Faith to confront our fears (Proper 15)

 Luke 12: 49-56,  Jeremiah 23: 23-29. 

Susan and I are just back from a week camping. Life is more simple : go to bed when it gets dark and hope the milk would be ok for breakfast without a fridge to put it in. The biggest worry was the weather, and there was no electricity on site to charge the phones & use them to find a forecast - so the best plan was to wake up & look. 

What sort of day does it look like today?

 

But I realised that the other worries of life were not very far away. If you haven’t heard the news for a few days you can start to wonder how things are going in the search for peace in Ukraine.. or ceasefire in Gaza, or whether some power-mad leader will have done something provocative and stupid and we’ll find the world is in chaos. And how’s the dog doing in kennels?

And did the milkman remember to stop delivering, or is the doorstop full of bottles? And is my body really coping with the activity of camping as well as it did last year?

 

The Gospel reading set in the lectionary for last week had the lovely phrase in it from Jesus

“do not be afraid, little flock”. When I heard it last Sunday in church it got me wondering “what am I afraid of?”.

You might like to pause for a moment & think about that “what are you most afraid of?”. 

 

Jesus says “do not be afraid“.

But how does our faith actually help our fears?

 

One of my brothers, Frank, is ten years older than me. I remember him being very scathing in his twenties about my parents’ Christian faith and their involvement with the local church. “It’s just a teddy bear to you – just to make you feel less scared about life – I don’t need a teddy bear like that, I can cope with life on my own!”.

 

There’s no doubt that my parents’ faith in Jesus Christ helped them cope with all sorts of challenges in life – but it wasn’t just a comfort that soothed them back to sleep – it was a challenging and energising truth in their lives.

 

Luke’s gospel, the part we heard today, is clear that Jesus is offering something quite different: certainly not just a teddy bear, giving a feeling of reassurance.. or a comfort blanket, keeping you warm and cozy…but a fire.

 

Jesus says to his followers

"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!”

 

Is this the same Jesus who offers the words “do not be afraid little flock?”. 

 

Yes, if we look carefully at what Jesus is saying.

Like working out the weather, we need to wake up & look.

 

Fire can be a sign of purification in the bible, or a sign of judgement. But it is also a sign of the presence of God. Think of the burning bush which gave Moses his call to lead God’s people; or the pillar of fire which guided the people of God through the wilderness by night; or the fire that raged at the top of Mount Sinai when God spoke to Moses.. and we know that tongues of fire were seen when the Spirit came to the disciples on the day of Pentecost.

 

The prophet Jeremiah asks the rhetorical questions

“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?”

 

God is with us – both near and far off. God sees all God’s creation, and is present in every part.

God warns about the sorts of prophets who just help people dream pleasant dreams.

 

Prophets should tell us how life really is, and Jeremiah makes it clear that God with us is not a teddy bear or comfort blanket – God’s rule in God’s world means we need to choose & act to be part of God’s kingdom.

 

Jesus shows us what God’s rule and God’s love looks like. His fire lights up the way for us to show us how our lives need to be lived.

 

But Jesus knows this will bring division, because some people will wake up and look and see what love means, while others will bemoan the state of the world but feel helpless. And still others will think that only human strength can make a difference, and will walk the path of politics without faith.

 

We are gathered as people of faith. Thinking back, for a moment, to your worries – real concerns, things that haunt us, or keep us from sleeping, or just the everyday unforgettable troubles that bother us.

If our faith is a fire or a lamp, and not a teddy bear or a comfort blanket, how does faith in presence of God in Jesus help?

 

In his earthly life, Jesus walked a path which was not easy, he certainly didn’t sleep-walk into a cozy reunion with God the father.

Luke records what Jesus said

“I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”

 

We know what awaited Jesus -  arrest; undeserved punishment; death on a cross. But we know, too, that the life of Jesus was a life that could not be extinguished because the fire of God’s presence cannot be put out.

 

Jesus offers us true light in the darkness.

This light doesn’t pretend that he darkness shouldn’t bother us, or that the darkness is not there.

The light of Christ offers us the strength to face the challenge and choice of living life in God’s way.

The God who Jeremiah describes as a God ‘near by’ is always close at hand, walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death, through the worries that threaten to swamp us, through the days that feel more like a test than a blessing.

 

In Jesus, God says “do not be afraid”.

But Jesus also faces us with the challenge to choose to live a life of faith, which will see the signs of the times – look squarely at a world of troubles and suffering – and be determined to walk God’s way and trust God strength in it.

 

So in all that concerns and troubles us in the week ahead

may the light of Jesus guide us

the fire of Jesus inspire us

and the peace of Jesus fill us. Amen.