The Gospel for this Sunday (Luke 12:49-53)seems disturbing on the surface.

 

Jesus said clearly that He came to "kindle fire on the earth" and "wished it were already kindled". He said He had a baptism of suffering to undergo and was distressed, bearing the greatness of its burden until it could be completed.  

 

Jesus then says, "Do you think I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but division. No from now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three for me and two against me, to for me and three against. Father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother..." 

 

Jesus is called rightly the Prince of Peace. His Peace is not the "peace"of the world with its rebellion against the things of God, its compromise with truth and collusion with the kingdom of darkness. God's peace is grounded in relationship. It is not some kind of addendum to Him. Without Him, there is no real peace; it does not exist.

 

We talked about idols last week. One of the hardest ones to recognize are relational. Children demand that their parents fulfill their lives. Parents demand that children fulfill their lives. Husbands and wives demand of one another things that only God can provide.

 

Then, someone turns to Jesus, responding to His mercy. Turning in repentance and faith they receive God's forgiveness and He gives them eternal life. They become new creations with a new heart and a new spirit. They are truly alive for the first time and the singular allegiance of their lives now belongs to Jesus. They do not stop loving spouse, parent or child, but their love now flows from a different Source. It no longer tries to reap the fruit of life from a dead tree.

 

Suddenly, it's devotion to Jesus that takes preeminence. There is division. It is certainly not "politically correct" but it is eternally true, if Jesus Christ has not come to live His life in you by grace through faith, then there is another "spirit" that is at work in you and it is bent on your destruction not your good. 

 

That "spirit of the age" hates God and all He stands for. That unholy spirit despises all those who live in covenant with God through Jesus Christ. Can you see what Jesus is talking about in Luke's Gospel.

 

The fire of the Holy Spirit separates the "wheat from the chaff"even in believers.  Jesus wants to have it burning on the earth so that people do not walk around in a state of spiritual blindness deceived and doomed. There is Right and wrong, Truth and lie, Yes and no.

 

The relationship of covenant we are called into and given as a give of grace is astounding. I want to lay before you on Sunday what it means to live in that covenant you and I have been given. It supersedes any and all other allegiances and is the hope of all relationships to know wholeness, unity and true Peace.

 

Read and pray through the Word appointed for Sunday. Continue to ask the Lord to assay your life, revealing any and all alliances you may have formed that are actually coming between you and Him. Surrender those idols to Him. No one can serve two masters.

 

Peace in Him,

 

Fr. Mark+