Creating Division in the Right Places

Jesus says in Luke's gospel that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  This is a statement that has puzzled Christians throughout the years, given Jesus' focus on peace and non violence.  It is also a statement that has been used to justify the use of violence in Jesus' name, including in the crusades during the Middle Ages.

The key to understanding this text lies in Matthew's gospel, where the saying is put in a slightly different way.  In Matthew's gospel, Jesus says that he did not come to bring peace, but instead division.  Jesus goes on to say that families will be divided from one another in his name.

In the early Church, Christianity created authentic divisions in the family and in the larger Roman culture due to the revolutionary way that Christians believed that they were called to live in Jesus' name.  Christians called into question the central principle of Roman rule; the Pax Romana, which held that peace and stability was created through subjugation of Rome's enemies and loyalty to Rome alone.  Christians held that loyalty to God alone, as revealed in Jesus, was what would bring peace on an individual and collective level.  Christians rejected all the unspoken norms and rules in the Mediterranean world about gender roles and class distinctions.  Christianity brought a cultural revolution.

Today, the Christian tradition still brings division, but often we get the dividing lines wrong, which essentially means we have forgotten what is at the heart of Christian belief and practice.  Until very recently, major voices in the Christian tradition were adamant that reading novels, for example, was inconsistent with Christian belief and practice.  Christian traditions wasted thousands of pages in creating division between themselves and non Christians on this issue.  Jesus says that if our discipleship is authentic, there will necessarily be division between us and those who do not follow Jesus.  Let's make sure we place the dividing line in the right place and remember what matters about discipleship and what doesn't matter

Discipleship and the Cultivation of Wisdom

Discipleship is normally thought of today solely as a dialectic of right and wrong, of reward and punishment.  That is, we do what is right and avoid what is wrong in order to seek eternal reward and to avoid eternal punishment.

What we have marginalized and forgotten in the Christian tradition is the equal significance and importance of wisdom.  Discipleship is about the cultivation of wisdom so that we make good choices in this world for ourselves and for the world, and seeking the intercession of God's Spirit to enhance our wisdom and understanding of ourselves, of God, and of the world.

The parable of the Rich Fool in Luke's gospel illustrates the importance of the cultivation of wisdom.  In this simple story, an unnamed rich man is preoccupied with hoarding grain.  He has filled up his existing barns, so he devises a plan to build bigger barns.  At some point, his life is taken from him.  Significantly, the story is not framed in terms of reward and punishment, or even in terms of right and wrong, but instead in terms of wisdom and foolishness.  The rich man wastes his life through his preoccupation with "stuff".  He is called a "fool" at the end of the story, not wicked or evil.  There is no indication about whether he is otherwise virtuous or not.

What makes the rich man a fool is his ignorance or denial of life's transience.  Those who are wise understand how transient life is and act accordingly.  If we understand life's transience, we will act accordingly.  We will understand what matters; our soul.  And we will understand that all our "stuff" is fleeting and can vanish in an instant.