Pastoral Letter 129
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all.
Market Morning 2022 is now in the past and I hope you all had some time to relax and recover. In the coming couple of weeks, the remaining items will be sorted out. The books will go to the Lifeline Book Depot in West Linfield, may be a carload to Vinnies and some packed boxes will be stored for next year’s Market Morning. Once again, a big thank you to Virginia and the team, who worked tirelessly.
In the coming five Sundays, from 14 August to 11 September, I will be covering for Rev. Hagop Sarkissian, the minister of the Willoughby Armenian Evangelical Church, as he is on his annual leave. The service start tine is 11:00 am, which means I will not be able to stay too long for our Morning Teas for the next five Sundays. Please accept my apologies.
We will have a small change in our diary and instead of celebrating Father’s Day and having our Fellowship Lunch on Sunday 11 September, we will combine this with our next Combined Service with Lane Cove Uniting here at St. Andrew’s Longueville and the Great Outback Fundraiser BBQ on the following Sunday 18 September. Please make note of this change.
On another sad note, we got a message on Thursday evening from Rick Johnson, the Pastor of Lane Cove Uniting Church, saying: “Just heard that Margaret McCulloch was found dead in her apartment. She was supposedly OK last night (Wednesday). I’ll let you know when I hear more”.
Margaret was with us on Wednesday morning at Time4U and she looked fine, though fragile, as she has been for the last few months with several falls. Very sad.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let us know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
If you will not be able to join us at our face-to-face service, you can worship with us at home. Please light a candle and follow the attached Order of Service.
Here are some more prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for the Matheson and Phelps families as the mourn the loss of their mother, grandmother, and great grandmother Nan Matheson and plan a private Cremation and Memorial Service, most probably on Saturday 24 September.
- Pray and remember Margaret McCulloch that she may rest in peace.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for the hope that God gives.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
Not Peace, but Fire and Division
Luke 12:49-56
Three people died and were waiting at the pearly gates of Heaven. The first man said to St. Peter: “I served faithfully as a pastor for over 50 years.” Peter told him to step aside and wait. The second person said: “I served my church faithfully for 40 years.” Peter told her to step aside and wait. The third person stepped up and said: “I wasn’t a pastor, I was a worker for the Australian Taxation Office for 6 months.” Peter told him to step right in. The first pastor objected saying: “Why does he get to go in before two pastors?” Peter said: “The truth is, in 6 months that Australian Tax Office agent scared the devil out of more people than either of you did in a lifetime.”
The text for today has some of the toughest thoughts and strongest words of Jesus in Luke’s gospel starting with vs. 49: “I have come to bring fire on the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!”
How come, Jesus, the Son of God, the obedient servant, who emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and came to this world to die with a death on the cross, to give us hope for eternal life, say such harsh words? On the night of His birth the angels announced that the Prince of Peace was born in Bethlehem.
We can be puzzled with those words of Jesus. But there shouldn’t be any surprises. Yes, Jesus came into this world taking human form and was born as a baby and lived a natural life, took our sin and guilt on Himself, but always reminding the world about the judgement of God for those who reject Him and disobey God’s commandments.
Was He talking about the destruction of the world when He said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth”?
The word fire could mean several things. In the old days all artificial light came from fire, and it represented wisdom. In early human cultures, fire sat literally at the centre of the tribal community, and it literally kept people together and at night guided wayward members back home. A tribe’s central fire rendered light and warmth, but also kept wild animals away. People prepared their food on fire and burned their wastes in it. Also, as a general principle, fire explains human fervour, zeal, passion, enthusiasm and powers of persuasion.
The Greek word for fire is Πῦρ pur. In the context of Jewish thought at the time of Jesus, the word Luke used here refers to judgment. So, in that sense Jesus came to bring fire; He came to teach and judge the unrighteous and the self-righteous. He came to show the right path and promised to give the Counselor, the Spirit of truth, to be with the believers forever and teach them all the things and remind everything He had said, including His words registered in Luke 12:49. As John registered in his gospel, Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). These words of Jesus seems contradicting to the words of Luke 12:49.
The word pur can also refer to cleansing or purification. Think of using fire or heat to purify any kind of metals and raw materials by burning off the impurities. His fire can purify and refine us and makes us His worthy servants, who are willing to serve and live a life that brings honour to God.
The fire of which Jesus speaks sets apart those who are “on fire” for Him from those who are not. Luke clarifies the use of the word fire by Jesus in vs. 51 – “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
The history clearly shows that the teachings of Jesus have caused division down through the ages. Catholics versus Protestants, Orthodox and Reformed, Reformed churches divided into different denominations, around 200 main families and up to 30,000 of different smaller families, Easter and Western Orthodox churches, around 23 Catholic churches. Also, civil rights struggles, beliefs about same sex marriage, abortion, global warming etc.
There are those who mock at Christians because we have so many divisions in Christianity than in any other religion. So, in one sense Jesus was right about division. And the reason for this division is simply because Christians have varying opinions about a multitude of things and interpretation of the Scriptures.
But we cannot let our differences of opinion divide us, at least not to forget the central figure of our Christian faith and heritage is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is central and no real church denies His humanity and divinity, with may be the argument still going on, if He was in two natures or out of two natures. Regardless, He is the Son of God, the anointed, the good shepherd and the incarnated God and was ready to come obeying the Father’s commands and fulfilling them to the point.
If we keep on reading the passage, we see that in a righteous anger, Jesus turns on the crowd following Him calling them “Hypocrites!” Why? Because they are not observant of the signs of God. They may have discerned the will of God; but they have not done anything to accomplish it.
A Pastor encountered in the post office one of his flock, who had not been in attendance for some time. The Pastor asked: “Why have you not been in worship?” The lady answered: “I just don’t want to be among that group of hypocrites!” Without skipping a beat, the Pastor said: “Why don’t you come next week and there will be one more.”
So, do we need a fire?
If so, what kind of fire will it take?
I believe it will take the passionate fire to follow where Christ leads.
It takes passionate fire to do God’s will.
We need the passionate fire of Christ Jesus to make God’s will a reality here.
We will surely face challenges and have conflicts and disagreements.
Is conflict always avoidable?
Is conflict always a sign of failure?
Can good come from conflict?
Conflict is part of the Gospel message in Luke 12:49-56. We cannot escape or avoid conflict, which harms our mission, but it is not a sign of failure. On the contrary, it is a sign of success, as Jesus has already said that we will have conflicts, disagreements and divisions.
Jesus came to set the world on fire with the fire of division. Peace on earth is in the hearts of men as a gift of the Holy Spirit, but not yet between all people. He will bring about world peace at His return. Until then, loving Jesus will bring conflict, division, but always in His love, compassion and forgiveness.
Literally, Jesus brought division and He endured suffering, because of that division. That division was similar to fire. Morally, if we have no church conflict, we should ask if we really follow Jesus. Prophetically, we should not be shocked by the division that comes with following Christ.
Naïve Christians are shocked by it. Older Christians try to avoid it. But division is unavoidable. We should not be shocked. Like fire purifies metals, conflicts can purify us. A Christian who has survived many battles is more mature than the one whose faith has never been tested.
In times of church divisions and conflicts, let’s realize that they may indicate the Gospel’s success. Good can come from conflicts. Jesus predicted that we would have divisions among us because of Him. When conflict comes, let’s patiently look to God to see us victoriously through.
The important thing is the end result. When Jesus returns, He will establish His Kingdom for ever, where there will be no divisions, no conflicts, no disagreements, because then we will pass from the earthly to the heavenly Kingdom and be with our King for ever and ever.
Amen!