Maybe because the Olympics are being played, I was struck by one line from the Epistle to the Hebrews: “persevere in running the race that lies before us.” We all know, “up close and personal” as the TV puts it, that life can feel like a race sometimes. We don’t call contemporary existence the “rat race” for nothing. It can feel like we are running and running just to keep up. This is no modern phenomenon but it is as old as the Bible. Living life as God intends requires keeping on keeping on. Persevere, says the Bible. Hang in there. You can do it. Go, team, go. “Run, so as to win,” St. Paul says in another place. But the other image that struck me was from the Old Testament lesson: Jeremiah sinking into the mud. We can all relate to that as well. It’s hard to run when you’re sinking in the mud. Sometimes we feel like we’re stuck, weighed down, trapped by things outside of our control. We sink into the mud of illness. We sink in the mud of financial troubles. We sink in the mud of family difficulties. We sink because we’re addicted, afflicted and utterly screwed up. How can we keep running when we mired in knee-deep mud! That is the world we live in. On the one hand we’re told to keep running but, on the other, many forces bog us down and conspire to make it difficult and nigh unto impossible to keep running.
Happily the Epistle provides a method, a solution to help us keep running no matter what is going on around us, no matter how deep the mud. Did you hear it? “Persevere in running … while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” When we keep our eyes fixed out Jesus we can make a way out of no way. Fix on Jesus and see that God did not stay above it all in heaven but was born in a stable to enter the mud and muck of human existence. Fix on Jesus and learn to rely on the one who calmed the storm with a mere word. Fix on Jesus who proclaims liberty to captives, helps those blinded to see, and brings good news to the poor. Fix on Jesus who promises that if we seek first the kingdom of God our Heavenly Father provides what we need. Fix on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and learn to pray “not my will but thine be done.” Fix on Jesus and discover the power of the cross, that sin and death do not get the last word – the last word is resurrection, the Easter word is life. When we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus we are focused on the best, the most important, the name above every other name, the one who is the way, the door, the blessed assurance of our happiness.
However, Jesus is not a sweetheart. You know how we say that about certain people. “Oh, he’s a sweetheart. He always has a kind word for everyone.” “Oh, she’s a sweetheart. She brings cookies into the office every Friday.” Jesus is not a sweetheart in that way. Of course, he is always loving. He always wants what was best for us. But as any parent can testify the loving thing is not always sweet. Sometimes the loving thing is a dose of castor oil, a word of rebuke, or, dare I say it, a swat on the behind. When we fix our eyes on Jesus as he is, and not as we would like him to be, we find someone who challenges us to be better, who has great expectations for us, who wants us to be the best person we can be. In fact, as the gospel of St. Luke reminds us, when we fix our eyes on Jesus we see someone blazing, someone full of passion, someone on fire. “I have come to set the earth on fire,” said Jesus. Not much sweetness in that thought! Jesus is a flame thrower.
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. Think of all the love songs that use fire as the image of what they are feeling. “C’mon, baby, light my fire.” “When we kiss, fire.” “I fell into a burning ring of fire.” That is the image that Jesus wants 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 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. For all of you old 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. We need to let the people woven into our lives know how wonderful it is to have Jesus in our hearts. As Jesus reminds 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 that whatsoever we do for the least of his brothers and sister 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!