It’s been hot lately. I know, duh, right? But still, hot. Humid. I got in my car one afternoon after it was sitting in the parking lot and the car thermometer thing said 103 degrees. Yikes. It cooled down as I drove home, into the 90's, cooler, way cooler. I have a little section on the weather app on my phone, it tells the time and the forecast and few other things and then has this section titled “feels like”. It’s 88 degrees my phone cheerfully tells me, but it feels like 96. Wow. How do they know what it feels like? I don’t, but I know when I read it I feel worse. It’s a head thing, I guess. A sign of things to come.
The signs are all around. I tripped over some of them in the hallway. I got texts about them, questions too. Signs of the next diaspora. Maddie’s heading back to college. You can’t miss it. She just said to me with a certain amount of despair, “I’m not sure it will all fit in one car!” We’ll make it work, I said. “You sure?” Yeah. “Well,” she sighed, “I talked with Meesh and she is bringing even more than me, so I guess that is good.” Yeah. Good that there is someone else filling up the apartment you are moving into and not just you. There are signs.
That’s not the only movement upstairs these days. No another space is being made ready. Rhys is coming home next week, so his mom thought he needed the bigger room. Up to now that room had been the place where she dumped centuries worth of family heirlooms (read junk) and papers and photos. Now, she’s transferring that to the smaller room which is also her home office where she works on her online course with the graduate students who are teaching her new levels of patience and exasperation.
I just keep my head down. I’ve learned to read the signs. We all have, we all do. It’s part of living in the world, living in community with people who have feelings and expectations and hopes and dreams and such. Paying attention to the subtle signs that all is not well in the world around you, in the world of those whose lives impact yours on a regular basis. But how good are we at reading those signs? That’s part of the question that Jesus is asking in our text this week. At least it seems to me. Take a look.
Luke 12:49-56 49 "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." 54 He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Jesus seems upset, having a bad day perhaps. He isn’t usually one to resort to name calling. Makes you wonder what is going on here. I mean, I understand that fire thing, once in a while burning it all down and starting over sounds like a good idea. Wash your hands, just walk away, Jesus. Let them be, don’t resort to arson. Take some deep breaths, count to ten. Breathe, just breathe. There now. Feel better? That messiah thing gets to you every now and then, I would suppose.
Ahem. Before I go too far and see lightning bolts on the horizon, let me quickly say, I don’t think that’s what going on here. I mean, sure Jesus probably had bad days. We were told he wept over Lazarus’s death, or the despair in the folks around him. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. Remember that day? Palm Sunday, he was riding into the city, and came around a corner and saw it all displayed there before him, the skyline shot. And it just got to him, because he knew he had the power to save them, to bring them life and wholeness, joy and peace, but they wouldn’t, they just wouldn’t. And it felt like a weight on his shoulders, in his soul, and he wept. So, yeah, he had his days. And maybe there is an element here of that. Of the frustration of trying to get people to see what is right in front of their faces. Literally. I mean he was standing there. The answer to all their uncertainties, the hope of all their hearts, the fulfillment of all their unspoken needs. And they didn’t see it. Didn’t see him. See him for who and what he was. What he brought to them. They didn’t see it. And he wanted them to burn.
Not burn up. This isn’t that kind of thing, not a threat, but a promise. I came to bring fire, he says, it is what I’m all about. John said that way back at the river, on baptism day. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire! You have to put that exclamation point there. Probably should be capitalized: Fire! Maybe all caps, knowing John: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with FIRE!
Jesus came to bring fire, but no one really understood him. He was accused of consorting with demons, of working with the Lord of the Flies (Beezelbub), that’s who deals with fire, isn’t it? The disciples thought it was a punishment - shall we call down fire and burn them up, when a city refused their missionary efforts. There’s a great evangelism model, offer them Christ, but burn them up if they say no.
How I wish it was already kindled, Jesus says. Already at work, purifying and empowering. Equipping and transforming. How I wish it was already at work, bringing this world closer to the kingdom I can see every time I open my eyes but they haven’t got a clue. They are frozen into the ice of this cold world, how I wish the fire was burning so they could see it, warm up to it, live into it. “ I’ve got a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”
Wait, what? Fire and water don’t mix, Jesus. Pick one metaphor or the other. And you’re stressed? Some argue that this baptism is His suffering and death. Sure He’s under stress. Sure this weighs on Him. Who would expect anything less? Except, He doesn’t really say stressed. The Greek word is hemmed in. Constrained. He is limited by the flesh He so willingly put on for us. Until He goes through His own personal fire, He is limited by time and space, He can’t reach us all. Before this baptism is completed he is here and not there. Afterwards He is here and there, and there, and over there, next to you, and within you, behind you.
So, choose. Choose to be set alight. Choose to burn with passion for love of the Lord and the world He died for. Choose to be fully alive even when it feels like you are on fire. Even when others say no. Even when others, important others, close others, say no and tell you to say no. Choose even though the choosing causes division, disagreement, even disappointment. Choose. Because the time is now.
Can’t you see it? That’s His final question. Can’t you see it? You see so much, you’re good at watching the sky and knowing whether those are rain clouds or not. You know this, red sky at morning, sailors take warning. You can read the signs. You know when the market is going to go up, or when the bottom is going to drop out. You know when the best time to buy a new car or when the mattress sales are going to happen. You’ve got it all figured out. You can read the TV schedule, a cookbook recipe, you can instagram and snapchat, you’ve poked all sorts of folk on facebook and have caught a boatload of pokemon. But can you see what really matters? Discern a good time to pray for a friend, know when to offer a helping hand and when it’s a shoulder to cry on? Can you find that passage that says just what you daughter needs to hear? Can you send your son off with a blessing that sticks with him as he walks? Can you meet a grieving widow and a new mother, can you console a friend who’s lost a job without resorting to platitudes? Can you invite, can you offer a neighbor to mentor them in the faith, to walk with them through a difficult time? There is a wind blowing and it isn’t just bringing some heat and humidity. It is the wind of the Spirit, it is a opportunity to grow, to widen our circles, to build on the foundation that is Jesus our Christ. It’s time to ride this wind. Can you feel it? Can you read it? The fire is burning.
Shalom,
Derek
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