Daily Lesson for October 19, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 through 39:

34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 

36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 

37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

We are nearing now the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Door.  For all his personal foibles, Luther is a reminder to us that sometimes reform is necessary, and sometimes it is very painful. 

And the sometimes are always. 

There is always, in every generation a kind of reformation. There is always in every age a reconsideration of suppositions, values, prejudices, and practices. There is in every present a kind of parting with the past and reforming of the future. 

This is never easy. It is painful.  It often requires a break from home. Sometimes, as in the Apostle Paul’s case, it requires a break from tribe altogether. As Jesus said, this is not peace, but sword.

Jesus is very clear that there is a price to discipleship.  Sometimes the price is peace.

But then we remember the prophet Jeremiah’s words, “Woe to them who say, ‘Peace, peace,’ where there is no peace.”