PENTECOST 12 19-08-07
Isa 5:1-7
Ps 80:1-2, 8-19
Heb 11:29 – 12:2
Luke 12:49-59
‘Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong;
we are weak, but he is strong.
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon this little child.
Pity my simplicity
Suffer me to come to thee.
How many of us learnt such things in Sunday school or at our mother’s knee? Do you remember the pictures of Jesus, illustrating Sunday school material, which depicted him as blonde and blue-eyed, always smiling, looking- well, a bit wet, really! When you were a child, did you ever see a picture of a Jesus who was dark-skinned and semitic-looking? I certainly didn’t!
We all have a sort of picture or image in our minds of Jesus: we imagine him to be a certain way, depending on a number of things, including what we have been taught and what we have read. We might imagine him to be like a big brother or a favourite uncle. Our personal images of Jesus fulfil our own need for someone greater, better, stronger than ourselves who cares about us.
The trouble is, our images of Jesus can get stuck and become unhelpful. If, as adults, we cling to a child-like image of Jesus, we are in danger of worshipping someone who only exists in our imagination.
The real Jesus was not meek and mild; yes, he was gentle with people but he also got angry, sometimes very angry.
It’s the same with our images of God: is God an old man with a big white beard in a white toga who sits on a cloud, smiling benevolently down on the world? I don’t think so.
In our readings today we meet God as a lover who grieves the loss of loved ones. In Isaiah, we read the beginning of a love song that describes how God planted a beautiful vineyard, which in this case represents the land of Judah. God is bitterly disappointed, because this tenderly-nurtured vineyard produces only wild grapes that are sour and useless. The bitter fruit is bloodshed and injustice: God’s chosen people are behaving badly again, and God is pretty cross with them. So God warns them that they will be punished, like a vineyard that is turned into a wasteland.
Psalm 80 is a lament, as the psalmist pleads with God to restore the people of Israel. This was probably written after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE, and it also pictures God’s people as a vineyard that has gone to ruin. The invasion and conquest of the Northern Kingdom was seen as God’s punishment for the sin of the people, and the psalmist longs for God to look kindly on the people once again.
In the gospel of Luke we heard Jesus speaking to his disciples as he was on the way to Jerusalem and his death. He says he came to bring fire to the earth and wishes it was already burning, and talks about families being split because of him. Is this the gentle Jesus, meek and mild we know and love? What about the peace on earth the angels promised at his birth?
This is not a weak, tepid, quiet and unassuming Jesus: this is a muscular, angry, powerful Jesus who shouts to the crowds, “Read the signs of the times!” Look around you, look at your world and what you have made of it. What kind of fruit are YOU bearing?
The reading from the letter to the Hebrews that we heard this morning comes at the end of a long list of the heroes and heroines of the faith. The writer is at pains to tell his readers that all these people down the ages, although they suffered for their faith, did great things because they trusted in God and had hope. They lived and died long before the Messiah came, the fulfilment of hope. Therefore, we are told, with the encouragement of their stories, we can run the race and live our lives in faith because we have Jesus at the finish line.
After all, if those great ones of the Old Testament times could live in faith, how much more can we, who know the Saviour? We have the promised Holy Spirit to lead and teach us; we have the promise of eternal life.
Jesus spoke of bringing fire to the earth. Fire can burn and destroy, but it can also purify; and the Holy Spirit is represented by fire.
These readings speak to us of warning and of promise. They speak to us of a God who is angry with us when we are unjust, careless, greedy, selfish and violent. They speak to us of a God who loves us very much, who cares deeply about us and wants us to live in right relationship with one another and with God. They speak to us of the cloud of witnesses, the countless believers who have lived and died faithfully and courageously, whose lives are an example and an encouragement to us.
And they speak to us of Jesus the man, who felt despair and anger, sadness and pain, who longed for people to wake up, look around and start making changes.
Are we ready to listen to him: to put away our cherished images of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, and see the real God-Man who so urgently calls us to change?
Are we ready to allow the fire of the Spirit to burn away the rubbish in our lives, leaving us free to live lives of faith? Can we here in Armadale in 2007 produce sweet fruit that makes a difference in the lives of those around us?
Let us pray.
Holy God,
Help us to follow the examples of those who have lived lives of faith, who have gone before us;
Help us to read the signs and hear the urgency in Jesus’ words;
and show us how we can serve you and those to whom you send us: in Jesus’ name.
Amen
Preached by the Rev'd Lorna Green at the Parish of S. Matthew, Armadale
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