As we head into the last weeks of winter in Australia and prepare for Spring, notifications are already beginning to pop up of planned, hazard reduction burns in and around our more heavily populated areas of the country. These burns reduce the amount of undergrowth that would allow fires to spread quickly in drier months, endangering property and life. But they come at a cost of their own, reducing the fuel load on the ground before it dries out means a lot of smoke and cooler overnight temperatures mean that the smoke settles. For those with respiratory issues it means days of discomfort, but if the choice is between discomfort and devastation, smoky days are the lesser of two evils by far.
There is another advantage to these controlled burns that was well known to the first people of this land as well. Clearing brush promotes new growth and, in the Australian context, fire temperatures are required to break open the hard seed pods of many of our native plants.
In this Sunday's Gospel Jesus says to his disciples 'Do you suppose that I have come to bring peace... I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!' He then goes on to describe the divided relationships that will result, pitting household and family members against one another. It is a very confronting and discomforting image. But what is it really challenging in us?
In the accompanying reading from St Paul's letter to the Hebrews, Paul exhorts the community to throw off everything that hinders them from keeping God in their sights - the undergrowth of sin and shame. Those things that tempt and hold them back from the fullness of the relationship that Jesus offers from the cross.
So, are divided households and fractured relationships inevitable as a result of Jesus’ incarnation? Not at all. In the early Church there were difficult choices to be made. To become a Christian was a great risk and for some it did mean abandoning or being abandoned by family that opposed their faith. But in our context today it speaks to me of other risks - of worldly attachments and the culture of instant gratification that stand in the way of our being fully engaged in an unfolding and eternal relationship with God.
Ultimately, we know that, there is a fire that rains down from heaven - the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The same Spirit that walks beside us and seeks to guide us through life. That seeks to ignite a fire in us that will burn away the tangled undergrowth of sin and temptation.
As Jesus challenge rings out in this Sunday's Gospel I pray that I can be more open to the urging of the spirit in my life and bring out the seeds of goodness that will grow the kingdom of God.
Comments
Post a Comment