- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: Luke 12:49-56

Ricky Bobby prefers the eight pound six ounce baby Jesus. In the hilarious movie, Talladega Nights, Will Farrell plays the race car driver, Ricky Bobby with a wife named Carly and two sons named Walker and Texas Ranger. In one of the funniest scenes in the movie, Ricky Bobby begins his prayer before the meal by saying, "Dear tiny infant Jesus…"

His wife interrupts and says, "Hey, um… you know sweetie, Jesus did grow up. You don't always have to call him baby. It's a bit odd and off puttin' to pray to a baby."

Ricky Bobby replies, "Well look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I'm sayin' grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grown up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus or whoever you want."

So Ricky Bobby prays, "Dear Lord baby Jesus, or as our brothers in the south call you, jesuz, we thank you so much for this bountiful harvest of Dominos, KFC, and the always delicious Taco Bell."

Perhaps the reason Ricky Bobby's prayer to the eight pound six ounce baby Jesus is so funny is that it reveals a truth about many of us. We really do prefer the Christmas Jesus - gentle Jesus meek and mild - to the adult Jesus who stormed into the world causing turmoil, disrupting lives and the staid religion of the day. Jesus did grow up and cause a stir. He still does today.

In one of T. S. Elliot's poems entitled Gerontion, he inserts this line, "In the juvescence of the year Came Christ the tiger." In the 1960's, this single line led Thomas Howard to write a kind of autobiography entitled, Christ the Tiger. I can still recall the impact that the book had on me when I read it as a college student. His point was that Jesus is not really a gentle Jesus; rather he is like a tiger.

The imagery is shocking - Christ as a tiger. A tiger devours its prey. A tiger stalks. A tiger roars. A tiger pounces. A tiger frightens.

What kind of Jesus do we have? Do we prefer the Christmas Jesus at eight pound six ounces? Or do we worship Christ the tiger?

Our text for today includes a quote that can only come from Christ the tiger. It says, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!... Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!"

Jesus' references to fire and baptism in the first verses of our text most likely relate to his coming death. Jesus knows that his actions are creating a firestorm among the Jewish leaders. He is surrounded by conflict and turmoil. Jesus seems to be vividly aware of the direction his life is taking, and he knows it will end badly. On several occasions, he predicts his own death, and it seems to weigh heavy on his mind at this point. He is longing for closure. He is under severe stress until his death is completed. There is part of him that longs for the crucifixion to be over so he can move through it to the victory of the empty tomb. His crucifixion will be terrible, but the anticipation of it is terrible too. He longs to get it behind him.

Those of us who have faced medical surgeries can understand that feeling. The hardest part may be the waiting for the time to come. The anticipation can drive us crazy. And not many chapters later we will find Jesus on the eve of the crucifixion again in great distress. We will see Jesus' distress again as he prays on the Mount of Olives, his sweat becoming "like great drops of blood falling down on the ground."

And what about Jesus bringing division? While it is true that Jesus was the Prince of Peace who came "to guide our feet into the way of peace" and to dispense peace "among those whom he favors," his life often resulted in division.

We must remember that Jesus came into this world to establish the kingdom of God. He came to transform a sinful world, and that kind of transformation does not come easily. Many who are first in this world will be last in the kingdom of God, and they cannot be expected to accept this reversal without a fight.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. It is like poking a bear. We should expect that the bear will retaliate, and bears can be deadly. Jesus, of course, did not come to poke a bear, but to crush the head of Satan, an even more dangerous game. It is a cosmic conflict between the forces for good and the force for evil. Jesus will win, but it will be an epic battle.

There are many literary stories about the cataclysmic confrontation between good and evil, and they all end in mortal combat. The imagery of the Star Wars movies show gigantic battles between Luke Skywalker and the noble Jedi Knights and Darth Vader and the evil storm troopers. In a similar way, the Harry Potter series has recently ended with a fight to the death. Everyone was asking, "Will Harry Potter die in the final battle with Voldemort?" The cosmic conflict between good and evil is a mortal battle. We should expect no less in the Biblical description of the war between God and Satan. It is not the gentle Jesus who fights the battle of Armageddon; it is Christ the tiger.

When God comes into a life, there always seems to be fire. After Moses meets God in the burning bush, for example, he is led not to peace and a resolution of problems, but into conflict with Pharaoh himself. Christ the tiger.

And in many ways, Jesus really did bring division into families. Family members were literally divided when some became Christians and others did not. Some families disowned those who became Christians.

And Jesus brought fire. Many Christians were persecuted for their newfound faith in Jesus. Legend has it that all but one of the twelve disciples of Jesus died a martyr. When they came to crucify Jesus, legend has it that he insisted on being crucified upside down because he was not worthy to die the same way that Jesus died. Christ the tiger.

