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 15th, 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.
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