St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost – August 15, 2010
“House Divided!”
Text: Luke 12:49-53

As I look back, in all my years of preaching from this pulpit,
have I ever preached a sermon that “got me into hot water?” Have
I ever preached a sermon that divided this congregation or caused
conflict & anger in families?
Once a long time ago in a sermon about two men who went up to
the temple to pray, one a self-righteous Pharisee and the other a
lowly publican, a tax collector, as I was trying to paint a picture
of how unclean & unpopular & unworthy that publican was, instead
of saying “that dirty publican”, I inadvertently called him a “dirty
Republican.” But rather than fire me or get angry with me, people
laughed because they knew the embarrassing mistake I had made.
Couples & families in the congregation did not wind up getting upset
or being divided over whether I should bring politics into my sermons
or not - which I don’t. But it’s not that way in all congregations.
Given all the social, political, moral issues facing Christians these days
there are conflicts & divisions everywhere.
Why do I start off with this, this Sunday? Well, as I’ve said be-
fore, this month of August I’m preaching a series of messages for these
Sundays that are five Sundays to focus on the teachings of Jesus.
This third Sunday in August the teaching from Jesus is about a
house divided – or a difficult dance to dance. How difficult, how
challenging is it to live a life, to dance a dance, to make decisions
that follow in the foot-steps of Jesus; decisions that mean you stand
up for things or you don’t do things the way the world does things?
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? Jesus
teaches. No, I tell you but rather division. (v.31)
In other words as most commentaries on this text point out, “Jesus
recognized that with the coming of the Holy Spirit, with the servant-
like values He was teaching His disciples, and with the approach
of the Kingdom of God Jesus proclaimed, because of Him conflict &
division, antagonism & strife for those who followed Him would be
intensified. Those who followed Jesus would face opposition. Lines
would be drawn; Jesus authority would be questioned; Jesus’ claim to
be the Father’s Son would be rejected; to seek first the Kingdom of
God & value the Kingdom of God more than other things would divide
families instead of unite them. (TNIB, p.266,267)
Dr. Fred Craddock, whose truthful, down-to-earth stories about
the challenges of living a Christian life in a busy, secular world I
dearly love, tells of a time when “it was not with the blink of the
eye that a thirty-something year old said to him,” “Let’s see now,
was it next Sunday that my daughter was going to be baptized?”
“Yes,” said Dr. Craddock, “next Sunday!

“O my,” came the mother’s reply. “She has dance lessons next
Sunday.”
Said Dr. Craddock, “Well . . the worship service & baptism will be
Sunday morning.”
Came the mother’s reply, “But the dance lessons are at 10:30.”
“On Sunday morning?” said Dr. Craddock.
“Yeah, the dance studio has classes on Sunday morning.”
Dr. Craddock was awe-struck as he repeated this to himself, “Sun-
day morning? She said, Dance lessons on Sunday morning.”
After mulling it over, Dr. Craddock said to her, “Then we have a
decision to make, don’t we?”
Now some mothers & fathers today would think, “This is a ‘no-
brainer’! Of course, dance lessons come first.” Or maybe it’s a
soccer game, or foot-ball practice, or a trip to the mall.” In
matters of religion these days, Sunday mornings, Wednesdays after
school with lots of things going on, lots of choices to make, are
mothers & daughters, fathers & sons for or against commitment to
Christian values? Is mother for the arts, father for sports, and the
kids not all that interested in church? Do some mothers & fathers go
to church against their kids wishes? Do some kids want to get active
in church against their parents wishes? Do you know families who
are divided, undecided when it comes to worship, Christian nurture,
Christian fellowship?
You get the picture. True Christianity is not so much about being
nice people and having things comfortable & convenient as it is about
being new people and having hard decisions, hard choices to make al-
most every day and not just Sundays or Wednesdays.
Jesus is the one who paints this picture. Do you think that I have
come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
For from now on in one house there will be 5 divided, 3 against 2 and
2 against 3. Maybe some of you know how that goes.
A teenage girl at summer camp was torn between two sets of friends.
Some of them were sunbathing on the dock, saying to her, “Stay with
us.” But other friends were getting into a boat saying “no, come with
us.” There the poor girl stood, one foot on the dock, the other foot
on the edge of the boat, and the boat was moving. Trying to appease
everyone, trying not to have to make a decision, the girl ended up in
the water, and of course, her hair got wet!
Making the right choice; choosing to walk the narrow road that
leads to salvation; that’s what this teaching on commitment to follow
Jesus is all about. Jesus is warning us that there are times when
following Him require us to step away from what’s self-serving or
self-satisfying, to sing a new song, to dance a different dance than
the world is used to singing & dancing. There are times in this life
when to live as believers in Jesus Christ means saying “yes” to one
thing while saying ‘no’ to the other.

So, given the reality that there is no saying yes to everything
& no saying no to everything because we’re all sinful human beings
& none of us is perfect, how do we end up saying yes to what is
ulti-mately important and no to what is not ultimately important?
The answer to that is not to get more religion but to get more
in touch, more in step, more in faith, more in love with the God
and Father of us all who dearly loves us to death and back to life
through the saving merits of His Son, our Savior, Jesus.
C.S. Lewis, himself a late-in-life convert to Christianity who be-
came a great defender & steadfast practitioner of Christ-centered
Christianity, once stressed that we Christians cannot be passive
by-standers when it comes to Jesus. We must be engaged by Jesus,
embraced by Him, follow him, be caught up in “his dance” which is our
salvation . . .
Whether it be decisions about baptisms, confirmation classes,
dance lessons, sunbathing, boating, competing in sports, hanging
out with friends, doing chores, working on Sundays, when it comes
to all these things that can unite families or divide them, being
a Christian is not one more thing to add to the list, but being a

Christian who is first & foremost letting Christ abide in us and us abiding
in Christ.

Says C.S. Lewis, “This is perhaps the most important difference
between Christianity & all other religions: that knowing & believing
in God the Father & Jesus Christ the Son & the Holy Spirit is not a
static thing – but this three-Person God in His free & abundant grace
offers Himself to us as a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost
a kind of drama; almost, if you don’t judge my saying it irreverent
or irresponsible, almost as a kind of dance.
When it comes to dance lessons, if there is one dance we must
all learn to dance it is to let the Holy Spirit lead us & join us
in faith to Him who is the Lord of the dance, Who has danced from
creation to crucifixion; from crucifixion to resurrection; from death
to life eternal, and He calls to us .
Dance then wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance said He.
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance said He.
Not every one in your family or listed as members of this
congregation, may want to dance this dance. Jesus says houses will
be divided because this is a difficult dance to dance.
But Jesus also says, in Matthew 5, at the beginning of His great
Sermon on the Mount;
“Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and
revile you, and call out your name as evil, on account of the Son
of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, dance for joy, for
behold, your reward is great in heaven.” (Matt. 5:12)

Actually, the Psalmist said it first in Psalm 149 . . .
“Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice
in their King! Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody
to him with tambourine and lyre! For the Lord takes pleasure in His
people, He adorns the humble with salvation.
I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance said He. A difficult dance to
dance, but with Jesus all things are possible.
Amen