Red Vineyeard near Arles, Vincent, 1889

INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone. Great to see you all again ….

Today is the 10th Sunday after Pentecost. This year we’ve been on a wonderful journey in the lectionary through the Gospel of Luke, following the whole arc of Jesus’ public ministry. Today is our third Sunday in Luke Chapter 12, with Jesus ministering in Judea. At the start of the Chapter, Luke describes the scene:

“Meanwhile, when the crowd had gathered by the thousands, so that they trampled on one another, Jesus began to speak….”

At different points of the chapter Jesus is clearly speaking just to the disciples, but in the passage we’re going to read today, verses 49 to 56, he is speaking to the whole crowd.

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth,” Jesus declares, “and how I wish it were already ablaze! …Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

Wow! Them’s fightin’ words! This is a fiery passage, as K__ will read in full for us later. But have you ever noticed that there seems to be not one but two Jesuses in the Gospels: a nice, loving Jesus who preaches wonderful Good News about the Kingdom coming, about how to live a new, truly free life of selflessness; and an angry, judgmental Jesus who preaches dire warnings of terrible things about to happen if we don’t play our cards right, before he miraculously comes again to save the day?!

Alongside the Luke readings this month we have four weeks of readings from Hebrews, the iconic faith chapters, 11-13 – last week it was Abraham, this week it’s all the Old Testament heroes after Abraham – everyone from Moses down to Samuel, David and the Prophets. We’re not going to read today’s Hebrews passage directly, but, yes, faith is the key to it all – to understanding this little conundrum of the two Jesuses, the nice one and the angry one. Of course, there’s actually only one Jesus – obviously! – but let’s wait now till the sermon, where we’ll see if we can put the two very different Jesuses back together again!

Gospel Reading: Luke 12:49-56 – Jesus brings fire on earth

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint 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; 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.”

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. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 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?”

REFLECTION

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze! …Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

Yes, this is the angry Jesus, preaching fire and brimstone! Earlier in the chapter – Luke 12 – we have some of the most famous words of the other Jesus, the kind, loving one:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. … Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?…

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”

Then, in last week’s reading, in verses 32-34 of the chapter, Jesus says:

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out …… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Do you see the contrast?! This, the kind, loving Jesus, is the one we love, the one everyone loves. But the angry one? –

“From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three …… father against son and son against father …. 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?”

No one likes this Jesus, and, yes, it has to be said that this Jesus is the one who seems to have, firstly, sent the Church, throughout much of its history, down a very legalistic road – a road of judgement, power and control, rather than love – and, then, eventually, turned people away from the church in droves, so that now, in the early 21st century, most people in western countries like Australia have completely rejected the church, Christianity, God, Jesus – even if they do have a faint nostalgia for all those beautiful words:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven.” “Consider the ravens… Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin…” “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom…”

Or, at least, it is the church’s failure to fully understand the angry Jesus, to interpret what he says in angry, judgemental passages like the one we read today, in precisely the opposite way to what he really intended – to take Jesus, dare I say it, literally – that has caused all the problems.

I’ve talked to you about this angry version of Jesus before – last time I was here, in November – Jesus was on the Mount of Olives in Mark 13, soon to be crucified, warning the disciples of impending judgement:

“For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

Ouch! The angry Jesus is trying to get an important message across to the disciples and to all his followers – both here and in Luke 12 – about the opposition they will experience if they want to follow his path and find new life and the Kingdom – not just external opposition from other people and the religious and worldly powers of the day, but, even more significantly, opposition from within themselves, from their own natural-born selfish, self-centred selves. An opposition that will require real faith, courage, commitment to overcome.

In these angry passages Jesus commonly taps into the Old Testament narrative and language of judgement, in which an angry omnipotent creator God is the ultimate judge and punisher of the world – “vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will recompense” – that sort of thing! It’s a language the disciples and the people of the time well understood and could relate to; but now, after the resurrection, 2000 years later, with the Kingdom now growing all around us, it’s a complete turn-off – and, yes, it has turned many people away from the Church and Christianity, who can no longer find any good reason to believe in the existence of a God who is angry and judgmental most of the time.

