Divisive Grace

Every Tuesday I have lunch with some of our local Lutheran pastors to study the sermon text for the week (many pastors preach from a prescribed order of Biblical texts called a Lectionary --I don't follow it personally but enjoy the text study none-the-less). This week the text was from Luke 12:49-56 where Jesus says he came not to bring peace but division; where, because of him, dads will be against their sons and sons against their dads and moms against their daughters, etc. A difficult text, to be sure. And, as you can imagine, it stimulated a great discussion.

Some musings that came out of that study:

1) Jesus here is describing a reality--what happens between people when some follow Jesus and some do not. Often there is a conflict between them. I think of the wife whose husband doesn't believe in Jesus and the tension it causes in a marriage. Or the parent who has children who don't follow Jesus and the heartache it causes. Or the Christians who live in an atheistic country and the persecution they experience. I don't think Jesus is so much saying he came intentionally to divide people. It happens naturally when some believe and others don't.

2) There is a tendency among some of us Christians to believe that when people shun us or when we experience a conflict because of our faith it's because we follow Jesus. But often, Christians are shunned for being judgemental, arrogant, or coming across as morally superior. At that point, we are the reason for the conflict, not Jesus.

3) Jesus caused divisions not through judgmentalism but through grace. Eating with tax collectors, forgiving prostitutes, touching unclean lepers, standing up for justice--these are the things that created friction between Jesus and others.

4) Right now, Christianity is causing some conflict and divisiveness in our country, not because of our radical living out of reckless grace, but because of the moral issues some Christians believe determine who is and who is not a Christian. But imagine Christians passionately living out grace--loving their neighbors as they love themselves. That grace can cause divisiveness as Jesus demonstrated. But if we are going to be divisive, shouldn't it be for the cause of grace, not dogmatism, moralism, and judgmentalism?