{"id":1171,"date":"2013-08-19T07:21:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T11:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1171"},"modified":"2013-08-19T07:21:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T11:21:52","slug":"20th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-faith-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/20th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-faith-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Homily – Faith on Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

20th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/a>
\nJeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
\nHebrews 12:1-4
\nLuke 12:49-53
\nAugust 18, 2013<\/p>\n

They are after Jeremiah to get rid of him.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 We\u2019re told it\u2019s because he is demoralizing the soldiers and all the people.\u00a0 They think he doesn\u2019t care about the \u2018welfare of the people.\u2019<\/p>\n

The fact is Jeremiah cares.\u00a0 Jeremiah is a prophet and all he is doing is delivering God\u2019s message.\u00a0 If the people would just listen to him and follow his guidance their welfare would improve.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want to listen to him.\u00a0 He\u2019s telling them they have to change their ways and they deny it.<\/p>\n

So, the princes go to King Zedekiah who lets them do as they wish with Jeremiah.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t change their minds and rather than upset them, he lets them have their way.\u00a0 He\u2019s just trying to \u201ckeep the peace\u201d but in reality that isn\u2019t what happens.\u00a0 Real peace comes in doing God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah endured suffering and persecution.\u00a0 Jeremiah sought to lead people to a lasting peace not just what would make them happy for a day.\u00a0 Jeremiah wasn\u2019t interested in just \u201ckeeping the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus isn\u2019t just \u201ckeeping the peace.\u201d\u00a0 For this, Jesus was persecuted and crucified.\u00a0 Jesus knew what was going to happen.\u00a0 He could have kept his mouth shut but he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

If Jesus had kept his mouth shut, we would never have heard his teaching.\u00a0 All the people he cured would have continued to suffer.\u00a0 Nothing would have changed.<\/p>\n

Jesus did not keep his mouth shut for our good.\u00a0 He spoke up and what he said caused division.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Jesus wanted to cause division but he knew what he said would because not everyone wanted to hear what he had to say.\u00a0 They knew how they wanted things to be and if Jesus didn\u2019t do what they wanted, then he wasn\u2019t the Messiah.<\/p>\n

What did Jesus come for?\u00a0 \u201cTo set the earth on fire.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Fire can be thought of in different ways.\u00a0 Fire can be seen as a force of destruction.\u00a0 Fire can also be seen as cleansing, removing the bad so that what is good can thrive.\u00a0 Fire can also be thought of as a sign of enthusiasm like when we say we are on fire with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 When Jesus says he comes to set the world on fire, he\u2019s referring to cleansing and enthusiasm.\u00a0 Destruction may come but it is not Jesus\u2019 goal.\u00a0 Jesus comes to lead all to the Father.<\/p>\n

Have you told others about Jesus?\u00a0 Many in our society might tell us not to bother other people with such things.\u00a0 We \u201ckeep the peace\u201d by not talking about Jesus.\u00a0 We \u201ckeep the peace\u201d by not talking about sin.<\/p>\n

It seems simple.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t we supposed to get along with everyone?\u00a0 If we want to get along with our family, we keep our mouth shut.<\/p>\n

But Jesus says if we follow him, there will be division between family.<\/p>\n

Family is important.\u00a0 Jesus calls us to love and care about others.\u00a0 Loving Jesus can mean loving our family but loving Jesus also means standing up for what we believe in.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just with family.\u00a0 The same can be true in work or in play.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about \u201cforcing God\u201d on someone.\u00a0 Do we even mention God?\u00a0 Or if someone invites us to do something that is wrong in God\u2019s eyes do we go along just not to upset them? If we see someone \u201cerroring in sin\u201d do we bit our tongue or so we speak up for what we believed in?<\/p>\n

Jesus spoke up for what he believed in.\u00a0 He did it with words in his preaching and he did it by hanging on the Cross.<\/p>\n

How about you?\u00a0 Has Jesus set your heart on fire with faith?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 Hebrews 12:1-4 Luke 12:49-53 August 18, 2013 They are after Jeremiah to get rid of him.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 We\u2019re told it\u2019s because he is demoralizing the soldiers and all the people.\u00a0 They think he doesn\u2019t care about the \u2018welfare of the people.\u2019 The fact is Jeremiah cares.\u00a0 Jeremiah …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Homily – Faith on Fire’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-iT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions\/1172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}