The
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah
23:16-29
ILT
Chapel Psalm
19:81-88
Brookings,
SD Hebrews
11:17-31
August
19, 2013 Luke
12:49-53 (54-56)
“Fire
Fighters"
Greetings to you on
this day that the Lord has made--a day for us to rejoice and be glad. Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and from his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it
were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49) That’s not your
typical image of a kinder and gentler Jesus, is it? But then he continues: “Do you
think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division.” (Luke 12:51) Fire…
Division… No, this certainly isn’t the kinder and gentler Jesus of Sunday
School rooms and bible camp songs. Fire…
Division… No, this certainly isn’t the tolerant, accepting, and hospitable
Jesus of contemporary Christianity.
Fire… Division… No, this certainly doesn’t fit with the marketing
message of many churches today.
Fire… fire is much
in the news this week as it rages across much of the American West consuming
all before and leaving but dust and ashes in its wake. Fire… Fire occasioned the only expression of
obscenity I ever heard from my father.
It was in my youth bordering on young adulthood. My father and I had worked side-by-side on
the farm for several years. Each year as
we prepared the land for spring planting there would be a field or two which
would require burning. We would set fire
to the stubble of the previous year’s crop, subjecting it to the rapid oxidation
of burning rather than the extremely slow oxidation of decomposition. Fire rots things in seconds rather than
years.
The previous year
we had raised flax on this particular field.
The flax plant has a solid stem rather than the hollow stem of most
grains. Flax straw is tough, fibrous,
and slow to decompose. It provides the
raw material for manufacturing linen cloth.
If we didn’t burn the stubble for the previous year’s crop, it would
clog our machinery and prevent the current year’s seed from being properly
sown. So, burn it we did.
On this particular
occasion we’d been promised suitable weather by the forecaster on the TV and we
expected an uneventful burn. The
weatherman, however, turned out to be wrong.
The wind stayed neither calm nor steady.
It switched directions and increased dramatically. Surely it reached thirty miles an hour with
gusts to forty or more. The wind turned
our sedately burning field into a raging wild fire which leapt our containments
and threatened to escape into the neighbor’s pasture land. From there it would spread right down the
Sand Creek valley, driven by that ferocious wind, consuming all before it, and
leaving but dust and ashes in its wake.
Arrayed as its opposition, standing between the fire and its freedom
were my father and I with our tools, two shovels and a tractor. We contained that fire, barely. It was a close-run thing. As my father and I collapsed, relieved and
exhausted fire fighters, then I heard him name that fire with a curse, the only
expression of obscenity I ever heard from my father. That fire, if it had escaped our containments
would have brought destruction upon our neighbors and that destruction would
have meant the end of all my father… my father and I… had worked for. It would have ended the farm. Of necessity, we were fire fighters.
Jesus said, “I came to cast fire on the earth…” Of necessity this fire occasions fire
fighters. They are the ones who see in
the fire Jesus cast upon the earth a wind-driven path of destruction consuming
all before it and leaving but dust and ashes in its wake. They are the ones who see the fire leaping
their containments and escaping, free and wild before the wind. They are the ones, who like my father and me,
know that the fire running wild and free would mean the end of all they’d
worked for… the end of hopes, dreams, and endeavors. The fire cast by Jesus upon the earth
occasions of necessity that sinners become fire fighters… and the best ones…
the most diligent ones… are those that are institutionalized.
Yes, sinners
inhabit our institutions—even the institution known as church. Sinners within the institution of the church
are the world’s best fire fighters. Why? Why do sinners in the church fight the fire
cast by Jesus upon the earth? They fight
it for the same reason my father and I fought that fire years ago: it threatens to bring destruction upon all
they hold dear.
The great champion
of historical analysis, Carroll Quigley, provides an answer from a secular
perspective—that is, from our human side.
He writes that every society develops organizations or instruments to
satisfy the needs of that particular society at that particular time. Quote:
An instrument is a social organization that is fulfilling effectively the purpose for which it arose. An institution is an instrument that has taken on activities and purposes of its own, separate from and different from the purposes for which it was intended. As a consequence, an institution achieves its original purposes with decreasing effectiveness. Every instrument consists of people organized in relationships to one another. As the instrument becomes an institution, these relationships become ends in themselves to the detriment of the ends of the whole organization.”
An instrument is a social organization that is fulfilling effectively the purpose for which it arose. An institution is an instrument that has taken on activities and purposes of its own, separate from and different from the purposes for which it was intended. As a consequence, an institution achieves its original purposes with decreasing effectiveness. Every instrument consists of people organized in relationships to one another. As the instrument becomes an institution, these relationships become ends in themselves to the detriment of the ends of the whole organization.”
Quigley is able to demonstrate that, from the human
perspective, institutions are of necessity self-serving, and that means, since
from the godly perspective we are sinners… that means we—you and I—are of
necessity fire fighters. Jesus came to
cast fire on the earth—the fire of freedom… the fire of the forgiveness of
sins… the fire of salvation by grace through faith alone… Do you see how
threatening such fire is the institutionalized?
Institutions are all about boundaries:
who’s in, who’s out… who’s loyal, who’s not… who’s got power, who
doesn’t… Institutions are about bondage,
not freedom, Institutions are all about
the consequences of sin: what are the
penalties… what’s just or unjust… who’s the judge, jury, and executioner…
Institutions enforce the rules, they don’t forgive sins. Institutions are all about works and their
righteousness: who’s got the right
program… who’s doing the right things… who’s being the most benefit to the
organization… Institutions are about workers, hard workers, not those who come
to the rest promised by Jesus to the heavy laden.
“I came to cast fire upon the earth….” This fire cast by Jesus will not submit to
the containment of sinners, no matter how good of fire fighters they are… even
the obscenity of death by crucifixion could not contain Jesus. This fire cast by Jesus will not be stopped
until it has consumed all before it. It
will run wild and free ending everything we sinners have worked for… it will be
the end of hopes, the end of dreams, the end of endeavors, no matter how well
institutionalized and well-meaning they are.
Then… then, in that wake of dust and ashes…. Then when all things have
been repented—even the most precious of our virtues… when all things have been
repented… Then, new life will spring up… the new life of the new creation which
is ours… which is yours… in Christ Jesus your Lord.
This is not the kinder, gentler Jesus of Sunday School and
bible camp. This is not the fair weather
Jesus promised by contemporary prophets of platitudes. This is the Jesus, your Jesus, the Jesus who
has come to be your Lord even if it means you’re being consumed by the fire and
wind of the Holy Spirit so that Jesus Christ can be your life… your life in the
new creation. “I have come to cast fire
upon the earth…” And you say, “Amen, come, Lord Jesus” Thanks be to God! Amen
This sermon was preached by the Reverend Timothy J. Swenson for the Institute of Lutheran Theology's online chapel service. Visit: www.ilt.org for weekday chapel services at 10:00 AM Central Time. Archived chapel services are also available.
