This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s, Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 15th August 2010; St Oswald’s is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are: Jeremiah 23:23-29 Psalm 82 Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56
“Please join me in a short prayer from Psalms 19:14, and ” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Amen.
Introduction
Many years ago in the West Parish Church here in Maybole, I remember a visiting minister once preaching a real fire and brimstone sermon of condemnation; fully letting rip into the congregation.
My father still speaks of this sermon, well more so of the reaction of some of the congregation, who went on to thank the minister at the door, telling him how they had felt much better after such good mouthful.
Now this always bothered me; because I was at school back then, and it was common place for all teachers to rip into me on a regular basis; and I can assure you, that never made me feel any better; … so it was less reassuring to know that some people actually like such abuse from a minister during a sermon.
However, many year later to my great relief, I discovered what the New Testament really meant, and how it was full of love and grace and peace and things of hope and encouragement; and not any of those nasty fire and brimstone things of the Old Testament.
In fact I began to understand that I was accepted by God because of Jesus, and not because of anything I had; or had not done. God loved me because of the death of Jesus on that cross; and God loves us all of us in exactly the same way. …
None of our actions will ever change that, and I call that good news. In fact Romans chapter 8: verse 1 says “There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Is that not good news; no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus?
However, today’s readings do not fit into that mould. They’re all full of hard sayings, of demands for faithfulness, and the promises of judgment.
In the two readings this morning, and in the Psalms, God is basically saying that our behaviour is very important, and that God has very real expectations of us; and that what we do really does matter; and all that talk of discipline, and judgment, and division is certainly very disconcerting.
It is then made worse by Jesus saying that He, "came to bring fire to the earth, and how he wished it were already kindled!;” and he was very impatient to get on with it; saying “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”
All in all, this is not our usual Sunday message. No gentle Jesus, meek and mild. No easy yokes or light burdens, no kind words about love and forgiveness. This is the other side of the Gospel, the other side of the good news; the side that we don’t embrace quite so willingly; but there it is and it is very much a part of the whole Christian message; and we need to hear it; as we cannot simply take the bits we like; and throw out the rest. We must therefore embrace the whole message no matter how frightening it may appear.
In the Gospel message this morning we also hear Jesus say “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 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."
Now that is conflict. What do you think would happen to this Church if we put that message on our notice board outside? It is pretty strong to say the least.
Now I could go into reasons of spiritual warfare here saying things like it is God and Satan are fighting here on earth, and they are using their people here on earth to fight their battles, but this is not the message in this gospel reading.
The gospel mentions family here; it does not mention sects nor religions nor Jews nor Gentiles; it mentions families, and families to me tend to have similar beliefs and values; so it is not a conflict between good and evil here.
The clue to this message is where Jesus said that he came to bring fire to the earth. Now as you will recollect, fire in the Old Testament was Judgement where God brought the flames of heaven to support Elijah and destroy his enemies in 2 Kings Chapter 1.
The exact opposite takes place in the New Testament, a few passages before in Luke chapter 9 where Jesus was rejected by a whole village; and James and John were so angry that they wanted Jesus to command fire down from heaven and consume the whole village as had Elijah.
But do you remember Jesus rebuked them, and said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them”. This sound like a contradiction but it is not, as the fire in this message does not mean judgement, condemnation nor destruction.
No the fire that Jesus was referring to was, the fire from the Holy Spirit, the fire of refinement. It is also a fire of transformation; the fire that comes not to destroy, but to refine, and empower; and God’s first call is to refine and empower His own people to be God centred rather than self centred.
God’s call is for holiness and righteous. It is not for the evil world out there telling them to shape up. No, God’s first call is to make sure that we, (his children), embrace His holiness and righteous by following in the footsteps of Jesus. God’s purpose is therefore to refine and prepare us for sending us into the world; so that we are properly equipped to overcome; and be ambassadors for His kingdom.
I will say that again, God’s purpose is to refine and prepare us for sending us into the world; so that we are properly equipped to overcome and be ambassadors for His kingdom.
Now fire to me sounds frightfully painful; and it is; but think of the many life changing decisions we have made over our life time, and I think you will agree with me that all of them, have occurred after something traumatic.
It takes pain in order to move us in a certain directions; so not all troubles come from the enemy. The Holy Spirit comes with fire, but fire to sanctify and purify; and to destroy.
You may ask why is this necessary, and the answer is because the Old Testament Law is not effectual in its entirety. I am sure everyone here has done their best, but all of us have sinned and fallen short.
But if we did fulfill the law, the law would not give us the direction in which to lead our lives. The law is in the past tense, it does not set clear goals, it tells us what we have done wrong. The law is basically good, but it is flawed, and basically tells us what not to do.
The Holy Spirit on the other hand is the comforter, our personal Councillor, our helper and our guide. He is the one who directs and leads us, and if you think about it, there is not need for a guide if you are not going through times of trial and tribulation.
Now this is different from the attacks from the enemy; and we need to discern what is happening; and this can be very difficult. If we are being purified, our pain is to take us somewhere that we will be in a better position to handle things; a better position where we can become empowered; a position where we can secure victory.
Basically all attacks from the enemy are meant to destroy us; sucking the very life right out of our bodies. Satan’s only intention is to “kill, steal and destroy”.
God on the other hand loves us, and God wants for us to have the fullest, deepest and richest lifestyle we can comfortably cope with; and I am sorry to say; but to go to the mountain of victory, we sometimes need to travel through the valley of despair.
We can therefore only realise victory when we put God first, and if we put God first, then we will know very well what Jesus means when he talks about division, and conflict; and fire; and how this is placed upon us to help us, rather than destroy us.
I still do not like it; it is painful, and I have been going through a very hard time myself, and have been for over a year now. But I know it is from God because it has really strengthened me; and changed my life for the better.
It has put me in a higher position of authority and control; but I still do like pain that it has entailed. … However I have finally realised that I had to suffer in this way in order grow, and grow healthily. I can now also thank God for this time of trial.
Having been through such a painful processes before, like many Christians, what really amazes me is that when it is all said and done, we realise that God has been in control all the time; directing the chain of events in His direction which ultimately mean our direction. It is just like that tacky poem, “Footsteps in the sands”, when you needed Jesus the most; he is actually there carrying you to safety all the while.
God loves us, and God wants for us all that life can give, but to do that we have to go through that fire of refinement every now and again; fire that sometimes can only be kindled by conflict with those closest to us; where those closest to us can rub our faces right into our faults and weakness; a thing that no stranger could possible do.
It is not until we are presented with our faults that we will make decisions to radically change. Such purification can only be achieved through pain, but I rather God took control now and again, and guide us through the valley of despair, rather than throwing us into it and leaving us to flounder.
We are called, as Jesus himself was called, to transform ourselves into the likeness of God; to show the world what Christianity looks like; and how we are different because we are supported by a God who really loves and supports us. A God that humbly empowers us to overcome anything the enemy may throw at us.
Amen. 1780 words.
