My wife and I love the movie Moonstruck. Just the other night we sat outside as the sun was setting and a red sky gave way to darkness trading lines from the movie (not an uncommon occurrence for us). One of my favorites comes after two of the characters attend the opera, and Ronny tells Loretta that “Love don’t make things nice.”
That quote (from a movie that is older than I realize) sums up what makes today’s Gospel reading disturbing, at least, to me. It sums up my own misconceptions about not just love but the One-who-is-love and what happens when that Presence heeds the prayer like that of today’s Psalm.
“Did you believe,” Jesus says, “that I came to give peace on the earth?” No, not even close. “I came to cast fire upon the earth.” He then goes on to say that instead of unity he has come bearing division. Not exactly one of Jesus’ happier sayings. But it is a very real one.
Think about the old romantic comedies. From Cary Grant’s mild-mannered paleontologist in Bringing Up Baby to Howard Bannister and his rocks in What’s Up Doc, love never brought peace. Same goes for Loretta in Moonstruck, love did not usher in a pastoral period of life where all was flowers and trees. In fact, time and again, it seemed that the world had caught flame and was slowly consuming that idyllic scene.
Love, as I quoted at the outset, does not make things nice. So if God is love and Jesus is the embodiment of that love, why would we ever think that Presence would bring anything else than fire and division? Love can have that effect on our world.
It is in light of this that I’ve begun to rethink Psalm 80. For a long time, I cheered at the words from this Psalm. Yes, indeed, listen Holy One. Awaken your power and draw near. That’s what we need. Come down here and shake things up for all those bad people.
As I said, I used to get all excited reciting these words. But now…I’m wondering if that’s what I really want. Do I really want the power of the love-that-created-the-stars to awaken? Do I really want the “impression of the reality of God” (as the author of Hebrew’s calls Jesus) to draw near again? The world was turned upside down then. What might happen this time? What comfortable convictions will be shattered? What, if anything, will ever be the same again?
What, dare I ask, will be changed in me?
I come not to bring peace but to cast fire, Jesus says. I come with the fire that consumes and clears away the unnecessary brush. I come with the fire that burns, marking you forever in the encounter.
I come with love, and it will not make things nice. But it just may make you more like me.
God of love, come again into my world, upset the tables, and drive out what keeps me from expressing the fierce love you give me.
This is the kind of devotional that makes me say "I'm scared" but that's the message that I need to hear, accept, and, if I have the courage, embrace.
That prayer is perhaps one of the best prayers I've ever read. I think I'll print that one and put it in a place where I can see it and, with God's help and grace, pray it.