I’m on vacation through the end of August. I’ve reworked the sermon I preached three years ago and will be preaching it at the Chapel of St. John in Saunderstown where I’m the supply clergy this weekend while one of our clergy is on vacation herself. 

(Yeah.. I know… but we all do vacation differently.)

So rather than recording a sermon this week, I hope you’ll understand when I give you a pointer to the sermon as it was recorded three years ago.

Back then I wrote, in part:

We imagine, viewed through the news of this moment in World History, that all conflict is destructive and regrettable. We imagine that heaven is a place where a great angelic choir sings together in a great harmonious sound, where there is no dissonance, no conflict, but only pure music.

But what if sometimes conflict is necessary for transformation. What if conflict, pain and strife aren’t destruction, but birth? What if fire comes not to burn and destroy, but to cleanse and purify?

Jesus in the Gospel today speaks of fire and conflict, and I think given our present circumstances, particularly in the USA, we hear it as an ominous warning. But it could also be heard as a promise that a transforming moment is about to happen. Certainly, the conflict of our moment does seem frightening and ominous, but if God is in the midst of this storm too, then maybe there is something historic happening.