The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 7A), June 22, 2008
BCP: Jer. 20:7-13;Psalm69:1-18 or 69:7-10, 16-18;Rom. 5:15b-19;Matt. 10:(16-23)24-33
RCL: Gen. 21:8-21 and Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; or Jer. 20:7-13 and Psalm 69:8-11(12-17), 18-20; Rom. 6:1b-11; Matt. 10:24-39
Human conflict is inevitable in our fallen and broken world. We see it all too often in our families, where disagreements over money and finance are the primary causes of divorce in contemporary society. Conflict permeates our neighborhoods and communities, as local residents increasingly sue each other over what seem to be the most trivial of issues. And it’s everywhere we care to look on the national scene, as those on opposite ends of the political spectrum gleefully trade accusations of immorality and gross incompetence.
On the world stage, moreover, human conflict is writ incredibly large. It’s been far too many years since the world has had a single day without armed conflict being played out somewhere. “Nation...rise[s] against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Luke 21:10). Perpetually, it seems.
At least Christians are above all of this. Aren’t we? Surely the Spirit of truth, who guides us “into all truth,” protects us from all of this (John 16:13). Doesn’t he? Well, it would be nice if he did, but apparently the Spirit chooses not to.
Controversy has marked the Church since Day 1. On the first Easter, we read, the disciples couldn’t agree among themselves as to the truth of the resurrection (John 20:25). Not much later, a dispute broke out over the place of the law in the lives of believers (Acts 15:1-21). In the 8th century, the body was almost ripped apart over the issue of images, and doctrinal disagreements in 15th-century Europe gave rise to many of the sad divisions in Christianity to this day.
It’s really no wonder that the tough decisions facing the Church in our lifetimes produce discord and even open conflict. In the world as well as in Christ’s body, conflict is apparently hard-wired into human beings as the way we resolve our differences.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth,” says Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel. “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” He continues: “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 one’s foes will be members of one’s own household” (Matt. 10:34-36). And how true it is.
Perhaps the biggest challenge confronting the Church today is to model a method of resolving conflict that’s somehow kinder and gentler than the way those around us choose to do it.
Look It Up
Isaiah 11:6 foretells a time when the “wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together.” Is this lack of conflict possible in the present age?
Think About It
What potential methods of resolving Christian conflict can you think of which might be held out to the world at large as a model to follow?
Next Sunday
The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 8A), June 29, 2008
BCP: Isaiah 2:10-17; Psalm 89:1-18 or 89:1-4,15-18; Rom. 6:3-11; Matt. 10:34-42
RCL: Gen. 22:1-14 and Psalm 13; or Jer. 28:5-9 and Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18; Rom. 6:12-23; Matt. 10:40-42
