Division and Fire

 
Luke 12:49-56

Jesus said:

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:49-53)

Oh, boy. 

Last week Jesus was calling us “little flock” and assuring us it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. (Luke 12:32). This week he’s bringing fire and division to the earth, and he describes a household that sounds like an extended family’s combative Thanksgiving dinner in the age of Trump.

We know Jesus’ life on earth was replete with many opponents and divisions. The devil challenged him in the wilderness, The members of the Nazareth synagogue tried throw him off a cliff. The Pharisees tried to catch him in legal conundrums. His own family thought he was crazy and tried to have him taken away. 

Now he is telling his disciples that the divisions will get worse as he brings fire – presumably a metaphorical fire, but who knows? – to the earth.

How we wish Jesus was still offering words of comfort to his “little flock.”

But if we look back on two millennia of church history we see he has a point. Since the earliest days, division and fire have been the most constant threads in church history.

So it was when his mother Mary realized what God was saying in her womb: “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:51b-53.)

So it was when the baby Jesus was presented in the temple and Simeon declared to Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” (Luke 2:34-35)

So it was years later when the first of Jesus’ followers came to loggerheads over whether uncircumcised gentiles could be Christians.

So it was in the first centuries of the church when factions and heresies developed over the very nature of Jesus and who he was: adoptionism which said Jesus was a human being who was “adopted” by God as his conception; Nestorianism, which said Jesus had two natures – man and God – which remained separate when he walked the earth; Docetism which said Jesus was not a real human being but only appeared so to those around him; and many more, all declared heresies that had to be corrected by the Nicene Creed adopted by the first Council of Nicaea in the year 325.

So it was during the Catholic Church’s Western Schism in the 14th century when popes and antipopes competed for power in Europe.

So it was when Martin Luther’s 95 theses led to the Protestant reformation in the 16th century, forever dividing the church.

And so it was when Lutherans splintered along ethnic lines: German Lutherans, Norwegian Lutherans, Swedish Lutherans, liberal Lutherans, Missouri Synod Lutherans.

Were it not for divisions and schisms, the church would not be what it is today.

Are these the divisions Jesus promised to bring with flames?

I spent several years on the staff of the World Council of Churches and the U.S. National Council of Churches. For both councils, Christian unity was an idealistic goal. The staffs spent much of their time preparing resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an event that is observed each January in concert with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The prayers for unity have not been entirely successful. It has never been possible for all Christians to sit down together at the Lord’s common table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Catholic churches will not allow Protestant Christians to receive the Eucharist. Most Orthodox churches, even those who are members of the World and National Councils, will never sit down with other members to receive the blood and body of Christ. And as we all know, many Protestant churches and congregations bar non-members from the communion table.

Too, the churches cannot agree on styles of baptism – dripping or dunking – and Catholics, Orthodox, Pentecostals, and others refuse to ordain women as pastors and bishops, no matter how clear the call of the Holy Spirit may be.

The divisions are exhausting.

But are they exhausting because, as Jesus said, we do not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke 12:56)

It is a maxim of our time that our country has not been so alienated – politically and spiritually – since the Civil War.

What do we make of the rising clouds, the south wind, the scorching heat that are signs of our times?

For many years we have been feeling the scorching heat:

The heat of sisters and brothers in many of our churches who support political views based on lies, white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and ethnic hatreds.

The heat of white supremacist crowds marching through the streets of Charlottesville chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”

The heat of racially motivated attacks and mass shootings aimed at African Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, Asians, Jews, and others.

The heat of persons on the far political right who threaten violence and even call for an armed civil war against properly elected leaders with whom they disagree, and against legitimate law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and local police.

The heat of popular media, including Fox News and a plethora of bloggers and talk radio jockeys, who spread lies so huge and so often that some people come to believe them.

Lies like: the 2020 election was stolen, inspiring thousands of people to storm the U.S. Capitol to threaten to kill the Vice president and other government officials in a violent coup attempt.

Are these facts too political for a sermon?

Many preachers have thought so.

Many preachers have kept quiet about these events in the name of Christian unity. Politics, they say, have no place in church. They threaten to stop giving to the church, they threaten to leave the church. It is better to be silent, many preachers feel, in order to keep the congregation calm and together.

Yet why would we be silent about a political movement based on lies, white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and ethnic hatreds.

Is this silence consistent with the teachings of Jesus?

“I came to bring fire to the earth,” Jesus said, “and how I wish it were already kindled. I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:49-50)

When Jesus talks about fire, we know very well he is not referring to the glowing logs in our fireplaces on a cold night. That kind of fire soothes us and makes us sleepy. It lulls us to quiet inaction when we are surrounded by threats and dangers all around us.

Could it be that Jesus is calling us to feel fire in our hearts – a burning commitment to be witnesses for justice?

Professor Jerusha Matsen Neal quotes the poet Mary Oliver in her book, What I Have Learned So far.

The fire Jesus brings “is a fire that, like Simeon’s piercing prophecy to Mary, tests the heart – revealing the thoughts of many and calling for a baptism of commitment.

“Oliver minces no words:

“’Be Ignited or begone.’”

As we strive to represent God’s truth and Jesus’ love amid the divisions and dangers of our times, may God give us the courage to be ignited.