being with those set apart by economics, by health, by occupation, by life circumstance.
Love wins but it rarely looks like a win.
Keep reading, keep listening, keep asking the God who knows the number of hairs on our heads to expose the hierarchy that moves us toward the kingdom of God.
Rev. Alison
