12 Pentecost 07 C Proper 15

A woman went to the doctor's office where she was seen by a young new doctor. After about four minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant.

  She burst out screaming and ran down the hallway. An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was. She told him her story.

  After listening, he had her sit down and relax in another room.  He then marched down the hallway to the new doctor and demanded, "What's the matter with you?  Mrs. Smith is 59 years old, she has four grown children, seven grandchildren and you told her she was pregnant.

  The new doctor continued writing on his clipboard and without looking up said, "Does she still have the hiccups?”

What I am going to share with you today may startle you and I’m hoping that it will help clear up some misconceptions you might have about certain aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry and how it relates to us today as his Church.

I’m entitling this sermon, “Jesus divides to conquer.” Most have heard that old adage to divide and conquer. Divide and conquer was a successful military strategy long before it became an algorithm design paradigm.

Generals observed that it was easier to defeat one army of 50,000 men, followed by another army of 50,000 men than it was to beat a single 100,000 man army. Thus the wise general would attack so as to divide the enemy army into two forces and then mop up one after the other.  

Well, part of Jesus’ ministry was to do just that. In our gospel lesson today he echoes this idea, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” He then goes on to illustrate parts of that division- five divided three against two and two against three, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother and so on. There is going to be division within families when members of that family put their trust in Christ, while others don’t. Those who don’t will not understand those who do. We need only look at what happens to Muslims who come to embrace Christianity and find that their very lives are endangered by other family members who don’t understand.

We are rather startled by this saying of Jesus and think “how can the one spoke of love and who prayed for unity in his church, that they all may be one, now talk about division?”

I’m going to show you how this can be by showing you how Jesus divides to conquer.

First of all, Jesus brings division to the world in order to conquer the world. He did so because of who he is and what he asks of people. The world does not want, by its nature, to believe in him, or do what he says. Jesus said things that cause many in the world to turn away from him – “Take up your cross and follow me.” “They persecuted me so they are going to persecute you.” “They hated me, so they are going to hate you.” “I came to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks but you would not.”

You can not be complacent with Jesus. He forces you to make a choice, and people realize that. This is the reason the name of Jesus is so misused and so threatening to people. Ultimately people are threatened by Jesus more than any other religious leader because he forces them to make a choice.

The world decided and decides to follow its own gods, its own passions, it own desires to the exclusion of Christ. As a result, Christ the true God maintains that he is the only way for one to get to God’s presence. Many cannot stand this exclusive claim, and reject him. In so doing, Jesus says that they have become like the chaff that is separated from the wheat. Like sheep separated from goats, the righteous separated from the unrighteous. This is a division that Jesus does not desire, but is a reality because so many refuse to recognize their need for Jesus or choose to reject him.

Jesus talked about sending the fire of the Holy Spirit on the world, those who received this fire would be cleansed and born again, those who did not receive it would be burned up (metaphorically speaking) spiritually. When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost many embraced the coming of Jesus and his Spirit. Others were turned off by the exuberance of these new Christians. The world began to be divided over Jesus. Some embraced him warmly; other dismissed him and his new religion as emotionalism, or gullibility or some such thing.

Just as the fire of the Spirit divided Christians from those in the world who could not or would not submit to Jesus, so too, did division come to the church.

As the Spirit’s fire began to burn in the hearts of Christians, something strange began to happen. The heat began to be turned up on areas of sin in the lives of Christians. As the Spirit began to draw them closer to Jesus and began to draw them closer to the word of God written, the Bible, there were many who still wanted to be in the world and embrace many of the worldly qualities that were contrary to the teachings of Jesus and Scripture.

Pride, vanity, envy, jealousy, greed, sexual immorality, lust for power and other such worldly qualities began to be if not fully practiced, certainly winked at by some in the Church. We see this documented in our reading from Hebrews today which speaks about the discipline of the Lord upon those who were still seeking to live in the ways of the world.

As the Holy Spirit began His purifying process in the Church there were some in the Church that resisted the working of the Spirit. They liked things the way they were. “Some of these Christians are becoming a little too religious,” they said. “There is too much of this Jesus talk going on. They actually believe the apostles’ teachings. We are offended by the idea that they think we should live like Christians seven days a week. Don’t they know these are modern times?” they would muse.

As the refining of the Holy Spirit began to burn and the excitement of the power of God began to be manifested more and more, the Church began to grow, but it also began to divide. It was divided into two basic groups, the experientialists and the traditionalists. The experientialists were a group that believed that one needed to experience the personal reality of Jesus in their lives, and live in the power of the Spirit. They were ready to do away with the traditions, the disciplines, liturgies, prayers and hymns of the Church. Just me and Jesus was their cry. They tended to be self-righteous.

The traditionalists didn’t want to have anything to do with any experience of Jesus Christ that might mean they would have to change part of their lives, and perhaps lose control of their lives. They didn’t want to do away with their traditions, liturgy, and old faithful hymns and take to dancing in the aisles and swinging from the chandeliers.

