08.14.2022 - Division

Anthony W. Franklin

After Pentecost • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Scripture: Luke 12:49-56

Luke 12:49–56 NRSV

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, 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 her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Division

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Life Divides and Multiplies

Life grows: not by addition and subtraction but by division and multiplication. It is the order of creation for cells to grow, then divide, and then repeat the growth and division, which results in multiplication. The first commandment from Genesis was that life would “be fruitful and multiply,” and that does not happen through addition or subtraction; it happens first through division. So division is not necessarily a bad thing. instead, it is a necessary thing that, when done appropriately, allows life to grow and remain healthy. The power behind that growth in life comes from the ability to divide, grow, and multiply in a rhythm that corresponds to the things happening both inside and outside the organism. If the creature is not fully grown enough and tries to divide and multiply, all The pieces of it may become too vulnerable and fail to survive. If they wait too long, they can grow too big and become immobile, stuck in one place, and left to the mercy of the environment. There are windows of opportunity that occur when the situation is right for dividing and multiplying, which is why plants bear fruit and seeds in the spring and summer when food and energy are plentiful, and they pull back in and rest in the colder, darker, or dryer months of the year. Our God knows what he is doing as He guides the creation and recreation of life all over. Six days of work, He said, and on the seventh, we should rest. We were never made to put all of our spiritual work into a few hours one day a week. Without the work, we don’t get growth.

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This became very apparent in the United Methodist Church 12 years ago. In 2010, General Conference hired a research group called Towers & Watson to do a study of our denomination. They were concerned because our denomination had reported over 40 years of membership decline. Let me give that to you another way. The United Methodist Church formed in 1968 as a merger of several branches of Methodism as well as the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The hope was that these smaller denominations would be stronger together and be able to accomplish God’s mission for us better. In 1968, at the creation of the United Methodist Church, there were about 6 million members. In 2010, there were about 3 million, and we were losing 6-7% more each year. That report shifted the shape and size of buildings, and the kinds of ministry churches led over the last decade, including our own church. It changed the way pastors were trained. It gave us new goals to reach for and new measurements of success. However, no report is perfect, and all of our attempts to recreate programs in an image more familiar to new people and new generations only last for a season. We cannot make one set of changes and put the church on autopilot, expecting growth to occur automatically. We cannot ignore the changing seasons and the work and response required for the life of Christ to grow in us, multiply, and bear much fruit. Serving God in this way requires sacrifice, though, and this work will test our loyalties.

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Bringing the Fire

John the Baptist promised that one who was greater would come after him and baptize, not with water, but with fire and the Holy Spirit. While that may have given his followers visions of the end of days, the truth was much stranger. That fire baptism came about at Pentecost with tongues of flame and gifts from the Spirit, not to judge the world but to usher in salvation. While there were physical flames above their heads, there was a spiritual fire underneath them that motivated them to get out of their homes and out into the community and rather quickly moved them to carry the Gospel of Jesus and the grace of God all across the world. I think Jesus felt like that mother hen, that at one moment wanted to protect her chicks and then next moment, was ready for them to leave the nest and go make nests of their own, and this is not just out of pride for His disciples. No, I think it was a love for the world that compelled him so because disciples are not born through natural birth. They are made when souls choose to follow Jesus daily. Without the division and spread of the people, there would be no spread of the faith. He also knew that there would be no Pentecost until He had surrendered to His cross. The fire that Jesus brought and sent is for us as believers. It clears off all the grit, grossness, and dross from us and empowers us to shine with the love of Christ in a dark and cold world. It calls us and sets us apart for God’s will and God’s work if we will say yes to receive it each day.

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Knowing the weather

When my dad was alive, he was obsessed with the weather. He once bought a special weather detection machine with a wind gauge, thermometer, barometer...the works. I think he accidentally dropped it while up on a ladder, trying to install it on the roof, and our dog caught it and promptly chewed it to pieces. I think she was quite proud of herself. He watched the weather on the news religiously. I used to tell him that the best way to find out the weather was to open the door and step outside. Today we have new technology that can stream to your phone and let you know right before it rains. Right before is relative, of course. Last week it said to look out for heavy rain in the neighborhood every four or five hours. Three days later, the rain finally arrived. I still think the best way to tell the weather is to step outside. Following the movement of the Spirit of God is the same thing. You really cannot rely on machines or other people to keep track of it for you. If you want to know what God is up to, you have to step outside and look. Notice that Jesus did not criticize the people for lack of weather understanding. He praised them for it. “You can tell the weather. You can tell the seasons just by listening to and feeling the wind.” He told them. “Why can you not see what God is doing in this present time?” These words resound in a similar way to John 3, where Jesus met Nicodemus and told him: 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. We cannot see the wind, but we know when it is present, and we can follow its effects, large and small. The Spirit of God is much like the wind, according to Jesus. If we are aware enough to track the wind, we should be aware enough to follow the work of the Holy Spirit around us. If you have received the Holy Spirit of God, it will lead you closer to God and into grace-filled relationships with others. What does that have to do with division? To move closer to God and to those with whom God is calling you to share His grace requires being Divided, set apart, and pruned away from the old life, and then sent into the mission field, in whatever form your mission field looks like.

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Your Edges

We are used to growth by addition and subtraction - growing taller, gaining weight, buying a new car, buying a new house, etc. But God created us to grow by division and multiplication. When Pentecost hit, God took 12 disciples and divided them up to speak in 12 different languages, which brought in (no, not 12 more people) 3000 new people that day. Then those 3,000 people brought in another 4,000 by the end of the week. By the next week, those 7,000 people were dividing themselves away from friends and family, just like Jesus said. Five in a household and three would go, two would stay, pitting siblings against each other, parents against children. Why? Because the Spirit of Jesus had lit the fire and was calling them out. Sell your possessions, give to the poor, come and follow me. And they did. One after another sold all they had and brought it to the apostle’s feet to help feed this crazy group of 7,000 people who were camping out like the Hebrew people in the wilderness, waiting for Jesus to return. And then they stopped sharing and witnessing. Lord, there are more than 7,000 of us. Surely that’s enough. Come take us home. But it was not enough. Persecution broke out in Jerusalem, and God divided the 7,000 and scattered them all over the world. That was when the gospel really got going. Within weeks, they lost count of how many new converts there were because what had happened in Jerusalem at Pentecost was beginning to happen in small pockets everywhere. People stopped going to one place to be in God’s presence. They began following His Spirit everywhere they went, wherever it took them, and that is our story. That is how you and I came to faith in Christ. Someone separated themselves out for God’s service and brought the gospel to your people and mine, to you and to me. Church life does not happen when we wait for people to come to us. It happens when we go to them. The Church is not a building or a piece of property. We are the Church. The edges of the kingdom of God are you and me. The mission field is here, at your feet. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, growing out and bearing fruit beyond ourselves. God has uniquely shaped you to serve as a worker in His field. The harvest is plentiful, and the workers are too few. Will you pray that God would make you into a worker in His field?

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