Unquenchable Fire

 

First Lutheran Church of Throggs Neck, Bronx, N.Y., December 15, 2024

In today’s Gospel, Luke is running hot and cold.

“[The Messiah] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire,” John the Baptizer declares. “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

Oh boy. 

That’s harsh. And as a sinner, I must ask myself: am I wheat? Or am I chaff? Am I a nourishing member of the community? Or am I a scourge of the gluten intolerant.

Luke continues:

“So, with many other exhortations, [John] proclaimed the good news to the people.” (Luke 3:18)

Excuse me? Which part of that was good news? The winnowing or the unquenchable fire?

On this third Sunday in Advent it’s hard to think about fiery Jesus. We’re focused on the tiny babe in the manger, gentle Jesus meek and mild, the Jesus who looks upon us with love and calls us “little flock.”

But just a few chapters later, Luke’s narrative runs hot again:

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. 

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

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 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.

Is it possible that God’s plan for growing the church is schism?

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 divided – 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 racially motivated attacks and mass shootings aimed at African Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, Asians, Jews, and others.

“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 Troy Trofrgruben of Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, suggests that when John calls his listeners to repentance, he’s not merely addressing unrepentant sinners. He’s not leaving anyone out. 

Sure, he’s calling out devious and corrupt politicians. 

Sure, he’s calling out unscrupulous landlords who won’t waste money turning on the heat and leave their tenants to suffer in the cold. 

Sure, he’s calling out drug dealers who profit on the suffering of their customers. 

Sure, he’s calling out health insurance providers who make billions in profits while denying their customers what they need to fight their diseases. 

Sure, he’s calling out American oligarchs for spending billions to send their rockets into space while so many people – including their own employees – live on the edge of poverty.

But John is also calling out the Church Lady – and thank you, Lorne Michaels for bringing her back – who has lost her passion for faith and judges those around her with a dismissive, “Isn’t that special?”

He’s calling out hard-working dudes who keep their faith a secret among their co-workers and sleep in in Sunday mornings instead of going to church.

He’s calling out those who stay quiet as persons of different races, ethnicities, faiths, and sexual orientations are ridiculed or abused by bullies.

He’s calling out you. He’s calling out me.

But if he’s asking all of us to face our sins, where is the good news?

Professor Trofrgruben writes, “In today’s world, where polarizing caricatures of others are easier and more self-assuring than nuanced appreciations of their humanity and experience, the audiences who respond to John—and the way he takes them seriously—invite us to lay our stones down. The good news in Luke’s Gospel is for all—even those we deem threatening.  While a call to repent may not seem like “good news,” it marks an invitation to a life better aligned with God’s purpose—and on that path, there is joy.”

The call to repentance may truly be good news. It invites us to take practical steps toward aligning our lives more squarely with God’s purposes—not just in theory, but in practice. “

The call to repentance is for us to reignite the fire in our own hearts, the fire that inspires us to celebrate that while we were in sin, Christ found us. The fire that compels us to live Christlike lives. The fire that compels us to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.

Henry M. Nouwen wrote: 

“Jesus’ whole life was a witness to his Father's love, and Jesus calls his followers to carry on that witness in his Name.  We, as followers of Jesus, are sent into this world to be visible signs of God’s unconditional love. Thus we are not first of all judged by what we say but by what we live.  When people say of us:  ‘See how they love one another,’ they catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God that Jesus announced and are drawn to it as by a magnet.”

It’s not going to be easy. There are still going to be people we can’t stand. There are still temptations we can’t ignore. There is still the potential that we will make terrible mistakes.

But “in a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred,” Nouwen writes, “We have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.”

It takes fire in out hearts to assume that privileged vocation. It takes the unquenchable fire that will burn away the chaff in our hearts and set us on the path top discipleship.

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

The fire that 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.

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.

As Oliver says:

“’Be Ignited or begone.’”