Proper 15, Yr C (August 14, 2022) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 15, Yr C (2022)
Luke 12:49-56
St. Andrews’s On-the-Hill, Canton, NC
In the name of the one, holy and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
In this morning’s gospel Jesus says,
“I came to bring fire…
and division!”
Does anyone find that a little unnerving…
like maybe someone else put those words in Jesus’ mouth?
The sentiment of division doesn’t quite jive with the Jesus we know and love!
And…
by the way, Jesus…
in case you haven’t noticed…
we already have quite enough fire and division as it is…
those seem to be the daily signs of our times.
Apparently, those were the signs of Jesus’ times too,
and the people didn’t know how to read them,
or at least didn’t know what to do with them.
As disturbing as these sayings of Jesus are,
I will say that the more time I spent with this text,
the more I began to feel a little hope along with the discomfort.
Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth.”
Let’s think about fire for a moment.
Fire certainly can be destructive,
but fire can also be purifying and refining.
Perhaps Jesus intended both.
Might a refining and purifying fire help bring about the Kingdom of God
through the destruction of greed, idolatry, oppression, exploitation, dehumanization, and narcissism?
Well, yes,
and that would be a good thing!
As long as we’re talking about “those people over there!”
It’s a little harder to swallow if Jesus is talking about those places within myself,
within ourselves,
that need to be burned away….
“a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves” as 12-steppers say.
And yet, I think,
it is into this truth that Jesus issues an invitation.
Before Jesus showed up on the scene,
John the Baptist’s disciples asked John if he might be the Messiah.
John responded:
“I baptize you with water,
but one who is more powerful than I is coming….
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
There’s that fire again!
John continued:
“His winnowing fork is in his hand,
to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Lk 3:15-17)
Meet Jesus.
Jesus who today says to the disciples and crowds:
“I came to bring fire to 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!” (Lk 12:49-51)
Jesus’ words are uncomfortable;
they are unmistakably words of judgment.
But, what is Jesus’ point?
Jesus seeks the flourishing of God’s children
and the whole of God’s creation.
Jesus’ desire is for the world’s well-being…
for a restoration of original blessing.
Remember those words God uttered at the beginning of creation:
“God saw that it was good.”
“God saw everything that God had made,
and, indeed,
it was very good.” (Gen 1:31)
But, in order to get there,
Jesus says,
the truth must first be told.
For the truth to be told,
the truth must first be seen.
We must first see what within us needs to be burned away,
and that is never pleasant or easy…
but it is healing.
It is refining.
It is purifying.
And it is needed for our own healing as well as the healing of the world.
Perhaps this is how to interpret the present times in the wake of such violence and greed and oppression and fear and narcissism…we must uncover and speak what needs to be burned away.
So…what is it within us that needs to be pruned/burned away for our own flourishing and the flourishing of others?
Now is the time for repentance.
Repentance occurs when we look at ourselves and our world from God’s perspective…
from the perspective of justice and love and forgiveness and grace…
from the perspective that all are worthy of life and love.
If we know we are loved,
what need do we have to protect or hoard our resources
or demean someone else?
Is there not room enough for love for all?
We do indeed live in times of great division,
which only seem to grow daily,
but this is not the division that Jesus came to bring.
Jesus did not come to divide through hatred, greed, and arrogance.
I think the division Jesus came to bring was a division of truth-telling,
of love-telling,
of honoring and respecting the dignity of every human being,
of speaking words of justice to unjust systems and owning our own part in them.
That is not easy or comfortable.
It brings division when folks are called out on harmful ways of acting in the world.
A few years ago I went to Brooklyn to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit.
Imprinted in large, neon letters across the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum were the words:
“DO NOT DISAPPEAR INTO SILENCE”
Jesus did not come to disappear into silence.
He stood on the side of the poor and oppressed.
He stood on the side of the broken and those in need of healing.
Silence was shattered that Good Friday on the cross as Love overcame violence.
That was his baptism….
the same baptism into which we are baptized….
a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire,
a baptism which purges and cleanses us and sends us into the world
to bring division where hate is preached and oppression is practiced.
There is another way…
the Way of Love.
The Way of Love invites us to look at the ways that we distinguish ourselves from one another and act unjustly: through racism, xenophobia, or homophobia, to name a few.
We all participate in such systems,
and it takes self-examination, conversation, and repentance to find healing.
I invite us each to take some time to ask God to reveal what might need to be burned away…either within us or within our workplace, or school, or family, or even church!
I invite us to listen with boldness and courage.
Let us allow the Spirit to dig deep,
even though it is frightening and painful.
Jesus said that he came to bring division, not peace.
I think he did come to bring peace,
but division is sometimes a necessary precursor.
The wheat and the chaff will be separated,
and the chaff will be burned away (if we have the courage).
The Peace that Jesus offers comes in the context of confession,
forgiveness,
healing,
and new life.
May God’s holy fire purify us
so that we may spread God’s love to this broken world so in need of healing.
Amen.
