Aug. 18, 2013, 13th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 12:49-56

49"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
54 He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?

“Is not My Word Like Fire?

There are things we do not want to hear.  Even in God’s Word!  The Prophet Jeremiah (and other prophets) got in trouble because they said what God wanted them to say, not what the people wanted to hear.

God’s word is not only a word of peace; it is also a word of challenge which brings unrest.

It is not just to comfort the afflicted; it is also to afflict the comfortable!

It does create division among people between those who hear and those who don’t want to hear.  This is true because God’s Word is fire and it creates a dangerous spirit - the spirit of love!  The kind of love which brings God’s kingdom to this world in ways which make it a different yet better place for all.

“Fire On Earth”

A difficult text.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace, not of division.

When what we hold sacred is challenged,no matter what it is,
 division is going to result.

Jesus challenged a lot of sacred cows in his day - and there was division!
Yet Jesus did not let this keep him from the sacredness of life. He did what he had to do to show God’s love and mercy to all and let no religious tradition stop him.
What we forget is that God’s Word is like fire and like a hammer which seeks to create in us a dangerous spirit - the spirit of love - and calls us to a radical way of living - as those who forget not the name of God no matter what price has to be paid.

To live as God’s chosen people does not mean we can have our cake and eat it too!
That we can presume on God’s generosity and take it for granted;
keep our faith and our love private;
  live off the fat of God’s love with little thought for others;
judge and condemn those who are different;
  gloat over what we have and condemn those who have not.

To live as God’s chosen people is to live as radicals who dare believe in love as the most powerful and most important power in all of life.
Nothing, not even our most honored and sacred relations must keep us from living as those who are servants of love; disciples of a God of love.

The words spoken by a young boy in the south during the racial struggle of the 1960’s  touch the heart of Jesus words to us today.

“I don’t know why I said no to segregation.
I’m just another white Southerner,
and I wasn’t brought up to love integration.
But I was brought up to love Jesus Christ,
and when I saw the police of this city
use dogs on people,
I asked myself what Jesus Christ would have
thought and He would have done
- and that’s all I know about how I CAME TO BE HERE,
 ON THE FIRING LINE.”

Telhard de Chardin captures Jesus words in prophetic words still seeking fulfillment.

“Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love:  and then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire!"