You know, Brian Parker was originally scheduled to preach this morning, particularly because he and Happy are about to swan off for three Sundays, and when I looked at our New Testament reading for today, I wish we had kept to our original plan!

Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!.. Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division... You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”

(Perhaps we should look at our Old Testament reading!!)

Actually, that’s one of the first things we can say. Some often make the point that the New Testament is when God became a Christian. The tone of it seems so completely different. Yet, there is much about judgement and justice in the NT as there is in the old. And, indeed, there is as much about the love and forgiveness of God in the OT as there is in the NT. They are completely a part of the same story. Even to the extent that Alec Moyter, a great Irish Biblical scholar, talks of the ‘Blank Page Test’; that between the Old and New Testaments, most Bibles have a blank page. Alec Moyter says to, “Take it out!” It has no place there. Genesis to Revelation is one continuous epic and there needs to be no separation!

And judgement and justice and division (I’m going to group these words together) is an inescapable part of that one continuous epic. (‘Fire’, by the way is almost always the symbol of judgement in Jewish thought).

The division that Jesus talks about here in Luke (and also in Matthew) is much easier to deal with than the kind of division we have within the Christian Church today. This division is the division between those who follow him and those who do not. It is as simple as that. You know well that the Bible doesn’t preach ‘universalism’. It doesn’t preach that at the end of time, in some sort of way God is going to say, “Ah, it’s OK. Come on in. You’ve raped and you’ve abused and you’ve murdered, but it’s OK. Come on in”. That’s not what the Bible teaches. If God were to do that, you might say he was a nice guy, but you could never say he was just. Love and justice are two sides of the same coin. It is built into our psyche that if someone does something wrong, then that person has to pay for it. It’s only fair, and it’s what our justice system is all about. If there were no consequence to doing anything wrong, then we would all be free to do whatever we liked without any fear of reproach

Since I have gone down this route, I can’t help repeating a story which tries to explain what God has done for us through Christ: Two people went through school together and were the best of friends. But life went on and they took their different paths. One ended up a Judge and the other ended up a criminal. One day the criminal ended up in front of the judge for a crime he had committed. To do his job properly the judge couldn’t just let him off. On the other hand, this was his friend whom he loved and he didn’t want to punish him. So he told his friend that he would fine him the correct penalty for the offence. That is justice.

Then he came down from his position as judge and he wrote a cheque for the exact amount of the fine. He gave it to his friend, saying that he would pay the penalty for him. That is love.

God’s judgement is real and he is a just God. But then, in his love, he comes down in the person of his son Jesus Christ and pays the penalty for us. He is both our Judge and our Saviour.

But we have to know him. The problem is, Jesus is saying here, that we just don’t get it! We can see the clouds coming and we know it’s going to rain, but how is it that you do not know who is speaking to you.

The division that Jesus speaks of here in Luke is an easy one to explain. It is the division between those who follow Him as our Judge and our Saviour and those who do not. It is as simple as that. The intention is not to frighten, but to reassure. It is not something to fear, but something to welcome

The divisions within Christendom, however, seem to be multiplying like cells in a developing embryo, ever since the Church began. Divisions within Anglicanism are getting more stark as we approach Lambeth, which takes place next year, when Bishops from all over the Worldwide Anglican Communion attend the Lambeth Conference where the Archbishop of Canterbury resides. Whatever the debate about the ordination of women all those years ago, which then threatened to split the Church of England, the debate over Human Sexuality is threatening to split the Worldwide Anglican Communion. Our own Bishop in Down and Dromore is considering not attending Lambeth if the American Bishops are present.

This sends out a clear message, from Down and Dromore anyway, that there is no debate about the state of human sexuality and it is to be forgotten about. It is presenting a division even before Lambeth begins.

I often think of the former Dean of Christ Church in Dublin, Dean Patterson, who didn’t agree with the ordination of women and he was asked in an interview, “Was he threatening to leave the Church of Ireland?” To which the Dean replied, “No, I threatening to stay in it!”

The kind of division that we see within the Christian Church, be it over doctrine or teaching or attitudes, gives to our opponents the greatest source of ammunition

The only way to try and safeguard a unified Church is through debate and discourse and prayer. And the only way to present your case is to be at the debating table.

The division that we speak of now within the Christian Church is not the same kind of division that Jesus speaks of here in Luke. Our God is a God of Justice and of Love, and he satisfies man’s greatest need, the need to be forgiven.