Sunday, August 17, 2025
/Proper 15
John G Ibanez
An elderly gentleman reaches the Pearly Gates and St.Peter asked him if he had any regrets. The elderly gentleman thought for a moment and finally he said, “Well I do have one regret” And St Peter asked “And what regret would that be? The elderly gentleman bowed his head with obvious remorse and in a low voice confessed to St. Peter “My only regret St Peter is that I never listened to my wife’s advice.” Then with inquisitive curiosity St. Peter asked him. “And what advice did your wife give you?” With a perplexed look the elderly gentleman responded, “I don't know I never listened to her.”
Now I am only married to one person in the congregation, and as far as the rest of you are concerned, I am neither wife nor husband to any one of you. Therefore there is no reasonable excuse in the world why you would not listen to what I am about to say to you this morning..
Today's Gospel reading is blistering hot! One practically needs asbestos gloves or very thick oven mitts just to pick up these verses. But as blistering hot as it is, it seems to contradict what we heard earlier in the gospel. When the Samaritans would not receive Jesus, his disciples James and John said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ Jesus instead responds with a heated rebuke of James and John for suggesting that they resort to violence.
Six chapters before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus had already instructed his disciples to love their enemies, to be compassionate, to welcome children, to serve the poor to feed the hungry, and take up their cross (Luke 6:27-31) Nowhere in this gospel, nor in any of the other New Testament writings does Jesus ever say “Use a torch or a sword and avenge those who wrong you.”
Hence when we hear today’’s Gospel reading, Jesus sounds a little bit schizophrenic. In contrast to the admonition he gave his disciples not to use fire against the Samaritans, Jesus now says that he is bringing “fire to the earth”, and tells us that he is not bringing peace to the world but division. He is bringing division even to the most intimate relationships of father and son, and mother and daughter. He says he will cause division between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law
The reason Jesus rebukes James and John is because their suggestion was to use fire in a violent act of vengeance. There is a difference between that fire and the fire Jesus can not wait to ignite. Jesus ignites a fire not of vengeance and retribution, but rather a fire of purification. Jesus makes use of the metaphor of fire in the same way that the prophets Zechariah and Malachi use it in their prophecies. These prophets refer to God's intention to purify Israel like a refiner purifies/ silver by fire.
Jesus brings this purifying fire to the political situations of his day. The central political issue of the day was what should the Jews do about the occupying Roman Empire? To The Pharisees Jesus tells them that the kingdom of God is much more than following rules and regulations
To The Sadducees Jesus says that in the Kingdom of God we do not compromise our values or our morals in order to achieve or maintain status.To the Herodians Jesus warns that the kingdom of God is not about acquiring power but of being of service. Jesus would have the Essenes embrace responsibly the goings on in the world rather than escape from the world. And finally, Jesus explains to The Zealots that his teaching is not about violence, but of pursuing peace.
According to what the New Testament tells us the kingdom of God represents a new order: governed not by might but by forgiveness not by fear but by courage, and not by power but by humility . To be a follower of the one who preached love and forgiveness is to do the same, particularly when it comes to those who differ from us even ( and maybe especially) in terms of what they believe. So that the love that governs Christians is to be extended even to non Christians. Christian faith is an invitation to live differently now, to see those around us neither as souls to be saved, sinners to be converted, or threats to be deterred, but rather to see them as God's children to be loved, honored and cared for without regard to culture, ethnicity, or race. In the Kingdom of God we are all God’s children without exception.
At times the Church itself is called to hold the torch that ignites a purifying fire. Many of the Christian denominations after the tragedies of two world wars, felt that the light of Christ needed to be made brighter in the modern world. One significant change embraced byChurch leaders of various denominations, was to make Christ’s preference for the poor reflected in all the undertakings of the Church.
The changes which these Churches made coincided with numerous other societal changes in the 1960's. These changes reflected the continuing work of the Holy Spirit liberating victims of oppression. There was the Civil Rights legislation that ended segregation of African Americans and other minorities. At this time voting Rights legislation removed all the impediments that had been in place to keep minorities from voting. The 60;s also had women entering the workplace en masse expanding the role that women played in the world. Women were now able to exercise their many gifts in the public arena. In 1964 President Johnson introduced legislation meant as a war on poverty. Several of the movements of this time helped to move out of the shadows, many who for a variety of reasons had been marginalized.
