Sermon: pentecost 5 - year a

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;” says Jesus, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Barbara Brown Taylor wonders if this is the “kind of statement that makes us Christians wonder if [we] are hearing right. Is this really Jesus? Is this the prince of peace who taught us to love our enemies, the gentle shepherd who taught us to turn the other cheek? It is the kind of statement that makes you wish someone had forgotten to write it down, but even if we didn’t have it in Matthew, we will find it in Luke, “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division. (Luke 12:51)”

What are we to make of such a pronouncement? And where exactly is the good news in it? (the rest here)