Kindling a Fire

Brad Sullivan
Proper 15, Year C
Sunday, August 18, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

On September 15, the Diocese of Texas is encouraging all the churches in the diocese to take part in Invitation Sunday, a day on which we’re encouraged to invite people to come with us to church. These could be people who’ve never been before, people who used to be here regularly and no longer are, new acquaintances or friends, anyone we’d like to invite to come with us to church.

            I like to think of this in terms of relationship and deepening friendships, rather than in terms of trying to grow membership.  We invite people to do all sorts of things with us, things that we enjoy and want to share with others.  The idea with invitation Sunday is to invite people to share our faith with them.  Let folks see what those crazy Episcopalians do.  Let our friends and neighbors catch a glimpse into our lives, into the deep parts of who we are.  They don’t have to sign on the dotted line.  They aren’t pressured into joining.  If they want to join, then great, and if not, that’s great too.   We’re giving people an opportunity to share a part of who we are. 

            Of course that’s a little bit easier when we have readings that are slightly less fiery than our Gospel reading for today.  Jesus definitely went from preaching to meddling in today’s Gospel, didn’t he?  “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49)  Nice comforting words we heard from Jesus today.  Happy Sunday and welcome to St. Mark’s, Jesus came to burn the earth!

            For the last several weeks, we’ve heard Jesus preaching about the Kingdom of God, about life in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus preached that we shouldn’t worry about our lives because of how much God cares for us.  We needn’t hold on to our wealth and hoard it for ourselves.  Rather, in the Kingdom of God, we share what we have with others, loving God and loving our neighbors.  What a world it would be if everyone lives just by those ways of life?  Jesus preached that we ought to be ready for action, ready to serve others, ready to live out the Kingdom life of God’s love.

Today then, Jesus made a turn in his preaching.  He was still preaching about the Kingdom of God, but after having described God’s kingdom and encouraging his followers to live God’s Kingdom Life, Jesus then pointed out how far the world and his followers actually were from living the Kingdom Life.  Jesus was following the prophetic tradition of speaking of God’s anger and disappointment at how far Israel had strayed from living as he had taught Israel to live.  Jeremiah spoke for God in this way to Israel.  “I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn for ever.” (Jeremiah 15:14)  We hear many times in the psalms about God’s fire, his anger towards Israel’s unfaithfulness and harmful ways of life.  “Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,” (Psalm 78:21)

In Jesus’ day, they had religious leaders teaching that they shouldn’t heal people if they asked for healing on the Sabbath.  They had religious leaders teaching that sinners, those who didn’t fulfill the law of Moses were to be shunned and ridiculed, rather than welcomed and shown a more life-giving way through the Kingdom of God way of life.  Love God and love your neighbor, many were teaching, so long as it isn’t too inconvenient and you don’t have to associate with the lowly or the sinful.  No wonder Jesus had a fire burning within him. 

Jesus was using the prophetic language of kindling a fire against the earth to help open the people’s eyes to the suffering of those around them.  Having preached about what life looks like in the Kingdom of God, Jesus was pointing out just how far away their society was from living the Kingdom of God.     

I came to bring division, Jesus said, “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." (Luke 12)  The mother-in-law against daughter-in-law may not be that surprising, but Jesus was quoting from Micah, chapter 7 in which Micah was railing against Israel for the way they perverted justice, bribed officials, people treated each other with contempt.  Families were turned against each other.  Honor your father and your mother?  It didn’t happen.  Micah was telling the people that Israel was going to be no more if they continued living so counter to the Kingdom of God., and not long afterwards, Israel was no more when Assyria came in and destroyed them.

Jesus was saying that Israel in his day was little better than Israel in the days of the prophet Micah.  What does God require of you, Micah asked?  Not proper religious observance made meaningless by how terribly you treat one another.  What God desires if for you “to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)

Jesus, then, having given the people of Israel a beautiful image of what life in the kingdom of God could be, and telling them “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” (Luke 12:32), Jesus then points out how much work they have to do to turn around and live out God’s kingdom.  Are you ready, Jesus was asking?  Are you ready to help bring about God’s kingdom?  Are you ready to give up your fears and worries?  Are you ready to serve others?  Are you ready to open your eyes to the plights of so many around you?  Are you ready to realize just how far away our society is from the Kingdom of God, and are you ready to change and to help bring about God’s kingdom?

Are you ready to do justice?  Are you ready to love mercy?  Are you ready to walk humbly with God?  Are you ready to let Jesus’ fire burn within you as well?  Are you ready to let Jesus go from preaching to meddling?  

