“Who Brings a Sword to a Peace Fight?”
Sermon given by Pastor Robb on May 25, 2025.
Continues the So That’s What That Means? sermon series.
Covers Ezekiel 13:1-12 and Matthew 10:32-42.
One of Jesus’ most difficult teachings, because it seems so incongruous with so much of other things we associate with Jesus because of what we see in his teaching and actions, is the saying “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Yet Jesus also says in this same teaching about how conflict can happen when living his values that “you are not worthy of me if you do not take up your cross and follow me.” When we hold those images together, and also see the connections of Jesus’ teaching with the legacy of Hebrew Bible prophets correcting the people’s misconceptions of peace before the exile, we may find a difficult, but uniting meaning in Jesus’ sayings and insights for navigating our time and place.
