[Propertalk] Tidbits for sermon on Luke 12:49-56 - III.

[Joe Parrish]

The point is that the Good News brings us to the place of commitment and discipleship, not the other way around. I am dumbfounded when I hear preaching that implies that only when we have done the "hard stuff" will we experience grace. "No! No! No!", I want to scream, "We do the hard stuff because we have experienced grace!"

http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/the-cost-of-values/

Peter Woods, 2010
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A common view holds that "fire" in verse 49 refers only to judgment (e.g., Gen 19:24/Lk 17:29; 2 Kgs 1:10-16; Am 1:4; Lk 9:54; Rev 8:5, 7; 19:10). The figurative language, however, suggests that more than judgment is intended. The destructive power of fire is not merely associated with judgment, but with purification and cleansing (Lev 13:52; Num 31:23) and with divine revelation and deliverance (Ex 3:1-10; 13:21-22). Fire, then, is a figurative statement that depicts the powerful irruption of the Kingdom in the ministry of Jesus (cf. 16:16/Mt 11:12; see also 10:8-11; 11:20). 

http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28

James J.H. Price
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...let's read this text as Jesus being eager for constructive cooking and not destructive conflagration.

http://www.holytextures.com/2010/07/luke-12-49-56-year-c-pentecost-august-14-august-20-proper-15-ordinary-time-20-sermon.html

David Ewart, 2010
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A lecturer at Agricultural College told us he had once casually asked a student if he was going back on the farm after university to take over from Dad. The young man replied, "Well, Grandpa hasn't let Dad have a go at running the farm yet."

There can be a tyranny of power in families. Crossan notes that the divisions in the household are related along lines of power, particularly between the generations.

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...we face a full scale conflict, taken right into the heart of human formation: the family. The family is being dethroned from its absolute claims.

http://churchrewired.org/god-s-time---luke-12-49-46.html

Andrew Prior, 2010
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Is it time we were, by grace, better at taking spiritual temperatures, measuring & responding in a godly way to the pressures of society (of God or not of God), reading the Wind of the Spirit & its blowing where God will, rather than being mere windbags? 

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke/LLK124959PENT11.html

Brian McGowan
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v52-53. Jesus now explains what he means by "division" and then, in v53, supports his words by quoting Micah 7:6. "Division" was one of the commonly expected signs of the coming messianic kingdom, and so now, with the coming of Jesus the messiah, families can expect that household members will "turn against one another", CEV. Some members of the family will stand with Jesus and others will stand against him. 

http://www.lectionarystudies.com/studyg/sunday20cg.html

Bryan Findlayson
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...the passage speaks neither about the inevitability of division in families nor the selected or chosen nature of this division. It is, according to my reading, imposed as something that flows naturally from the new commitment. Nor does it say that every family is so divided. Like the poor whom we will always have us (another one of Jesus' statements--John 12), so we learn from this passage that Jesus' message causes division, even to the very relationships that may have nurtured us in our youth. But, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews goes even further. He speaks about the living and active word of God as so sharp that it splits even bone from marrow (4:12). We miss the Gospel if we think it is just one pluralistic and inclusive love feast for all the people of the world. 

http://www.drbilllong.com/LectionaryII/Lk1248.html

Bill Long, 2007
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