There were those in the Church, however, who saw the value of both sides. They wanted to make Jesus the ruler of their lives and they found they could worship him within the traditions of the Church. They found a happy medium. They found that this personal experience with Jesus and the fire of the Holy Spirit not only revolutionized their own spiritual lives, it also revolutionized their old traditions.

As the last line in Hebrews today urges, The Church strove for peace within the different groups in the Church, but it also strove for holiness in living.

The Anglican tradition is one that allows for many different types of worship. It does not require one to bow, genuflect, make the sign of the cross, or anything else. One may worship with contemporary hymns or traditional hymns. One may use written down prayers or extemporaneous prayers. One may wear fancy clothing or not. It even allows for differing beliefs in certain peripheral areas. We can have different beliefs on things like whether to immerse or pour in baptism. We can believe that the Body and Blood of Christ is the real presence or that it is more symbolic. We can have differing beliefs as Episcopalians related to the non-essential elements of the faith. What is important in the Anglican tradition is that the Faith remains intact.

Turn in your Prayer Books to page 9. The Preface of the Book of Common Prayer has been in every edition since 1789. It reflects the beliefs of Anglican Tradition and the Episcopal Church. “It is a most invaluable part of that blessed ‘liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,’ that in his worship different forms and usages may without offense be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire; and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine must be referred to Discipline; and therefore, by common consent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the people, "according to the various exigency of times and occasions."

This is saying that while there are things in the Church that can be changed like forms of worship, there is a Faith that cannot be changed in the Church. That Faith has to do with the creeds, but also with the moral commandments of God. Turn now to page 868 in a section called the historical documents. This is part of what is called the Thirty-nine Articles of religion adopted by the Episcopal Church in 1801. Roman numeral VI talks of the sufficiency of Scripture. “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.”

Roman numeral VII on the next page talks of the Scriptures and how they are to be understood by the Church. VII. Of the Old Testament. “The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be heard, which feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral” (emphasis added).

It is the desire of some to change the Church’s understanding of the Bible and to change the Moral Commandments of God that is at the heart of the divisions within the Episcopal and Anglican Churches today.

There are some who try to say that our church is founded on the idea that truth is found in equal measure in Scripture, tradition and reason. These are the hallmarks of the faith. Richard Hooker, who is credited with formulating this idea of the church’s authority, is often misunderstood.

Hooker’s theological method demonstrated the priority of Scripture above reason and tradition. Hooker believed that if, in fact, the three are coequal legs of authority, then all sorts of problems would arise. In Christian ethics, for example, if Scripture says anything, tradition says a little of this and a little of that, and common sense says something that looks quite different, then there is a big problem.

Another common mistake, according to Hooker, is to make tradition or reason (or both) superior to Scripture. In so doing, one wishes to understand history and development, or new ideas and trends, as carrying more authority than the text of Scripture. By elevating tradition and reason above Scripture, human thinking and human received wisdom overrides the ancient text, if the text contradicts or appears to contradict either.

The question that I want to pose is this? Is Jesus bringing about a division within the Church in order to protect, as Jude describes it, “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints?” Is he seeking to call the Church to greater holiness and not less holiness? Is he raising up those who would be defenders of His Word written? In so doing, would this naturally bring about a division from those who want to compromise his word?

Turn if you will to the Prayer Book page 871. Article XX speaks of the authority of the Episcopal Church. It says: “The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation” (Emphasis added).

The Episcopal and Anglican Churches today are facing the challenges that are in front of us not because of an issue like homosexuality. That is a symptom. Not on women’s ordination (that is a peripheral issue); not on who owns the property (that is a matter for the courts to decide). The real challenge facing our traditions today is the question:”Is the Bible God’s Word Written?” Many Episcopalians are fearful of becoming “Fundamentalists” if they believe the Bible is God’s Word Written. In fact, that would make them traditional Episcopalians and Anglicans.

“Is there a Faith that has been passed down from the Early Church to which all true Christians must subscribe?” “Is there an authority in God’s Word written that is above the authority of General Conventions, Archbishops, clergy and theologians?”

I believe the answer to these questions is yes. The consequences of answering yes to these questions might, in fact, be division. The question is: “Will this division bring about a church more firmly committed to the authority and validity of Scripture, more in line with classical Anglicanism? Or will it simply be division for division’s sake?

When ever one puts their trust in Jesus and in his Word there is going to be division from those who want to incorporate the philosophies of the world into the faith once delivered to all the saints.

The question remains, is this division from Jesus? This remains to be seen. In the end, Jesus divides the world to conquer it challenging the world to accept him as their Lord and Savior and by showing the differences between his followers and those in the world. He divides the Church to conquer it by bringing it to greater devotion to his Word and holiness in its living, and he divides individuals from one another in order to conquer the hearts of those who would choose to submit their lives to him, (metaphorically speaking again) to leave father, mother, sister, brother, houses and all to follow him.