Proper 15; 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isa 5:1-7; Ps 80:1-2, 8-18; Heb 11:29-12:2; Lk
12:49-56
Old Catholic Church, Bratislava, Slovakia
14 August 2016
The Rev. Dr. Walter Baer
“I came to bring fire to the earth”
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!” (Luke 12:49-51)
These are difficult words to hear from Jesus.
These words are not the comforting words one normally expects from Jesus, they
even sound violent. What might he be saying?
Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, the recently retired chief
rabbi of Great Britain, once wrote: “Religion.. is like fire. It warms, but it
also burns, and we are the guardians of the flame.” (From Optimism to Hope p.
45, 79.)
Jesus said “I came to bring fire to the
earth.” Fire, Rabbi Sachs tells us,
warms, but it also burns. Fire is something that we cannot live without. In
winter it keeps us warm, with it we cook our food, with it we produce the
energy, which powers our modern world. It is an essential element of human
life, even when we don’t see it. But fire, when uncontrolled, or when it
escapes our control, can burn our house down in a matter of minutes, it can
kill, it can easily destroy, it can hurt and maim a person and scar them for
life.
So, like fire, the Rabbi tells us, is
religion. It too can warm us, comfort us, give life and meaning, provide us
with the energy and motivation for human life. As with fire, religion is
indispensible, human life does not really function without it. To some,
religion is old-fashioned and no longer relevant, but like fire, religion it is
an indispensible part of life. When religion is uncontrolled or when it is
ignored, it can destroy, it can kill, it can hurt and maim a person and scar
them for life. Religion is a reality, and we see this again more and more in
our own time.
Rabbi Sachs goes on to say, “we are guardians
of the flame.” What does he mean by that? Fire is both a necessity of life and
at the same time very dangerous. As humans we have learned how to harness fire
and most of the time it is a life-giving force. Religion, like fire, is both a
necessity of life and can at the same time be very dangerous. As, Christians,
both clergy and lay, we are called to be “guardians of the flame.” It is only
through proper care, knowledge, and skill, that religion’s life-giving power
can be experienced. When not, religion can become destructive, coercive, even
deadly.
What is the fire that Jesus is kindling? It is
a fire, which was embodied in how he lived out in his earthly ministry. It was
a fire of love for humanity, for the outcast, the sinner. It was a love, which
was so intense that it led his own religious leaders to reject him and to
crucify him. Yet, this fire of love was so powerful that death could not hold
him, and he rose victorious from the grave. This is the intensity of his love.
Jesus himself was a victim of religious
intolerance. He was the victim of the kind of religion that excludes, kills,
and maims anyone who deviate from its precepts. Today we see examples of this
in various religious traditions. Perhaps, it is most obvious today in some
forms of Islam, but it is also present in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,
Hinduism and others.
Thus Jesus speaks about bringing not peace,
but division. It is a division, which even goes to life within families. The
fire of love is often rejected by fear, by intolerance, by closed-mindedness.
This can lead to division.
The church has struggled with this throughout
its history. As Old Catholics, we too have experienced rejection.
In the beginning of July, I was privileged to
spend a week in Utrecht in the Netherlands to participate in a seminar on Old
Catholic theology. There were participants from Holland, Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, the United States and Poland.
Of great interest to me were the historical
developments, which led to the development of Old Catholic theology and
spirituality. As you know, in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
and Croatia, the Old Catholic movement came into being when Rome introduced a
series of novel innovations in the nineteenth century, culminating in the First
Vatican Council in 1870. This included changes in how the church was governed
and what it believed. This included the idea of papal infallibility and new
dictatorial powers giving the pope universal jurisdiction over every Catholic
Christian in the world. It also included new ideas about Mary and her role in
salvation. Many theologians, clergy and educated laity, objected to these
innovations. These dissenters were subsequently excluded from the Roman church
due to disobedience to these new teachings.
In Holland, there was a separate development,
where the ancient a
Archdiocese of Utrecht rejected pressure from
both Protestant and Jesuit sides to abandon their ancient prerogatives and
particular theological views. The theological views of God’s grace from St.
Augustine, which say that we all are sinners and have access to God’s forgiving
grace, had gained prominence in the Dutch church. The Jesuits, who viewed grace
as being controlled by legalistic formulations through the sacrament of
confession, felt challenged by the Augustinian teaching on Grace. So they
arranged for the Pope to declare these views as heretical. Thus, eventually the
Archbishops of Utrecht and the other the Dutch bishops were declared in schism
with Rome in 1723. When after 1870, it became clear that Rome had no intention
to reconcile with the Dutch church, the Dutch joined with those rejecting the
teaching of the First Vatican council to form the Old Catholic movement that we
have today.
A key part of Old Catholicism is the
understanding of God’s grace, of God’s love, being more powerful than religious
authoritarianism. The fire of God’s love is made present in new and living ways
in different generations. This was true in the early church and it is true
today. God’s grace is not mediated through an authoritarian religious
institution, grace is available to all. The grace of ordination is not confined
to unmarried men, or only to males. Women are equal in the sight of God, women
are welcome to be ordained. Gay people are welcome, persons of every race,
social status, gender, or sexual orientation. The fire of God’s love is there
for all.
Religious violence is the fire of religion
when it is out of control. Religious violence is not only killing others in the
name of God. It is also refusing God’s love and grace due to an authoritarian
interpretation of religious texts. This kind of exclusion is violence as well.
Rabbi Jonathan Sachs wrote: “Religion.. is
like fire. It warms, but it also burns, and we are the guardians of the flame.”
Religion is not indifferent, it is very
complicated. We are called to a discernment of spirits.
In a sermon after the murder of a priest in
Normandy by an Algerian immigrant claiming allegiance to ISIS, the Archbishop
of Paris made an excellent point with regard to religion. He said that the
murderer was not serving God or Allah, but Moloch, the ancient Canaanite idol
who demanded child sacrifice. This is not a religion of love, it is a religion
of hate.
Similarly, the director of the Center for
Islamic Studies in Münster Germany noted recently in the Frankfurter Algemeine
newspaper that most of these attacks are not conducted by devout Muslims but by
“religious illiterates” who do not know the truths of Islam, and are thus
easily led astray by false teaching. His solution is not less religion, but
more intense study of religion and devotion to it. This would prevent
religion-based violence.
In my many years in the American South, I
learned that the most racist, sexist, or homophobic Christian people were those
who had but a superficial relationship to the church or the Bible. Intense
study of scripture, prayer, and devotion always opens people’s hearts to
others.
Jesus said that he came to bring fire to the
earth. The fire that he brought was the fire of love. The fire of unreflective
and authoritarian religion can burn, it can be deadly. May the warm fire of God’s love be kindled in
us now and always. Amen.
