In the name of God, our light, our love, and our life. Amen.
So… that’s a tough set of readings we have today. Good news, eh? Actually, it is… if we have eyes to see and ears to hear it.
I want to begin by pointing out my favorite phrase in our Collect today, because it is a VERY important part of what we believe. “Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work” …the fruits of HIS redeeming work.
Christians are not called to worry about our own or anyone else’s salvation. Our faith assures us that Jesus has already accomplished that once for all, for all time. Our life here on earth isn’t about getting to heaven after we die, but about bringing heaven to earth while we live.
Currently, we are living in a time of alarming hypocrisy by people who call themselves followers of Christ. There are prophets among us speaking out right now, and they’re being treated now as prophets always have been - with avoidance and contempt.
But we must listen to these prophets who are telling us honestly where and how we got off the path of love and onto a path of destruction. It’s easy to see - we know the signs and we hear the cries - all over the news and social media.
A couple of people complained to me this week that they hate when we read the prophets because they’re so dark and full of threats and punishment. To which I replied, I love the prophets - they are such a source of hope and some of the most truthful storytellers in our Scripture.
Prophets don’t hold back when speaking the truth. We also have to remember that the prophets in our Scripture were from a culture of storytellers, whose readers weren’t listening literally as most modern Christians do.
The story being told in Isaiah is a love song about God’s care of and devotion to the people, represented as the vineyard. God provides the people with everything they need to thrive out of pure love for them. “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?” God asks.
But, as Isaiah explains, “…the vineyard… is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!”
This is about as honest as our Scripture gets. God gave us everything we needed to bring about justice, but we created war. We were given all we needed to be in right relationship, but we created suffering.
Whenever and wherever we see bloodshed in our world today or hear cries for help, cries of hunger, or cries of suffering, we know we, God’s people, have not used the gifts God has given us faithfully. The prophets are the ones who remind us to open our eyes and see the reality of the world we have created.
The prophets don’t hold this truth up just to leave us wallowing in misery and hopelessness. They always show us the hope, which is God’s faithfulness to us, despite our faithlessness to God and one another.
When we see and hear the reality in our world, we return to God with something like the prayer in our Psalm: “Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted… Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.”
And God does - every single time. If you read the prophets to the end of their stories, they always end with God responding in tender love for us, protecting and restoring us even when we are caught in a mess of our own making.
This has happened over and over throughout our history as God’s people, which is what the letter to the Hebrews is reminding us. Too many to recount, the author says.
If we were to tell this story today, we might say that David represents Ukraine and Goliath represents Russia. Same story, different time.
Our collective narrative is replete with these stories, and that gives us hope. As we see this playing out in our world today, we have a great cloud of witnesses who will testify to us about the faithfulness of God who makes us all Davids, able by God’s grace, to defeat whatever Goliaths we face.
Will people suffer in the meantime? Yes, but by faith we lay aside every weight, every fear, every thought of abandonment, and we run our race with perseverance looking to Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
Which brings us to our gospel story and one of Jesus’ most challenging teachings. He begins with: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”
Many of our fire-and-brimstone siblings in Christianity would have us believe that Jesus came to purify the world by burning and destroying the enemies of God. Then, of course, they decide who those enemies are. In our world today, this list would include LGBTQIA2S+, anyone who is “woke,” immigrants, refugees, the poor… you know the list.
But they have failed to hear the story being told by Jesus. What does fire mean every time we hear it in our Scripture? We’ve done this enough times that most of you know… fire means the presence of God.
Then Jesus says, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Baptism is the ritual, the outward sign of the inauguration of a spiritual transformation, and Jesus is going all out (a better translation than stress) and give everything, even his life, for it to be completed!
Then the really hard part of this teaching - Jesus says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” This spiritual transformation, Jesus warns us, will divide households.
Some will follow Jesus’ way, letting go of their own power and privilege in order to raise up those who don’t have either, while others will demand they lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. Some will share from the abundance they have, while others will be indignant that the have-nots don’t deserve any rewards they haven’t worked for. Some will recognize all others as siblings in the family of God, while others will hate, denigrate, and oppress those whose skin color, religious practice, gender identity, or language is different from their own.
Many of us already experience this happening among our friends and families. Jesus’ way, the way of Love, will divide families and communities.
The world has always had Goliaths who vociferously defend their destructive path. And Christian Nationalists among us today are even calling their way Jesus’ way. To them, Jesus says, “You hypocrites!”
The way of Jesus is a way of love, generosity, selflessness, kindness, forgiveness, and the sharing of resources with all who need. It does not need or seek earthly political power. Anyway, God’s family includes all nations, peoples, and languages as Isaiah says.
Following Jesus’ way invites us to give all we have as we trust God to redeem. We must also open our eyes, ears, hearts, and hands to the reality around us.
Wherever heaven isn’t happening on earth, there is where we need to be, bearing the light and love of Christ, serving our neighbor, lifting them out of pain, poverty, hunger, oppression, judgment, cruelty, and loneliness, and into peace and harmony in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We do this as a faith community, and as members of our local, regional, and global communities – all of us working together in the name of Love.
Amen.
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