Luke 12:49-56

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and I wish it was already burning.” (Luke 12:49). This is how today’s gospel reading began. It is, undoubtedly, one of the most upsetting and harsh comments made my Jesus in the whole Bible.

It sounds like he’s about to bring hell on earth. These are not things we normally associate with the images of Christ, such as the wonderful counsellor, the Lamb of God or the good shepherd, or even the Prince of peace.

Then, Jesus continues with an equally shocking declaration. He said, “Do you think that I came to bring peace to the world? No, not peace, but division. From now on a family of five will be divided, three against two and two against three. Parents will be against their children, and children against their parents.”  It gets even worse and more confusing.

It was a huge crowd. The day was a big success. There were so many people gathered to see and hear Jesus in today’s story. Everyone there was excited at the things happening in front of their eyes.  Then, all of a sudden, Jesus came out with the fire and brimstone statement.

This sounds way out of place for Jesus.  Why would Jesus call himself a divider? Why did he say he had come to bring division, not peace?

To understand this, we need to look at the historical context of the first century in Palestine.

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Luke 12:13-21

A man and his wife were in Africa watching a herd of wildebeest run across the plains. The animals were all running in the same direction, but suddenly, they stopped. The wildebeest looked confused, as if they didn’t know where they were or why they were running.

Their local guide explained that wildebeest aren’t very smart animals. They often run away from danger, but they quickly forget why they’re running. Lions know this, so they just follow the running wildebeest and wait for them to stop. When the wildebeest stop, forgetting why they were running, they become an easy dinner for lions. The animals’ memory is extremely short that they’ll sometimes walk right up to a sleeping lion, forgetting that the lion is a ‘lion’, and giving the lion breakfast in bed. (D Cox. “Seize the Day: Seven Steps to Achieving the Extraordinary in an Ordinary World, 2022)

Sometimes, we are like them. We run through our busy lives, trying to get ahead and assuming things will be better if we just keep doing that. We’re so focused on the race in this world, that we often forget why we’re running and who we really are in this life as a believer.

In Luke’s Gospel, a man asks Jesus to help resolve a financial dispute with his brother. Instead of getting involved in the argument, Jesus tells a powerful story, often called “the parable of the rich man.” This story, however, can be seen as “the parable of a successful person” because its message is still very relevant today.

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Luke 11:1-13

A man was praying eagerly: “Oh Lord, I believe in you. Nothing is impossible with you. To you, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Lord, I have something to ask you for. Can you just tell me the winning lottery numbers for this week!” And God’s voice boomed from above, “Okay. No problem, My son. I’ll do it tomorrow.” Tomorrow, as in one day, might be a thousand years to God.

God’s concept of time (Kairos) is significantly different from ours (Chronos). This is where many believers struggle with confusion, frustration, setbacks, or even doubts, leading them to ask, “Does God really care about me? Is God even real?” We want it now, but God gives it later, and sometimes much later, like a couple of decades later. And at other times, God gives something totally different. Or even… God never gives it.

Many Christians tend to view prayer like operating a vending machine. What would you normally do to get something from a vending machine? Well, the first thing you will do before you actually insert coins is to make a choice. You’ve got to decide which item you want to have. Then, as you put your coins in the machine, you know exactly what will pop out. If something else pops out or even nothing pops out, you instantly know that the machine is out of order. I think many Christians view prayer like that. When they pray for something, they expect that God will answer their prayers in the way a vending machine should work.

In a Christian survey done in many churches in the US years ago, they found that ‘unanswered prayer’ was one of the main barriers for many churchgoers. Because of their unanswered prayers, many believers would stay away from growing in faith. Prayer is more than an emergency magical lamp rubbed in a crisis. The truth is, many people give up on prayer because they haven’t received what they prayed for.

This leads us to ask some questions such as: “How do you pray?” or “Why pray at all?” And above all, “What do you pray about?” We are not alone. Those disciples of Jesus had that question, too. In today’s gospel story, Jesus was praying in a certain place, when one of his disciples came up to say, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” And Jesus said, “When you pray, say, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”

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Lent 4 Eph 2:1-10 ; Jn 3:14-21

Way back in 2021, I did my first sermon here (or ever) and I talked about my discomfort with unconditional love. I want to return to some of those ideas today, and I’m sorry if you have such a perfect memory that that bores you.

Late in high school at one point, I was in the backseat of my mum’s car when she was talking to a friend about the friend’s son. More specifically, talking about his hair. A few years before that, this teenager had moved from a boy’s school with a pretty strict military-inspired dress code, into a public school, and had grown a lush mane of hair. Just so much wavey healthy hair. It was clearly an expression of freedom and release, and at the time I had heard my mum and this woman discuss it and how positively this reflected his sense of creativity and joy returning.

Now, a few years later, he was considering shaving it all off. That wasn’t the reason the mum’s were talking, though. The point was a funny anecdote about the things teenages say, because apparently one of his friends had said “but your mum loves your hair! You’re sure she won’t like… disown you?” Cue both mum’s bursting into giggles.

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