August 17, 2025 This homily was not delivered as I have been in Oklahoma
Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10 + Psalm 40 + Hebrews 12: 1-4 + Luke 12: 49-53
The words of Jesus in this week’s Gospel sound harsh and are far from welcome to people trying their best to cultivate family life in world that does everything to tear us apart. There is no reason to think that what Jesus describes is what he wants. In fact, it is best to hear this as a lament. He did not come to cause strife or with a plan to cause the pain that comes when parents and children find themselves set against each other. Yet, making sure that families always live together joyfully was not the goal of his life either.
He came with a greater purpose, to create a new family. His concern goes beyond the nuclear family not fix, repair, or leave it as it is. He was not out to destroy the family of Israel, but neither did he want to fix a few broken pieces. His whole life and mission was the creation of a new family. There is a great sense of urgency in his words encouraging us all to look closely and see what is really happening. He would have us see that something new is happening that is not yet finished making this time, our time, crucial.
All around us rising nationalism, individualism, latent and denied racism, fear of others, and just simple human brokenness is a devastating challenge to the creation of the new family he has entrusted to us. There is an invitation not to be missed here. It is a call to move beyond biological descriptions of family to our baptismal family. When we do so, we will provide hope to those without their nuclear family, single people, divorced people, widows and those whose families are filled with internal strife, and anyone who may gather with us around the Word and this Altar alone. If creation of a new family was the work of Jesus Christ, then it is our work as well, and the urgency with which he addressed goal ought to motivate and encourage us.
We face a constant barrage of rhetoric these days that divides us and pushes us away from each other under the pretext of keeping us safe. Some of those use the Sacred Scriptures to justify their agenda twisting the words of Jesus with their own ideas about greatness, and today it is this very political agenda dividing families and turning family members against each other. In this environment, loyalty to the “Party” is more important that loyalty to the human family.
The words of Jesus challenge us to grow beyond our fears and our narrow-mindedness asking for courage, compassion and humility. There is here an invitation to imagine and create a new family where loyalty to Christ comes first no matter the cost. There is here an invitation to risk power, prestige and even acceptance to stand up for the equality, justice, compassion and reconciliation that every one of us deserves for one great reason. We belong to a family of faith as children of God.