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| Jesus of Za'am |
Luke 12:49-56 - Don’t do it!
Before I bring it to you* . . . . You’re wanting to know: Where do I come up with this shit? Commentaries. Axel has six on Luke (one in two volumes, another in three), and the church library at the Presbyterian Church has three others. Conversation. I talk to people that know what they’re talking about and others that have to listen to people who think they know what they’re talking about. Imagination. A lot of it I make up.
So, with regard to this Sunday’s Gospel passage. Here it is, in context:
41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?” 42 And the Lord said, “No. Who then is the faithful and wise steward, the master will put in charge, to give the rest the right food at the right time?
43 “Blessed is that servant whom his master finds taking care of that when he comes. 44 He’ll give him much, much more. 45 But if that servant begins thinking, ‘Hmmm. He’s not coming for a while,’ meaning the master, and he, the servant, begins beating his fellow servants, men and women, and eating until he’s gorged and drinking until he’s drunk, 46 then the master will come just when he knows he doesn’t expect him. And the master will punish the servant and throw him out like chaff.
47 This assumes the servant knew the master’s will and didn’t act on it. At least, he’ll be beaten. 48 But the servant that doesn’t know, even if he deserve worse, he’ll get a light beating. I’ve said something like this before in another context, ‘Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and if much is given to her, much will be demanded.
49 “Because I am here to bring on the earth fire, and I’m wishing that it was already alight.
“I’m going to be baptized with fire, and I can’t do anything really mean until I have been.
“I mean, 51 Do you think that I came for peace on earth good will to all? No, I came to tear things apart: 52 so that in one house where there are five there will be three against two, or else two against three. 53 Fathers will turn against sons and sons against fathers; mothers will be turned against daughters and daughters against their mothers; where it hasn’t happened already mothers-in-law will turn against their daughters-in-law and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law.”
54 He also said to the crowd, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’ because the west is where showers come from; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be ho’ because it will be. 56 What a bunch of hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; how can you not know how to interpret the present time? 57 This is why you don’t judge for yourselves what is right.”
(TRV)
So:
If you don’t think Jesus of Nazareth said this - here comes, then, the advice for the lectionarylorn - don’t spend a lot of time explaining that, all that business about Luke and the church and church leaders and so forth. Here’s a way to avoid it! Preach on another passage. This is a good week, in fact, to end your unhealthy dependence on the lectionary. Begin now. Find another dependency.
(Here’s one possibility, lectio continuo. Start now. Preach through Obadiah and Nahum for the rest of August until Halloween. Then, too, you can set the limits to the passages where they belong, not where some committee wished they did.)
08.09.19
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* Like the miracle spring water, “It’s absolutely free. And I want to give it to you.”
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