A Sermon Delivered by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on August 17, 2025.

There is a sense of urgency building in Luke’s gospel. Last week, you remember, Jesus reminds us God’s love for us is as a Shepherd caring for its lambs and tells us not to be afraid. Luke then records Jesus telling parables about the imminent inbreaking of God’s Kingdom. The tone is urgent and he issues an imperative call to be ready.

Today, we pick up the Story and can palpably feel the tension in Jesus’ teaching. He’s eager to get things moving and fulfill what he came to do. So in today’s passage Jesus gives us what I like to call his caveat emptor for discipleship. This is Jesus’ “buyer beware” for anyone who would take on the name and life of a Christ-follower.

Luke 12:49-56

⁴⁹“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! ⁵¹Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! ⁵²From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;⁵³they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. ⁵⁵And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. ⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

When you buy a house, the seller is required to make a full disclosure of any issues with the house or property. If the HVAC is 25 years old and barely hanging on, you must tell the buyer. If the basement leaks every time it rains, you must disclose that, too. And if there’s an ancient cemetery under the backyard? Well…let’s just say that’s a detail you’d better share. Caveat emptor. Buyer beware. Before you commit to buying the house, you’d better know exactly what you’re getting into.

Our text today has Jesus making a full disclosure of what it means to fall in behind him. He’s turned his face toward Jerusalem, knowing that what happens there will open the floodgates of God’s reign on earth. This is his “get ‘er done” moment. The tsunami of God’s redeeming love is building offshore, and it’s headed our way. And when that wave hits, it’s going to stir things up.

From the very beginning, on Christmas morning itself, Jesus’ presence caused disruption. We could say, borrowing from Lucasfilm, that his coming was a “disturbance in the Force.” Jesus challenged the religious status quo of his day which was an overly ritualized and rule-bound faith that left little room for the living God. The keepers of that system saw him as a threat to their power. And we know what they did to him.

He challenged the social status quo, too. He criss-crossed the boundaries of ethnicity, class, gender, and respectability. Do you remember Mary’s song in Luke 1? What we call The Magnificat is not just a sweet lullaby; think more of it as a Vietnam War protest song. Mary’s song was a political and social bombshell: God brings down the powerful, lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty. The Magnificat was a direct challenge to the Roman Empire and the current religious establishment alike. And we know what they did to him.

Everywhere Jesus went, his words and actions stirred the pot, or as late Georgia Congressman, John Lewis would say, cause “good trouble.” He took status quo conventions of his day and flipped them upside down. He told the poor people they were rich and the rich were poor. He said the first in line would be last and the last in line would be first. He declared that loving even your enemies shows more of God’s heart than any religious ritual or festival.

For Jesus, the presence of the Kingdom of God in someone’s life or in the world looked something like this: Imagine an 8-foot square little room that was full of two dozen fat, sleepy cats.  Now imagine opening a little trap door on the top of the room and then dropping a 2-year-old Jack Russell terrier into the midst of them. Can you picture it? It’s scene of complete chaos. Friends, this is what the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom is like when it encounters our lives. Folks should know something is going on with us.

And here’s the thing: when we live out the Kingdom ethic, that is, choosing love over violence, moderation over extremism, mutual respect over hatred, then some people will get uncomfortable, particularly the power brokers of the systems. People may get uncomfortable, not because we’re trying to pick fights, but because when we reflect God’s values in the world it’s going to cause some good trouble. Why? Because God’s ways are in tension with the world’s ways.

Jesus does not want family members to be at odds with each other, but he is realistic; when the values of the reign of God clash with the values of the world, there will be friction.

Think about it:

A deeply compassionate person makes an intolerant person squirm.

A person full of peace and calm during a fretful time frustrates those addicted to angst and outrage.

A person who is patient and deliberate in their actions totally unnerves the perpetually hurried.

The presence of Jesus in our lives and in the life of our church will provoke a response from folks in the world.

At least, it should.

Too often, we Christians forget who we are and where we get our identity. We tend to model the values and fads of our society rather than the person of Jesus. The expression of our Christian faith can become so bland that even our coworkers are surprised to learn we even go to church! There again, sometimes the church itself works so hard to “fit in” and look attractive to the world that it loses its holy distinctiveness. We trade the costly way of love for Christianity-Lite – a Christian faith that doesn’t require much from us.

If we’re not causing good trouble, both as individual followers of Christ and as a congregation, then maybe it’s time for some self-examination.

I’m not talking about standing on a street corner with a bullhorn, shouting “turn or burn.” And I’m not talking about prideful, judgmental attitudes. I mean being the winsome, gracious, fragrant presence of Jesus in our everyday lives to the people we come in contact each and every day. It is the kind of presence that unsettles the world not through force, but through the irresistible power of love.

So, this week, my friends, let’s each of be that Jack Russell terrier in the room full of sleepy cats. Let’s go spread some good trouble out there with the love and grace of Jesus.

And all God’s people said, Amen.

© 2025 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and shall not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.