I know we are ready.  We have been for a long time, and still we have Jesus reminding us, helping to open our eyes once again to the injustice of the world, to the plights of the hungry, the sorrowful, those who work hard for far too little, to those whose need is far more than we can give, and to those who need a second chance.  Are you ready to trust in Jesus’ words?  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

            Are you then ready to let Jesus kindle a fire within you and to open your eyes, to see where the worlds needs meet the fire within you, to help bring about the Kingdom of God life on earth?  Then, on September 15^th, invitation Sunday, or any other day of your life, are you ready to invite others to share in this Kingdom of God life with you?  Amen.

Argh! Where are My Tic Tacs?

Brad Sullivan
Proper 13, Year C
Sunday, July 14, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

    When I was in middle school, we had a project in science class dealing with the coal industry, and unfortunately there was quite a bit of misinformation given.  Now my dad worked for Exxon Coal and Minerals in charge of environmental and safety regulations, and when we told him about the project, he was rather less than pleased with what we were learning so he contacted our teacher and they talked, and Dad ended up giving a presentation to our class about the industry and coal mining.  It was a great presentation, and afterwards, one young man boldly walked up to my dad and said he had a question for him.  Dad was quite pleased that someone was interested in the presentation, and the young man asked him, “Where did you get that pointer stick thing you were using to show us stuff on the charts that you had?”  “Go away, kid, you bother me,” Dad was thinking.

We have a similar kind of utterly irrelevant question being asked of Jesus today from this unknown man in the crowd.  Jesus had been teaching the crowd about the Kingdom of God.  He was talking about not worrying about our lives for we are of such great value to God.  He was talking about the Holy Spirit giving guidance and direction when we need it.  Jesus was telling the crowd all about the beauty of life in the Kingdom of God, and some random dude shouts out, “Hey Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me!”

Really? Jesus has got to be thinking, “Kingdom of God and your asking about family inheritance; why do I try?  Why did I even come here?  Dad, can you just zap me back?”  By all rights, Jesus should have called up the guy who asked about the inheritance and then slapped him upside the head.  Jesus, though, took it as an opportunity for more teaching about the Kingdom of God. 

“Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” Jesus said.  He then told a parable of a man who had a huge overabundance of crops, who, rather than do anything useful with them, rather than share them or even sell them, decides to store them all so he can spend his years doing nothing. 

That sounds kind of nice, but Jesus then brings the story to the ultimate end point, saying that the man in the story died that very night, and the choice to store all of his crops proved to be very wasteful.  Life in the kingdom of God says that we are to help care for each other, to think beyond ourselves, and not to worry about what tomorrow will bring, but seek first the Kingdom of God, Jesus taught.  Seek to live out the Kingdom of God life with all you have and all you do.

I’ve been teaching recently about the five act narrative of scripture:  creation, fall, judgment, redemption, and re-creation.  That is the story of the Kingdom of God.  We see this story told time and time again in scripture.  It is the overarching story of the Gospel, the overarching story from Genesis to Revelation, and the story told and retold in people’s lives. 

We saw this story told in the eleven verses we heard from Hosea this morning.  God is remembering the creation of the nation of Israel, loving Israel as a child, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt.  Almost immediately we have the fall, as Israel kept sacrificing to the Baals, worshipping idols.  As judgment, God declares that they would return to Egypt as Assyria would take them into captivity.  When, we have redemption.  “How can I give you up, Ephraim?  How can I hand you over, O Israel?...I will not execute my fierce anger…for I am God and no mortal…”  Finally, we have re-creation of Israel, “They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt…and I will return them to the homes, says the Lord.”

That is the story told and retold in the prophets.  God gives judgment to Israel for their misdeeds, but God’s judgment is given with purpose, in order to bring about redemption and re-creation. 

Life in the kingdom of God says don’t sweat the small stuff because our story does not consist of squabbling over this or that.  Our life does not consist of fighting over family inheritance, or of amassing great wealth so we can store it all up for ourselves.  Our life consists of creation, over and over again.  Our life consists of falling, messing up, and facing judgment when that happens, but judgment in the Kingdom of God which has a purpose beyond punishment.  Judgment in the Kingdom of God is given to bring about redemption, leading to re-creation.  That’s where our lives are constantly leading, beyond judgment, beyond even redemption, to re-creation, to the resurrection life, even if your jerk of a brother won’t divide the family inheritance with you.  Amen.