PENTECOST 11

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: PENTECOST 11
PROPER: 15 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 19, 2001

TEXT: Luke 12:49-56 - Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" . . . . . . . . . .You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

ISSUE: Jesus comes to enliven the world. He is the fire and catalyst to awaken the world to its need for a new understanding of God as love and compassion, and even more specifically for an awareness of a world in crisis. The church today along with its members is often lulled into being passive. We look for a peace and quiet, not a peace that his vital to the well being of all of God's creation. We know how to interpret and think, but are passive about the being channels through which God's grace may flow effectively. We stand under the judgment of being or not being the faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One of the interesting things about our worshipping together here in the Parish Hall, while the entrance to the main church has been blocked by the construction of the new entrance and ramp, has been in some of the remarks some of our people have made. I know it is not the most worshipful kind of setting, but a number of people have remarked at how good it is for us to have had during the summer this intimate setting. We long for and enjoy camaraderie, peacefulness, and harmonious activities. It’s even been nice to have the kids in the other close by section, and enjoy last week the installation of new acolytes with the other acolytes standing behind them in support. The activity of our children helps us, I think, to know we are alive. We also are inclined to think of our church as that peaceful place where we come to be set apart from the anxieties, the stresses and strains of our lives to find comfort and peace.
To that hope for peace and quiet, for fun, welcoming, and harmonious fellowship comes this reading from Luke that seems to shatter any hope of peace and quiet. Luke has Jesus saying, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you but division." These are some of the discomforting words of the Gospels, which we do not particularly like to hear, and which many preachers do not like to preach about, particularly on a day like today in our hopes for unity and peace in the parish. We cherish the more comfortable aspects of the Scriptures and prefer to avoid the more troublesome passages. Yet it is still our Bible and we shall have to live with it. Since so many of us are here today, maybe it is good for us to be challenged by some of the more difficult aspects of the Scriptures, because maybe we do come for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal, repentance and change. Maybe we do gather here even for social reasons and support among like thinking people, and people of our own class and status.
The passage begins with Jesus saying, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" Fire is often a symbol of judgment in the Scriptures. John Pilch, a biblical scholar and student of Middle Eastern Culture, has an interesting interpretation of this saying attributed to Jesus. The word in for "earth" in Aramaic (the native language of Jesus) and in the context of his passage may also mean “earth-oven.” Thus, the passage can read, "I came to bring fire to the earth-oven.” The earth-oven was a common stove in the Jesus' time. It was made of earth and lined with salt. The salt was a catalyst, which held in the heat and was also mixed with the fuel which was camel dung to make the oven stay hotter longer.
Remember too, that Matthew's account of the Gospel has Jesus saying to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth, (possibly earth-oven), but if salt loses its saltiness there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it." (Matt.5:13 and Luke 14:34 is similar) Thus, the salt is the catalyst that makes the over hold heat and makes the fuel burn steady, long, and hot. Now putting these things together what you have Jesus saying in effect is that He is the fire to light the oven, and his people are the salty catalyst that keeps the energy and the vitality of the mission of Christ, of God, alive, vital and intense. There is that partnership of Jesus and his disciples who are to be the extension of his mission that is an integral part of this passage. There is also a verse in the Psalm (82:6) that strikingly reinforces this whole concept: "Now I say to you, 'You are gods, and all of you children of the Most High.'" You have Christ Jesus coming to enliven his own and uniting them in his mission. He is the fire; his people are the catalyst, and out of Christ working in them the oven bakes the bread for the Messianic Banquet in the Kingdom of God which is to come. The bread in the oven of God will feed God’s people.
The Messianic Kingdom, however, does not come easy. Just as the Jewish people left slavery in Egypt, their pilgrimage to the Promised Land was not with great cost to them. The fought others as well as fighting and complaining within themselves. Yet the distant goal was the Promised Land, a land of eventual peace and hope. In Jesus period of time for anyone to follow him, it meant great sacrifice. It meant giving up a great deal of security. It created tremendous uproar. It often meant sons being against fathers and fathers against their sons. It meant contention and fighting among mothers and daughters and all the daughter-in-laws within a family. To step out of or challenge one's assigned place was to risk death. A strict social hierarchy was what characterized this period in history. Jesus' ministry was establishing a new order: "My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 8:21) Jesus' ministry and mission created significant havoc and challenged the culture of his time significantly. It was a significant risk to leave the old order behind and join in the new community of Jesus Christ.
Now many of us like what we call peace and quiet. The very idea that Jesus' ministry and being in union with him brings turmoil is not a comfortable picture for us. As Episcopalians we are noted for saying that peace is a matter of doing things decently and in order. Peacefulness in the Scriptures was anything but orderliness. The Biblical Middle Eastern culture was one of noisy, active, and spontaneous. According to John Pilch, kids screaming and yelling, adults shouting and quarreling, people singing, and everything in delightful disarray was peace. Peace and quiet might be nice for a spell, and an occasional Sabbath rest is important. But life can become very dull, uninteresting, even deadly, if we become too interested in decency and order, still quietness, and maintaining outmoded traditions. Real peace is to be in union with God, and servants with Christ as the channels of God’s grace for the world.
