Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Luke 12:49-54

‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:
father against son
   and son against father,
mother against daughter
   and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
   and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

Hearts of fire

Are there any words of comfort here? My morning heart longs for words of comfort and peace that will carry me through the day.

I do not come to this place of prayer, nor to the community of faith, to find division. I have enough of division. The world is full of it. If I want more, I can turn on the TV and listen to election news.

I come seeking the Love that brings peace, a quiet heart, assurance that I am held in the care of the Great Presence you are. Instead I find passion, divine passion. 

Your passion burns in our brother Jesus, aching to accomplish its mission of sowing the fire of Love, igniting the passion for your love and justice in our hearts to wake us from the sleep of apathy and the unholy desire for mere comfort.

The comfort of the kingdom is that of knowing the passion of a Love that wants and holds us in all manner of circumstances. This fire of God is not a gentle flame by which we can merely warm ourselves.

It is a dangerous and uncomfortable. It seeks to fill every corner of your being. It warms but also awakens passion that moves one beyond personal concern to love a world where millions suffer and justice is denied. 

It breeds distress, igniting hearts that burn for a kingdom ruled by the power of Love not by the love of power. And that always brings division in a power-loving world where protecting yourself is the height of wisdom.

Hearts afire ache to be given away just like the Love who holds them.

Pr. David L. Miller