Readings:
Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18
Hebrews 12:1-4
Luke 12:49-53

Perhaps it is the mid-August heat that pervades this time, but the world feels particularly on fire at the moment. The inundation of news stories covering wars across continents, immigrants and families living in fear, and increasing policies and legislation that do not value the common good regularly feed the flames. Centering the dignity of all God’s people seems to always fall by the wayside as individual gain and unceasing greed take precedence.

Fr. Bryan Massingale received our Blessed are the Peacemakers Award earlier this year. During his remarks, he spoke of the God of Jesus Christ as a God who takes sides. This phrasing wasn’t new to me, but it assuredly is not a description of God that I have heard often. The God who takes sides that Fr. Massingale described is a God who takes the side of the poor, the vulnerable, the meek, the forgotten. Those who are most vulnerable have so often been put into such places because of the choices of others. Those who do not have enough food, who suffer in times of war and misery, who cannot be healed because there is no health care to support them, are there because others have chosen their own benefit at the cost of their brothers and sisters. God’s love for each person is unconditional, but God does take the side of those who suffer. This is the division that Jesus speaks about. Jesus will take the side of those pushed to the margins and left behind in the wake of fame and fortune. And Jesus will ask each of us to choose that same side, to be those who seek to love those who suffer and not to be the cause of their suffering. And not everyone will choose the same side.

Following the gospel and the call of Jesus Christ is not a call to passivity and false peace. The call of the gospel is not to find a compromise but to seek true justice. Jesus is quite clear – there will be division. What God asks of us as disciples is not to find the easiest route but to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And that means there will be people in our lives who do not agree. We may also find ourselves at times sliding towards the allure of our own individual gain and safety and thus divided against those who have kept their eyes on Jesus. It is not an easy choice to make and one that will find us at odds with people we care about and love deeply. Healing division isn’t about avoiding a fight over an extended family dinner. It’s about working to bring everyone to the side that supports the poor and suffering.

by Ellen Romer Niemiec, MDiv