Sowing Division
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Luke 11:14-23
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031226.cfm
In today’s gospel, Jesus is accused of being the opposite of what he is. When people want to see fault or blame they will find fault or blame. We are really good at seeing the world through the lens we want to see it through. We have narratives we tell ourselves that we cannot see beyond, and when the world and experience shows us otherwise, we are quick to explain away.
When I lived in the Philly area, I worked for Starbucks. I found football season to be very entertaining. One of the top local sports casters would frequent my store. While he didn’t care for it too much, people always wanted to talk to him about the Eagles. One of my fellow employees would rehash games with other customers especially when the Eagles lost. He always liked identifying the time in the game when the Eagles started to lose. There was always one play for him that was the catalyst for their downfall, and he would explain his theories to fellow fans and then walkthrough how the rest of the game would have played out. For him, the Eagles should always win, so there had to be a reason why they didn’t. One bad ref call. One poor decision by a linebacker.
We’re like this with our justifications of our belief systems. We may be able to admit when we’re wrong in little ways, but it’s very difficult when it brings our worldview into question. We have Christians who are Republican and Christians who are Democrats. A lot of us integrate these political ideologies into our belief systems where we can shift the teaching of our faith to align with these worldviews.
As I am going through this Lent, I can’t but keep going back to the two commandments of Jesus to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your God with the entirety of your being. In today’s gospel, Jesus points out that you are with him if you follow these commands and are against him if not. So one who truly expresses love is doing the will of God regardless of their belief system, regardless of if they see the world differently than you.
I’ve always had an issue with Bono. He’s the lead singer of U2 and is a very philanthropic musician. Even his philanthropy used to annoy me. I interpreted his behavior as him thinking he was better than everyone else or that he thought he had the answers. I judged him for having some kind of a messiah complex. I ranted about this to a friend of mine, and he responded with a couple of questions, “Does Bono have to try to make the world a better place with his money and success? Couldn’t he just be content with keeping his wealth and success to himself?” I then recognized that I fell trap to the same struggles as some of the people in today’s gospel. I’m not saying Bono is perfect or is fully Christ-like, but he does have behaviors that reflect the divine like all of us, even if my prejudgements make it hard to see.
Now, I haven’t felt the same bitterness about Elton John. LIke Bono, Elton John has done a lot of advocacy to help people with or impacted by AIDS. He is helping heal those suffering. I don’t agree with a lot of Christians who believe that homosexuality is against God. But even if you do, you can’t deny the fact that Elton John is doing God’s will by helping those who suffer. Then again, you may think that AIDS is a disease caused by an abomination, but I can just as easily argue that about any virus. Maybe some of my support of Elton over Bono is just strictly about musical preference. Oddly enough, I did get to see Elton John in concert in Dublin while staying at Bono's hotel.
We oftentimes use our faith to justify our worldviews versus having our faith challenge our worldviews. I am sure some people reading this could argue that I am doing the same. For me personally, I try my best to go back to Jesus’s two commandments as a means of evaluating God’s activity. It’s not always easy for me to do, and I know my biases and moods still have an impact on my judgment. But to assess situations with the gauge and being aware of your biases, can challenge you to see situations differently than your initial presumptions.
God’s kingdom is about love. Any kingdom divided against itself will be laid to waste as today’s gospel shows. But if God’s kingdom is love, it cannot be divided against itself. When one truly acts in love, one is building the kingdom regardless of who they are or what they may stand for. We all carry a piece of the divine, so we can all reflect that. We also all have the ability to go against God so we can reflect that as well. God is always challenging us to keep growing in love; to move beyond our fallen state to return to being created in love.
To be against God is to choose not to love. To gather is to propagate love, and to not propagate love is to fuel division. Division scatters, love unifies. God wants us to grow in love because in growing love, we grow in our relationship with God. God is love so whoever acts out of love is doing God’s will. God is all around us, we just have to remove our prejudgements to more fully see it. May we learn to open ourselves to the love all around us and stop sowing division.
