Satan decided to make some strategic plans with three and five year goals (… in case you wondered where that came from.) He called all the devils, demons, imps and fiends together for a summit meeting on temptation. What can we do to lead people to sin, asked Satan? Lucifer gave his opinion. We can tell them there is no hell and then they won’t care about the consequences of their actions. That won’t work, said Satan. People know that the evil in this world must be paid for in order that justice be restored. Mephistopheles suggested, How about we tell them there is no heaven? That won’t work, said Satan. Everyone recognizes that there are so many good people in the world who deserve their reward that heaven must be real. After some more discussion one little imp in the back piped up: how about we tell them, “There is no hurry.” That will work, said Satan. And so the strategy was adopted. There is no hurry. You’re young yet. You can develop your values after you have finished school. Time to experiment now. There is no hurry to get in your prayers. So much going on today. I will get to my prayers when I have some breathing room. There is no hurry to repair that relationship. I’ve lived with the wound in my soul this long a few more years won’t hurt. I’m already stuck in the mud of resentment. There is no hurry, so chill.
Or is there. Living as we do in a limited world we know we are on the clock. We live the life of faith in time in order to prepare for eternity. Happily the Bible tells us how to do so. We read in the epistle to the Hebrews that the way to persevere is by “keeping our eyes fixed out Jesus.” When we do so, when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we find that Jesus was a mover and a shaker. Jesus certainly felt a need to hurry, an urgency, a pressing need. In fact, as the gospel of St. Luke reminds us, when we fix our eyes on Jesus we see someone aflame, someone full of passion, someone on fire. “I have come to set the earth on fire,” said Jesus, “and how I wish it were already blazing.” Not much chill in that thought! Jesus was on the move, determined, eyes on the prize, straining forward, resolute. Jesus was a flame thrower.
Faith in Jesus is about being on fire. The fire of Jesus can be found in one place above all – the hearts of his followers. Each of us are the depositories, the sanctuaries where the fire of faith resides. Not for us faith as a nice idea, a philosophy of living, a theory of being. Faith blazes, burns, flashes, shines. What is that like? What does it mean that Jesus wants us to be blazing? The closest analogy I could think of is passionate love. Back in the day many of the love songs used fire as the image of what they are feeling. Jose Feliciano, “C’mon, baby, light my fire.” The Pointer Sisters, “When we kiss, fire.” Johnny Cash, “I fell into a burning ring of fire.” Do the songs of today talk about the fire of love as well? That is the image that Jesus wants us to have as people of faith. Faith is a passion, a burning thing. Let’s use the analogy of passionate love to understand what Jesus the flame thrower of faith expects of us.
First, when you are in love you want to spend time with your beloved. You want to know all about them. When you are separated your heart aches just a bit. Your insides feel warm when you are together. The same is true of our relationship with Jesus. We need to spend time with Jesus in prayer. We read the Bible so we can learn more about him. We feel close to him in Holy Communion. We have that special time and that special place set aside for being with Jesus. Thus we tend the fire of faith planted in our hearts.
At the same time, love is not something private. When we love someone we want the whole world to know how wonderful it is to be in love. Our hearts our bursting. We shout it from the roof tops. It is meant to be shared. To pull out another old song for all of you Broadway show tunes types, I’m thinking of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific singing “I’m not afraid to reveal the world famous feeling I feel… I’m in love with a wonderful guy.” In a similar way our faith in Jesus needs to burst out. I’m not afraid to reveal what a wonder Jesus has been for me. We need to let the people woven into our lives know how awesome it is to have Jesus in our hearts. As Jesus reminded us that might at times cause division, cause even people close to us to back away. But when you’re on fire with faith it must be shared so that other hearts might become a-blaze as well.
The other thing when you’re in love – you do for your beloved. You bring flowers, prepare a nice meal, get dressed up, watch the sunset together, go to the game – whatever is special for that couple. In a similar way, when our heart is blazing with faith we want to do for Jesus as well. And the Bible teaches us how to do so: whatsoever we do for the least of his brothers and sisters we are doing for him. We have the opportunity to do for Jesus by extending a hand of love and charity toward those who are in need. That helps to feed the flame of faith into a bonfire.
Jesus said, “I have come to set the earth on fire.” Are we ready to become flame!