Lisa Fithian seems to follow Christ the tiger. Fithian is a grassroots activist in the global peace movement for social justice. She challenges multinational corporations, the media and consumers to cease doing business as usual and to examine the inequities that they may be perpetuating. She wants to force change. And she has been arrested 30 times for intentionally creating crises. In an interview last year, Fithian explained: "When people ask me, 'What do you do?,' I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible."

This text causes me trouble when I start asking if we can be like Jesus was in this text. How can the church follow Christ the tiger? Jesus knew that his courageous actions would create crisis and controversy and would divide people. But the question comes to mind, "Should the church deal with controversial issues?"

In a sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. David Leininger, pastor of The First Presbyterian Church in Warren, Pennsylvania, he asked the question. "Should the Church stick its nose into things the Church shouldn't stick its nose into?"

Some people say the church should avoid all controversial issues. In one church I served, one of the prominent laymen strongly felt that the church should take no actions unless it came after a unanimous vote of the congregation. If we want to avoid division, then that is a wise approach. But then the church will never be courageous, never be bold, and never stand for anything. I think he was saying that we should follow the gentle Jesus, not Christ the tiger.

Recently, I have been re-reading one of my favorite books - Chesapeake by James Michner. I was moved again by the witness of the early Quakers on the issue of slavery. At a time when almost everybody in America supported slavery, one brave little woman began speaking against slavery at the Quaker meetings. Everyone responded to her pleas with agitation and voted against her proposals. But 100 years later, after her daughter and granddaughter had taken up the cause, the Quakers became the first religious group in America to officially oppose slavery. They were following Christ the tiger.

The problem with being bold and on the cutting edge of moral issues is that most of the population is not there yet. Clear moral issues like slavery and civil rights began with very unpopular stands by a few courageous souls. Quite often, real change is very slow in coming.

In the local church most issues are not clear-cut, and there are people on both sides of almost any issue who feel they have strong moral grounds for their views. I know we have people in the church on both sides of the Iraq War, both sides of the abortion issue, both sides of the homosexual issue, both sides of the global warming issue, both sides of mountaintop removal issue, and on and on.

How do we take a moral stand when the local church are divided on an issue. Do we really have to wait until we have a unanimous vote on a moral issue? If so, we will be the very last congregation to take a stand. Or can we really make a moral stand with a split vote of 51% to 49%. If 51% of the congregation vote against stem cell research, does that really mean that the "church" is against it? What about the 49% of the people who voted the other way? How does a church take a stand when the church is divided?

Some churches solve this problem by letting the pastor make the call. The pastor chooses a moral side and the congregation lines up behind the pastor's views. The pastor advocates the chosen position with great fervor and with condemnation of those who disagree. The people who do not agree are silent or move to another church. It becomes clear to everyone what that church stands for. But it is not clear how many privately disagree or how many left the church over the issue.

Disciples of Christ are hesitant to let the pastor or anyone else make such calls for the congregation. We are proud of our diversity and have a deep respect for every person's opinion. That makes it difficult for the church to take a position on a divisive issue.

Does it mean that Disciples don't stand for anything? Some say that. But I don't believe that is true at all. Disciples take important moral stands all the time. Patricia, a Disciple from Northern Kentucky, took a stand in March when she traveled to Washington D.C. to protest the Iraq War in the "March on the Pentagon." On the other hand, my daughter-in-law, Crystal Anders, will take her stand in support of the war next month when she leaves her husband and baby to spend six months in Baghdad. Nancy Jo Kemper is a Dsicple who is head of the Kentucky Council of Churches. She has especially been fighting the gambling issue in the halls of the state legislature. And there are countless other Disciples who take strong moral stands every day. Don't say that Disciples don't stand for anything. Of course, they do.

And our church encourages such strong moral stands. We just don't dictate which stands individuals have to take. We don't try to enforce an artificial uniformity after a 51% vote. The church does not have to take a stand for all the people; the church can support and encourage the individuals in the church who take the stands.

But this does make Disciples a bit different. In Disciples life, you will likely hear people taking strong stands on differing sides of many popular issues and we celebrate that diversity. If we are the kind of persons who can't stand to hear someone disagree with us on our favorite issues, then we may not be happy in a Disciples church. But we can also take comfort in the freedom we experience here. Just because we hear someone state their convictions about abortion, that doesn't mean we are forced to agree. Just because the pastor states his views on the Iraq War, that doesn't mean we have to be embarrassed if we disagree.

There is a perverse assumption in many circles today that all Christians vote Republican, and that they all agree on such moral values are abortion, stem cell research, and homosexuality. But it is quite obvious that there are devout and godly people on all sides of such issues.

When one of our church members is asked how she feels about abortion, she knows that she does not have the expected opinion, so she usually replies, "I will be glad to talk to you about that, but are you really ready to hear what I have to say?" We don't have to be dogmatic and obnoxious to be courageous.

So which Jesus will you follow - the gentle Jesus meek and mild or Christ the tiger? Jesus said he came to bring fire and division. When Jesus becomes Lord, he storms into our lives challenging our presuppositions, threatening our complacency, and transforming our values.