Pentecost 13, August 14 2016
Jer 38:4-6, 8-10; Heb 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
Brookdale

Today’s first reading tells the story of Jeremiah in the well. This event took place in the 590s B.C.E. The two great powers in the Middle East at that time were Babylon to the East, and Egypt to the West. Babylon had conquered Israel and installed a puppet king named Zedekiah. Many people in Israel wanted to revolt against Babylon, and Egypt actively encouraged them. Jeremiah argued for appeasing Babylon because he believed a revolt would certainly fail and would be much worse for Israel than living under Babylonian rule.

The “princes” in today’s first reading are part of the pro-Egyptian faction. They naturally objected to Jeremiah’s negative message, because it could demoralize the army and the people and undermine the revolt. The king was afraid of both factions and kept trying to find an easy way out. In today’s reading, he lets the pro-Egyptian faction throw Jeremiah into a muddy but waterless cistern and leave him to die. Fortunately, another official rescues Jeremiah from the cistern, as we heard in the first reading.

Jeremiah was the most unsuccessful prophet ever. His prophecies were always right, but nobody ever took his advice. He lived in tough times, and people hated him for his negative messages. In 589 B.C.E., Israel finally revolted against Babylonian rule, and in the following year the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem. The siege lasted for one and a half years of terrible suffering and starvation in the city. In the end, the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, killed King Zedekiah’s children, blinded him, and led him away as a captive. Zedekiah was the last king of Israel.

Well, all that is part of the Old Testament, which is full of violence and wars. In the New Testament, we celebrate Jesus, the prince of peace. Jesus said, “Peace I leave you. My peace I give you.” But this is still the real world, and in today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells us the other part of the story, a part that Jeremiah understood very well. In today’s gospel passage Jesus warns: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

When I was growing up, it seemed like Jesus must have come to create divisions between Catholics and Protestants, and between believers and unbelievers. Of course, Jesus was not talking about later divisions over doctrines that he had never heard of, or about persecuting unbelievers and heretics, although Christians have always been tempted to twist this passage in that direction. Rather, Christ exposes and provokes divisions between God’s will and our selfishness, and between the real world and our illusions, just as Jeremiah did five hundred years earlier. Exposing our selfishness and illusions leads to suffering, within individuals and within communities. We’d rather pretend that we aren’t selfish and have no illusions.

Jesus preached the peace that is in our hearts when we do God’s will, but doing God’s will also often lead to division and conflict. Jeremiah needed to do God’s will, even it meant proclaiming that Israel should remain subservient to a foreign power. Jesus needed to do God’s will, even if it meant denouncing God’s temple as an oppressive institution. Later Martin Luther was inspired to condemn the Catholic indulgence racket and the monasteries of his day as corrupt and oppressive institutions, which they were. In our time, Rosa Parks was inspired to keep her seat on a segregated bus, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott and eventually to the end of segregation laws in the South. None of these people wanted conflict. They simply obeyed God’s command in their hearts, rather than the prevailing norms, and that brought about division and conflict.

Yes, Jesus is the prince of peace, but let’s not forget that he was crucified, and his cross remains a sign of contradiction between God’s way and our corrupt human agendas. The Resurrection reminds us that God’s way will win out in the end. In the meantime, when faced with real quandaries like King Zedekiah’s, when it isn’t really clear what’s the best decision to make, we can pray for God’s guidance. We can ask God to help us see which action we might take will lead to less hurt, less suffering, and more peace for everyone.