Luke 12.49-56

the crisis of the world

There are some sayings of Jesus that, on first reading, are so bracing that my temptation is to join the company of those who politely ignore them or those who dismiss them altogether along with Jesus himself. The crowd that politely ignores the saying assumes that Jesus must have been having a bad day or maybe the gospel writer slipped in these outrageous sayings. Those who dismiss him do so because someone who says things so offensive to the ways things are can’t possibly be worth following. I have empathy toward both but agree with neither.

To politely ignore the difficult sayings is lazy. It’s a version of Christianity lite: life with butterflies and no cross to bear. To dismiss him as irrelevant is foolish. I can’t see that the life of the world is demonstrably better off without Jesus or his teaching. Quite the contrary.

So that leaves the option of struggling with the text, listening deeply for the gospel, and opening my life to God’s transforming power. Will you join me?

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Years ago, my family and I traveled across country to camp at Yellowstone National Park. It was the summer after the great fires that ravaged the park had been allowed to burn freely until everything in its path was burned to the ground. Previously, the forest service had managed fires, controlling them as best they could. Then they discovered the lodge pine tree seeds were actually liberated by the fire and their growth was intricately interwoven with forest fires. Fire was the necessary process of burning away that allowed for the forest to replenish itself.

Do you suppose this is one way to understand Jesus’ mission to cast fire upon the earth?

When we visited, most of the remaining trees were scorched black and the ground nearly barren at first sight. But when we looked closely we could see beautiful flowers coming forth, then our eyes opened to the whole new forest that was coming into view in this barren place. The fire had done its work of cleansing and liberation of the natural world.

It’s a scary image, of course, and counter-intuitive. We are trained to put out fires, not let them burn. Yet, in scripture fire has multiple meanings – all of which are good but none of them is easy, in the same way that letting Yellowstone burn to the ground was not easy to bear. In the end, it was the fire that liberated the forest that is now flourishing.

What is the fire that Jesus comes to cast upon the earth? Luke says the Spirit rested upon the timid disciples as tongues of fire liberating them from fear to astonishing boldness in proclaiming the good news of God’s salvation. They were on fire, the evidence of which was a community praying together, sharing with the poor and holding their goods in common.

Is this the fire Jesus came to cast on earth? The fire that liberates people from fear and anxiety, setting them on fire with the astonishing news that God has come to save us, transform us and set us free for service? It, of course, burns somethings away.

Recall the father who chastised Will Willimon, who was then the chaplain at Duke University. Upon graduation, his daughter had decided to go to Haiti into mission service. “What have you done with my daughter?” he asked angrily. “We spent a lot of money to get her educated at this University and launch her into a good career. Now she is throwing it all away!” The good chaplain asked, “who presented her for baptism? Who brought her to Sunday School? Who made sure she attended worship and participate in summer youth mission service?” “Her mother and I did. But we just wanted her to go to church, we didn’t intend her to be a fanatic.” Willimon replied, “well, sir, I guess you’ve gone and made a disciple.”

Is this the fire that Jesus casts upon the earth: setting people free for service to God and necessarily dividing them from those who might settle for something more manageable but less oriented toward God’s new way? Is Christianity lite what Jesus comes to burn away?

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To make matters even sharper, Jesus says he has come not to bring peace. At this point we might want to say, Gee thanks, that’s helpful. Now could you explain yourself. Didn’t you say, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God? And didn’t you say my peace I give you, not as the world gives. Peace be with you. Yes.

Certainly we want peace, in part, because the alternative seems so much worse. And that desire for peace – in our homes, in our lives, in our communities – sometimes lead to something that looks like peace but isn’t peace at all. It’s the may be the absence of conflict but often is only a thin veneer over the surface while underneath things are anything but settled.

Every heard of families who say we want peace at all costs? Well, the costs of that false peace are huge and don’t fall equally on all.

Is this the peace that Jesus refuses to bring? The kind where polite dishonesty and the absence of disagreement pass for peace? Some churches are vulnerable to this false peace. Conflict is avoided like the plague. If disagreements arise, the subject is changed to safer, more polite subjects. It’s like a gathering of parents who won’t acknowledge there is a stinky diaper on someone’s baby. Of course, just like in families, conflict and disagreement doesn’t go away they just go underneath the surface where they play out in indirect, often destructive ways.

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What you need is more conflict. That’s what the professor said to a group of church leaders who were graduate students at the Institute of Peace Studies. I was one of those students and I’m not making this up.

He explained that the capacity of a community to handle conflict openly and with skill is a sign of health and maturity. The same for a family. And, one might add, a political order. If a community – family – country can develop the skills to face ordinary disagreements on a relatively small scale without disengaging or disintegrating it will be better equipped to handle severe conflicts that strikes at the core.

False peace is no peace at all. Conflict is what we avoid at our own peril, like fire. Yet, it is the very thing that may bring all things into the open where truth abides and honest decisions are made, even painful choices that divide one another.

Jesus says, I have not come to bring peace but division. Isn’t this the actual truth? He refuses to bring a false peace: the veneer that avoids the truth of decision.

Jesus, God’s incarnation, is the very presence that creates the crisis in the world and in our lives. It is his summons to give our total allegiance to God’s way – forsaking all other ways – that is the crisis of the world and in our lives. This is the call and the crisis to which are summoned to respond. In these present times one doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

The decision to cast our lot with Jesus and follow his way in this world will set us on a path that is decisively different from others, perhaps our own families and communities. It may even stir up conflict. Because the peace that Jesus brings is not a false peace. It is not the peace that the world brings.

It is the peace that overcomes the world and brings life itself.