Woman Woman

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Luke 12:49-56: Jesus grieves his coming suffering, recognising the conflict that will arise over his message, and challenging people to discern the true nature of the time they live in, in the same way that they interpret the weather.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The Gospel reading this week is a difficult one, a deeply uncomfortable one, but a very significant one. The key is in Jesus’ call to discern the times – the division that Jesus speaks about flows from our responses to the times we live in, and whether we will do this discerning work or not. When justice is ignored, and the poor and vulnerable are oppressed, God is angered, and, as indicated in both Isaiah’s prophecy and Psalm 82, judgement is prophesied. The image of the well-tended vineyard that is allowed to be destroyed for failing to produce good fruit is a powerful metaphor for this judgement. In the face of such injustice, there will always be those who refuse to do the work of discerning the times that Jesus called for, and who will prophecy what is untrue (as in Jeremiah), comfortable and expedient. However, there will also always be those who will repent, as in Psalm 80, and who will embrace the sacrifice and rejection that comes from speaking the truth, confronting injustice and working for a more compassionate, peaceful world. Unfortunately, there will always be division between truth speakers and truth deniers, between defenders of justice and defenders of the status quo. This is the cross we are called to carry.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: The Gospel call of justice is bringing division to our world and even to the Church, as Jesus predicted it would. In the face of the economic crisis, there are those who are eager to ‘prophesy’ restoration, and that the worst is over. But, the ultimate, underlying causes have not changed, and the system remains broken. Those who insist on pointing this out, are rejected and scoffed at. In the face of climate change, there are those who are eager to ‘prophesy’ that there is no problem, and that the world is to be destroyed by God anyway. But, those who insist on challenging oil companies, energy companies and government, those who insist on calling attention to the danger of our consumption, are scoffed at, questioned or ignored – as with the warnings about offshore drilling before the Deepwater Horizon debacle. There are many voices in our world that want to ‘prophesy’ lies – to ignore the signs of injustice, poverty, excessive consumption, and health care and education failure. And those who insist on proclaiming the Gospel message of repentance, justice and simplicity will need to embrace the cross, for they will not avoid it in the divisive responses that result.

LOCAL APPLICATION: Every Christ-following community and individual is faced, daily, with a choice. We can choose to adopt an ‘escapist’ faith, ignoring the pain of the world while waiting for heavenly bliss after we die, or we can do the work of listening, watching and understanding our societies and neighbourhoods, and the times in which we live. We can prophecy what is easy, comfortable and expedient for us – what requires little sacrifice and work, what makes us feel good, but changes little – or we can draw attention to the signs of injustice among us, we can call out corruption and exploitation, and we can hold ourselves and our leaders accountable to care for the marginalised and vulnerable. Ultimately, if we take the latter course, we will face the suffering of getting involved, for we will have to actually do something about the issues we expose. We also, inevitably, face the aggression and threats of those who are invested in the status quo. We will find ourselves upsetting the peace, and being labelled “divisive”, “rabble-rousers” and other names. The question is whether we have the conviction and courage to follow the great cloud of witnesses in service of God’s reign, or not. This is a choice we will face every single day.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Seeing The Signs
Seeing
In Defiance

Hymn Suggestions:
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