The Truth and Peace That Divides Us
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Luke 12:49-53
(August 29, 2004 Sermon Transcript)

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        From today’s gospel lesson we read, Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. This is the text. Please be seated.

        Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, fellow baptized and redeemed people of God, we know and love the name associated with our Lord, that of Prince of Peace. Indeed, we love to hear those passages in which the Lord comes to His disciples and says to them, as He says to us, Peace be with you.

        And what’s more, we also know that we relish the concert of the holy angels at the advent of our Lord. At His birth, the angels come singing a song of thunderous magnitude, signing Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men upon whom his favor rests.

        Jesus Christ, as we know, brings peace. He brings peace to a world locked in sin. And what is more, He brings peace to a world blind to sin’s resultant condemnation. What a joy it is, then, to have peace with God.

        And then we come to today’s gospel lesson. And then we hear God speak to us through His son, and we hear Him say that this passage from the gospel of Luke, that we can be not at peace, but divided. And then He goes on to use an illustration of the most terribly intimate division we can know. For in the one place where unity ought to reign, that is, in the family, He says, From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

        And we wonder, and we puzzle at these words. How can it be, that He who is the Prince of Peace openly claims instead to bring division in all the earth.

        For those of us who operate from the rubric that scripture cannot contradict itself, I would suggest to you that these words are not in contradiction. They may seem like it, but they are not. Because both things are true. God is both the one who brings peace. He is, indeed the Prince of Peace. And, not only that, that very peace and the truth He brings also brings division.

        Therefore, let us hear of the truth, and the peace, that divides us.

        From the beginning, almost, the world is undisturbed in its sin. It is undisturbed in its guilt. It is at peace with its sin. And Jesus came precisely to end that peace. The fall of Adam and Eve into sin is also the fall of mankind into sin. And when that fall happens, everything is no longer in sync with God. In fact everything is out of sync with Him. Listen to St. Paul write to the Romans in the fifth chapter of that epistle. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--...Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

        We oftentimes fail to understand the gravity of this terrible fall into the complete corruption of mankind’s hearts and minds. Some would have us believe that there is yet something redeemable in us, that the sinful human will can somehow cooperate in bringing about His own salvation.

        But the scriptures will have no part in it at all. Original sin extinguishes all men’s ability to good in the sight of God. And I mean anything at all. No act done, apart from the love of God in Christ, can appease our holy and righteous God. No seeking after God in any other fashion than through the crucified and risen Lord will ever please God and establish peace with God. Indeed, no desire exists in fallen humanity to know Christ. It cannot be manifested by those who are lost in sin. For our hearts are so unified and at peace with sin, that no such inclination is even possible.

        St. Paul again writes to the Corinthian congregation to this very point. He say, The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

        Herein lies the ultimate tragedy of mankind’s fallen estate. We are at peace with sin.

        Were Christ no to have intervened in this sin-ruined world, we would have remained at peace with our sins. We would have been content with it, and we would have perished as a result, eternally, only then on the Day of Judgment realizing the terrible illusion of peace that we have received, and thought was true.

        Therefore, thanks be to God for terminating and disturbing this damnable peace. Thanks be to God for sending His son into the flesh to serve as the propitiation for our sin. To serve as the payment rendered, fully and completely, for men who had nothing to offer to God, and no ability to come to Him. Therefore, thanks be to God that our sins are already paid for by the one who has redeemed us. Listen again to St. Paul as he writes in Romans. Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.... The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

        Yes, indeed, our peace with sin was shattered with the advent of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And I would suggest that it was far better for the world that some are divided by the cross and the peace it brings, than all should perish in the illusion of peace with sin.

        Therefore, dear friends, it is through the word of God that we have come to know the division of which Christ speaks, as well as the peace which He brings. It is Jesus Christ, and what He has done for mankind, that now divides the world. And He divides clearly from the fallen estate of the world and the kingdom of God itself. And again, He uses the most painful of divisions to describe it. The seemingly impossible to divide. He uses the family.

        I think probably everyone sitting in this sanctuary has known the some of the bitterness of the pain of divorce, in one way or another, in our own families. And I would suggest to you that such division was never intended for that holy estate. Indeed, let us remember the vows of marriage: in sickness and health, in good times and bad, in all circumstances of life, the marriage vow is to be maintained and the sanctity of marriage to be honored. And yet, we have become jaded with the commonplace way we have experienced divorce in our own culture, and in our own society. And oftentimes, painfully, in our own lives.

        And it might be remembered that when Jesus spoke these words, that divorce was even considered vastly more painful and more shameful and more awful than it is now.

        Indeed, God in Christ often uses what is known as hyperbole, to describe and to make His point. Now He says, by means of using the family and it’s division, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, He does so that we might know that the world is divided into opposing camps. The people of God in Christ, and those who know Him not.

