Sermon: I cam to bring fire to the earth

In a month's time the clergy of the St. Asaph Diocese will all be required to go to Lancaster University for four days of in service training. The subject - Conflict Resolution. This is a very fashionable subject these days. Anyone who has to run a business, any staff who deal with the public as part of their job, need to be trained in conflict resolution. Even the bouncers who guard the doors of night clubs go on courses to learn how to defuse a potential conflict situation and calm it down before it gets out of hand. 

It may be fashionable, but is it Christian? In this morning's Gospel Jesus says : I came to bring fire to the earth ... Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth ? No, I tell you, but rather division. There is not much evidence of conflict resolution here. To be fair, of course, Jesus did recommend the resolution of conflict on other occasions. In Matthew 5, Jesus says : When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go ; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on your way to court with him ... 

There are two different sorts of conflict here. The disagreements Jesus refers to in Matthew 5 are those which start off as minor - arguments about money, rivalries over boy friends and girl friends, sometimes matters as small as spending too much time in the bathroom or playing music too loud - but which, if not reconciled, can assume alarming proportions leading to litigation, divorce, violence and even murder. Any wise person will heed the advice of Jesus about this : don't let these resentments fester. Make your peace without delay. Don't let the gap between you grow into a gulf that cannot be bridged. 

The division Jesus is speaking about in today's reading, Luke 12, is different. This is a conflict caused not by minor details in our lives but by their chief aim and direction - our loyalty to Jesus and our determination to serve him to the end without distraction and without fear. The division between those who accept the Christian way of life and those who do not, but put other loyalties before it, is an absolute division which will continue beyond this world. Three members of a household will set Christ foremost in their lives, two will not. A father will practise the Christian faith, a son will scorn it. A daughter will be committed to Christ, her mother will reject the faith. A mother in law will be faithful in prayer and worship, her daughter in law will not bother with any of it. Here there can be no peace but rather division. 

Jesus speaks of this in terms of fire. I came to bring fire to the earth. He is not thinking of the kind of fire which starts without anyone noticing it, quickly burns out of control, and destroys everything in its path. He is describing the kind of fire which purifies. Gold and silver are dug from the earth in an impure state, mixed with dirt and dross. This cannot simply be washed off, because it has been attached to the gold and silver for thousands of years. So it goes into the refiner's fire. There the dirt and the impurities are burned off, and when the fire dies down the precious metal is left clean and shining, ready to be polished and cut into shape. This fire, the purifying fire, Jesus comes to bring to the earth. 

Together with fire, he speaks of baptism. Not the baptism by John which he had already undergone, but the baptism of death which lay before him. This would be the price he had to pay for the division he brought to the religious and political world of his day, and this is the baptism which has been undergone by many Christians over the centuries. 

When we celebrate Holy Baptism a lighted candle burns beside the font. This is to remind us that the water and the fire go together. The cleansing of the water and the purifying of the fire are all part of the Christian experience. We all need to be prepared to go through the fire. We all need to be prepared for the baptism with which our Lord was baptized, either literally or in part. 

Napoleon is reported to have said, I'm sometimes a fox, sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government is knowing when to be one or the other. Jesus was not very much like Napoleon, but he knew when to speak the soft words of reconciliation and peace and when to speak of fire and of division. Both have their place. In our dealings with one another we are called to be conciliatory, settling our disagreements and bringing peace. In our witness to what is true and above all to our Christian faith, heritage and life we are called to be strong and uncompromising even when this causes division. We are handling the fire which Christ himself has brought upon the earth.

Preached by: The Reverend Dr. Raymond Bayley at St Peter's, Ruthin on Sunday, 19th August 2007