August 13, 2016
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:49-56
‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; –Luke 12:49-52
Fire while devastating in its randomness refines when applied well. Fire reduces everything to a pile of ashes when the conditions are right. What did Jesus see in the first century that needed such attention? What do we as a society need to purge permanently from our system? Not much has changed among humans and how they treat one another from the first century to the 21st. I fear greed and lust for power are as epidemic now as then.
In Oklahoma red cedars grow wildly and abundantly. Farmers do control burns to get rid of these trees because farmers know that one spark from the friction of train wheels meeting track can cause a monster fire. Just such an event caused a fire a few years ago that destroyed hundreds of acres of crop land, burned all the outbuildings on my brother’s farm including farm implements and vehicles. Firefighters saved his house. His closest neighbor was not as fortunate, although no one was hurt. Red cedar explodes into great burning bushes that throw off flames toward the next one and the next one until there is nothing left, but blackened fields with patches of red clay earth.
Jesus offered us the salvation of a controlled burn. He still does. He will bring wholeness and oneness and justice if we let him. We have to decide if greed or lust for power or whatever else separates us from living in and through God’s love is more important than being whole in God’s love.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we place other wants above our desire to be in relationship with you. While we are caught in the inferno of our society today, help us see the possibilities of the new life that will spring forth once the fire has died. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.