        Now, I know that in our synergistic culture, many believe that all pathways lead to God. But I proclaim to you what the scriptures say clearly. This is an illusion, a grave error with eternal consequences. The claim of Christ as savior and redeemer will not yield its exclusivity and claim to be true. Our Lord Himself says it plainly enough in the gospel of John. In the fourteenth chapter he writes, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." , He says plainly, and clearly enough.

        Dear friends in Christ, there is a Day of Judgment. It is a day that some look forward to with great apprehension and fear, but it need not be so for those who are in Christ Jesus. For on the day of our coming, the scriptures tell us plainly that He will announce a verdict. And the good news is, we already know what the verdict is for those who have been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. And the verdict is "not guilty." And that, we look forward to. And so we sing our hymns at Advent: Lift up your heads, you might gates. Behold the King of Glory waits. Not in fear and in dread, but in great joy and joyous expectation, for the kingdom of heaven will be at hand.

        And now, as we read in Matthew the 25th chapter, we also read, not only of the peace which will be ours in that day, but also of the conflict and division that will be part of that day as well, when our Lord says, "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

        And at that moment, every illusion of peace between sin and God can, and will no longer exist, and will be shattered forever.

        Dear friends, how is it that we have come to know Him? How is it that we have come to know peace instead of division? I would suggest that it is through God’s Word and His Sacraments that we know true peace of God. These precious means of grace, Word and Sacraments, are the very things that have open closed hearts, opened blind eyes, and have made sense to darkened human reason, to give forgiveness and life to you! And to me!

        It was the word of God spoken at our own baptism, which tells us whose name we bear. We bear the name of God Himself, and therefore we bear God. We bear Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! And He makes His dwelling with us, and we receive the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit at our baptism.

        This word of God, washed with water, cleanses us from all sins, the scriptures declare! This word of God, flowing from the baptismal font, brings us life and establishes peace with God.

        And what’s more, it’s also through the preached and written word that we grow in our faith, and in our peace with Him.

        Here today, we are gathered to listen to God speak. We hear Him speak through the reading of the lessons, through the reading of the word of God, which is part and parcel of our liturgy, and we listen to Him speak through the means of a sermon. And we know who it is who is speaking. For it is God who speaks through such media. From this word we are strengthened, then, and moved to Godly service, that is finally, and at last, pleasing in His sight.

        And what’s more, through this word, we are more and more united in our faith. For the more we learn of God’s word, the more we understand that His truth, that He reveals, is one. It is not multiple choice. God can only speak one thing about all things without violating His nature. And that, of course, He cannot and will not do. And so, through this precious preached word, through this word which we study, through this word which we hear proclaimed, God unites the body of His children more and more in the unity of one true faith.

        And also, dear friends, it is through the word connected with bread and wine, that we will soon gather in the unity of that one, same, true faith. Professing that common faith, and receiving the unity that we have in the body and blood of our Lord. This table at which we kneel is grace itself. For indeed, we receive Christ Himself. Not a picture. Not a symbol. Not a representation. But God giving Himself to us, in a unity that is truly beyond our earthly comprehension. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us. Then we all have that unity which Christ brings to us by His body and blood, through the cross, and the empty tomb. And we conclude, as I dismiss the table, every single time, "Be at peace with God, and with one another."

        It is also through these precious means of grace that God preserves the unity of the faith in congregations. It is the unity in all that doctrines of Christ that we are known as the church of Christ on earth. Listen to Jesus’ words as He describes precisely what the unity of the church is. Jesus prayed, "My prayer is not for them alone. (That is, the apostles) I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

        Intra-church division is seen every time that false doctrine is imported into a congregation, or between denominations, makes no difference. That means we must understand the nature of false doctrine. False doctrine is not benign. But rather, it is an insidious cancer which leads people away from their assurance for their salvation. False doctrine of any kind, inevitably points people to man, rather than to Christ, and brings doubt about one’s eternal life. False doctrine brings division into the church and compromises the gospel of our Lord. That is the nature of it.

        Therefore God graciously answers the division of false doctrine with His inerrant, infallible word, and His precious sacraments of grace. Here, and here alone, can we learn that the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace is a real, tangible thing. Listen to the words of St. Paul in Ephesians, the fourth chapter, when he writes, Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

        And then the result? He continues, having attained, dear friends, the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, having become mature and attaining to the full measure of the fullness of Christ, Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

        Indeed, dear friends, this unity of the spirit in the bond of peace is precisely unity in the teaching and the doctrine of the faith. St. Paul writes also in I Corinthians, I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

        Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to unity in the one true faith, through the blood sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, brothers and sisters, we are called to be of one thought and of one mind by the grace given us, through the knowledge of the word.

        Then, dear friends, united in Christ, we will further divide the world from us. And yet we will also reach out to that divided word to those who do not yet know the peace which is available through Christ, and only through Christ.

        They too, then, having heard those precious means of grace, having experienced the voice of God, having been changed by its power, will also come into the unity of salvation, which is peace in Jesus Christ, in whose name we conclude.

        Amen.