Reading
Luke 12:51
Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
Devotion
This week's painting is "Ecce Homo" by Swiss-Italian painter Antoni Ciseri (1821-1891). Created in 1871 this painting currently resides in the Uffizi in Florence. I had the opportunity to view it in person in 2023. It is a striking rendering of Pontius Pilate before the mob that will insist on the condemnation to crucifixion. The vulnerable, yet upright Jesus stands in contrast to the Roman politician playing to the crowd. Study the characters of the people, of the crowd, of the scene. What do you see? To me it brings to mind the need to answer the question "Who do you say that I am?" which Jesus asked of his disciples in Matthew 16:15. Pilate and the mob answered that question with 'political revolutionary' and 'blasphemer' and so followed the absolutely brutal way of the cross.
Followers of the Way, first called Christians in Antioch in Acts 11, have been and remain divided. We like to pretend that there was great unity in the early church, but that was not the case. The first council of the church had to argue about whether one first had to be a Jew before becoming a Christian (see Acts 15), many of Paul's letters are attending to various arguments about faith and faithful living, the early Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon and others were arguments about the nature of Christ with the winners proclaiming 'anathema' against the losers and the losers taking their toys and going home and carrying on disregarding the councils. In my own Anglicanism there was the Synod of Whitby, the Reformation, the Puritan controversies, the Oxford Movement, the high church vs. low church, the challenges of being The Church of England in America after the American Revolution, and on and on.
How do you answer the question, "Who do you say that I am?" dear reader? How do you engage with people who may have different answers to that question? Are you like cueball in 386: Duty Calls - explain xkcd? Or have you found a better Way?
Prayer
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior,
the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the
great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us
from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body
and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith,
one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all
of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth
and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and
one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 818)