Jesus said: 

"I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!"  This is one of those passages that can make us feel a bit uncomfortable. We know how powerful—and destructive—fire can be. The memory of last year's devastating fires in Los Angeles is still fresh. We've seen the heat, the smoke, the destruction. So, when Jesus says He came to set fire to the earth, we might instinctively recoil.

But I don't think Jesus is talking about a fire that destroys.                                             

I believe He's talking ... about the exact opposite.

The fire He came to bring is not meant to burn down, it's intended instead to burn within...  to burn within! It's the fire that stirs passion that sets a heart ablaze. He wants to set our hearts on fire... with love.

Think of the story told in scripture about the disciples on the road to Emmaus. On that first Easter, two disciples walked with the risen Jesus, not knowing it was Him. They thought He was gone forever. But after He revealed Himself and vanished, they turned to one another, and do you remember what they said:

"Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us?" "

"Were not our hearts burning within us?"

I believe that's the fire Jesus is talking about ... an inner flame that stirs up passion, love, and excitement for God.

We see it again at Pentecost, in the tongues of fire descending on the apostles. That fire—which is the Holy Spirit—transformed frightened men in hiding into bold witnesses who literally changed the world – with the fire of their faith.

This is the fire Jesus wants to kindle in each of us!                                                           

It's a fire that begins at our baptism and is rekindled whenever we gather for worship. 

It's a fire that is meant to spread far beyond these walls.

It's a fire that should burn so brightly it breaks through the "firewalls" of our fears, doubts, and divisions until every heart feels its warmth.

So the question each of us is being asked today is: 

How's your fire? Is it burning brightly?

There's a story about a priest in a little country church. On a bitter winter Sunday, he turned off the furnace's gas pilot light and the gas supply—but left the blower running. When the congregation arrived, they could hear the swish of the fan, but the church was ice cold. 

His sermon that day was titled:

"The Blower's Still Blowing, But the Fire's Gone Out."

Does that describe you? It does me ... often. That's a picture of far too many Christians. Going through the motions—attending church, singing hymns, even serving, but the flame is gone. Saint Catherine of Siena once said, "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." 

Jesus came to light a fire in you and me. We mustn't let it go out. We must tend it, feed it, let it grow until it consumes everything that is not of God. Because when your heart is on fire for Him, you'll find a deeper love, a stronger faith, and—yes—  a peace the world can't give and can't take away.                                                    

Let's go set the world on fire!