Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
I don’t know about you, but I find the passage before us today from Luke very challenging. I have consulted my commentary for help, and the wisdom there is that Jesus is saying that when people take his teachings seriously, as Paul did when he said things like there is no longer Jew or Greek, there will inevitably be divisions, even within families. Some will embrace his Gospel; others will reject it. And such differences will bring pain. I do take that point.
But, today, the last thing I need to hear more about is division. Talk about division is everywhere. Even my students are talking about it as they anticipate Thanksgiving break and time with their extended families. The divisions within their families are so great. They can’t imagine mending them. The best they can think to do is just try not to talk about them. Eat your turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes and stick to sports.
Oh, well, I suppose that works if your extended family doesn’t include Buckeyes and Wolverines.
While I appreciate my commentary’s read of the passage from Luke, today I want to emphasize the word we get from Paul. And I want to start where our reading starts: “Brothers and sisters.” Perhaps Paul is being aspirational in this—that we are brothers and sisters, even when we don’t feel like being brothers and sisters. Even when our divisions seem so insurmountable that we can’t imagine watching a ball game together.
And then he says that we are to be strengthened through the Spirit in our inner self. What does he mean? He says that we will be strengthened by knowing the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.
The great ancient Greek authors had a lot to say about hubris—the decidedly human temptation to think we know more than we do. Or to have certainty when we don’t. Or to think we have more power than we do. I remember well a phrase from a 20th century Protestant theologian who said that human beings do their worst when they think they have the knowledge and power to make history come out right.
Paul reminds us that the love of Christ surpasses all human knowledge. Christ’s love is so much bigger than we are. To him be the glory.
If you were to pass by our house this week you would see that the signs in our yard in anticipation of November 5 are very different from the signs in our neighbor’s yard across the street. And they have been so for three election cycles now.
What has taken me by surprise is how pleasant, even warm, our conversations have become in the last six months or so as I take yard debris down to the curb for removal by the city and he and his wife scatter grass feed in their front lawn.
I believe that Paul understood divisions (as did Jesus, of course). Paul’s word today is that Jesus’ love is so deep, so wide, and so vast that if we can just embrace that love, if we can just love our neighbor with whom we really disagree, we’ve got a chance.
That’s what Paul is teaching me to pray this day.
—Susan Trollinger