Sermons Author: The Rev. Kate Peacock

A love which overcomes all darkness and all pain

June 25, 2017

Third Sunday After Pentecost

As some of you may know, I am here because I am taking a sabbatical from my five parishes in England and you have been kind enough to welcome me into your church and community, as I experience a radically different context to my little English villages. I've loved every moment, so thank you.

I am also here because I have been privileged enough to count Dominic your Dean as a dear friend of mine for nearly 20 years. A friendship based on our understanding of faith and ministry, a shared love of good food and wine, and a friendship that may well now be put under strain as he's landed me with one of the most demanding Gospel readings of the whole church's year!

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Well, I love my two children, my husband, my family. I love my Mother and my mother-in-law. Today I am left with a deep challenge – ours is a Gospel of both comfort and challenge. I delight in the words that God knows me and even the hairs of my head are counted; what joy and love is seen and experienced through that faith. Despite the other 6 billion people on this earth all of whom are children of God; I am known and loved; intimately and carefully; given value and worth. And so are you. What comfort to each of us to hear that.

But what of this notion of a hierarchy of love – I love my two daughters more than I can say. I love God too – how can I love one more than other, how can I hear these words without feeling that I am going to fall short somewhere and that by putting my loved ones, including God into some kind of pecking order will hurt, offend and upset if not God then my family. When reading this our hearts can break as we seek to fathom what is being asked of us.

So, as we begin with the challenge of this Gospel and to begin to grapple with this text we look first to our history. Jesus was not the first to say these words – he is quoting Micah an early prophet who was writing around 787-696 BC. Micah was writing at a time of huge political disruption – how little has changed we can wryly say on both sides of the Atlantic!

But in Micah's day the threat came from the north – from Babylon where the army were threatening and eventually in 587 b.c. destroyed Jerusalem and the temple that was built by Solomon. Micah prophesied saying that families would be divided as some were idolatries and some were faithful to Yahweh. Micah was right – God spoke through him to warn the people of the impending destruction but they didn't listen and continued to turn away from God and put their trust in false Gods. Jesus is saying – his message too will divide families – in his day Israel was turning away from God and it is fair to suggest that Jesus is issuing the first warning about the destruction of the temple – just as Micah did – but Jesus is talking of himself.

Change and upheaval will divide families. It did in the time of Micah; and 30 years later when Jeremiah was prophesying he too tells of division and how he has become a laughing stock for trying to warn his hearers of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. So much so that Jeremiah tries to fall silent – enough, he wants God to stop using him – he was a reluctant prophet at the best of times – but today we hear how he tried to fall silent and yet he tells us that 'within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. Jeremiah suffers for his message and God uses him to warn the people; yet as much as Jeremiah cannot fall silent; the people cannot hear. The Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians and families are divided and torn apart.

Jesus knows that the destruction of his body, the temple will cause division – even within households. There may be people here who have come to worship this morning - leaving behind those who do not share their faith, or perhaps even those who are actively against their faith. Our foes can be within our households. And then we look around our world and see our divisions on a larger scale, the denominations of every shape and size which speak of our disunity and division – sometimes painfully more so than our unity in Christ. And then the divisions between faiths; especially the three Abrahamic faith – for each of them the crucifixion of Jesus – the destruction of his body the temple; has divided peoples and families. Micah, and Jesus in quoting him was not wrong. Division is easy to see all around us.

Yet, as children of God we are called to be one family – our Baptisms make us members of the worldwide family of the church. It is said that in church, water is thicker than blood. The water of baptism thicker than the blood of our ancestors and forebears. We, whether we know each other or not are family – adopted brothers and sisters of the same heavenly Father. This is our primary calling and today we are challenged in our Gospel to love God more than our own flesh and blood. And yet as I speak these words they feel controversial, dangerous even. They will upset some of us; challenge us deeply; make us face the question – how deep is my faith?
God is our Father, yes that is how we pray. Abba, Father. But can we seriously ask ourselves if our love for God is greater than our love for our earthly families.

Every parent, every Godparent, every Grandparent, Aunt or Uncle knows the love of a child, to have children in our lives makes our hearts grow bigger than we could imagine. And to love our parents is our joy too – My Mum facetimes me to see how I am; am I being safe and careful in this big city?! She worries endlessly and I love her for it – even when she catches me rolling my eyes!

Do I love God more? That is the heart of the question? And it's tough.

For me the answer can only be reached through a better understanding of love itself. I am reminded in all this of the first letter of John – God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.

We say this as the first words in every marriage ceremony. God is Love. So if I love my two daughters I am only loving them because God is love. I can only love because God dwells in me and I in him. I can only love because that is the gift of God.

So instead of an hierarchy of finite love – I think instead of a gift and multiplying and gracious gift – which the more you use the more you have.

Without God, I cannot love. Without God, there is no love.

So, who do I love the most? It's the wrong question – ONLY by accepting the love of God in my heart can I begin to love others or even myself. Only by God being God can I be a parent or a child to my family – my immediate family and God's family of the church. Only by God loving us can we love each other.

So, through God's love I love and receive love. All love is a manifestation of God.

And that is the burning word of God that Jeremiah couldn't keep in, that we too are called not to keep in. Tell the world – praise the Lord, God is love. Divisions will be overcome; the Kingdom will be built and all will know God's love through we pray our love for each other. And when we feel our well is empty – we remember God knows the hairs of our heads and we are made in his image. So, we go forth from here – with joy taking up our cross – for the cross is the symbol of God's love – a love which overcomes all darkness and all pain.