Ninth Sunday after Trinity
“ ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ...Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! ”
Overview
No easy summer reading for us this week. The prophet, Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:23-29), and Jesus, (Luke 12:49-56), both promise us fire and division. This is not Christ, the bringer of peace, that we are used to. This feels like a much more Old Testament Christ, sending down the fire of punishment. The conflict that Jesus warns of is not, however, a punishment; he is merely describing the reality of a world in which some have power and prosperity and some do not. In such a world crisis (the baptism of fire which Jesus speaks of) reveals already existing divisions. Sadly, it often takes the fire of race riots to reveal the divisions of racism. It takes the crisis of refugees risking their lives on small boats and washing up on our shores to reveal the injustice of our immigration policies. The fire offered in this morning’s readings is a fire that reveals injustice, that offers us a chance to burn down existing inequalities. Yes, it is fire that destroys but also a fire that transforms.
FIRST READING
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
GOSPEL 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 baptised, 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; 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?
