Of Swords and Peace - Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 2^nd, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
Of Swords and Peace – Matthew 10:32-42

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

   

I went to a class on the Gospel of John in St. Paul, MN this past week.  It was great.  Glad I went.  But such get-aways, to classes, conferences or conventions, always present a challenge to the preacher, the challenge of being ready to go for the following Sunday. 

   On such occasions, especially after almost 20 years of mostly every Sunday preaching, I often will take a look back in my computer folders to see if I have an old sermon, maybe on you haven’t heard, that I could dust off, probably punch up a little, and save some prep time.  But somehow, this week, even though I’ve preached through Year A of the three-year lectionary at least 4 times, I discovered that I don’t ever seem to have preached on these readings. 

   But no worries.  Surely there will be some simple and sweet Gospel passage within the readings, something I can grab and use to quickly pull together a joyful little sermon.  That’s always nice.  But, as you may have noticed, with today’s readings there’s really not anything gentle or easy to be found.  I’m not saying there’s no Good News in them, but you might have to squint a bit to see it. 

   The prophet Jeremiah confronts a false prophet named Hananiah, who was contradicting the word of the LORD, Jeremiah’s message that Jerusalem and Judah would be destroyed, and all the survivors taken into exile in Babylon. 

   St. Paul unpacks the uncomfortable reality of God’s good and just law colliding with our sinful nature.  The commandment comes, sin comes alive, and we die.  All this to show that sin is sin, sinful beyond measure. 

      Finally, Jesus says He did not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword, to pit son against father, and mother against daughter.  This last bit is particularly troubling for me.  I talk about peace a lot.  Our lives are filled with strife and discord, so I love how our time together in the liturgy is filled with prayerful blessings of peace:  The Peace of the Lord be with you!  The Peace of God, which passes all understanding.  The Lord bless you and keep you, and give you peace.  And it carries over into my week.  I most often sign emails and letters with “Peace in Christ to you and yours!”  We so often lack peace in our lives, and we need peace.  So Jesus’ declaration, about not bringing peace, but a sword, is hard to take. 

   I was tempted to punt, to sidestep the assigned readings and pull together some kind of simple, peaceful message.  Sometimes the Collect of the Day is a place to look for an idea. 

   But then I read the Collect for today, the common prayer that we offer to kick off our consideration of God’s Word.  Listen again:  Almighty God, by the working of Your Holy Spirit, grant that we may gladly hear Your Word proclaimed among us and follow its directing; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.   Gladly hear your Word proclaimed among us, and follow its directing.  My call as your pastor is to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God, not to avoid or ignore those parts of God’s Word that don’t please me.  “Following the directing of God’s Word” for me, in my vocation as a preacher, means not punting.  I should not avoid preaching the Word set before us, just because I’m short on time and don’t feel like wrestling with difficult passages.  

    Punting would seem to make me too much like Hananiah, Jeremiah’s foe who preached peace and prosperity, and promised the return by Babylon of the holy vessels of the Temple, and the kidnapped exiles.  Read on a bit in Jeremiah 28, and you will discover that didn’t turn out well for Hananiah. 

    We don’t have that bit of Scripture before us.  But we do have this, the conclusion of our Old Testament reading: As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.  The proof of the prophet is in the pudding of fulfillment.  Now, if we are squinting to find some Gospel, some Good News in this Jeremiah text, you might in this last verse hear a hint.  And you would not be wrong. 

   Throughout the Old Testament, even from Jeremiah the grump himself, there is talk of a Prophet to come, who would restore Israel, and establish a New Covenant, where the peace of God, which passes all understanding, would reign.  Where God’s people would live in eternal peace and security.  Isaiah called this Coming One the Prince of Peace.  In Daniel, He is the Son of Man, who defeats the great beast and wins safety for God’s saints, in an everlasting kingdom.  Jeremiah is pointing us to the great prophet of peace, Jesus of Nazareth, through whom, as St. Paul teaches, we have been justified by faith, and so we have peace peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

   Jesus has brought us peace.  This was His promise to His disciples in the Upper Room, earlier on the same night when He was betrayed.  Jesus said: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 

   Three frightening days later, violence had seemingly silenced this promise of Jesus.  But then, “Peace be with you” were the first words from the final Prophet’s mouth, as the resurrected Jesus appeared in the Upper Room to His cowering disciples.  Yes, indeed, peace with God, peace in our hearts, peace between the brothers and sisters in Christ, because He is our peace. 

