The Fire of Faith

-or- "Singled out by the Hidden God"

"I came to bring fire to the earth....  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...."     Luke 12: 49, 51, 52

In this Gospel lesson from last Sunday, we are given a picture of Jesus' ministry that is foreign to our ears and minds.  After reading the section from Luke's gospel above, I immediately thought of a line from one of my favorite Christmas carols.  It came to mind because it is so different a picture:

"Tell the story,
how from glory
God came down at Christmastide,
Bringing gladness,
chasing sadness,
Showering blessings far and wide."

No fire there.

Even one of our most common images of the Cross, despite the event being a horrific execution that scattered the disciples, set Judeans against one another, and instigated division between Roman rulers and their Jewish subjects, is the image of Jesus stretching out his arms in order to gather all people to himself.  And it is true, by the Cross and Resurrection, we are unified into one people of God, unified into one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, unified into one holy catholic and apostolic church.

So what is with this talk about fire and division?
Jesus is talking about how we each and all must approach God and faith--alone (that is, for ourselves) and amidst the fire of rebirth (that is, the refining fire).

We begin with how mortals see and experience God in the world.  Christians cannot have a direct relationship with God, that is God cannot be seen directly.  In paganism, the gods are seen in every tree and river, and upon every mountain.  In Christianity, nature consists in traces of the hidden God's work.  In paganism, extraordinary beings reveal the glory of the gods directly: the strength of Hercules, the amazing appearance and reappearance of the Phoenix, and the lightning bolts of Zeus.  In Christianity, God is hidden in very ordinary things.  For instance, the most direct communication between God and humanity was Jesus Christ (when God came down in a form we could see and talk to directly).  Still, God's glory in the incarnation was hidden in a very normal human being.  Even God's victory was hidden in defeat; the power of God's life was hidden in death.  (For God's victory and life were shown most clearly on the Cross.)

[Some of God's manifestations, particularly in the Old Testament are rather more extraordinary.  For instance the Ark of the Covenant, the appearance of angelic beings, and the burning bush that was not consumed by the fire.  In that last, it was not only the ineffectual fire, but also the fact that the bush was talking to Moses, which makes that manifestation of God quite direct, and definitely spectacular.  One must remember that these were the days of paganism, and God was finally revealing God's self in such ways as to assert his existence, presence and dominance over and against other, false, gods.  These images must be tempered by other, more mysterious and indirect images, such as the three strangers that visited Abraham and Sarah or the sheer silence that marked God's presence for the prophet, instead of the earthquakes and winds and storms.]

God is hidden, God relates and communicates with us indirectly because the truth about God can only be experienced or laid hold of inwardly.  What does this mean?  To begin, Martin Luther once said that there are two things that each of us must do alone: faith and death.  No one can believe for us; no one can die for us.  We must experience these...processes.  If I go to church simply because people I know do--or better yet, if I go to church just because my parents did--or if I say the creed simply because the rest of the congregation is saying it, then I do not have faith.  Only once I have the passion of inwardness does faith begin to present itself.  I say the creed because I truly believe it, and don't care whether others say it or not; I go to church because I desire to see and worship God, not because it simply what I do.

I must first be divided from all others, and understand (subjectively, not objectively) God's truth in Jesus Christ, before I am able to be unified to the people of God in the Kingdom of God on earth.  God doesn't want to relate to a crowd, but to me and to you.  God does not want us to come to the table as a commune (which is a prerequisite for a cult), but would have us come as individuals so that God himself can transform us into a holy communion.  God comes to ignite the fire of passion in us, dividing us from others as the individuals we were created to be, in order that God can relate to each of his creatures singly.  And it is only through our relationship to God that we then are bound together.  We are one in Christ, gathered by the Holy Spirit.  We are gathered individually, called to unity.

Christ comes to bring division, then, in order to break asunder all human allegiances.  If I go to church because of my parents; if I say I love God for my parents; if I get married in the church solely because my parents want it that way--in each case, I do not act out of love for God, I act out of love for my parents.  God need not even attend.  And so a household is divided so that the next generation may feel the passion of faith for themselves--each individually.

Just so, if I claimed to be Christian because I live in a Christian nation, or even the reverse--if because I was Christian I somehow needed the nation in which I live to be Christian also--then this is not faith, but nationalism.

Instead, God is revealed indirectly.  God is always hidden in, with and under very ordinary things, so that I must--myself--lay hold of the truth of God's presence.  I must come to the crisis of faith in which I choose a relationship with God for myself.  Faith begins in this way.  And only after I have become myself because I am divided--by Christ--from all others, can I be refined in the fire of self-surrender.  At which point, I am freed from the last allegiance holding me back from relationship with God and communion in the Kingdom, to wit, the allegiance to my self.  When I am divided from even my own selfish desires, then faith has reached its height, and I cannot go farther.

God is hidden in the paradox, so that each goal is reached only through its opposite.  God is hidden in the Cross so that I, offended, must lay hold of the passion of faith which goes against what is seen and provable (for one cannot prove that life comes from death).  God is hidden in the ordinary things of my daily life, so that I must look harder and come to know God for myself, and at the same time, come to know myself and my own biases and delusions (in repentance).

God always comes to divide--to single me out, to single you out.  Because God has chosen me, God has chosen you.  God wants a unique relationship which each of us.

Now back to that wonderful Christmas song.  Each of us is called to tell our story of faith, to tell how God came down from Glory to meet each of us individually--how he made me glad, how he chased my sadness away, how he blessed me to be a blessing.

Experience the hidden God for yourself.  Tell that story.  Tell it like you mean it...tell it like you lived it.
May the Holy Spirit single you our with such fire and passion for the Gospel.
Amen.