August 17, 2010
Rev Jim Scott delivered another powerful sermon on Sunday 15h August. He chose as his theme the passage from Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 12, vv 49 to 56. Rev Scott said that it was often tempting for ministers to pick the easy passages from the Bible and to deliver sermons around them, but what do the more difficult ones mean? This passage talks of Jesus coming to set the earth on fire and wishing “that it was already kindled.” Jesus says that he came to earth not to bring peace but to bring division; to bring division amongst families, for example. As far as setting the world on fire, that’s a common expression today is it not? We say about someone who is making waves, making changes, that he or she is “about to set the world on fire” – or more commonly perhaps that he or she “will never set the world on fire.” Did Jesus mean to set the world on fire literally or to shake us out of complacency? Jesus goes on to compare a man looking at the clouds and feeling the wind on his face and from those clues making a forecast about the weather; habits which sailors have had since time immemorial. Jesus makes the comparison that if earthly man can predict the weather from the signs, why can’t we understand the “the meaning of this present time” from the signs we can see? Rev Scott told a story about Beethoven that sometimes when he was playing to a sleepy-looking audience he would bring his whole forearm down on the keyboard. The almighty discordant sound would shock his audience rigid and would grab their attention. That then is what Jesus set out to do; to shake us out of our easy-going ways and to wake us up to what we needed to do to bring his world to life.
If you’re reading this and you’re not sure about the message, then come along to Drumoak-Durris church and listen and learn.