“Burning Love” – Sermon Aug 18, 2013
August 18, 2013
Scripture: Luke 12: 49-53
Jesus said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Sermon: Burning Love
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
One of my facebook friends posted a scripture passage, that great verse in Matthew: “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” I commented that I love that verse, that it is one of my favorites; it is one I built my profile statement around. Then I said, “But Jesus doesn’t always offer such comforting words,” and I quoted the passage from today’s reading: “I have come to cast fire on the earth,” says Jesus. “I have come to bring not peace, but division,” says Jesus. “Families will be divided,” he says. Not so very restful.
Casting fire is a powerful image isn’t it? Fire is a powerful force. It can provide light and warmth, fuel for all kinds of things. It can also consume and destroy. In scripture fire is portrayed as a punishing force – “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cast into the fire,” of “if your eye offends you, pluck it out because it is better to enter life with only one eye than having two eyes and being cast into hell fire.” And it is portrayed as a Godly image – the burning bush that Moses sees and is revealed as God, or when God as the pillar of fire led the Israelites through their night travels as they were released from bondage in Egypt; or the tongues of fire that hail the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. And fire is portrayed as a purifying and strengthening force. So which fire is it that Jesus has come to cast?
These are hard words from a man going through a hard time, who is facing the challenge of his life, and one that will take his life. He knows it. He is on his way to Jerusalem, he is a man who is looking for trouble. Or at least he is a man who knows that he will find trouble. Likewise the people that Luke was writing to were in a time of persecution and suffering. Jesus wanted fire to come upon the earth, was eager for it to be kindled. Some hear this as a warning that God’s wrath will be set loose on this evil world. But I don’t think that is what it is. Perhaps it is about judgment, but not the judgment that seeks to destroy, but a judgment that calls us to discernment, to get serious about what we are doing with our lives. I think the fire he longs to have kindled is the purifying and strengthening kind of fire. It is not the comforting warmth of a fireplace, but something uncomfortable and even frightening to stand very near. People may not be destroyed, but Christ’s fire will certainly seek to burn off the dross within us, may inflame us to self-giving concern for others, might ignite in us a passion for justice. And I can’t imagine how this would be comfortable or comforting.
I believe his words about divisions were not prescriptive but descriptive. He wasn’t telling people to fight with their families, he wasn’t telling communities to divide and fight, he was saying that if you followed him, followed in his steps and worked to bring the good news to people, that you will indeed face division. People won’t like it, even your family, as so many didn’t like what he was doing and saying.
Sarah Dylan Breuer points out that in The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan, the Christ-figure in the series, is “not a tame lion,” and likewise Jesus is NOT a “good guy” by conventional reckoning. Following Jesus won’t make you a “good guy” or “good girl” by most conventional reckonings either. You know all those instructions in the gospels to forgive and pray for persecutors, well you don’t need them if everyone thinks you’re just wonderful. She says, “How it came to be that so many people would think of Christianity as a ticket to respectability and an affirmation of the “core values” of a society is one of history’s most astonishing tricks to me; as with watching an illusionist making the Statue of Liberty ‘disappear,’ I’ve got to gasp and say, “I’m watching it, but I don’t believe it. This is not the way the universe works, and no matter how much it seems that way, I can’t believe it.” She points out the absurd contradiction of a society that purports to hold Christian values while there is a vast and growing gap between rich and poor, insiders and outsiders, powerful and marginal. For me, one of potential blessings of the decline of the mainstream church is that the church may actually start challenging worldly values as the early Christians did rather than affirming, enabling and forwarding them.
And with the decline of the church, we may find ourselves more at odds with family and friends because of our connection with religion, because of our love for Jesus and our desire to follow him. It is not life threatening as it was in Luke’s time, but does anyone else find at least uncomfortable sometimes? I know I have felt the distance increase in a few of my relationships as I became more focused on my faith. I’m not pushy with people who don’t find value in religion, but I notice not many ask about my work. I feel that 1 or 2 people in my family have even lost a little respect for my intelligence. But I think I am still in need of some of that fire Jesus would have kindled. I think I still have too comfortable and too safe of a life.
John Jewett tells of preaching a sermon entitled Balconeers and Travelers. The idea came from a parable about how the church can be made up of two kinds of people. Some are like folks who spend their days on the balcony of a grand hotel watching travelers go by. Day after day, they watch. They do not join the travelers and they do not wander far from the hotel. In the late afternoon they retire for a nap then it’s off to dinner and a fine glass of wine. After dinner they entertain themselves playing cards and board games as they discuss the interesting travelers they have seen that day. Upon waking from a good night’s sleep, they have breakfast and then gather once again on the balcony to watch the travelers. Sometimes they will cheer the travelers on. “Cheers good travelers! God be with you as you make your way!” The travelers on the other hand, are moving along the road aiming for a destination. As they travel they encourage each other and help each other along the way. They are a joyful, high spirited company relishing the journey, singing as they go. He says that after the service a woman went through the greeting line and barked, “That was a very divisive sermon and I didn’t appreciate it one bit!”
I understand her reaction. I have different feelings listening to this parable. It is like standing too close to a fire. I feel defensive for myself and others on the balcony. We are doing no harm, we are supportive right? I feel guilty for being on the balcony, as if it isn’t good enough for God. And I feel a yearning to go down and hit the road with the travelers. I’ve headed down a few steps, maybe even to the next level down, but certainly not all the way down to the road. I feel conflicted about admitting that to you, as I worry that I am holding you back from the road. But then again, as if I could. Talk about ego!
I also don’t really accept that there are two kinds of Christians, the ones who are “doing it right” and those who aren’t. It’s a false dichotomy. We all are on the road, and we all take breaks from the road and have a good dinner with wine, a good night’s sleep and breakfast. We all are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, who are waiting, not impatiently, not anxiously, but with cheering and excitement because they know we’ll get there, they know we are all in it together, they know Jesus has already run ahead and that the race is fixed so that love wins. May it be so.
