A House Divided.

An atheist was walking through the woods one day, when suddenly, he spied a large grizzly bear charging upon him. He ran, but to no avail, as suddenly the bear pinned him and raised its right paw to deliver a death stroke. In his fear and anguish, the atheist screamed, "O God!"

Suddenly, the scene froze in time.

A great, soft light enveloped the woods and a deep voice said, "My son, all your life you've denied Me. Now, in your hour of need, you come to Me. Do you now believe?" The atheist said, "Oh no, Lord. I don't want to be a Christian. Make the bear a Christian." The booming voice said, "Very well, my son." Suddenly, a broad smile broke out on the face of the atheist as he saw the paw withdraw from above his face, and the bear clasped both his paws together and began to pray. The smile began to fade, however, as the atheist heard the bear say these words, "Lord, I am truly grateful for the food which I am about to receive through the bounty of Jesus Christ our Lord."

One might say that the atheist had a somewhat conflicted view of reality. On one hand, he wanted God's help when he wanted it. On the other hand, he wanted that help on his own conditions.

In our Gospel for the day, Christ speaks of confliction as gives us the eternal truth, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth." In other words, an organization without internal unity will not last, because it lacks structural integrity. A house divided itself will not stand. This is a phrase Abraham Lincoln made famous in his "A House Divided" Speech of June 16, 1858. Lincoln spoke to more than 1,000 Republican delegates in Springfield, Il., shortly before they chose him to be their candidate for the U.S. Senate against Stephen A. Douglas.

In the speech, Lincoln made the following statements:
 
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
 
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
 
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
 
It will become all one thing or all the other¹.
 

At the time, Lincoln's friends thought the speech too radical to deliver. Even his law partner, William H. Herndon, thought that Lincoln was morally courageous but politically incorrect. Herndon said Lincoln told him he was looking for a universally known figure of speech that would rouse people to the peril of the times².

I am acutely aware that in the state of Texas and even in this room, there are those who hold a largely negative view of Lincoln. This is completely understandable, seeing that Texas, even against the advice of Gen. Sam Houston, became a major contributor to that noble cause, the Confederate States of America, a cause for which I personally have great respect. In fact, dealing with Lincoln, I too have a slightly conflicted view, having grown up in the great state of Illinois and receiving a very positive view of Lincoln, then later moving to Tennessee, where I attended high school and college, and where they gave me a distinctly different view of the North. Talk about a conflicted view!

My purpose today, however, is not to celebrate or to vilify Abraham Lincoln. Rather, my purpose is to focus on the key concept that Jesus Christ gave us from today's Gospel, which Lincoln made famous.

Christ taught us of the concept of spiritual unity that makes a "wholeness" of all things. In response to the ridiculous charge of the Pharisees, Christ uses the cool power of pure logic when he said in Luke 11:18 "If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub." Once again, moved with envy, the Pharisees attacked Jesus for his miraculous signs, because they saw his popularity growing among the people. In the New Testament, the Pharisees are usually held up to be the "villains" and, for the most part, justly so, because their true motivation was the preservation of temporal power. On the other hand, just so that we remember the source of the Pharisees' zeal, recall that their "school", if you will, was the reaction of the gross idolatry of Judah and Israel, which had led to the wholesale destruction of the Jewish nation.

Recall that the Assyrians first "carried off" and later dispersed the Ten Tribes of Israel into the vast Assyrian empire, because of their unrepentant idolatry. Whole populations were displaced and other, "heathen" peoples brought in, thus bringing forth the region of Samaria. Later, Judah herself, for the same reason, as well as gross disbelief in God's saving Grace, would fall prey to the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. Thus began the 70-year period known as the Babylonian Captivity, of which the prophet Ezekiel was a part. Later, under the Greeks, Israel would endure even more humiliation and idolatry, until Judas Maccabeus led a successful revolt to throw off the idolatrous multi-deity Greek yoke. During this period, the Pharisees came forth, men who were zealous for the purity of the Jewish Law and for the practice of monotheism.

Given the severe punishment Israel and Judah had suffered, one might be tempted to cut the Pharisees some "slack", so to speak, for their zeal. After all, Israel had grown through incredible hardship and agony because of idolatry. This would be acceptable, even for the Pharisees of Jesus Christ's time, if, like their forefathers, their motives had been pure. Unfortunately, they were not. The Pharisees of Christ's day were wealthy prelates, showered with adulation and swollen with pride. They were, after all, the teachers of Israel, doctors of the Law, instructors of the foolish, giving guidance to the blind. This was their self-image.

Once again, we see in Scripture a key teaching for our lives. The Pharisees went from one extreme to the other, that is, from being zealous guardians of the Law to being zealous guardians of their own power and prestige. Instead of keeping to their original purpose of safeguarding Israel against idolatry and thus enjoying the fruits of their well-founded respect, most of them became obsessed with their own prestige and social position. There were exceptions, of course, among them Nicodemus and others, who secretly believed on Jesus.

The Pharisees, as well as the Biblical Jews in general, are simply "case studies" of mankind. That is, we are to study them and learn from them whenever we can. In this, case, the lesson is simple: mankind, without the moderating, balancing, rectifying influence of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord, will always go astray. Without Christ, men and women will always fall into the ditch on the right hand or on the left. That is, when their spiritual house is divided against itself, their true righteousness will be frustrated.

That brings us to the topic of where we are this Lent. Are we enjoying a unified house, or do we find, if we are honest with ourselves, that we too have a "house divided?" Do you want to read the Scriptures daily, but can't seem to find the time? Do you want to come to evening prayer to enjoy Christian fellowship, but find other, more urgent priorities? Do you want to live a holy, blessed and fruitful Lent, but find the world pressing in on you daily, threatening to take your peace? The answer to all of these questions, for all of us, is "yes." These are tough times, as everything seeks to divert us from Christ.

The "drive-by" media fragments our attention, our time is incredibly impacted and accelerated, and our spiritual life is affected and dissipated, if we allow it. The battle for this Lent is on. That is, we must strive to be with our Lord in prayer, daily. We must strive to worship communally whenever we possibly can to derive our common strength, our common grace, our common belief. We must strive to read the Word of God daily to replenish our spiritual stores. The benefits are enormous and the reward is unlimited.

These are the weapons in the Christian's arsenal: prayer, fellowship and the Word of God. When we use them, always readily at our disposal, we will find unity in our spiritual house, not division. In our lives, we will find victory, not defeat. As we seek to promote unity in our spiritual lives, we will find fulfillment and joy. When our house is not divided and when we strive to attain that blessed unity with Christ, something else happens as well. Through unity in Christ, we then receive the greatest gift of all, that wonderful "peace that passeth understanding." Paradox of paradoxes, we struggle to find peace in this world and it is that peace that is worth all the struggle. That peace, true peace, however, can be found only in Christ Jesus our Lord.

From this peace flows joy in the knowledge that all is aligned as it should be in our respective spiritual "houses." Our house is not divided. It will not fall.

Once again, the words of Lincoln: "We shall not fail-if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.³"

So it is, beloved of the Lord, if we stand firm in the Lord. Our victory, eternal victory, is sure to come.