Pentecost 12

Pentecost 12 (Luke 12:49-56)
I came to bring fire to the earth.

Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus has come to restore to humanity what we lost. What we lost is the fire of divine love.

Jesus says he has a baptism with which to be baptized. That baptism is his death on the cross. It is a baptism into death through his own life’s blood.
The Fire Jesus has come to kindle is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine wind and the divine flames that gave birth to the one holy catholic and apostolic church. It is the new life and the new way of living Jesus wants to give us.

Jesus understands very well that the new life will cause division and strife. As Jesus suffered opposition from his own people so those who receive his gift and proclaim his gift will also suffer opposition from their families and friends.
For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. The Synagogues denounced the Christians for blasphemy. The blasphemy was the incarnation, the teaching that God became a particular human being in Jesus Christ.

Pagans denounced the Christians for atheism. The pagans could not understand how the Christians could ignore the hundreds of deities the world honored and worshipped.
No one is born a Christian. Jesus taught that all who are born into this world exist in a state of separation from God. Jesus taught that all people need a second birth, a spiritual birth.

The first birth leads to a life of fear, self will and pride. The first birth leads to a life of separation, sin and death. The second birth leads to reunification with the eternal love of God. The second birth produces a new way of living.

Jesus’ followers initially described themselves a followers of the Way. The enemies of the church called them little Christs, Christians. The believers took an insult and turned it into a badge of honor. They said- yes, we are little Christ’s because we have received the gift of reunification with God in Christ.

It would have been so easy to make the necessary compromises to avoid persecution. It would have been so easy for the apostles to assure the Synagogue that they were speaking metaphorically not literally. It would have been so easy for the church to say to the pagans: there are many ways to God. We honor your way even as we seek to follow our way. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not personally experienced the reality of divine love in Jesus Christ. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost fires.

Jesus did not come to Earth to offer an opinion about God. Jesus did not die on the cross to offer one religious option among many possible religious options. Jesus did not rise from the dead and conquer death to condemn anyone.

Jesus came and died and rose again to restore lost souls to the divine love of God the Father through the Pentecostal fires of God the Holy Spirit. The apostles faithfully proclaimed the Good News that in Christ God offers all people everywhere forgiveness of sin, transformation of sin, and liberation from sin.

The message of Christ is a life or death message. That is why Jesus understood very well that his presence on this planet would enkindle a reaction of fear and self will that would lead to his death. Jesus did not die as a martyr for a cause. He died to trap death in his own body so he could transform death into eternal life by the power of eternal love.

Jesus never authorized any of his followers to kill for him. Jesus has never authorized holy war. Nevertheless, Jesus understood that a lost, sinful and rebellious humanity would violently oppose the Plan of Salvation. Jesus understood that the world of sin and death can only bring forth sin and death.

That is why Jesus warned his followers that those who receive the second birth into the kingdom of love and life will meet opposition, persecution and sometimes death.
More Christians died for their faith in the twenty century than in all previous centuries. A world of sin and death can only react to the Plan of Salvation through rebellion, opposition and violence.

The stakes are high. The stakes are life and death. Jesus warns us that as we are loyal to him we will experience division. Jesus promises us that as we are loyal to him we will experience the Pentecostal fires of divine love.

Jesus died to save the world. The apostles died to bring the gift of salvation to the world. Countless numbers of Christians through the centuries have died because of their loyalty to our heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ.

The signs of the times are in loyalty, opposition and indifference. An indifferent church is a dead church. It meets little or no opposition because it has little or no message. A loyal church, loyal to the person of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation he embodies, will meet opposition. A loyal church will also receive the gift of the Pentecostal fires of divine love.

Jesus looks at the church and tells us: I have come to bring fire to the earth. It is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the new life of the second birth. It is the new life of transforming grace. The sign of the Pentecostal fire is in the passionate loyalty to Christ we express in our lives.

It is the Holy Spirit who empowered the apostles and generations of Christians to live for Christ and to die for Christ. He will empower us as well. As reunification with God is Christ’s gift to us, so the indwelling Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit is His gift to us.

Ask. Ask that you may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to live the new life Christ offers. Ask that your new life would help you to interpret the times in which we live. Ask that you may live the Way the truth and the life God offers in Jesus Christ.