Proper 15 (Pentecost 10), 2025
Text: Luke 12:49-53
Title: Fire
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Is fire a good thing or a bad thing?
It depends, you might say.
Fire can heat a home.
Fire can cook food.
Fires on the prairies can even regenerate the soil and foster life.
But fire can also destroy.
Fire can burn flesh and kill.
Fire is dangerous, not something to play with, as we teach our children.
Today, Jesus talks of fire, kindling fire here on earth.
Is that a good thing?
Does that make you happy or scared?
Or perhaps a bit confused?
We’re not used to hearing Jesus talk like this.
Fire has to do with judgment.
John the Baptist warned the people that if they didn’t repent, if they didn’t bear fruit, they would be like a barren tree that would be chopped down and cast into the fire.
Hell itself is described as fire that never goes out.
So, fire is a bad thing, right?
Not necessarily.
Fire can purify. Fire can burn away the impurities in an ore, leaving only the precious gold. Fire can clear out the underbrush, giving trees more room to grow.
God’s final judgment is a good thing for you, because all of the evil and impurity of this world will be burned away.
Judgment day will be a good day for you because Jesus has already borne the fire of God’s judgment for you by His death on the cross.
That’s what Jesus is talking about when He says that He has a baptism to be baptized with.
Hasn’t Jesus already been baptized? Didn’t John do that in the Jordan River a long time ago?
When Jesus was baptized, He and John had a little chat. Do you remember that?
John didn’t think he should be baptizing Jesus.
John thought it should be the other way around, that Jesus should be baptizing him. And then what did Jesus say? “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus did not need to be baptized. He had no sins of His own to repent of.
But Jesus came to the Jordan River bearing all your sins, to make you righteous. This is why the heavenly Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, with Him I am well-pleased.”
Jesus’ baptism was His first step on the way to the cross. Jesus lived out His baptism as He went to Calvary to endure God’s judgment for the sins of the world.
On the cross, Jesus felt the fire of God’s wrath, the fire that should have been cast upon you.
On the cross, Jesus’ baptism was brought to its completion.
When Pastor Schlecht was dying, he had some very specific requests. One of them was about his obituary.
Pastor Schlecht requested that the opening line of his obituary read, “The baptism of Dennis Schlecht was completed…” on the day that he died.
Here’s what that meant…
Too often we think of our baptism as a one-time event, something that happened back in the past, perhaps so long ago that we don’t even remember it.
Instead, think of your baptism as something that you live out each day as you confess your sins and receive forgiveness.
Every Divine Service begins with the sign of the cross and the words that were put upon you at your baptism, “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
And then you confess your sins, you put them to death, they are burned away by the cleansing fire of God’s judgment.
That is a daily reality for you until you die, and there are no more sins to confess, no more repenting to be done, no more purifying fire, and all that will be left is the holiness created in you at your baptism.
Baptism lights a fire in you.
Remember Pentecost.
Remember the tongues of fire that rested on the apostles.
Remember how the fire changed them.
Before the fire, they were afraid.
Before the fire, they were hiding, alone.
After the fire, they were bold.
After the fire, they were out preaching on the streets.
Which brings us to Jesus’ words about division.
The apostles’ preaching caused division.
Some believed on the basis of their words and were baptized themselves.
The Holy Spirit brought them to faith and added them to the number of the church.
But others teased and mocked the apostles, calling them a bunch of drunks.
Eventually, the apostles were arrested, beaten, even killed.
When you were baptized, the Holy Spirit kindled a fire within you.
You were changed, like the apostles at Pentecost.
You were given a passion to live out your faith in a public way.
Some people will be drawn to the fire in you, like moths to a flame. They will listen to you. They will learn from you. And they will believe in Jesus through your witness to them.
But some people will be confused, they will be afraid, they will be angry, they will not want any part of this fire in you. And so they will tease, they will mock, and they will even seek to harm you.
This may even come from within your own family, father, mother, son, daughter.
The reason is this. They see the fire as a bad thing. They are afraid of what it will burn away. They love their sins too much to allow them to be burned away in their lives. They are like the rich man in Jesus’ story who would rather build barns and indulge in the pleasures of life rather than care for the poor.
But you know better. You know that Jesus’ fire, the fire of your baptism is a good thing.
You know that this fire makes you pure and holy, that it burns away what is useless in your life, what is actually harmful to you and what keeps you from following Jesus.
Jesus’ fire is a good thing. He came to earth to kindle it for you. He brought that flame of the Holy Spirit into your heart when you were baptized.
Yes, it will cause division. There are those in your life who will try to put it out.
But don’t worry. Nothing can divide you, nothing can separate you from your Savior, from your Jesus, who went to the cross and was baptized there for you.
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