Sermon for Aug. 15

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Aug. 15, 2010
Jeremiah 23:16-29, Luke 12:49-56
Is not my word like fire, like a hammer?

In the name of Jesus, amen. And when I say that I mean the fiery Jesus, the hammer-swingin’ Jesus. It is in his name that this sermon is offered, and in whose name we live, move, and have our being. I love talking about the Name, capital N. And I love how the Name is named at our invocation, how the Name is lifted up in the Kyrie and the Gloria, how attention is given to the Name in the hearing of Holy Scripture, how the Name is confessed in the Creed, how our prayers are laid at the feet of the Name, how our service is ended in the Name.

The Name is the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Name is what is revealed to us as Creator, as Redeemer, as Sanctifier. The Name is revealed to us in the Word as the Word. Jeremiah the prophet was blessed to receive the Word, to digest it, to inwardly take in the Word and then spill it back out for those who wanted to hear and for those who didn’t. The Word of God is like fire. The Word of God is like a hammer. And praise be to God that this statement is true.

I’d like to say something profound. Are you ready? Get out a pen or pencil. Here it comes: It’s hard being a Christian.

None of you seem surprised to hear that. And I’m glad that my profundity was really rather common to you.

Being a Christian is tough. You live that reality every day. The Holy Spirit has called me, us, by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctifies me, and keeps me in the one true faith. God has called us by the Gospel, and that is good. This Gospel is grand and glorious. It is good and gracious. It is fiery and can smack like a hammer.

And as God spoke through His prophet Jeremiah, “Is not my word like fire, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” And as Jesus the Word of God said, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No I tell you, but rather division. From now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.” Fathers and sons will fight. Mothers and daughters will fight.

And allow me to say this: Good. Would that all Christians were divided so that Christ might dwell between them.

Look at the fiery lava on the bulletin cover. I saw that and imagined someone on one side and someone on the other. In a horrible way, there is division. One hiker is separated, is divided from another.

Fire is terrible. We prayed about the Crossan family. We collectively mourned and prayed for the mother who lost three of her four children in a house fire. Some of us may have contributed to the memorial fund. Fire hurts and scars and burns and destroys. It is not something to be fooled around with.

That’s the bad side. But you know full well that there is more than one side, more than one perspective with a lot of things. As a child I loved Sunday nights in the winter. My father and mother would make a fire in the fireplace and while it burned and crackled, they’d read the newspaper on the couch. My brother and I would play a board game or something or sometimes I’d lay on the floor in front of the fireplace and would read a book. And you know what’s ridiculous? I used to pretend that I was Abraham Lincoln reading by the fire in his log cabin. What can I say? I’m a nerd. Sometimes Mom would break out the roasting sticks and we’d roast hot dogs for dinner and marshmallows for dessert.

Fire is warm. Fire is inviting. It is comforting. It provides light.

Is not my word like a fire? By the warm guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Christian says yes! By the power of the Word the world came into being. God said, “Let there be” and there was- sun, moon, stars, the land, all that flies in the sky, walks on the land, and swims in the sea. As we gather around a campfire, so the Church of God gathers around the Word. The location of the Scripture readings is in the middle of the service. During the Easter season we physically carry the Word into the middle of our Sanctuary during a Gospel processional. In a real way the Word is in the middle of our assembly. As the Word is read, maybe you look across the aisle at your brother or sister in Christ. You are looking at the Word from one side and there is someone looking at the Word from the other. We keep the warm, inviting Word in the middle and we invite others to come and have the Word dwell in their middle too.

Who do we invite? We could say that we invite our friends and our neighbors, family members, friends from school. But we invite sinners. We invite sinners to come and sit with us, who are fellow sinners, so that all of us can understand and love the God who forgives, the God who is mercy, the God who is patience, the God who is justice and truth.

Coming into the fire of God’s presence is scary at first, because the light of the fire exposes our dirt and our stains. And we do not like to be exposed. We’d prefer to stay in the shadows, stay protected, and continue to put forth the façade that everything in our life is perfect. But coming into the light of God’s Word exposes us.

But more than exposing us, the light of God’s Word exposes God. And I just rattled off some of the things that God is- mercy, goodness, love, patience. God is a God at hand. He is a God who draws close. He is a God who lifts up, who supports, who holds us close to Himself. He fills the heavens and the earth. That is the God revealed in the Word.

Yet, my brothers and sisters, there are those who look at the warm fire of God’s Word and run from it. They dream dreams. They prophecy lies and deceit. They call evil good and good evil. They pretend that sin does not exist. They justify the wrong and when anyone dares to speak the truth of God’s Word, those truth-speakers are ridiculed and denounced as hateful, unloving, unenlightened. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.

God has drawn us to the fire of God’s Word and we have been shown how good it is. God has revealed to us that His Word is a hammer, and like fire, we know that a hammer can destroy and a hammer can build.

God’s Word bangs and beats like a hammer upon the rock-hard heart that is lodged inside every one of us. Our selfishness is broken up. Our arrogance is beaten by the hammer of God’s Word. Our self-centered definition of love falls under the hammer-blows of God’s Word. And let us rejoice, for we are indeed hard as rocks when it comes to receiving the gracious presence of God.

We are broken but we are not left in that condition. God binds up the broken-hearted. God picks up the pieces and molds, shapes, and fashions us. It may be a long time and we may grow weary and impatient, but God transforms us by the power of His Word. The hammer that nailed Jesus to the cross is the hammer that smashes our sin. We are smashed by the cross. We are rebuilt by the empty tomb.

Is not my word like a fire? Yes, a warm, loving, enlightening fire. Is not my word like a hammer? Yes, a hammer that builds us into the body of Christ, builds us to love and serve in the same way that we have been loved and served. The fire and the hammer of God’s Word are great. SDG