Jesus brought fire for the purpose of purification, energy, vitality, and renewal. He calls his people into that partnership. When lives become too quiet and peaceful, we refer to ourselves being in a “rut.” Churches and Christians that become cozy and comfortable may well be in a rut, and missing the vitality of their calling to be involved in human need and the vivacious spreading of the Gospel. We miss and/or dismiss the part about being on fire with Christ, the catalyst of Christ in the community and world. In so much of our modern life, the religious life is set apart from the world rather than involved in its commotion. We permit a chaplain to pray at Congressional gatherings, but we often resist having the chaplain criticize government. Presidents, like George Bush, Sr. will call upon church leaders, like the former presiding bishop, to bless their wars, but they do not want to hear or welcome protestations of their wars.
It was not easy for the Jews to leave Egypt behind. Once they left on the road to freedom they often reminisced about the past and the good things they had left behind. It is not easy for us either to leave behind old traditions and comfortable settings to face the uncertainty of the future, and to become involved in human needs and concerns. Yet a fiery Lord calls us to a mission that challenges the times and to be outspoken and energetic in our efforts. “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” Jesus said. He knew well the possibility of his demise. Passages and events like this Gospel reading today were the stuff of what his crucifixion was made.
Around us is a world that is violent, that has little respect for human life as a precious gift from God. The tragic death of the woman robbed and murdered this week, and the children killed by stray bullets in our streets is an example of a lack of concern for human life that has infiltrated our society. Understanding of what is best for the common good, for the poor is often thwarted by greed, and an outrageous obsession many people have for their own proud individualism, obsessive needs. We've come from a background that has not been ecologically concerned, and the potential for ecological disaster is very real. Constant fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay, and declining species may well be signs and signals of pitiful future for the earth. Vicious acts of racism, brutality, abuse, reveals a land in crisis. In so many instances we are seeing the decline of men, fathers, who are not being with their children in such a way as to bear witness to spirituality and faithfulness their children need. In many of these areas a battle needs to be waged that challenges the world to hear and experience the Word of God. The faith needs to be promulgated in our homes as well as in our chambers of government and local communities that extends the hope of a loving compassionate God to all people. There can be no real peace until the battle has begun, until the fiery Christ is allowed to lead us.
The passage concludes with Jesus telling his people they are not stupid. You can tell, he says, when it is going to rain. When the wind is blowing in off the Mediterranean Sea, the clouds on the horizon in the West, you know well it's going to rain. If the wind is from the south, off the desert regions, you can predict it is going to be hot as hell. If you have sense enough to figure these things out, why aren't you bright enough to know that your present way of life is in need of change, and you have to do something. If it's going to rain you get out your umbrella. If it's hot you prepare to crank up the air-conditioning. If you sit in a church where there are only 12 people in the pews at the main service, you have to know something has to happen, or change. If you live in a country of violence, where children murder one another, you know there is a need for recovering and renewing values that teach the sacredness of life and respect. Peace and quiet and going into retreat is neither the calling of the Christian nor of the church. Jesus said, "I have come to bring fire to the earth-oven." John the Baptist declared "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Luke 3:16) Today's reading is one not about grace, and forgiveness, and love in the strictest sense. It is about Judgment. And Judgment passages are always the more uncomfortable ones. But we are in fact under the judgment. We have been given the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ. We have been given a real and living Lord to be with us and in our midst. We have been called into a wonderful and meaningful partnership with our Lord. To stand outside of that calling and ministry is to place us into a position of a meaningless peace and solace. Do any of us really want to rest in peace? Eternity is a very long time. Yet to live as members of Christ, to be the salt of the earth, to be the catalyst for good, for hospitality, for the yearning for peace isn't that more like real living. To be mothers and fathers who witness to the magnificence of God in their children’s lives, and to encourage them in their awe and wonder of God has to be one of the greatest callings on the earth. To be people who yearn for an end to racial injustice and an end to prejudice, and who work for a blossoming earth are grand callings. To enter the fray of violence, abusiveness, and injustice is surely terrifying. Yet to enter it with Christ is our peace. To be truly at peace is to be with God with the feeling that we are at one with God and his Will is real peace. To join in the noise and the yelling and the screaming, the singing for joy, to join in the arguing and the struggles to know what God in Christ would have us do is the real peace with Christ and in Christ.
We're gathered today enjoying the closeness and intimacy. But it's not just in knowing one another that's so important, as it is to see ourselves as a community of people who are in the journey and the pilgrimage to be partners in the way of Christ. Come Lord Jesus, and light our fire!
(This sermon is a re-working of PN11-15C, August, 1998)