Transcript
May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.
Today is one of those Sundays when Jesus’s words can make any preacher squirm a little in the pulpit. I came to bring fire to the earth, Jesus says. Do you think I have come to bring peace? Jesus says, “No, I tell you, but rather division, division, and fire.” Not the comforting lines Lisa sang so beautifully last week at church with Deborah at the organ from Handel’s Messiah. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. That’s the Jesus we love to picture. the gentle shepherd, meek and lowly of heart. But like any great symphony, Jesus is never just one note.
Using our imaginations, let’s think of it this way. If Jesus’s life were a symphony, some movements would be like soft adagios, tender as when Jesus healed the sick. Some would be lively allegros, like the wedding at Kaa, where water became wine. And some would sound like the insistent drum beatat of a tmpony like today’s gospel. Can we hear that in Jesus’s voice when he says, “What stress I am under until it is completed.” And Jesus says this because he knows that the cross is coming. That’s what Jesus means by his baptism here. He’s speaking of the cross that awaits him.
So the cross is coming and Jesus is stressed and I think that stress can help us better understand today’s gospel. As one scholar Emerson Powery put it, the Jesus of this passage is a bit unsettling and we would do well to let him be so. But still, how do we make sense of what Jesus is saying today? Well, let’s start from the beginning.
Jesus begins by saying, “I came to bring fire to the earth.” When we hear the word fire, our minds often go straight to destruction. For some, the phrase fire and brimstone might come to mind. A fire more about fear than about God’s love. But that’s not the way of Jesus. So, I wonder if Jesus has another kind of fire in mind.
After all, some of scriptures brightest moments happen when God shows up in flame. like Moses who saw a burning bush. And from that fire, God called Moses by name and said, “I will be with you.” Then when Pharaoh’s army was closing in on the Israelites, the Lord went before them in a pillar of fire, standing between them and danger, making a way for them to freedom. Or fast forwarding in scripture to the day of Pentecost when tongues of fire rested on the disciples and from that day on the spirit empowered them to share the good news of Jesus.
So when Jesus talks about fire, he isn’t speaking of destruction because the fire Jesus is talking about is God’s presence blazing in the world. It’s the fire of God coming to his people and setting them free. It’s the fire of God that stands beside us in the dark and lights the way. Jesus is talking about God’s fire. A fire that sets us a flame to live as God’s people. To love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. That is the holy fire Christ longs to kindle in us and in all the world.
Now, we’ve talked about fire, but even so, that leaves us with perhaps the most difficult part of today’s gospel. when Jesus talks about father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother and so on and we wonder what is Jesus saying here over the centuries people have wrestled with that many different ways but here’s the way I found to be most helpful that Jesus is simply telling the truth about what happens when God’s love takes first place in our lives. You see, it’s not that Jesus wants families torn apart. Let’s remember even from the cross, Jesus cared for his own family when he looked at his mother and said,”Woman, behold your son.” and to the disciples standing beside her, “Behold your mother.” Jesus loved his family even in death.
When Jesus says in today’s gospel, I came to bring division, it’s not because Jesus delights in division, but rather when we invite Jesus to strike the match and when we begin to live by his fire, formed by God’s forgiveness, fanned by God’s mercy, burning with God’s love, even those closest to us may not understand at first. Sometimes Jesus’s fire kindles forgiveness in the ashes of anger. Sometimes it sparks compassion when the world grows heavy. Sometimes Jesus’s fire radiates mercy when judgment burns hot.
Whenever I think of today’s gospel, I can’t help but think of a story that has inspired me so deeply in my life of faith. The story of Matthew Sheepard and his family. He was a young man raised in the Episcopal church who was the victim of a tragic hate crime in Wyoming in 1998 and he died thereafter at the age of 21.
Today, Matthew’s remains rest in the Washington National Cathedral, a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. And on one occasion, I had the honor of making a pilgrimage there and meeting his parents. At the trial of his asalant, Aaron McKini, Matthew’s parents had every reason to cry out for vengeance. And yet Matthew’s father, Dennis Shepard, stood in the courtroom and said this.
He said, “This is the time to begin the healing process, to show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy. Mr. McKini, I am going to grant you life as hard as it is for me to do because of Matthew. Matthew’s parents interceded to save Aaron’s life, granting him life in prison and sparing him death. That day, many in the courtroom openly wept, including members of the jury. And out of that same fire, Matthew’s parents went on to found the Matthew Shepard Foundation, whose mission is to embrace the dignity and equality of all people.
Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth.” And the shepherd’s family decision to let mercy burn brighter than the hate that took Matthew’s life was a fire that startled many. Many admired it. Others couldn’t understand at first, but no one left unchanged because mercy blazed in that room like holy fire. forgiveness when anger seemed to be the only answer.
I share this extraordinary story and maybe you have another story in mind, a story that’s inspired you and your faith. But what about for most of us in our lives today? Because the fire Jesus longs to kindle is not just for those great moments of public witness, it’s also kindled in the quiet corners of our everyday life.
So I wonder, how is Jesus kindling his fire in you? This week I invite us each to ponder that question in prayer. How is Jesus kindling his fire in me? A spark of kindness, a ray of hope, an ember of forgiveness, a warmth of God’s grace. Whatever it may be, trust that the Holy Spirit will spark an answer in you.
And when it comes, tend that flame. Let it burn because Christ has kindled it and the spirit fans it still.
Amen.