Jesus Came to Set the World Ablaze Luke 12:49-56 Pentecost 12C August 19 2007

Slide 1: Image: Pews. Words: Jesus often preached in places without pews or walls.

Jesus didn't lull His audiences into an easy sleep in the pews. When Jesus spoke often times there weren't any pews around for those who came to hear him teach. Luke wrote of a time when He spoke in the market place. Luke says a crowd numbering in the thousands gathered. It was no organized event with ushers, greeters, and clergy present. There was pushing and shoving to get a chance to listen to him; some risked being trampled just to hear him or touch him or be touched by this teacher and healer.

Slide 2: Words: I have a baptism to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over. Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it. Luke 12:50-51 NCV.

The hurting and the downtrodden of Israel heard hope for something better in Jesus' words. Others, especially those who believed they could control God and God's Word, heard him speak and grew enraged at what they heard. When he spoke they said it was blasphemy. Jesus challenged his hearers over and over. He didn't take the course of least offense or least resistance. He came for a reason, for a "baptism that he had to endure." Its tempting to find some way to avoid Jesus' destiny in the cross, but the cross is the real reason for Jesus' intensity in ministry. As he taught Jesus was looking towards Jerusalem, toward the cross where he would be lifted up for the sins of the whole world.

Slide 3: Image: earth. Words: Luke 12:49, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"

Listen to Jesus and it becomes clear that he made a judgment about humanity; he wanted to see us on fire for the sake of the kingdom of God. He doesn't see us and this world as passionless. Rather he wants to see a transforming fire kindled. Jesus says he wants fire. He doesn't speak here of the fires of hell and damnation; rather he speaks about a consuming fire, a passion that doesn't leave everything settled and neat as it is today. He spoke words that still divide and challenge us to see the him coming not to approve of the world as is; rather he came to see the world catch fire with the Spirit of the Living God.

Jesus' bold words in Luke 12:49, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" aren't the words of a weakling. They are the words of a bold man who's mission and a vision would lead to radical transformation for himself and all who follow him. He came to see you and me on fire with the Spirit. Jesus wants to see this fire running through the church out of our hand and out of our control; but not out of God's hands or God's control.

Slide 4: Image: fire starting.

Fire, for the ancients, was an important. They even thought it was a basic element of creation (Bauer Greek English Lexicon). Fire was, in the ancient world, key to clearing out the old and bringing in the new. But fire was, and still is, beyond simple human control. We still fear it's power. We teach our children to keep away from fire fearing that it will harm them. And that's not the only kind of fire that we are afraid of these days. We fear the fire of the Spirit that Jesus wanted kindled when he walked the earth. Eric, a pastor from Jackson Minnesota wrote,

We spend so much time trying to fight fires in a forest when the only thing the forest wants is for the fire to burn. Fire clears the old under brush and allows new seeds to pop open so they can grow.

I think there are too many firefighters in the church. Fire is unpredicable. You never know where it is going to go or what it will do.... [But] the Church desparately wants to say the "fire" is 100% contained and under control.

A few weeks ago I helped my friend burn up the old deck that he'd torn down. The fire from the old cracking cedar planks was amazing. I cut up the deck into 2 foot squares with a sawzall. Then we stacked them up and stuck a few rags at the bottom to get the fire started. It was a great bonfire. After a little time watching the fire my friend's wife pointed to this little windmill that the former owners of the place had used to store garden tools. It was full of mice and she just wanted it gone. My buddy, his wife, another friend, and myself looked at the bobcat that they'd borrowed for the deck and patio project and together we decided we'd lift up the old windmill and put it on the fire.

Jesus' wants to see the fire of the Spirit that burns away the old orders and the old compromises not only within us in the church but in the whole world. He wans to see new life rise from the old in all people. He came, "to bring division, not peace." He came to bring fire that could consume the old and dead and make way for new life. He came not to approve of the way the world works today but to see it completely transformed. Jesus cross and resurrection weren't half-hearted. His death was whole and total, just like ours in baptism; and his rising to new life was whole total just as we shall rise whole and complete with Jesus on the last day. He wants to see fire that consumes the ungodly parts of each of us because he knows the power of God to make all things new.

Slide 5: Image: fire consuming 1 Words: How do you imagine God?
Do you imagine Jesus like this?: boldly challenging assumptions, wanting to see us on fire. Or do you prefer a different image of God from this one revealed in the scripture by Luke.

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.
As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."
The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

Anybody seen the movie Talladega Nights? In one scene Will Ferrel's character Ricky Bobby insists on praying to, “little baby Jesus.” The rest of the family challenges him to see Jesus differently but he insists that he wants to pray to little baby Jesus, who he says, “doesn't yet even know a word yet but is still omnipotent.”

Slide 6: Image: Fire consuming 2

In our age we like to imagine that God's always on our side. Some one in search of eternal mercy and compassion might imagine God as soft and compassionate. Another desperate for help in this life might imagine God as a judge ready to settle the score once and for all. God's portrayed by some as the baby of Christmas who they can control. Others look at God as a big cosmic grandfather with a great beard, a real Teddy Bear who accepts all and looks past our faults. Others imagine God angry and vengeful ready to swoop in and spare the chosen few but unleash judgment on those left behind in the world. These images that our culture has of God don't contain the whole truth about the God revealed in the person of Jesus in Luke.

The real God, revealed in Jesus, wasn't always cuddly nor was he always vengeful. He spoke about God's judgment and God's compassion. He spoke with vision for a world and a people transformed. The real Jesus talked about repentance and he challenged his hearers not only to name their neighbors sin but their own. He came wanting to see fire. Letting the fire of the Holy Spirit loose in the church is risky. God might very well confront our sins. Letting the Word of God lose in our lives is equally risky because the God who meets us in scripture, like the fire of the Spirit, is only contained at our own peril.

Slide 7: Friend with a garden house
The fire from the deck and the little windmill got pretty big as you can see in the picture. My buddy decided to try and keep it from scorching their tomato plants. We all took turns keeping an eye on the tomato plants because it was just to hot for one person to stay next to the fire all that time. We even learned that a branch hanging way overhead wasn't out of reach. We watched the leaves dry and curl right before our eyes.

Slide 8
Jesus wants to see this same kind of fire in our lives. He wants us to let the Spirit of Living God run free. The writer of Hebrews wrote,

since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

Jesus came not to lull us to sleep but to move us to action. He has a vision of the kingdom of God not as a fairytale but as promise. This is promise made by the king of kings who came to reveal God's passion to the world. He came to set the world on fire.

2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 NRSV .

It's easy to step aside from the fire. It's easy to put God in that box, in that neat whole that you've left for Him. But Jesus came to set the earth ablaze. I pray to see the fire of the Holy Spirit at work in this age and in this church. AMEN