Daily Devotional • November 4
A Reading from Luke 12:49-59
49 “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain,’ and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 Thus when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to reach a settlement, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”
Meditation
I cannot be alone in finding it somewhat uncomfortable hearing Jesus declare that he comes to set the earth ablaze. However, I am reminded that fire is not only a means of destruction — it has a wider symbolic resonance. Think of John the Baptist announcing that the One who comes after him, the Lord, will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, or of Cleopas on the road to Emmaus, saying that his heart was burning within him in the presence of Jesus who walked beside him.
Fire is passion. It is a source of energy and power. Yet the image of fire, dangerous and cleansing, is also a salutary reminder of the strangeness and hugeness of the might of God, the holy awe which he inspires in us. The Christian life is not one which is predictable or comfortable; rather, it is always shaped and coloured by the mystery of Jesus’s life. Here we are reminded in forceful language of the costliness of following where he leads, the price of suffering and unpredictability, and also of division within relationships and families.
Jesus makes it clear that there can be no priority in our lives, not even the sacred bonds of love in a family, which have a higher claim on our loyalty and attention than his all-consuming call. The two great commandments tell us to love God and to love our neighbor. They do seem to be listed in that order for a reason. It is in surrendering ourselves to the vast blaze of God’s love, transforming and purifying, that our own hearts can be set ablaze with love for the world.
The Reverend Cara Greenham Hancock is a deacon serving in the Anglican Church of Australia, as a curate at the parish of St Stephen and St Mary, Mount Waverley.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Karnataka South – The Church of South India (United)
Church of St. Mark, Brooklyn, New York