Proper 15 :: Jeremiah 23:23 – 29 / Psalm 82 / Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2 / Luke 12:49 – 56
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 14, 2022.
“FIRE: ITS PROPERTIES & CAPABILITIES”
(Homily texts: Jeremiah 23:23 – 29 & Luke 12:49 – 56)
Fire.
Ever think about the
properties and the capabilities of fire? They are many, and varied.
For example, fire can
destroy…that’s why we have fire departments. Fire can also energize and cause
things to move (our cars, trucks, and so forth, depend on this capability).
Fire can purify, as in cleansing things like surgical instruments so they can
be used in surgery, or as in boiling water before it can be used as drinking
water. Fire can refine, as in separating metals from ore.
As we look at our Old
Testament reading and our Gospel reading, appointed for this morning, we see
that the word “fire” appears in both passages. The prophet Jeremiah says of the
Lord, “Is not my word like fire.” (Jeremiah 23:29) Then, Jesus, commenting on
the spiritual condition of God’s people during the time of His earthly
visitation, says, ‘I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were
already kindled!”. (Luke 12:49)
In each case, the varying
qualities of fire seem to be present in the stark warnings of Jeremiah and our
Lord: The qualities of fire to destroy, to energize, to purify and to refine.
Let’s look a bit closer at
each of these passages, for they share something in common.
The common thread
connecting the conditions of God’s people during the time of Jeremiah’s
ministry (which spanned the late seventh century and the early six centuries,
BC), and the conditions of God’s people in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry
is callousness. (We’ll come back to that in a moment.)
Jeremiah warns the nation
of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, that all is not well, despite the dreams of the
false prophets who assure the people and their leaders that things are fine,
and that things are going to be fine. No, Jeremiah says, the warning is that
God will destroy the current scheme of things as the Babylonians storm into the
country and deport many of its inhabitants (this happened in 586 BC). God, in
the process of this ordeal, will cleanse the corrupt ways of God’s people and
their fascination with idols like Ba’al. God will purify His people like ore is
refined in the fire. Indeed, it was so….the Babylonian captivity cured the
people of their fascination with Ba’al and all the other idols that had been so
tempting to them down through the years.
Now, fast-forward about
six hundred years to the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry. There, we see
that God’s people have a form of religion, but it is one that is without power,
and without a radical call to repentance, reform and amendment of life. The
emphasis in those times seemed to be on the proper and rigorous observance of
the rites and the rituals of the Law of Moses (the Torah). Going through the
motions seemed to be the order of the day, in order that the identity of the
people as children of Abraham might be maintained in the face of Roman
occupation, as much as any other consideration. But the people are a people
whose hearts are far from God. We can see this clearly in the attitudes of the
leaders of the people, the priestly caste, the Pharisees and the scribes, who
insist on paying attention to the smallest detail of the Law’s requirements.
Meanwhile, the weightier requirements for amendment of life, for allowing the
heart’s orientation and condition to be attuned to God, alon with a love of God
and of neighbor, were neglected.
Callousness. We mentioned
this a moment ago. In the time of Jeremiah’s difficult (Jeremiah is known as
the “Weeping Prophet”) ministry, and in the time of Jesus’ ministry,
callousness is the common denominator which links the two times together.
Callouses on our hands (and elsewhere) come from repeated rubbing of some sort.
Spiritual callousness comes from slipping into a comfortable routine, whereby
what we’re comfortable accepting becomes the very thing that makes it difficult
for God’s Holy Spirit’s moving to be felt in our hearts and minds.
We Christians who worship
in a liturgical fashion ought to be on our guard against callousness, the sort
of indifference to the things of God that can come from repeated and routine exposure
to the beauty of liturgy. Or at least that’s how it seems to me. Isn’t it
entirely possible that we can fall in love with, and devote our attention to,
all the wrong things connected to the Church and its worship? Can we so easily
focus in on the beauty of the church building, or the music, or the Prayer
Book, or the feeling that, if we’ve given God an hour a week in church, we’ve
done enough to satisfy us and to assure us that all is well? I think we can.
The witness of Holy
Scripture is that God, in such circumstances, can and will intervene to destroy
that which does not bring honor to His name. God will purify and redeem for His
own possession a people who are wholly devoted to Him, whose hearts are
oriented to the very heart of God.
Certainly, that the
message coming from the pages of Jeremiah, and it’s the message coming from our
Lord this morning, that One who said, “I have come to cast fire on the earth,
and would that it were already kindled, for I have come not to bring peace, but
a sword. Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth, but rather
division.” Do we hear the Lord’s warning of coming division, of coming
destruction, of coming refining fire and purification?
I pray we do.
AMEN.
