The phrase ‘baptism by fire’ is something of an oxymoron and has a connection to Jesus in this Sunday’s Gospel. Baptism signifies a refreshing and transforming relationship symbolized by a flow of water. That such a relationship starts with a blaze of fire signifies something much more radical. Jesus uses both meanings to describe his mission: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized.” Jesus understands his refreshing and transforming mission is so radical as to be opposed by some who will strike division. Thus he says, “From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three.”
Jesus is a wisdom guide for all people committed to a radical mission; one that is refreshing and transforming. We will need to be wise about and not fear the division those who oppose such a mission will effect. If we are not prepared for the division we will be dissuaded from the mission. Fans of the stale and the superficial will assure us of the need to work within the system. They will tell us of the benefits that can be realized through incremental change. They will preach to us a gospel of reform so as to prevent our realizing the Gospel of Transformation. For the sake of shallow harmony we will be tempted to dilute our mission; water down our commitment. If we give into the temptation and get to work reforming the system we will assure ourselves we are getting things done. We will convince ourselves we are deep into the nitty gritty of change. We will tell ourselves the dirt on us is from cleaning up a messy system. But we will be mistaken. We will be dirty with the system, encased in mud from the arrangement. The mud will be as quicksand; stagnating us as we find it more and more difficult to extract ourselves from it. We will look back upon months or years or a lifetime of reform and realize the truth Jesus is getting at in the Gospel – reform is a futile endeavor when transformation is the mission.
“Fire in the heavens, and fire along the hills, and… fire that fills the breathless hour that lives in fire alone. … Behind the veil of burning silence bound, vast life’s innumerous busy littleness is hush’d in vague-conjectured blur of sound that dulls the brain with slumbrous weight, unless some dazzling puncture let the stridence throng. (Fire In The Heavens – Christopher John Brennan)
Prayer: Spirit, we are afire with a transforming mission.
Question: Should we count ourselves fortunate if fans of the stale and superficial oppose us?
August 14, 2016 Gospel Luke 12:49-53 Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time