A response to these changes was a counter-revolution carried out by a combination of forces. Certain business leaders who were interested in promoting libertarian economics merged with conservative Christians who had deputized themselves as the guardians of the traditional family and its patriarchal structure. The two groups combined to create a grassroots conservative movement buttressed by Christian rhetoric. The first of these churches began in Southern California and in years since then these churches have blossomed into mega churches that now pepper the entire country.
A Christian Nationalist theology emerged that in many ways contradicts the very tenets of the Kingdom Jesus inaugurated. Wealth, according to this theology signifies God’s favor because it shows that you used what gifts God gave you constructively. Those who are poor did not wisely use the gifts God gave them. According to this way of thinking, a country is made strong by helping those who have been successful, and is impoverished by wasting capital and resources on those who have not succeeded. If you have not succeeded, you are lazy and you are going to die anyway. Therefore it would be a waste of resources to squander money on you. Tax breaks should be given to the rich, and social programs designed to alleviate the hardships of those in need should be phased out.
Adherents to this couter-cultural movement feel as if their country was stolen from them, beginning in the 1960s by people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and sadly foreign people who have come into this country. In the minds of these counter-revolutionaries, restoring the nation to its former glory requires a return to a state wherein straight, white native-born Christian men take their rightful place of authority and leadership. Everyone else - including women, racial minorities,religious minorities, and certainly the LGBTQ community - must accept their place as either lower on the American register or outside of it all together. Of crucial importance the country must be divested of foreigners.
Hence these mega-churches not only support the immigration policies being carried out by ICE, but also promote and recruit volunteers to become ICE agents. It is being promoted as a religious crusade sanctioned and called forth by God to expel foreign invaders whose presence dilutes the dominant culture of the country and who are seen as infidels. More often than not those singled out for deportation are selected by the brown color of their skin or a tattoo that they are sporting. With frequency they are detained while they are shopping or while attending Church services. More often than not, violence accompanies the apprehension of these perceived misfits. Hence, you have the separation of families and the violent removal of undocumented workers from this country; most being innocent of committing any crime. According to a recent report 70% of those detained and incarcerated at Alligator Alcatraz do not have a criminal record.
Disturbed by the many scenes of family members being separated from their loved ones, and in keeping with how Jesus ignited a fire on the political and spiritual movements of his time, many church leaders have started lighting their torches of Christian righteousness and justice. Their effort is to protect these migrants from being mishandled and being violently apprehended. The Roman Catholic Bishop of San Bernardino, California has excused migrants from attending Sunday church services where they might be apprehended.
A few months ago the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of their federal grant, they would be expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government classified as refugees. The Most Rev.Sean Rowe, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church ended the refugee resettlement grant agreement the Episcopal Church had with the federal Government and responded to the federal government’s request as follows:
…….It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years…..As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries, but by the sure and certain knowledge that the kingdom of God is revealed to us in the struggles of those on the margins. Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command. Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program and investing our resources in serving migrants in other ways…………
Periodically church leaders, either as leaders of their respective churches or in consultation with other church leaders will act as the spark that lights the fire of truth and justice,on our behalf. .However, we must always be mindful that individually each one of us is committed by choice and by calling to be ‘faithful witnesses of the presence of the Kingdom of God. We are individually called to be prophetic fires of truth and justice, of compassion and love in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. It may be the need to correct someone making a racist or sexist remark in our presence. It could be defending someone unjustly treated at work. Or possibly we might be called to help a neighbor whose undocumented status makes him or her a target for deportation by ICE agents
Too often we are fearful or lazy and succumb to silence in the face of injustice. We, as disciples of Jesus Christ, give testimony to the presence of God's Kingdom in our midst by how well we show love, compassion and commitment to divine truths. As disciples of Christ we have been given the torch with which to ignite the fire that enables and empowers God’s Kingdom to be present in this ‘fragile earth, our island home’
In my homilies there is always a hymn or poem that says best what I am trying to say to you:
1. We are one in the Spirit,
we are one in the Lord,.....
and we pray that all unity
will one day be restored
2. We will walk with each other,
we will walk hand in hand,
Refrain:
and they'll know we are Christians
by our love, by our love,
yes they'll know we are Christians
by our love.