Pentecost 10

 Sermon pent 10 yr c 2022 For all of you who come to church for comforting words and blessed assurances.  Today is not your day!  What a rough bunch of readings! It is very easy to get dismayed by scripture like today’s.  Some choose to ignore it, some embrace it and take that hell and brimstone approach…or to understand these readings in the light of this Sunday alone. But what it is important with these challenging scriptures is to remember is this: The bible is LARGE.  The books of the bible are generally long.  We cannot read all of any book at one Sunday (with a few exceptions).  This means that each Sunday we get excerpts, glimpses, passages, and they are out of context. The people who gathered the readings together into the lectionary did so around a theme for each Sunday following a seasonal schedule, with the assumption that the listeners knew the context of the readings and rest of the bible. It is assumed that each of us are following the lectionary readings each day, especially on Sunday and that we all remember the readings from last week.  Because if we look at any one Sunday’s readings alone…with out the context of what is around them, what has been said before or after, we can get a very skewed understanding of our faith, our God and indeed even of Jesus. “I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!  Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”   If these words were the only words we had of Jesus’ we would have a very different picture of our saviour indeed. Thanks be to God, we do have more than today’s readings.  We have the context of the entire book of Luke; which some weeks ago told us it was the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom, and not to worry.  In the weeks to come we will hear the parable of the fig tree that didn’t produce and how it was tended and cared for in hope.  These passages before and after provide context for today’s readings, which is extremely important. It is inherently dangerous to quote out of context, we need the whole story in order to interpret the passage.  We need the whole bible to understand the depth of God’s love for the people of God…all the people of God.  More than that, we use what theologians call the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which are the four things by which we interpret our scriptures and faith.  Scripture, tradition, reason and experience.  It is by using all of these concepts equally, known as a four legged stool, that enables us to have a firm basis of faith.  If any one of the four is out of proportion the stool, our faith will falter. When we interpret the bible, be it a quote or an entire book, we use these tools to help us.  Therefore, when I look at the gospel reading today, I look at what Luke wrote earlier in the chapter.  In chapter 11 and early in 12 Jesus is speaking about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Lawyers and how they were trying to trick Jesus into heresy.  Then in Chapter 13 Jesus speaks of repentance, compassion and healing.  Then if we consider the scriptures as a whole, we can recognize that all of the bible is an anthology of the many and various ways that God lived out God’s relationship with all of humanity.  A relationship of ups and downs, of condemnation and redemption, and the many ways in which God has striven to bring the people of God into a mutually loving relationship. Another aspect of the scripture context is to reflect on the audience Jesus is speaking to.  A crowd of Pharisees, Sadducees, Temple lawyers, disciples and people at large.  All of whom espoused a different interpretation of the Torah, those first 5 books of the bible.  It would be not unlike a gathering today of extreme conservatives, permissive liberals, priests, lay people, agnostic and atheists.  There was a huge spectrum of belief…all of whom believed themselves right and the others wrong. So when we read that Jesus said that household would be divided we remember that audience.  Jesus taught about the inclusion of ‘foreigners’ and the ‘unclean’ to biblical and Jewish purists, Jesus taught that the 613 laws in the torah; including what to eat, what to wear and who to associate with were less important than the two major commandments to love God and love neighbour.  I think that we could all agree that that would bring division.  This history and scripture study lends context to the words of division that Christ preaches in his passion and righteous anger.   Our interpretative toolbox also includes tradition. Not unlike our reading from Hebrews which recalls to mind that “great cloud of witnesses”.  Our ancestors in faith, who spent lifetimes living, studying, discussing and experiencing what a relationship with God looks like. Our traditions, such as the creeds, the 39 articles, and the vast libraries of theology help us to understand that although the words of Christ today are harsh, we know that the divisions such as those Christ speaks of can be and has been overcome.  We know that Christ’s message causes division when the message of Christ is in contrast with the dominate culture, even a dominate Christian culture.  Yet, that great cloud of witnesses, that tradition of the church demonstrates that faithful people, groups, churches can and have been baptised with fire and emerged refined, cleansed of the chaff that distracted and corrupted and abled to preach, teach and transform the world into a better place, a place that is closer to the kingdom of God. We also interpret scripture and the world around us using the gifts God gave us of reason, logic and understanding.  Reason tells us that although Jesus says he wishes he could bring fire…he doesn’t and he won’t …not literally and if we don’t see that scripture as being interpreted literally, then logically we shouldn’t read other sections too literally, we need to use reasonable interpretation.  Even within the passage itself Jesus appeals to our reason.  “when you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, it is going to rain”.  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?”   We are called to us our brains when interpreting scripture.  There are dangers to reading scripture literally and without the possibility of interpretation, remember that scripture, even the gospels affirm stoning, slavery, and many practices that were common biblically.  These we can easily reject as illogical and unjust to believe literally in this day and age, but we need to be just as thoughtful and reasonable in terms less clear biblical passages.  Just because Jesus said I came to bring fire, that doesn’t logically follow that we should torch those we disagree with in the name of God.    Finally, we have our experience. Jesus’ call to bring division, fire, and a new baptism will be heard and interpreted differently by our church community, than in a Christian refugee camp in the midst of war and persecution.  Our experience changes the way we interpret and live our faith. The context of Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience all are used to understand the scriptures, especially ones such as today that make us so uncomfortable. We don’t like to hear of Jesus speaking of fire and division, it doesn’t sound like our desired image of Jesus. Yet, looking at the context we know that division in such a divided culture is not only inevitable, but a good thing.  If the culture is one of exclusion, pain, and harsh religious law then Jesus’ teachings should be dividing the culture, demonstrating how to live that counter cultural life that Jesus calls us to.  To go against the dominant culture and to push for inclusion and a new kingdom of Godly life and culture is challenging and difficult and perhaps it is best explained as a baptism by fire. Perhaps the changes we need to undergo within ourselves will be decisive and painful.  However, by knowing the context of Jesus teaching, the tradition of the church and with our own reason and experience we know, that we will be able to interpret scripture in a way that enables us to prune away what no longer is dangerous or detrimental to God’s mission, understand what is challenging and foster all those teaching that bring this world closer to God’s kingdom. The bible is thousands of years old, yet just as true and holy as that first word that was written, but it is only through good interpretation that we can understand how the ways God has communications and built relationships over thousands of years still pertains to us…here…today. So that we can continue to participate in God’s mission, and continue that line of faith that has and does transform the world arounds us.