Readings: Isaiah 1:10-17; Matthew 10:34-11:1
…Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth, I have come not to bring peace but the sword…
When I hear today’s Gospel I’m reminded how far from true discipleship is the bourgeois gospel of respectability current during my childhood or the accommodating suburban gospel of affirmation prevalent in many churches today.
I would share with you a quote from The Ladder of Perfection by Walter Hilton (c.1340-1396) which seems to be to the point:
If you would wish to be a spiritual pilgrim, you must strip yourself of all your spiritual possessions; your good deeds as well as your bad deeds must be left behind. You must regard yourself as so spiritually poor that you have no confidence in your own actions; instead you must desire only the presence of Jesus and his profound love.
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