Faithful Prophets

Luke 12:49  "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 

So this last Thursday, someone drove a truck into a group of people sitting outside at a protest rally.  They were in Rhode Island.  The protesters were Jewish, and peacefully at a detention center for refugees.  Luckily, more people were hurt by the tear gas police used than the truck and there were no fatalities.  The protester's slogan is ‘never again' and they remember Hitler, concentration camps, and being discriminated against because they or their families were immigrants struggling with racism.  Their fire and passion come from scriptures like the ones we read today.

They see the signs of the times and they stand up against racism.  They mourn the injustices of labelling some humans as less worthy of respect than others.  They fear increased attacks at synagogues and other centres of worship.  They experience the demeaning and insulting behaviours of other people as politicians spout off comments that may not sound racist on the surface but trigger policies that are locking children in cages because of where they were born, the colour of their skin and because their parents dared to dream of a better life for them.  The protesters are burning for Justice.

Such burning is not an easy thing.  Last month I preached on James and John wanting to burn a Samaritan village, and Jesus saying that was not what he had come to teach.  Now we have Jesus talking about burning too, the dangers of hypocrisy and the need for judgment.

This time, Jesus talks about the fire of purification, not destruction.  The need for a reality check, and the litmus test of people’s loyalties to the principals he is committed to.  The principals he heard in the synagogues of justice and equal rights for the vulnerable as so clearly stated in our psalm today.

This is not an easy Jesus or a nice cuddly God.  They say harsh things, they see the cruelty as if it is in broad daylight, they demand better, and they know when our subconscious selfishness is in control.  They call for honesty, and the hardest honesty is when I tell the truth about my own actions in my own family.  Have I been tolerating abuse?  Have I been enabling addiction?  Have I failed to think about the long-term implications of my actions?  Have I taken ownership of my part in conflicts? Have I told stories about myself that only saw myself as the hero and never the problem?

Jesus calls us all to look in the mirror long and hard.  Before we spout our dreams, before we prophesy, before we point out inconvenient truths we see in others, we need to look at ourselves, then we need to look at what God wants.

What is God calling us to do?  That can be as simple as asking ourselves what makes us angry, and as hard as asking how we can turn that anger into love.  The Jewish protesters weren’t in Rhode Island outside a detention centre because they hated guards or government, they were there because they felt compassion for the people and the children locked inside.

Sometimes God calls us to stand up for causes that divides families like the families in Hong Kong are divided over protesting government policies

Sometimes God calls us to do something as complicated as making a pledge to give up flying in airplanes, easy enough if we don’t have money, but one girl is inspiring teenagers around the globe to do just that.  She not only gave up airplane flights to do her part to reduce carbon emissions, but she is travelling from Sweden to the US to talk about the urgent need for action to combat global warming. She’s doing it without vehicles that burn hydrocarbons, including a solar-powered racing yacht.

Sometimes God calls us to change plans and lifestyles.  One lady is deciding to boycott vacationing in Quebec because of what many see as racist discrimination in the new legislation to ban religious symbols in public.  This government action impacts immigrants, refugees and non-Christian faiths in their jobs, forcing them to choose between their religious traditions and their employment.  You can read about that choice in our Broadview magazine.

Sometimes God calls us here at home.  It’s not enough to be nice, kind and hospitable people anymore.  It’s not enough for us to say, “I’m glad I live in Canada and not somewhere else.”  It’s time for us to ask ourselves, how can we be actively anti-racist here at home in Athabasca?  It’s time for us to ask, ‘what’s one more tiny step I can take to use less plastic or pollute less or to waste less food or send less stuff to the landfill?  It’s time for us to ask ourselves how to live out the calls to Truth and Reconciliation.  It’s time to be more respectful of the people around us who are vulnerable and call out the telephone con artists who think that it’s their right to have a piece of the North American wealth we take for granted.  It’s time for us to wonder why they feel the right to con, or why they feel it’s the only way to provide for their families.  It’s time for us to ask what Jesus would want our world to look like, what false gods is our God calling out, and what prophets have empty dreams they want to sell us for a price.

Lex Rofeberg, one of the protesters who saw the truck drive into his friends, said “Jewish texts, Jewish traditions, Jewish history calls on us to make noise. What our society needs right now is for pretty much every day to be a day of noisemaking.”

Whether it’s ‘never again’ or ‘me too’ or ‘climate crisis’, we are all called to prophesy for God’s community of justice that burns.  We are called to purify the world of anything that prevents compassion and fairness for all.  Burn for justice, burn for compassion, burn for God!