“...and how I wish it were already kindled!”

In our sacred stories, fire purges, cleanses, refines, and incinerates... as well as enlightens and empowers.

Be burned today toward behaving as a radical commonwealth, with God’s help.

Freaked out by Jesus’ impassioned words in today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 12:49-56)?  Good.  If we’re taking seriously ministry in his name, we should be disturbed and we’re likely to have already experienced some of the initial divisions he is describing... not that the ultimate intent of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer is division...but some separation is to be expected among the principalities of this world when we’re living toward a new life together promised through Christ.

The new kingdom that Christ calls us to live into doesn’t operate according to societal expectations that we’ve come to accept as ‘normal’.  Our heavenly family is not bound together by biological blood lines, but by faithful behaviors and godly intentions of divine heart – mercy, compassion, as well as justice for all, particularly those pushed to the margins.  The ultimate sorting out of who’s ‘in’ (and how) is God’s prerogative, not ours.  In the meantime, we’ve got plenty of opportunities to do better by each other right here, right now, using Jesus’ ministry as our example and trusting the power of Holy Spirit to help us help each other.