August 17, 2025

Jeremiah 23.23-29; Hebrews 11:29-12.2; Luke 12.49-56

 

+ Jesustells us today in our Gospel reading that he did not come to bring peace, butrather he came to bring division.

 

What?

 

He saidwhat now?

 

He didn’tcome to bring peace?

 

The Priceof Peace didn’t bring peace??

 

Not anice thing to hear from Jesus.

 

We wantJesus to bring peace, right?

 

But themessage of loving God and loving ALL people is, let’s face it, a divisive one.

 

It will,and trust me, has split families and societies and even the Church.

 

Let’s behonest: his message, of loving God and loving one another, is a message thatdoes divide.

 

We, whoinwardly stiffen at it, we rebel.

 

We say,“no.”

 

We freezeup.

 

But,Jesus makes this very clear to us. It is not our job, as his followers, tofreeze up.

 

It not anoption for us to let our blood harden into ice.

 

For, hecame to bring fire to the earth.

 

To us,his followers.

 

When wewere baptized, we were baptized with water, yes.

 

But wewere also baptized with fire! With the fire of God’s Holy Spirit that came tous as we came out of those waters, just as the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus inthe waters of his baptism.  

 

And thatfire burned away the ice within us that slows us down, that hardens us, thatprevents us from loving fully.

 

That firethat Jesus tells  us he is bringing to this earth, is the fire of hislove.

 

And it willburn.

 

Now, formost of us, when we think of fire in relation to God, we think of the fires ofhell.

 

In fact,if I believed in an eternal hell, which I do not, I think it would be a placeof ice, far removed from the burning inferno of God’s love.

 

Again andagain in scripture, certainly for our scriptures for today,  fire inrelation to God is seen as a purifying fire, a fire that burns away the chaffof our complacent selves.

 

Fire fromGod is ultimately a good thing, although maybe not always a pleasant thing.

 

The fireof God burns away our peripheral nature and presents us pure and spirituallynaked before God.

 

And thatis how we are to go before God.

 

But thisfire, as we’ve made clear, is not a fire of anger or wrath.

 

It is afire of God’s love.

 

God’slove for ALL people—not just those who we think God should love.

 

It thefire that burns within God’s heart for each of us.

 

And thatfire is an all-consuming fire.

 

When thatconsuming fire burns away our flimsy exteriors, when we stand pure andspiritually exposed before God, we realize who we really are.

 

The factremains, we are not, for the most part, completely at that point yet.

 

That firehas not yet done its complete job in us.

 

While westill have divisions, while we allow ourselves to stiffen in rebellion, when weallow our own personal tastes and beliefs to get in the way of Jesus’ messageof love, we realize the fire has not completely done its job in us.

 

Thedivisions will continue.

 

TheChurch remains divided.

 

For us,as followers of Jesus, we are not to be fire retardant, at least to the fire oflove that blazes from our God.

 

Asunpleasant and uncomfortable it might seem at times, we need to let that fireburn away the chaff from us.

 

And whenwe do, when we allow ourselves to be humbled by that fire of God’s love, then,we will see those divisions dying.

 

And willsee that the Church is more than just us, who struggle on, here on this side ofthe veil.

 

We willsee that we are only a part of a much larger Church.

 

We willsee that we are a part of a Church that also makes up that “great cloud ofwitnesses” Paul speaks of in today’s Epistle.

 

We willsee, once our divisions are gone and we have been purified in that fire ofGod’s love, that that cloud of witnesses truly does surround us.

 

And wewill see that we truly are running a race as followers of Jesus.

 

Paul isclear here too: that the only way to win the race is with perseverance.

 

Andperseverance of this sort is only tried and perfected in the fire of God’slove.

 

Yes, thisis the Church. This is what we are called to be here, and now, as followers ofJesus.

 

This iswhat we, baptized in the fire of God’s love, are compelled to be in this world.

 

So, letus be just that.  

 

Let us bethe Church, on fire with the love of God, fighting to erase the divisions thatseparate us.

 

Let us bethe prophets in whom God’s Word is like a fire, or a hammer that breaks arock—or ice—in pieces.

 

And whenwe are, finally and completely, those divisions will end, and we will be whatthe Church is on the other side of the veil.

 

Wewill—in that glorious moment—be the home of God among God’s people. Amen.