A mother and father were having an argument, hot and heavy. Words were stabbing the air fast and furious. Junior came in unnoticed, jumped up on the table, held up his arms, and shouted, “Peace, be still.”
Astonished, the parents directed their gaze to the peacemaker and both burst out laughing. “Where did you hear that?” Mother asked. “I learned at Sunday School that our Lord spoke like that at the roaring of the waves and they kept still.”
The Gospel we heard today isn’t what we would expect to hear from our Lord. It isn’t what we want to hear. It isn’t what we think we need to hear. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” What about the message of the angels, who proclaimed at Jesus’ birth: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men?” The song that Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, sang in anticipation of the coming of Christ, says that Jesus “will guide our feet into the way of peace.” In another place we read Jesus’ words to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you.” And after his resurrection, as he met with his disciples, the first words he spoke were, “Peace be with you.”
How strange it is to our ears to hear Jesus say, “I have not come to bring peace.” Especially at this particular point in time, when the entire world is experiencing a lack of peace, with the threat of terrorism so great and daily stories of violent terrorist acts, Jesus’ words, “I have not come to bring peace,” are very troubling. Even stranger is what follows, “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 a man’s foes will be those of his own household.” The National Center for Health Statistics several years ago published that there are more than a million divorces a year in the United States. I once read another statistic that less than 50% of all children born today will live continuously with their own father and mother throughout childhood. Given the disintegration of the family which we are experiencing in our society, perhaps more than at any other time since Jesus uttered these words, one might think that his was a prophecy which has finally reached its fulfillment!
Jesus was not talking about a general breaking down of the family unit, however. He was not saying that families ought to be in conflict. He certainly is concerned about the terrible problems that are tearing families apart today. In this particular teaching, however, Jesus was referring to the reality that faith in him could become a source of conflict in human relationships, even the closest relationships that exist—those among family members.
Being a Christian means living one’s entire life according to Christian principles. It means being willing to follow Christ even when following him will cause us to be ridiculed, maybe even persecuted, or in extreme cases martyred, as Christians are finding in many parts of the world today. In our lives it may be difficult to understand how our faith could really be that much of a problem in getting along at home or work. We may be fortunate in having all members of our families converted to the faith and everyone with whom we work and play also being Christian, and therefore understanding and supportive of a Christian manner of life. But for most of us that probably isn’t the case.
On the other hand, it may be the case that the going is easy because we really do not live our Christianity, we really do not let it make much of a difference in how we conduct our business, how we go about our daily living. Bishop Michael Marshall used to say, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” The average Christian in America lives very much in the world and goes to church on Sunday. Truly to be a disciple means to live in the Church—in your heart—and be sent into the world.
The Christian community for which St. Matthew recorded these words of Jesus was an active one. It was composed of missionaries, prophets, righteous men and women who, according to the biblical scholar Edward Schweitzer, “had authority to teach the commandments of God and their interpretation by Jesus, move from one congregation to another, often despised and persecuted, always dependent on hospitality, and bringing with them the living Word of God that sets its stamp on their lives.” These Christians knew personally what Jesus meant when he said, “I have not come to bring peace.” Some of them would actually be martyred, among them Matthew himself. Jesus said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” According to tradition, blessed Matthew was martyred by a sword.
Yet, while the Christian disciple knows exactly what Jesus means when he says, “I have not come to bring peace,” that disciple also would be the first to say that the peace of Christ dwells in his or her life. That is peace with a capital P, what St. Paul calls the “peace that passes understanding.” It is a peace that comes from being in communion with God in Christ. St. Augustine said of God, “Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” When our hearts rest in God, we know peace, no matter what storms are raging around us.
William Alexander Percy, a native of Mississippi and a graduate of Sewanee in Tennessee, wrote a beautiful hymn about the peace of God, which many of you know. It goes like this:
They cast their nets in Galilee just off the hills of brown;
Such happy, simple fisherfolk, before the Lord came down.
Contented, peaceful fishermen, before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts brimful, and broke them too.
Young John, who trimmed the flapping sail, homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net, head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod.
Yet let us pray for but one thing—the marvelous peace of God.
Let us pray for but one thing—the marvelous peace of God.
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
26 June 2011