“I
came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled…Do you
think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division!” From today’s Gospel, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12, verses 49 and 51.
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Well! What are we going to do with today’s
Gospel? “I came to bring fire to the earth!...Do you think that I have come to
bring peace?...from now on, five in one household will be divided…You hypocrites…do
you not know how to interpret the present time?” There
isn’t much wiggle room in these texts; they are lacking in any kind of comfort
or mitigation that we can use to take the edge off them. They are, at the very
least, bracing. They demand our attention, and there appear to be no concessions
in them, implied or stated, that we can resort to, to find a way out of them.So
we must do our best to find out what our Lord means by these remarks.
There are really two readings here: Jesus
the Cause of Division, as our translation titles the first one, and
Interpreting the Time, the second part of the reading. The two are connected,
and the connection is our ability to understand the present correctly.
Everything that Jesus says in the reading is meant to prod us into seeing and
understanding “the present time.”
What is the “fire” that Jesus came to
bring to the earth? Physical imagery comes to mind right away; we all think of
forest fires and calamities like building fires and so on. And, indeed, we live
in a world, thanks to global warming, in which large, catastrophic fires are
becoming more frequent. But this is not the fire that Jesus has in mind.
In the Scriptures, fire is a frequent
symbol for God, for the Holy Spirit, for the angels, for the word of God. In
Deuteronomy, Moses says “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire.” There are
many references to fire, in connection with the wrath of God, the temple
sacrifices, the Holy Spirit, and more. In Matthew’s Gospel, John the Baptist says,
“One who is more powerful than I is coming after me…He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and with fire.” This “fire” is the presence, the reality of
God, which consumes all before it and takes away everything which gets between
us and God. Jesus experiences this presence, this reality, and to him it is
like a consuming fire, and he wants us to experience the reality of God as
directly as he does. “How I wish it were
already kindled!” he says.
Jesus is being realistic when he says, “Do
you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No…division!” This is what can happen when the reality of God gets close to us.
Perhaps we prefer to keep God at a comfortable distance, as an idea, a word, a
hope, a God who doesn’t impinge much on our daily lives, but whom we
acknowledge politely in our ceremonies, and, truth to tell, whom we may like to leave
there as a ceremonial object. Jesus is saying in plain words what happens when we let God, that
consuming fire, get close to our lives. We all know from experience what can
happen. Arguments, derision, fear, anger, rejection, and who knows what else.
It is interesting how Jesus describes this, entirely in family terms, with
family members divided against each other. And we all know from experience that
the family is often, maybe usually, the place where division occurs, when God
becomes real and present to someone in the group. Jesus is telling us to be
ready for this, not to be surprised by it, but to understand it as almost a consequence
of making God known, of bringing fire, that is, God, to the earth. Not that I
am recommending this kind of division…I certainly am not, but Jesus is being
realistic about human nature.
Jesus is addressing a crowd, all of whom
can understand the point he is making. He includes them in his teaching, when
he says, “You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky.” In other
words, they have got some way on the path to awareness of reality, at least as
far as correctly interpreting the appearance earth and sky. In our society, this
kind of interpretation is, it seems to me, almost the whole of our science, and
our way of life depends on it. We, like the people whom Jesus is addressing,
are very good at this. And we should be.
But that is not the whole story. Jesus
goes on to say, “Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” In
other words, there is more to understanding the world than interpreting the
appearance of earth and sky. We must interpret the present as well, the present
in which God is real and close at hand, in which we can’t safely box him up and
keep him out of the way, a present in which God is not merely another
appearance that we can interpret to suit ourselves.
Today’s reading ends with that question.
And Jesus provides no answer, and, as far as we know, no one in the crowd
attempts to answer either. The question is rhetorical, as we say, not really
intended to be answered, because we already know that we are often reluctant to
really face the present, especially when Jesus tells us how difficult the
present can actually be. In today’s rather alarming Gospel, we are reminded of
the reality of God. The more we pay attention to the present time, the more we
become aware of the reality of God. And the more we become aware of the
reality, the better we understand the present, and the better we will be able
to bring God, that consuming spiritual fire, into the world.
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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