August 19, 2007 – Twelvth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 12:49-56
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- Grace and peace to you from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
- Let me start by asking you a difficult question: When was the last time your heart was broken? Or, perhaps this one might be easier: When was the last time you were deeply moved? The human heart is an amazing thing – capable of great love and great anger. And, as my preaching professor taught us in seminary, the point of preaching is “to move the heart” – to crack it open and break down the protective barriers which Scripture calls, “hardness of heart.” Alas, today, not much moves us: frightens us, disgusts us, angers us – OK. But moves us? Not really. Perhaps we are too secure, too privileged, that it takes something sudden, shocking or surprising to crack us open, to help us feel.
It is that kind of “shock value” that Jesus is using in today’s Gospel lesson. We are not hearing these words from the lips of the “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” Jesus, but as a John Ylvisaker song says it, from a “Jesus (who) was sent to upset and annoy…” This is not the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” that we like to teach our children about, but Jesus the Prophet - on his way to Jerusalem – the “city that kills the prophets; and stones the messengers sent to her.”
Jesus is giving us a 3-part sermon about Fire, Division, and Discernment. But we’re drawn to the center section first: Division. Perhaps we tend to start here, because we can relate. We’ve all experienced dysfunction in our families. Christian author William Loader says, “Jesus is walking into disaster and taking others with him; (He’s) confronting the gods of family - and warning: this is very dangerous territory! For this division comes in choosing God over family, and stands as a stark reminder that we will protect our turf even against God’s suggested agenda of the Kingdom of God.
But how do we protect ourselves from hardening our hearts to God? Jesus says that “Reading the Signs of Times” is something we know how to do. He says that we know about the things of this world, such as learning to read the weather, from previous experience. But to interpret God’s agenda? For that we will need to add to our experience something Lutherans do not seem to excel in, and that is our knowledge of the Bible. Fortunately, at our recent ELCA Churchwide Assembly, we adopted a
5-year initiative called, "Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible." For the next five years, ELCA churches and members will commit to becoming fluent in the first language of our faith - the language of Scripture. And who knows better than Lutherans the power of God's Word to convict and to free, to reform the church, and to transform the world?
With our Experience plus the Bible, we will learn how to take on the Role of the Prophet – for reading the signs of the times is a way of helping ourselves and other people probe beneath the surface and recognize our hidden agenda, where our idols lie, where our hearts have become hardened.
And thus we return to the beginning of this passage. Perhaps we skipped right over it the first time we read it, because it is full of church words like Baptism and Fire. Most of us have merely a passing acquaintance with fire, and our impressions are either “fire=Bad” or “fire=Good.” We may think of it as God’s Judgment raining down on Sodom & Gomorrah, or the fire to destroy the Golden Calf. We might go so far as to think about burnt sacrifices, or if you have ever lived in California, the destruction of wildfires. But for most of us, fire conjures up the happy, warm flames of a campfire with our family close by, or snuggling up by the hearth with a merrily crackling fire in the fireplace. We might even remember worship services from our childhood, holding individual candles on Christmas Eve.
But for the ancient world it meant much, much more. It meant illumination, warmth, cooked food and metal tools, pottery vessels for everyday use. For them, fire was life. But we moderns, for whom fire is not a necessity but a luxury, have made it about us. Remember that seen from the Tom Hanks movie, CastAway? Hanks has finally accomplished the burning of a few pieces of palm and kindled a huge bonfire on the beach. He’s dancing around it singing, “Come on baby, light my fire!” And he screams to the heavens, “Look at what I have created! I have made fire! I. Have made – fire!” (And WHO’S fire was it?!)
In the Bible, FIRE, most often, symbolizes the presence of God. And today we have Jesus coming “to bring” fire to the earth. That word for “bring” is really better translated as “cast” or “flung” – Jesus has come to fling God’s presence all over the world, much like the Sower who so abundantly and exuberantly sowed those seeds! Jesus has come to remind us that God was present in the fire of the Burning Bush, in the miraculous salvation in the Fiery Furnace. He himself would bring a baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and then there were those flames at Pentecost…Fire, GOD’S Fire - IS life! God’s presence is LIFE.
Last Wednesday night our Choir rehearsed the last few pieces for our 25th Anniversary CD. We were running through a number of songs from different seasons of the church year, and came to one of my favorites called, “Scenes from Gethsemane.” It’s a masterful piece that tells of Jesus’ agony in the Garden when he prays to God, “Father, Father! Let this cup pass by me!” And finally, when his fate is inevitable, he surrenders with the thrilling, “Thy Will Be Done!” As we finished, I stole a sideway glance at the choir, and saw that there were many, like I, wiping tears from their faces. We had sung of the heart-breaking reality of the suffering of God in Jesus, and it seemed such a strange juxtaposition: the Passion, in the long, green season after Pentecost. This half of the church year--the season of growing and nourishing--is supposed to be about us, the church! And at that moment the Passion seemed somehow out of place. Perhaps we had forgotten that Jesus came to break our hearts.
Let's face it, folks, this is hard stuff. “Being on fire” is someone who is passionate about God and God’s Kingdom - and how Jesus wishes that we were already kindled! But that kindling requires us to be broken open, vulnerable, and giving in to God’s agenda before our own--because the fire that he cast upon us is God’s fire: It is the fire of LOVE; the fire of LIFE. And it’s the hardest thing to kindle because it costs us our hearts, our selves.
My favorite scene from the movie, Moonstruck, with Nicholas Cage and Cher, has Cage’s Ronnie attempting to get Cher’s Loretta to come up to his apartment. Cher is engaged to Ronnie’s brother, Johnny, and wishes to be true to him and not give in to Ronnie’s love, which she shares. They are standing on the stoop of his place in New York, and it is freezing outside. A light snow has begun to fall, and Ronnie gives it one last shot:
“Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, (and, I’m just getting this now)
but love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything – it breaks your heart!
It makes things a mess.
We aren’t here to make things perfect. Snowflakes are perfect. Stars are perfect.
Not us. We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts,
and to love the wrong people and to die.”
And thus we turn to celebrate the Eucharist, where we are nourished on a broken heart and a poured-out life. Come, eat and drink. And have your hearts broken. Amen.
