Looking at Sunday’s Lectionary, Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” I have tended to see that as a prediction rather than a manifesto, the inevitable consequence of Jesus’ uncomfortable truth-telling. But maybe it is his intention after all. The Prince of Peace s not comfortable with stress and conflict and suffering (to himself) his ministry will bring, but it has to be.
Preaching to myself here, but we cannot always opt for an easy life, not if we believe that God loves the world.
It is not love to
bend and let be. There is right;
and there’s bone-deep wrong.
Near to the houses,
the path is ‘dogshit alley’,
fragrant in the heat.