Week 4 June 2025, Devotion Part 2

I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division…  Luke 12:49-51

If this revolutionary baptism of the Holy Spirit does not fit our religious norm, we cannot blame the Lord.. He never divided people into charismatic and non-charismatic, but chiefly distinguished between the self-righteous and unrighteous. His idea of “division” was not to employ tongues to quibble over the merits of individual gifts but to prize the Giver above all causes and creeds.

In the days of His flesh Jesus not only “grasped the hand” of the needy but also yearned for their finite minds to grasp eternal truth. It was not an easy task. Young children love to play house and doctor. They can be lectured on marriage and improper touching, but they cannot connect the dots until they have been loved and steered by good example into their own rewarding adulthood. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a profound bursting of God’s age into ours. Seeds of light will burst into a harvest of brightly illuminated truth.  Part 2 of 2

Comment:  What if revelation comes with a rub?  Just when we’re all fired up about Pentecost, the day that also put the Presbyterian church on God’s global map, the word “baptism” pops up.  Isn’t that when “the Baptist” immersed Jesus in the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove?  James and John had matured as His disciples, and instead of wanting to rain down fire on Samaritans, presently jockeyed for preferred seating in His heavenly “glory.”  Christ’s response came with a “rub” they hadn’t seen coming. It means there’s a difficulty, obstacle, or problem that is often hidden or not immediately obvious. The “sons of thunder” blundered right into it when Jesus asked if they were able to drink the cup and undergo the baptism appointed for Him.  “We are able,” they boasted, but their pants on fire – rhymes with liar – said otherwise. Both the “cup” and “baptism” were known figures of speech that referred to Christ’s suffering and death.  In great agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Son asked of His Abba Father to take away the cup of crucifixion, then drank it. The dove is a universal peace symbol, but when the American Eagle is being defeathered by the inhuman treatment of marginalized people, the Christ-follower must cry out for justice.  Even while identifying keenly with those suffering in our midst, we must also be mindful of the “Imago Dei” of Genesis 1:17. It assigns intrinsic worth to each human being. We find in biblical history many incidents when judgments fell fast and hard. That strikes some fear into my human American heart, but faith suggests l refute it with Proverbs 3:25-26, “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and keep your foot from being snared.”  Luke 12