Aug. 15 Sermon: Kindled with Fire
Kindled with Fire
Holy Covenant UMC
Sunday August 15, 2010
Rev. Kate Hurst Floyd
Luke 12:49-56
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When I was 10 years old, in 1992, I visited Yellowstone National Park with my family. Yellowstone represents nature at its most abundant. I vividly remember being in awe at the beauty that surrounded me. Yellowstone is in Wyoming, near Grand Teton national park, so it sits at the foot of spectacular mountains, gleaming silver, that rise sharply into the deep blue sky. There was snow on the ground that summer, in the middle of July—to a girl from Texas this seemed miraculous. Yellowstone is full of wildlife in its natural habitat—bison herds that cross the road, causing traffic jams. Elk mothers with their babies, scampering through woods. And if you’re lucky, there’s even the occasional bear. And of course, there are the geysers, perhaps what Yellowstone is most famous for—water shooting up from the earth at regular intervals, spraying passersby.
I grew up in West Texas, which is flat and dry, no trees or natural bodies of water. So the lush trees and waterfalls of this place were a wonder to me—I couldn’t get enough of them.
Well, I was basking in this wonder, when one afternoon we approached a forest that was devastated by the great fire of 1988. Some of you might remember this fire—it garnered national attention. My sense of awe and abundance quickly left me as I was overwhelmed by the charred grass, the smell of smoke and death still lingering. This place that was so full of life was suddenly quite the opposite. This great fire seemed to destroy the beauty of God’s creation, the miraculous abundance that lived in this place. I remember feeling a great sense of tragedy as we walked through these woods, surveying the damage. Fire had destroyed the lushness I loved so much.
Fire is devastating. If you’ve ever had one in your home or office or experienced one in nature, you know just how violent it can be. It is really troubling, then, that in our gospel lesson today, Jesus invokes the imagery of fire. Listen again to his shocking words: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” This is hard for us to understand….Jesus, the prince of peace, ….is bringing fire to the earth? Charring grass, leaving us with the lingering smells of smoke and death? Jesus is supposed to build, not destroy. He’s supposed to pray and eat meals and teach and heal, turn our devastating world into a place of love and compassion. Fires don’t seem very compassionate.
Jesus doesn’t stop there, he goes on….he asks the crowd… “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”
Who is this Jesus, who divides and destroys? Who burns down instead of building up?
I prefer to think of Jesus as the geysers, bringing refreshing waters from the earth into the air, surprising us with new life and energy. A Jesus that brings fire and divides is much harder to live with. Where is our Jesus of peace?
Because we come to church, come to faith, come to God, often when we are in need of some deep peace in our lives. Maybe you’re here because you’re plagued by anxiety and fear, and you need a safe place to rest for awhile. A place where the burning voices of self-doubt or rejection or depression aren’t producing ashes in your soul. We don’t come here to hear about fire.
Maybe you’re here because you have a joy you want to celebrate with your family of faith, in the presence of God: good news of a job or an engagement or a new niece. You want to make a joyful noise to the Lord, not be lectured about fire and division!
Maybe you’re here because you care deeply about justice…for immigrant rights here in the U.S., for the wars to end in Afghanistan and Iraq, for resources and dignity to be returned to Haiti, for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities to have abundant life in our country and our church, for all of God’s children to have access to a safe place to stay and 3 meals a day. The last thing we expect to hear at church, when we’re seeking the beloved community, is that Jesus comes to bring division, not peace. After all, many of us have left the church at some point in our lives because of all the hypocritical division that a life of faith can cause. Too often churches talk about the things that divide us rather than doing something and working to bring about change.
Where is our Jesus of peace? Why should we come to church, turn to faith, call on God when this is the message we are hearing?
Let’s take a closer look at the context in which Jesus was speaking. In this section of Luke, Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem, the place where he will be crucified. And he knows this. As he makes his way towards his death, he’s desperately trying to teach his disciples and followers the message of the kingdom. He knows it’s imperative that they understand what he represents, so that when he’s gone they will continue to tell his story and spread his message to the world. Our passage is part of a series of teachings and sayings that Jesus is telling to crowds. We’ve been moving through this section of Luke over the summer: He tells parables that upset the status quo….It’s in this section that Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool, who is greedy and stores up his grain instead of sharing it and living in the moment; he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, upsetting our expectations of who is worthy and who is not. He admonishes the Pharisees and the lawyers—those with great power and influence in society. He tells us it is hypocritical to be so concerned with the outside of the body when they are greedy and selfish on the inside. He admonishes his disciples to not compare themselves with those who “sin more”. No, he tells, them, we must first point the finger at ourselves, and repent.
*Jesus is teaching us, in this section, to question what is comfortable, to challenge the status quo.
So in our passage today, we are encountering Jesus on a mission—an urgent mission to make sure his followers receive his message before he dies. He’s been teaching his followers that the way the world is isn’t the way the world should be….he’s painting a beautiful picture of God’s kingdom, filled with tables where everybody is welcome, a place where the poor are rich, the outcasts find a place, and the voiceless get to speak and sing with the angels.
And as Jesus is teaching these things about God, he looks around and he knows that this message is upsetting to society—so upsetting, in fact, that the government is planning to kill him for his message. He will be killed for spreading this Good News about God’s kingdom. Because this message is threatening and scary, especially to those who hold power. Naturally, it divides people.
So in this text, when Jesus speaks of division, he’s not speaking about his intentionality, or his desire to divide…no, Jesus is naming the reality he sees around him. When he speaks out against the way things have always been done, some people will follow him and some people will resist. And this will cause division. Those who are threatened by his message will divide themselves from his followers.
