Next Sunday's gospel reading is not a serious contender for popularity! Just a second look at such words as "From now on five in one household will be divided...." should be enough to explain that.

Wouldn't we, after all, have preferred something a little nicer, more positive, perhaps? If you are inclined to feel that way, so was I when I first saw those discomforting words. But a second look at the gospel begs an important question: Did Jesus Christ, the Son of God, enter our world to feed us sweets like cake and ice cream, or is our faith in the incarnation about something more substantial?

Well, then, what is really substantial, and to be valued in our faith? It has to do with understanding our destiny in Christ by dealing with the forces in the world that work to obscure it. One way to look at clarifying our destiny is to see it as something like the "Arts and Crafts" movement. Its late nineteenth century founder, Elbert Hubbard, made the observation that "God will not look us over for medals, degrees, or diplomas". God's interests are not related to the rewards of social status, but in that part of ourselves that engages in living a life of good sacrifice, which affirms the value of the individual" in his/her uniqueness. So already there is something in this that is more substantial than cake and ice cream.

The Arts and Crafts philosophy in design and architecture flowered during the first decades of the twentieth century. Generally the movement was a mixture of traits, some of which seemed almost to contradict each other. The things of this school were simple, basic, and pragmatically functional, but somehow also sophisticated. It encompassed furniture that could be built by an ordinary carpenter, but it also spawned the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.