The 12th chapter of Luke is filled with difficult words of Jesus. Perhaps the words caught you by surprise as well: “Did Jesus really say he came to bring division?” These are not the publicity tools that a church would normally advertize.

Could you imagine the Saturday ad in the Gainesville Sun: “Come to First Presbyterian Church, we’ll turn your family against each other”? I suspect even the Reverend Billy Graham might have difficulties getting people to respond to an altar call with that kind of invitation!

How are we to understand all of these things? I believe there is a way, but in order to see it, we will have to pull back from where we are, and take a wider viewpoint.

There are 4 basic changes that can happen to an organization – any organization, like the church, or a university, or any group where people come together. The changes can be expressed in terms we all learned in our earliest mathematics classes: add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

The first basic change is the one that we have just been discussing: division. Perhaps the most common phrase you’ve heard talking about division is “divide and conquer.” It comes from the idea that an adversary will be weakened if it splits into many pieces. Unfortunately the Presbyterian Church has had a lot of reasons to talk about division lately. Each year it seems that our national General Assembly meetings address “divisive” issues, and people are polarized, separated into groups. This is nothing new unfortunately; even the Apostle Paul wrote in disgust that some early churches were being split because some said that they belonged to Apollos, and others said that they belonged to Cephas, and still others said that they belonged to Paul. [1Co 1:12]

Even on a smaller scale, even local congregations can get trapped up in this thinking. We too can get trapped in that same thinking when we consider ourselves parts of just one aspect of the church’s life. When we do that we weaken the church because we forget that our commitment is first to God’s church as a whole. We are not to be part of the division of the church. In fact, the Ordination vows of the Presbyterian Church even specify that we are to work for the peace and unity of the church.

The division is understandable because the church is full of imperfect people.... Thank God for that, because it is the only way that I would be allowed in – it’s the only way any of us would be allowed in. C.S. Lewis wrote that he thought the whole idea of “hate the sin, love the sinner” was a bunch of nonsense, until he realized that there was one person who he had done that for – himself. Yet very often in the life of a church we will see the imperfections of the church (which really means we see imperfections in other people, because the church is, at its most basic, a group of people gathered together) – we will see imperfections but we do not think they are a natural, if unfortunate, reality of life on earth. Instead we think that they are somehow an indication that the church has some sort of shortcomings.... Which of course it does. The church is filled with shortcomings because we are filled with shortcomings. But the wonderful reality is that when we come together we can minimize those shortcomings, and become together something greater than we ever could have become on our own.

Going back to our text; how can we understand Jesus’ words that He has come not to bring peace but division? It turns out not to be very difficult. Jesus knew that He would bring division because He made serious claims on our lives, and He knew that some people would respond and others would not. Those who did respond would find themselves divided against those who did not, but there was no other way. Jesus was calling for them to change who they were and how they acted; He told them to change how they treated one another and what they considered to be important. He was pulling them away from the ways of sin and death and showing them the way of truth and life. Is there any doubt that those who heard His message were severely divided? Some gave up everything they had to follow Him, while others plotted to kill him as a heretic.

Jesus knew that although He wished for peace, in this case keeping the peace would have meant leaving people the way they were, which He could not do. And so He called others to join Him.

That leads me to discuss the second way that an organization can change. The first is by division as we have been saying. The second is by addition. We often talk about the church in this way: “We would like to add more members to our church” or “we would like to add new programs, or choirs, or Sunday school offerings.”

I would like to ask that we stop, once and for all, about talking that way. We must stop talking about adding, especially when we are talking about new members. Most of the time I get a knot in my stomach when we start talking that way, and I know that some of you do too, even if you aren’t sure why. It makes you uncomfortable.

Why must we stop talking “adding”? For two reasons: first, because adding to our membership rolls, or adding to our programs, or adding to anything else is not our goal. We can mistake it for our goal. Jesus never talked about adding new members or getting a larger group to him. In fact I went to track down all the places where Jesus did talk about “adding” and I found exactly one statement by Jesus, recorded in Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 12, the same statement which reads “Can any of you (by worrying) add a single hour to your span of life?”

It turns out to be exactly the opposite. Not only can we not add a single hour to our life-span by worrying, but in fact by taking that time to worry, we actually waste hours of our life. Jesus told His followers that those who try to save their lives will lose it. He wasn’t talking about not wearing a seat-belt or refusing medical treatment when it can help us, or doing any of the other normal safety things that we do to protect our physical life. He meant that if we are so worrying about our life that we are afraid to live it, we will lose it. He went on to say that those who lose their life with gain it. By that He was trying to tell us that when we release our fears, when we stop worrying about our lives to the extent that it cripples us in fear, then we start to engage in the world around us. When we engage that world we find that we are less and less concerned about ourselves, and more concerned with those around us. We lose ourselves, we lose our lives, so to speak, in something much greater than ourselves – and our lives are so much richer for it.

No Jesus seemed to have little interest in adding followers to his group. In fact Jesus was in some ways a terrible evangelist. Most often when someone came to Jesus, wanting to follow Him, Jesus ended up sending them away. Go back and re-read those stories and you will often find that Jesus sent them away because He knew that there was something that they were still holding onto, something that still controlled their life, and they were still concerned with saving that part of their life and would not be able to let go enough to “lose” themselves in something bigger.

