"Choosing God"

Exodus 32.15-29; Luke 12.49-53

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It's Different Now Yes, the times of Perpetual were vastly different than they are today.  For her, to become a Christian wasn't a matter of individual consequences.  Her being a Christian had an effect on her family.  Her father would suffer socially and economically.  Her family as a whole would be shamed.  Her son, that tiny little innocent child, would too come to know the day when he would suffer for her decision.       In a sense, her decision was not so unlike Aaron and the Levites'.  For her decision too was the abandonment of everything that she was and was becoming.  To chose God over family was no small thing.  To do so pitted Perpetua against the vast majority around her.  It was the type of decision that would have consequences through the generations.  For her story, known as The Passion of St's Perpetua and Felicity, would be told through the ages, a faithful martyr who would inspire others to deeper faith.

Thanks for the Tough Passages There are many passages in the Bible that are really tough to deal with.  I've been dreading the Exodus passage we read today.  But the tough passages aren't just in the Old Testament.  The New Testament has them too.  Hear the words of Jesus once more:

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!  There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  From now on a household of five will be  divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against here daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Those words of Jesus must have meant a lot to Perpetua.  In her time of trial, they surely brought comfort.  But our world is different.  Can they mean something for us today?  I think that they can.  I think that those words can mean something for each and every person in this room.  Now that meaning might be different from person to person, but I think they can still mean something.  But whether they do will depend on whether we are willing to wrestle with them.  And while such wrestling isn't easy, it is necessary if we want to grow as Christians.  Thanks be to God for those tough Bible texts that force us to grow.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.