Harmony and Fire
I. TEXT: Luke 12:49-53 (NRSV)
“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided: 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.”
II. OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
The discovery of fire by humans is considered to be one of the most important of all discoveries. It allowed our ancestors to stay warm, cook food, ward off predators, and travel to harsh climates. It also had important social implications, allowing groups of people to gather together and stay up late. Despite the importance of the discovery of fire, how, when, and where humans first encountered fire and began to harness its power is not known. There is no consensus, but ancient archaeological evidence reveals campfire traces from so far back it is hard to imagine.
Anthropological studies reveal that most ancient cultures have some myths about the origins of fire. Whether it is the Apache story of the Fox, who brought fire to the world, or the Greco-Roman story of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, it reveals humanity's fascination and reverence for the mystery of fire.
Fire is a state, process, or instance of combustion in which fuel or other material is ignited and combined with oxygen, giving off light, heat, and flame. Fire can be good. Fire can be destructive. Fire can be disastrous. Fire can be a foe, but it can also be a friend.
Thomas Edison was a person with many failures before his ultimate successes. He understood that his string of failures was just part of the process in his journey toward the win.
Edison's son Charles told a story about the fire on December 9, 1914, which destroyed Edison Industries. That night, Edison lost two million dollars, and his lifework went up in flames. He was only insured for $238,000 because the concrete buildings were thought to be fireproof.
Charles was 24; Thomas was 67. Charles ran around frantically, trying to find his father. Finally, he found him standing near the fire, his face ruddy in the glow, his white hair blown by the December winds."My heart ached for him," Charles Edison said. "he was 67 - no longer a young man - and everything was going up in flames. He spotted me. 'Charles,' he shouted, 'where's your mother?' I don't know, Dad,' I said. 'Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this again as long as she lives.'"The next morning, walking about the charred embers of all his hopes and dreams, Thomas Edison said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew."Three weeks after the fire, his firm delivered the first phonograph.
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thomas-edison-great-value-disaster-all-our-mistakes-gone-attaway/)
III. MOVEMENT 1:
In the OT, fire is an emblem and symbol of the LORD.
When the LORD ratified his covenant with Abraham, He walked through the sacrifice as "a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch" (Gen 15:17).
400 years later, when the LORD began the process of fulfilling his promise to Abraham, He appeared to Moses in an Angel in a Flame of Fire in the famous Burning Bush (Exod 3).
After sending plagues upon Egypt and bringing Israel through the waters of the Red Sea, guiding them as a Pillar of Fire, the LORD brought them to Mount Sanai, where He gave them the Law. The mountain was one blazing Firey Theophany. The writer of Hebrews said Moses feared and quaked, God was a Consuming Fire.
In the Tabernacle in the wilderness, God started the first fire on the altar of sacrifice, and it was the job of the priesthood to keep the fire going perpetually. They used that fire to burn sacrifices, cook, light the seven golden lamps, and burn incense daily in the Presence of the LORD.
The challenge of the prophet Elijah to the prophets of Baal was that the God who could answer by fire was the true God. The LORD answered by fire consuming the sacrifice, the stones of the altar, and the water that saturated it all.
In Israel's wisdom tradition, fire symbolizes love, passion, and the consequences of unwise decisions.
In the prophetic tradition, fire represents the judgment of the LORD, His correction, and His way of purging out what keeps Israel from flourishing. God had a good plan for them, but in moments when they strayed, He was willing to turn up the heat to bring them into the best place.
Fire can be good. Fire can be bad. Fire can be comforting. Fire can be terrifying. Fire can be a foe, fire can be a friend.
Jesus's words in Luke 12:49-53 are shocking and troubling. Especially in light of everything else that is said about peace in the Gospel of Luke:
Luke 2:14, Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth… It's almost Christmas…
Luke 2:29 – Simeon got to depart in peace after seeing the Messiah…
Luke 7:50 – your faith has saved you; go in peace.
Luke 8:48 – Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.
Luke 10:5-6 – blessing the person of peace.
Luke 11:21 – the strong man guarding his house has peace
Luke 14:32 – the king who seeks peace because he knows he can't win a battle
Luke 19:38 – echoes the heavenly hosts in 2:14… peace in heaven…
Luke 19:42 – the things that make for Jerusalem’s peace are hidden from their eyes…
Luke 24:26 – Jesus speaks peace to his disciples after the Resurrection…
Jesus is the Prince of Peace! The Prince of Shalom. The concept of peace in the Bible means:
a set of favorable circumstances involving peace and tranquility — ‘peace, tranquility.’
a state of freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil — ‘peace, freedom from worry.’
The Hebrew idea of shalom has to do with harmony. It has to do with wholeness and things working as they should. People have what they need. Relationships work as they should. No worry, concern, or fear. Peace, shalom. The OT prophets envisioned a day when even the animal and plant creation would be restored and renewed to an Eden-like condition where everything was working as it should.
Jesus spoke peace to the storm, "Peace be still" (Mark 4:39). The prophet said that God would keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him (Isa 26:3). The Sermon on the Mount says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God" (Matt 5:9).
IV. MOVEMENT 2:
Yet, in this text, He says that He did not come to bring peace but to cast a fire on the earth and a fire that had the potential to divide. What's going on here?
Luke 12:49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"
Why would the Prince of Peace bring fire on the earth? Why would he be so passionate about wanting to start it?
We have a strange relationship with fire, which is probably why we usually ignore texts like this. We love fire in what we think is its place... places like the fireplace, on candle wicks, in bar-b-q pits... and in controlled bonfires...