   We have peace, true and everlasting peace, because we are in Him and He is in us, and all causes of strife and fear and fighting have been washed away in His blood.  Weapons of soul destruction, rendered inert, unable to harm us.  Violence forever defeated in His death.  Victory revealed by His glorious Resurrection. 

   And so, you might ask, why does Jesus say in Matthew 10: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”?  Why this seemingly contradictory and frightening word?  What are we to make of it?     

       Context, context, context.  Scripture interprets Scripture, and so the first thing for us to do in trying to grasp a passage of God’s Word is to see where we are.  What is the context of the words we are struggling to understand?  In our Gospel today, the context is confessing or acknowledging Christ as Savior, in this life, before men, including unbelieving men. 

   This world is naturally unbelieving, and the message of the Gospel often insults and angers unbelievers.  So, confessing Christ as the peace-giving Savior will not be received easily, and not by all.  Jesus’ words about bringing a sword and not peace apply to this situation.  The peace of God which passes all understanding is a reality of God’s Kingdom.  That is to say, for those who have been brought to faith in the Gospel, peace reigns.  The reality of perfect peace, in the flesh of Jesus.  And also the promise of future peace, revealed in the New Heavens and New Earth, a promise of a glorious and peace-filled forever and ever, the hope which sustains us in this chaotic world. 

   But, what brings peace forever may cause conflict in the world today.

 

   Jesus’ words to us today speak of pain, and promise, and they call for patience.  The pain of a loved one, a family member or close friend, who rejects Christ, and maybe also rejects you because of your faith, this pain is among the heaviest crosses we bear.  Like  Paul, who in Romans chapter 9 speaks of the pain he feels for his unbelieving Jewish countrymen, we could wish ourselves outside the Church, for the sake of our loved ones coming to trust in Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. 

    But this of course is not how it works.  The first and best thing you can do for your unbelieving family or friend is to strengthen your own faith, so that in the day of opportunity, you will be ready to speak.  And to this end, Jesus gives you a promise.  He tells the future Apostles that whoever receives them receives Him.  And whoever receives Jesus receives the Father, who sent Him.  Jesus is pointing to the promise of the Apostolic Word, the teaching that He would entrust to the 12, the New Testament Gospel, through which God calls people to faith and delivers forgiveness and salvation. 

   God’s Word is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, and it can and does convert hardened unbelievers.  It can also heal and restore lambs of God who have left the fold because of some hurt received.  The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, of which we are not ashamed.  This Word you have, and in God’s timing, He will complete His purposes through it. 

    God’s timing is hard for us.  But be patient.  Patiently look for opportunities to speak God’s Word into the lives of others, and wait for the Holy Spirit to work.      

   As we consider the strife that Christ and His Gospel create between friends and family, creating division between those who should love most easily and deeply, there is one caveat to keep in mind.  When Jesus is speaking of setting sons against fathers and daughters against mothers, Christians are never to be the one who is “against” the other.  Anger or hatred received are not justification for the Christian to hate.   It is hard not to get upset when others speak ill of Christ.  But this “setting against” is not to come from us.  We are called to speak the truth, no doubt, but to speak the truth in love, to tell of our hope with gentleness and humility.  We are also to bear with others, as far as we can without entering into sin or denying Christ.  We are not to cut ourselves off from unbelieving friends and family.   As much as it depends on us, we seek to be at peace with everyone. 

    Remember how Jesus associated with sinners, and loved them, drawing many to Himself?  As His followers, we seek to act like Jesus did.  Like Jesus did for you, and for me, sinners whom He has drawn to Himself. 

    This is tough stuff, these differences and divisions within families over the Gospel.  So we pray for strength to endure.  We pray for ourselves, yes, and for our family and friends, that by the working of the Holy Spirit, they would lose their old life, and find in Jesus real and everlasting life.  And we remember the mystery of faith at the end of our reading.   For the one who receives a prophet receives the prophet’s reward.  And the Prophet is Jesus.  The one who receives a righteous person receives the righteous one’s reward.  And the Righteous One is Jesus.  His reward is your reward.    

 

   It is the privilege of the disciples of Jesus to help each other through the difficulties of this life, knowing that the End is better than we can ever imagine.  A cup of water shared, perhaps a reminder of the power and grace of baptism, for a brother, for a sister, for me, for you.  And when opportunity arises, you are free to share that cup of water with those who reject Christ.  

   Who knows what good God could do with that simple act of love?    

    It is not always easy to confess Christ and remain with Him.  But it is always good.  Because the Good One, the Peacemaker, Jesus Christ, is with us, today, and tomorrow, and forever.  Receive His Love.  Approach His Table.  Rest in His Peace, Amen.