C, Pent 12 Proper 15 - Luke 12:49-50 "The Fire of Faith"
Jesus tells us in Luke 12:49-50, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!”
What is fire? When you see a fire burn… mesmerised by its warmth… watching the embers sparkle and crackle, as the flame flickers… what actually is it? You might see the glow, but what makes the flame exist? What is a fire?
A fire is flame, that’s for sure! But what is the being or content of that flame! Is fire a light? It gives off light, but fire is more than just light! Is it heat? It gives off heat like it gives off light, but it’s more than that! These are the products of fire as a result of fire burning!
All fires are basically the same! Fire burns and produces heat, and fire produces light of some kind. In fact the light a fire produces is not so much the result of the flame, but rather the fuel on which it burns. So could we say that a fire is what it burns?
Here again we run into trouble! Take a candle, with its wick and wax for instance. These are not fire. In fact fire is brought to the candle by a match, so fire burns on it. Therefore, fire is not what it burns, if it was, the fire would already be there. How about the match that’s struck to light the candle, where does its fire come from? A match is a stick with some reactive chemical on one end, when it’s struck against the flint it burns. When a match is burnt the stick becomes black ash. Rub it between your fingers and it turns into nothing more than a black smudge! So just like the candle, the match needs heat brought to it for it to burn, and things change as the burning occurs.
So if fire is not the fuel on which it burns, it’s not the heat or light it produces, then the substance of fire is the flame itself. So is fire, just oxygen or some other gas, or just carbon-dioxide and heat and light? Perhaps fire is an event, a reality that can be seen and felt, a changing substance dependant on a fuel source with the inevitable consequences of producing light and heat.
Scientifically speaking fire is not a thing at all. It's not its own type of matter but it's something that happens to matter. Fire is a chemical reaction.
A fire’s fuel contains big molecules that have carbon atoms inside them. You can think of these molecules as little containers of energy. When they're allowed to combine with oxygen, this energy is released as heat and light.
Fire is a rapid chemical reaction known as oxidation. Inside a fire, oxygen molecules break bigger molecules apart into carbon dioxide and water vapour. All the heat and light of a fire comes from big, carbon-based molecules combining with oxygen. So what is fire? It's not the fuel or the oxygen or the heat or the light. Fire is what happens between all these things. It's a chemical reaction. (http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/fire.html)
There’s no doubt fire is real, even though it’s near impossible to define as a thing. We’ve all seen its light and felt its heat. In fact if it wasn’t for fire, nobody would see anything at night, and everyone in cold climates would freeze to death. Even the most complex lighting and heating sources have their origins in a naked flame at one time or another.
Fire can’t exist without needing fuel or producing a result. Fire is not of itself, it’s not magic, although it’s one of the most mysterious things we all use. Perhaps, pop singer, Billy Joel was right when he sang, “We didn’t start the fire, it’s been burning since the world’s been turning!”
If we consider what faith is? Then focusing on the characteristics and properties of fire might help us to distinguish and discern the reality of faith. After all Jesus says, “Why don’t you judge for yourself what is right?” (Luke 12:57)
Therefore, if fire can’t exist by itself, we could consider faith in the same way. A fire burns on indefinitely with fuel, but without a fuel source a fire burns out and ceases to exist. So too, faith in ourselves, or from within ourselves, will inevitable burn out and vanish into thin air. How many Christians have we seen suffering from spiritual burnout? We also get burnt out ourselves when we trust in ourselves threatening the flame of faith kindled in us by the Holy Spirit!
How is it, we hear in Hebrews eleven, the great cloud of witnesses to the faith, who have gone before us, were not burned out, even though they never received what they were promised. In fact they were burned by insults and afflictions — left, right, and centre — yet they didn’t burnout. We know for sure it was faith born not of themselves, nor was this faith cold, and even today the light of their faith is still God’s witness to us, and a light to our path.
The fuel of our faith, the fire of our faith has begun and continues to burn in Christ; fuelled by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, he is the fire, in him we’re given the foundation of our faith, and by the fuel of his word and sacraments we live in the light of his peace. The fire of faith burns in us only because Jesus burns and shines through us. We are his candles made flammable by the Holy Spirit. So if we are candles created in Christ, and the Holy Spirit’s fire of faith sent by Jesus rests on us, then surely our existence will be candles burning for Christ.
When Jesus came he was baptised into death by John at the
Some time after Jesus was baptised we hear him say in Luke 12:49-50 that, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!”
So if we picture ourselves as the candles of God burning with the faith God rests on us through the Holy Spirit, then as we burn through life the impurities of our sinful human nature are being destroyed and burnt up, while the products of Christ shines and radiates the warmth of his love from within us. But if we choose to cut ourselves off from the author and perfector of faith and grace, we will still be burnt away by a fire that consumes all as if we were chaff burning with unquenchable fire.
How blest are we having already undergone baptism! Christ’s distress is now finished having been baptised into death and raised to life. We too, like Jesus, have been baptised into his death, and therefore life, but we must also go through the baptism and fires of our earthly physical death. However, even though we die and the flames of our earthly impurities are being burnt away, we will continue on burning in him. Why? Because he is the candle that never goes out! He is the candle that’s kindled in us by the breath of Holy Spirit.
We are baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We do the work of God when we believe this, allowing our Saviour to continue kindling faith in our hearts. Christ Jesus is the substance of our faith, our hope, our identity, and our eternal peace with God. Amen.