But we do not like fires in places like the forests of California or the ones that devastated Australia. The lands that have burned so devastatingly in both these places were once managed by indigenous people through controlled burning. A relationship between them and the land kept the peace - harmony - shalom in place. But, the new managers thought all fires were bad, and starting fires was outlawed, even the fires that the forests, animals, and people had learned and adapted to benefit from. In the twentieth century, we all remember an ad campaign. Smokey, the bear, taught us that "Only YOU can prevent forest fires." At the same time, forest firefighters were given the mandate that any fire, whether natural or caused by humanity, should be extinguished by 10 AM of the following day. They were successful... For a while... But over the past years, we have had terrible fires that have destroyed entire communities, forests, and wildlife...
Why? Because we did not realize the value of a controlled fire to the ecosystems. Over thousands of years,, those forests, the Creator, and the people who managed them had used fire to keep things going as they should. And so now things are out of balance, and creation knows it. Fires benefit the forest because:
They clean the forest floor
Provide habitat
Kill disease
Help new generations of trees to germinate. Some seeds cannot germinate without the temperatures generated by fire.
In creation, there can be no harmony, shalom, or peace without fire.
Jesus! You're the Prince of Harmony! Why are you casting fire into the forest of humanity? I can hear Him answer because it's the way that peace can come.
Some of what you are going through are God's way of cleaning up the junk that has built up in your life! He is allowing the fire to burn so that your faith on the other side of the fire will be fruitful so that there can be new life so that the things that would destroy you can be done away with...
Your trial is not meant to destroy you. The fire that he sends will benefit you! The things that He is burning up are the things that could keep you from being fruitful! He is thinking about the big picture! Sometimes, we can only see the trees, but Jesus sees the forest! He is interested in everything in the forest, including you and me!
1 Peter 4:12-19 (KJV)
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
Luke 12:50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!
Jesus is speaking of His crucifixion. It was a place where he would ignite a fire that has continued to burn in the world ever since and will continue through the ages! His baptism was a baptism of fire. He entered the fire with and for all of humanity, representing us all... Like the smoking furnace and burning lamp that walked through Abraham's sacrifice, Jesus walked through the cross and the grave to ratify His covenant with us.
He is willing to enter the fire alongside us! We love the story of Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego. They were cast into the burning fiery furnace because they refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's edict to worship the image... Because they stood like tall trees in a forest that had gone astray, when they were cast into the heat of the fire, there was a fourth Man with them! They came out of the fire more fruitful than they had gone in, and for generations, they have helped new growth in God's kingdom! Nebuchadnezzar was not in control of the fire!
Isaiah 43:2 (NKJV)
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you."
Those who crucified Jesus were not in control! He was starting a fire! He was entering the fire!
Isaiah 9:5-6 (KJV)
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
V. Movement 3:
51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided: 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.”
Leading up our text in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has done some things that have ruffled some feathers among the religious elite of His day. He is seen again and again eating together with people that the religious will not spend time with. He has spoken shalom/peace into the lives of others rejected as sinners. His table of fellowship was large enough to include everyone. But that was not the case for all trees in His forest.
This was the thing that was going to be so offensive for so many. There was a whole lot of dead growth in the forest of the first-century Jewish religious world. There was an us-4-and-no-more mentality. And Jesus knew that His Cross was going to offend many. Why? Because He was dying for the sins of the whole world. And social location, religious location, economic location, or anything else gave no one an advantage.
It is vital that we are able to discern which fire is from God and which fire is our own making. Some people might read this text and think that if they have terrible relationships, it must be because they are doing the will of God. That may not be the case. James and John were upset that the Samaritans would not accept Jesus, and so they asked if he wanted them to call down fire upon them as Elijah had. Jesus replied that they did not know what spirit they were of. Elijah himself had to learn that God is not in every fire. Elijah wanted to call down fire on every army that approached him, and eventually, the LORD told him to stop. When Elijah was in the cave, the LORD passed, and a fire started, but the LORD was not in the fire. Once the prophets of Baal were burned up, new growth was coming up... God's fire is a controlled fire for a purpose... If you always run others off with your Christianity, maybe it's not Christianity. There is a place of peace after the fire. Fire is not the goal. Harmony is.
See, Jesus brings a temporary fire that creates a place for new growth. If your relationships everywhere are broken by the same pattern, you may be at the wrong fire.
Peter found himself at the wrong fire on the night Jesus was crucified. Warning himself as Jesus was starting another fire by being tried unjustly. But after Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected, He appeared to Peter and the others on the Sea of Galilee one day. He started a fire on the shore and cooked some fish. Peter denied the Lord by one fire, but around this fire, Peter affirmed his love for the Lord. Then, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter received the Holy Spirit, and a little tongue of fire appeared above him. A fire that burned and gave him the passion for doing the work of God for the rest of his life. A fire that he embraced and caused him to endure the things that came against him, believing that Jesus was the one in charge of the fire.
VI. Conclusion and exhortation:
Controlled fires are a natural part of God's care for creation. They are a part of the method He gave to indigenous peoples for managing the land. Fire is God's way of refining His covenant people. Jesus entered the fire along with and for us.
I wonder if there is someone here this morning who seems like everything in your life is burning down? Someone like Edison on that cold December morning? Would you be willing to reframe what you see burning? Is it your mistake that God is allowing to burn to the ground? Would you accept that He is in control of the fire? That there is new life on the other side? Is fire your friend, or your foe?