Think about it…those with power, with money, who cause judgment, aren’t going to be happy with Jesus’ radical message about inclusion and equity for all. When he declares woe to the rich and blessings to the poor. This message is dividing people.
When Jesus says he didn’t come to bring peace, he isn’t advocating violence. Nowhere in the gospel do we have accounts of Jesus being violent—he is always peaceful in his interactions; he embodies reconciliation, dialogue, and turning the other cheek. So what does he mean here? Jesus is talking about peace in the sense of the status quo…..he is saying: I didn’t come to keep things the way they are; to sanction society as it exists. No, he tells us, I came to change the way things have always been done and to show you a new way, God’s way….the way of compassion, of justice, of forgiveness. And in order for this to occur, he has to upset, divide, and yes—even destroy—the way things have always been done.
I visited Yellowstone years after my initial visit. I had the same reaction of awe and wonder at the abundance of creation. And I returned to the scene of the forest fire, the place that years earlier had caused a sense of tragedy, of devastation, in my soul. But as I walked back into that familiar scene, walking with trepidation, I found the forest transformed…..standing there, years later, I witnessed ample evidence of new life. Instead of charry black stumps, there was lush green grass, new trees with growths of leaves and flowers. There was wildlife grazing…this place that had reeked of death was now filled with new life.
I went to a ranger talk, which they hold every night at the national parks. The ranger was talking about the forest fire, and the natural cycle of ecological succession. She explained that forest fires aren’t actually a sign of devastation, but of growth. That fires are part of the natural cycle, and essential for the maintenance of ecological balance. Yellowstone has a natural burn policy, which means that when fires are naturally started, they let them burn naturally, without human intervention. Because scientists know that fires actually benefit the maintenance of the ecosystem.
The fires left large patches of cleared ground opened to the sun. Seeds released from pinecones took root almost immediately. Lodgepole pine seedlings began to grow at the rate of an inch or two per year. Wildflowers were abundant by the following spring, and the grasses and shrubs were a rich green. Nutrients from the ash caused the vegetation to prosper. Trees that didn’t fall became feeding grounds for insects, and the insects in turn attracted many woodpeckers. The holes left by woodpeckers attracted many birds that used them for nests. Yellowstone was far from dead!
We’ve witnessed many wildfires in the United States over the past years, which are certainly devastating. But scientists claim that the reason there is such an outbreak is precisely because we haven’t allowed fires to burn naturally—we have tried to stop them, to maintain what we think is comfortable…but the results are that when the fires do burn, they burn out of control, because we were more concerned with our own comfort than with what is best for nature.
The same is true in our faith journeys. What Jesus calls us to do, what we need to learn from the natural world, is to spark fires, let them burn, and make way for new life to emerge. For God’s way to be our way, instead of maintaining what is easy, comfortable, and in line with the status quo.
We have to ask ourselves why we come to church, why we need faith, why we turn to God. If it’s to feel comfortable, then we’ve come to the wrong place.
As Christians, we’re not called to be comfortable. We are called to be a people who live into the reality of resurrection. We seek Jesus because we are a people who seek new life and seek it abundantly. The difficult reality is that new life never comes without death, without burning away of the old. That’s why this message about fire and division can be hard on our ears, especially if what we are seeking is comfort.
But what we know from the Gospel is that new life always comes from death: Jesus died, tortured by the powers of this world, but out of that horrific death, the imposition of the death penalty by a tyrannical government, God has the final word. Life wins. Eternal life through Jesus Christ that saves us and saves us abundantly. And it’s so much more joyful to live out of this hope than any kind of earthly comfort.
Think with me, for a moment, about what in your life needs to be burned in order for a new way to emerge. What are you holding on to because it’s comfortable, even though you know God calls us to let go?
Maybe it’s a relationship that is hurting you instead of bringing love…while it feels more comfortable to stay and not upset the delicate balance of our lives, Jesus is calling us to burn away what isn’t bringing us mutual respect and wholeness.
Maybe it’s a fear that we hold in our heart, that keeps us divided from our neighbors. It’s easier not to speak up for immigration rights in Arizona, or to confront white privilege, or to keep talking about gay marriage, but Jesus is calling us to burn away the categories that the world tells us are normal and acceptable and to confront privilege and power, even if it causes some flames to rise. Even if we’d rather, in our privilege, be comfortable and not upset our safe categories.
Maybe it’s letting go of a job that’s keeping us from being with our families.
Maybe it’s anger and resentment towards a family member that we ignore instead of working through. Maybe it’s an addiction that’s keeping you from becoming your whole self?
Maybe it’s heeding Jesus’ instruction to sell what we own and give it to the poor. It won’t be comfortable to simplify our lives, to examine our debt and do something about it. But as we let ourselves live into that discomfort, we will find radical life and peace that is no longer enslaved to our money or our debt and begin to live out of the joy of living generously.
Some things have to be burned down before true peace can come.
Sparking the fire of God in our lives won’t be easy, and it will cause division. But in order for new life to emerge, we have to burn away what is hurting us and hurting God’s precious world.
Because the rewards are far greater than the initial division.
Why? Because he calls us to challenge the status quo, to disrupt the peace of complacency, the peace of self-satisfaction, the peace of contentment; and to seek the peace of God, that peace which passes all understanding.
Without this fire of Jesus—this fire that brings new life—the kingdom will never come. The nutrients of compassion won’t fertilize the soil, the forest of forgiveness won’t have room to grow, the seeds of reconciliation won’t take root.
The good news is we worship a Jesus who comes with fire, the fire that kindles new life, and sparks rebirth. May we let go of what is comfortable and spark a fire of change and new life in the world. May we be a people who are no longer concerned with merely “keeping the peace” but instead inspired to seek God’s peace, empowered by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tags: Kate
