Southern Maryland is what I refer to as “Roman Catholic world.” There is a Roman Catholic Church on every street corner. You can’t throw a rock without hittin’ one. Being from Southern Alabama, I grew up in “Southern Baptist world.” You can’t throw a rock without hittin’ a Southern Baptist Church, or a Southern Baptist for that matter. Almost every single one of my friends was Southern Baptist, so every once in a while, whenever I’d spend Saturday night with a friend, I’d go to a Southern Baptist Church instead of my Episcopal Church. Now, the most popular Southern Baptist Church was Shades Mountain Baptist. It was humongous, absolutely, unbelievably humongous. Us Episcopalians referred to it as “Fort God” and “Six Flags over God.” The Pastor there was Dr. Carter. I actually went quite a bit, it was after all the most popular of the Southern Baptist churches in my town. I remember being there one Sunday in particular. I don’t remember a whole lot about the actual service. But what I do remember is afterwards my friend taking me up to the front of the church to introduce me to Dr. Carter. He asked me if I attended a church, and I told him that I did and belonged to Church of the Advent, the Episcopal Cathedral. After hearing that I was an Episcopalian, Dr. Carter said, “Honey, don’t go expectin’ to find yourself in heaven. ‘Cause Satan LOVES Episcopalians!”

It’s sort of funny when I think back on it. But when he said it, I didn’t find it so funny. I was hurt. He was suggesting that I wasn’t a Christian. I mean, who did this man think he was? I got up on Sunday mornings and went to church. How could I not be a Christian?

Jesus says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Let’s go back several thousand years to Mount Sinai. God gave Moses the laws on Mt. Sinai, 10 laws to be exact, from which all the other laws in Judaism, found throughout the first five books of the Bible, were derived.

God gave these laws saying Here O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord your God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength. And God calls the nation of Israel, the Jews, to have His law written on their hearts.

So now we’ll speed forward to the first century, about two thousand years ago, when Jesus began his ministry in the world. Jesus was Jewish. He was born into a good Jewish family. He found that many of the Jews around him were doing the law instead of having the law written on their hearts. You see, the reason for the laws wasn’t to do the laws because God needs them followed in order to be happy. The reason for following the laws was to bring each person into closer relationship with God, a relationship that had been broken in the Garden of Eden. Jesus finds the jews doing the law, but doing it for the sake of the law, and not for the sake of God. Jesus over and over tells the Jews that what they are doing is wrong. That the way they are living their lives is wrong. The point is to love the Lord, to have the law written on their hearts. And their just not doing that. They just don’t get it.

And Jesus also tells about a greater kingdom, one greater than any of them can imagine, the kingdom of heaven. Jesus knows what the kingdom of heaven offers, because he’s God in human form. He sees the futility of following laws for the sake of humanity, because they should be following the laws all the while focused on the kingdom of heaven. He sees that so many of the people he’s surrounded by are living their lives focused on this earth, on these laws, on humanity. They are not focused on God. Jesus has come to fulfill the law, to remind us of why we do them, not for the sake of each other, but for the sake of God.

Jesus points his finger at many prominent figures in his world, and in doing so creates division. There was relative peace and unity in Judaism (note that I say “relative peace and unity”) but Jesus comes and says, “No, you are not living your lives following God’s commandments. You love your laws more than you love God. You do your laws, but forget all the while the reason for doing them.”

And here enters the first Christians, who were actually Jews. Christianity was founded on division. The nation of Israel was divided between those who kept to their ways, following God’s law for their own sake, and those who followed Jesus. Not peace, but division.

Let’s fast forward again, to the present. We’re here, in church. So, we’re doing the right thing…right? We’re sitting (or standing) here, recognizing the Sabbath. We’re praying. We’re praising God. So, we’re doing God’s law, right? But if being here in church, praying, figuring that we’re doing enough to please God, if that gives us peace, then we’ve missed the point. You see, the jews had become complacent. “Oh, well, I’m doing the law, so ,even though the man sitting next to me is starving, I’m still doing what god has called me to do, to follow the law.” You see, we, as a Christian religion, have also become complacent. “Oh, I go to such and such church. I’m there almost every Sunday. That makes me a good person.” Now, I’m certainly not saying that church isn’t important. It is, in my mind, vital to the life of a Christian. So much so that I preached a sermon on it last Sunday. But if we stop there, then what are we doing? Why are praying? So that we can go home to our nice lives, in our nice homes, with our nice families? If we stop here, if our time in church on Sundays makes us feel good, makes us feel peace, then we’re missing the point of the Christian life.

Living the Christian life should make us uncomfortable. It should force us to look at the world around us and be deeply unsettled about the way it is, about the injustice we see, about the starvation, homelessness, abuse. As Christians we look forward to the kingdom of heaven, and thus know what awaits us in this incredible kingdom that God has established for us. And as Christians we are called to make this kingdom of earth as much like the kingdom of heaven as possible. That means looking around at the way things are, how far off they are from the kingdom of heaven, and being deeply, deeply unsatisfied. Deeply unsatisfied. The opposite of peace. It should bring division. Christ didn’t die on a cross so we can live our nice lives, in our nice homes, with our nice families. Christ died on the cross to show us a new way, a way that, yes, is deeply unsettling. We cannot be fully at peace while on this earth. Following the law isn’t going to make this life peaceful. Going to church every Sunday shouldn’t make this life peaceful. The only true peace is Christ, and that is what we set our sights on.

Dr. Carter was wrong. He was wrong about Satan loving Episcopalians. Honestly, he was wrong about Satan loving, period. But, if you dig deep enough, there is actually some wisdom in his words. (I always try to find wisdom in people’s words, hard though it may sometimes be to find). I was sitting in church every Sunday and feeling pretty proud of myself. If we come to church every Sunday, and feel good about the hour and a half we’ve taken out of our 168 hours each week, feel satisfied about that hour and a half, then Dr. Carter’s right, Satan does certainly like that a lot. Because then we’ve missed the point. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could sit complacently in church every Sunday and leave feeling like we’ve made the world a better place. Christ came to tell us that if that’s what we’re doing then we are sorely mistaken. What are we doing outside of these doors? What are we doing everyday? Are we looking forward to the kingdom of God, and are therefore deeply unsettled by what we see around us? Are we doing something to make that better? Prayer. Service. Are we doing something to make this time on earth as much like the kingdom of heaven as possible?

I ask that you remember Dr. Carter’s words. Not because they’re right, but because they cause a division in our hearts. They angered me. They hurt me. And then, they forced me to look in a much deeper way at the way I was living my life. They forced me to be deeply unsettled at the deep pain and isolation in this world. And that made all the difference. It got me out of the pew and into the world, proclaiming a peace found only in God’s kingdom, proclaiming the incredibly awesome news in the midst of this sometimes fun and peace, sometimes painful, often times very complacent world.

Dr. Carter’s words caused a disruption in my heart, a division in me. May we all feel that division. May we all be deeply unsettled.