For Sunday
Proper 7A
Collect
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
This may be the most controversial statement we hear from Jesus in the gospels: that he came, not to bring peace, but a sword.
To take this literally, we’d then ask “Where is it? Where’s the sword?” Because many use this passage as a defense for weapons, self-defense, and even violence. Clearly he isn’t packing.
We might also ask why, then, do we call him the Prince of Peace if he seems to contradict it?
These questions are common and misguided. He isn’t promoting violence. And we aren’t hearing how this is the challenge of following Jesus. That we may have to leave parents behind because they aren’t willing to share in the generous love of Jesus.
When I started in ministry, I found a good number of colleagues uninvited to ecumenical clergy gatherings because they were women, gay, or because our church refused to demonize and sought to make peace (Matthew 5:9).
This isn’t division that comes from nowhere. Nor is it division that originates from women being themselves.
Perhaps these other clergy thought it was their job to divide, rather than Jesus’s. And missed that Christ received rejection from leaders who rejected his message of change. We are supposed to follow the one rejected, not the ones rejecting.