Jesus had a simple command: Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. It was a command to His first followers, and to us. If we are seeking to be God’s faithful people, if we are seeking to do those things that we ought to do, worrying less about some hoped-for potential result and instead being focused on doing the right things for the right reasons, then we will find ourselves with those things that we always thought we had to chase.

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First we had division, and we saw how that could hurt us, both as a community as well as individually. Secondly we had addition, which in our context is a too-narrow field of vision.

Thirdly, we come to the fun one: multiplication.

It was popular some time ago, and to an extent still today, to talk about being able to see the “big picture” — and the big picture is the 3rd way that an organization changes.

Now this is the type of vision most people and most organizations usually fail to realize. Too often we don’t even consider it. When we are having so much trouble adding to our cause and spending so much time worrying about adding to it, we don’t dare dream to the level of the growth of multiplication.

Again let me state clearly that church growth is a by-product, not a goal, but let’s talk about the by-product. God’s vision is bigger than our vision. God can see beyond where we can see. God sees in multiplication. In the first chapter of the Bible we see the command to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply.” The command is repeated six times in the book of Genesis alone.

How big is God’s vision? Well when Jesus was with His disciples and a large crowd had gathered, they looked at what they had to offer $mdash; fish and bread $mdash; and saw the numbers just didn’t add up. Jesus took the bread and fish and multiplied it so that it fed thousands. In the book of Acts it talks about the Apostles (the previously bumbling Apostles!) as preaching the word of God and having thousands of people respond to the word that they proclaimed.

The Apostles did not sit down and say “How can we possibly spread the Gospel to the whole world? There’s only 12 – um, make that 11 – of us!” They were faithful, and God took their acts of faith and multiplied it.

But Jesus taught them differently. He taught them not to rely on themselves or the things of the world, but to trust and rely on God along. Paul reiterated this teaching in his letter we heard when we said

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

I saw a bumper sticker slogan somewhere that said words to the effect of this: “Work as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything depends on God.” The statement is neither deep nor particularly theological, but it may nonetheless be helpful for us to consider.

Jesus is asking us to try. That is what is required of us, however you wish to say it, to try: to believe, to hope, to trust. Be generous with what you have, with your gifts and with your life. I am thankful for the phrase “as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion” because it describes exactly not only what God wants, but how He wants it. Have you not only given generously, but willingly? Remember God is concerned not only with what you do, but the condition of your heart, the spirit within you.

Where will we begin? Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it is planted and grows becomes the biggest of all the trees in the field. That is God’s multiplication thinking. Another verse tells us “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Bountiful sowing with the hope of a rich harvest.

It is that faithful hope that will lead us to reach for things which seem to exceed our grasp. It is that multiplication thinking that will stir us to try that which we have not tried before, not fearful of what we might lose, but hopeful in all that might be gained, not for our glory, but for the glory of God the Father.

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So we have discussed division, addition, and multiplication thinking. Now we come to the last: subtraction. I was interested to learn that the word “subtract” never appears in the Bible. The words divide, add, and multiply all appear, but not subtract. As a preacher I’m required to wonder what that might mean and so I thought about it. I thought about it in my office, and in the car. I thought about it wherever I went. There was a significance waiting to be revealed. The first terrible thought I had was about death and dying. Was that it? Could that be the subtraction that we face?

Then the answer came to me as clear and obvious as possible. Subtraction was not death; it couldn’t be. The only way that death could be subtraction would be if we were lost to God at death. Thanks to the love and grace of God we know through the cross and resurrection that we will not be lost, none of God’s children are lost to Him. No, subtraction meant something else. Finally I had the answer. Subtraction was not something that we should fear, but something that gives us hope. Subtraction was not a negative but the extreme positive. The phrase that finally came to me, the closest phrase I could find in Scripture was “take away” $mdash; and “take away” appears throughout the Bible. There are a dozen words and phrases in Greek and Hebrew that are translated “take away” but the most important are those that describe what Jesus did for us. It was through His death and resurrection that God took away our sin. It was then that we were saved, where we no longer had to fear sin or death. It was then that it was decided that we could be everything but lost.

So where have we been and what difference does all this make?

There will be times when we, as a church and as individuals, will go through cycles of life and faith. There will be times when we are divided, when we struggle with others and with ourselves. There will be times when we are able to set our fears aside and add life to our years, regardless of how many years we have in our life. There will be times when we will experience phenomenal faithfulness, where our lives are such that we too witness to God’s glory and power and others are drawn to know and serve God.

But perhaps most importantly we live with the confidence and knowledge that wherever we go and whatever we do, we are never lost to God. For long before we knew we needed a savior, Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth. He lived that we might know the way of truth and love; He died that we might be forgiven, and He was raised so that we would be able to share in the eternal life that God has prepared for us.

Once we know that we are forever the children of God, we can begin to grow in the love and faith that will allow us to be His faithful witnesses until He returns to reunite all humanity to Himself. We pray for that renewal to happen within us this day and continue forevermore.

To God be the Glory Thanks be to God. Amen.

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

2 Timothy 1:6-14

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