Why does Jesus use this angry language? – because, yes, he’s trying to shock his followers into the realization that only real faith, courage, commitment will get them through all the opposition they will experience, from without and, especially, from within. Remember that the message of the other Jesus, the kind, loving one, is always about Metanoia – that’s the Greek word in the New Testament usually translated as “repentance” or “conversion” – the prefix “meta” meaning change or transformation, “-noia” from “gnosis”, “knowledge” or “understanding” – so, Metanoia, a radical change in your whole mindset about life – the transformation, as I’ve described it to you before, from our natural-born state of self-centredness, to a new state, mindset, way of life, based on selflessness, putting others first – kindness, compassion, sympathy, empathy, respect – in a word, selfless agape love.

“Love your enemies”, “if someone asks for your shirt give them your cloak too”, “turn the other cheek”, “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles”, “give to the one who asks you”, “in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”

But Metanoia is not easy, it’s painful, hard, every fibre of our natural-born self opposes it, nature itself opposes it. It requires real faith, courage, commitment, or it just won’t happen. Not faith in yourself – that will only keep you in your natural-born state of selfishness – but faith in someone outside yourself. For little children growing up, this is faith, firstly, obviously, in our parents; but by adulthood this needs to gradually morph into faith and trust in the loving God outside ourselves and outside of all humanity – if only because our parents are never perfect and sometimes even betray our trust.

“From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother ….”

No, don’t take it literally, whatever you do, as if Jesus is literally trying to break up families! What he is saying is that we need to get beyond our natural, instinctive loves, for family, or friends, or our tribe or footy team, or even our nation – beyond any sort of natural human love – if we want to find the sort of love that is truly selfless and embraces the whole world, including, for example, enemies – the sort of love that is completely unnatural and uninstinctive, that we can never find within ourselves and can only come into our lives from the outside, from God.

“Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things unseen” – Hebrews 11 – faith to, as the writer of Hebrews continues,

“…. conquer kingdoms, administer justice, obtain promises, shut the mouths of lions, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword, be made strong out of weakness, become mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”

But much more than any of that, faith to overcome, to be able let go of, our natural-born selfishness, because that letting go is very painful, it’s a mini-death every time – as you can observe, for example, by the way, any day of the week, with a little child of a certain age chucking an almighty tantrum when they don’t get what they want – it hurts, you just want to die! – only faith, trust, belief in a God of love will get you through the Metanoia transformation to the other side. Essentially, in that moment, we’re forced to, we can choose to, abandon faith in an illusion – ourselves and our ability to live our lives the way we really want – and instead, put our faith in something much more real and substantial outside of ourselves – Jesus, and the God of love of Jesus incarnates in our lives.

So, yes, whatever you do, don’t take it literally! How often has the church throughout its history, however, preached, channelled, the literal, angry Jesus – fire and brimstone, judgement, punishment, dogmatism, it’s our way or the highway – and, as we know, it is a complete turn-off, has driven so many people away from the church!

No, there are certainly not two Jesuses, just one – of course! – the one who is just pure lovingkindness – no anger, no judgement. Yes, even in the middle of that amazing tantrum, that breakdown you were having, the despair, the feeling of hopelessness and guilt when all your selfish schemes have come a cropper once again, when you’re staring into the abyss – especially then – the face and voice of Jesus comes to you with nothing but grace and love to offer – no anger, no judgement, ever!

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!”, Jesus declares at the start of today’s reading. Yes, a controlled burn-off, a purifying, refining, renewing fire – like the fires First Australians used to light to rejuvenate the bush – a Baptism, as Jesus describes it, of fire, burning up the old, dead life of selfishness and self-seeking, opening up the way for the Metanoia, for the new life of selflessness and true freedom.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, Amen!