NB. I think this sermon has some serious theological holes - I think I am unclear about the different sorts of suffering which can affect a Christian, conflating them a bit too much, and the kind of judgment that we undergo. I would also want to emphasize, if I were expanding this sermon, that much of the suffering we undergo in the Christian life is purgative, but much is also suffering that we experience in solidarity with the world - because we are still in the world, its sufferings affect us too, just as Moses died with the wilderness generation outside the promised land, as Jeremiah went into exile, even though he was righteous, and finally as Christ died for us. Sometimes these two types of suffering overlap. That said, I think the basic point I make is correct, and fits with the prophetic warnings against those who are too eager for the day of the Lord, which is "Darkness and not light" (Amos 5:18), and at the same time maintains the good news of God's judgment.
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| Ye're all damned! |
“Jesus
said, "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!”
This is one of Jesus' so called 'hard sayings;' sayings that are difficult or unpleasant to hear. This saying almost seems out of Character for Jesus. This is not gentle Jesus meek and mild, but a frightening Jesus mean and wild.These are not the sayings we expect from the prince of peace, and they are a thousand miles away from the comforting religion that we all enjoy and like to turn to in a crisis, all pastel colors and dewy eyed saints.
Or
maybe I shouldn't presume – there are in fact some of us who enjoy
these sayings, and preachers who get a perhaps not totally wholesome
thrill from preaching on these hard sayings; preachers who love
getting a rise from their congregations by preaching hell fire and
damnation, and congregations who love hearing it. The comic film
Cold Comfort Farm, based on a
novel by the same name, presents a delightful and stinging parody of
this kind of gleeful anger in preaching.
The
character Amos, played by Sir Ian McKellen, is a farmer in the English
country side in the 1930s who also serves as the minister of a tiny
church, known as the “Church of the Quivering Brethren.” When
asked by his well meaning cousin Flora what he will be preaching
about on Sunday, he explains in his thick north English accent that
he never prepares his sermons beforehand, but “I allus' know it
will be summat about burnin'... or the eternal torment... or sinners
comin' to judgment.” Amos then adds, just for good measure: “and
ye'll burn with the lot of them.” I highly recommend going on
youtube to see Ian Mckellen's rendition of this sermon to get the
full effect. When Amos preaches he takes no end of pleasure
describing each item in a catalog of hell's torments – perhaps
the strangest, and in context the most comic, of which is his loud
declaration that “There'll be no butter in hell!”. His
congregation listens and cheers him on, taking no end of delight in
hearing him declare with total assurance “Ye'll all burn!”
Well,
I am not particularly that kind of preacher. I don't think you're
particularly that kind of congregation. I would far rather talk
about God's grace and mercy, met in Christ and about reconcilliation,
new life and peace, than about fire from heaven and division. But
both are in the gospel, both are revealed by God and an honest
preacher is bound to preach both. So while I am not going to
describe any of the pains of hell in detail, I am going to suggest
that perhaps you will all
burn, and perhaps it is good news that you will.
How can fire, and division be good news? What does Jesus even mean by “bringing fire on the earth?” That's not as easy a question to answer as it might seem, but I think that it is safe to say that this is first of all an image of God's judgment. This saying comes at the end of a long passage rebuking hypocrites and self confident sinners. It draws on a long history of biblical images of judgment, from Sodom and Gommorah destroyed by fire from heaven, to the prophets who said “who can endure the day of [the Lord's] coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap” (Mal 3. 1-2), or John the Baptist declaring that the Messiah will “burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The
prophets and the psalms expected this judgment and they even looked
forward to it. They understood that the judgment itself was good
news, because God's judgment puts all things right. We often do not
like to think of God as judgmental, but that is a bit short sighted.
There are many things in this world that need to be judged.
When the innocent are hurt, when children are abused by those they
trust, when someone is punished for the color of their skin, when our
leaders lie to us, or when we discover that a friend is dying of
cancer... these things cry out for judgment.
When
a wildfire sweeps through, it clears away everything dead, the brush
and debris that have piled up. In areas that are prone to fire, there
will sometimes be intentional controlled fires, litt to clear away
debris. God's judgment is a fire like that, dividing what is dead
from what is alive. That kind of judgment is good news. Of course,
it looks like much better news when you think that its someone else
who will be judged; when you feel like you and your loved ones are
the ones who will be acquitted.
But
the better we come to know God and come to know ourselves, the more
we come to realize that we are not totally safe. There are weeds,
dead things, selfish motives, cruelties and lusts in our hearts. When
we realize that the fire is at our own door, it becomes much more
frightening. Remember that in the context where Jesus is speaking,
he is preaching to a lot of people – perhaps even some among his
disciples – who feel very confident in their own righteousness,
people who assume that God's judgment will not come near them. These
are the people Jesus calls hypocrites.
Now,
if this were a typical hell fire sermon, I would tell you about now,
how you are all liable to judgment, but how you can escape it by
getting your act together. I'm not going to do that though, because
I don't think that would be quite true to the words of the gospel.
Jesus does not promise to his disciples that they will escape the
fire that he has come to cast on the earth. On the contrary, they
will experience suffering, and “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.”
Jesus
is not interested here in making it easy to follow him, and this
passage sounds like altogether bad news if we get right down to it.
And it would be, except for one fact, the fact that there is
something worse than experiencing the fire of God's judgment. That,
of course, is not experiencing God's judgment. I suppose God could
have decided not to bring judgement on the world. But where would
that leave us? It would leave us with all the same dead things in
the world and in our own hearts, the greed, the selfishness the
anger, the violence and the cruelty. It would leave us dead
ourselves.
Most
serious diseases hurt when they are being healed. Undergoing
treatment for cancer is a horrifying prospect, and no one would ever
choose that, if it were not that the alternative is death. The cure
for sin hurts too, but it is the way that God has provided for us to
find life. We may have to be divided from many things that we love,
from having our own way, from possessions from our images of
ourselves. It may mean that we are divided and cut off from our
communities, even from family and friends when our relationships with
them have become deadly to us and to them. This is painful, and it
burns, but it is the way that God has provided to lead us into life.
It
is a way that Jesus Christ has walked before us. He has shown and
carried the full weight of our judgment on the cross. He has also
shown that this judgment leads to resurrection. But the only way is
through fire, through division, through the cross. Perhaps there is
another way. Perhaps we don't need to go through fire – perhaps if
we really want it, God will simply let us stay as we are. He will
simply say, “Depart from me, I never knew you,” and give us a
little space to go away and let our weeds grow uninterrupted by fire,
till they choke us. I hope not though. I hope instead, that even if
I understand the words a little differently than he did the
fictional preacher I mentioned earlier was right, and that we'll all
burn.
In
the name...
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