By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
August 31, 2025
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Luke 14:1, 7-14 (ESV)
1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Do you make diligent effort to acquaint yourselves and those under your care with the spiritual and material needs of the world? Do you support by prayer and systematic giving those who are laboring to extend Christ’s kingdom, and do you make evident your loving sympathy with them and their service? “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth.” (1 John 3:17-18 NIV)
I begin today with the eighth query from our Faith and Practice. And I want us each to consider it deeply. Do you make diligent effort to acquaint yourselves and those under your care with the spiritual and material needs of the world?
There are many things happening all around us every day. We can sometimes lose ourselves in the news cycles, or on the other hand we can become so annoyed by the news that we completely disengage from society and withdraw into our own cultural bubble. As people of faith there is a danger on either side. As humans there is a danger.
I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I love my hometown and I often get anxious living in the city. I get claustrophobic when I cannot see the horizon, and I long to see the sunset over the hills of the prairie. I noticed something in my home town, we did everything right. I would watch the news and scoff because to me it seemed so simple, and the world would be better off if they would just do things like we did it. Then I went to Ukraine and my entire worldview was turned upside down.
I spent my entire life up to that point with a certain understanding of who everyone was. I knew right and wrong. And I still remember just a few weeks before I had to send in all the money to finalize the travel. My grandpa Craven sent me a letter with a check for fifty dollars. In that letter he wrote that he was so sorry that he could not give more. He expressed how proud he was of me and how he would be praying for our work on that mission field. He did not write much but I could tell from the way it was written that he was struggling to get the words right. I knew that he had spent his entire life moving around the country as a pastor, and even served in this Area of the Yearly Meeting at Hesper Friends Church just outside of Eudora. He closed that letter with a verse that has often been my life verse. “To live is Christ and to die is gain.”
This was not the only word of encouragement I received. The other that is burned into my ministry was from my Grandpa Bales. Grandpa was the rock in my life. I always wanted to be with grandpa when I was a kid, if he was in the field anywhere within walking distance I would walk out to ride in the tractor with him. And at times he would save me the trip and stop at our house to pick me up because he knew I would find my way out there anyways. Grandpa taught me almost everything, and if he did not teach me, I filtered almost everything I learned through what I thought grandpa might think. He was a quiet, quick witted, and steady. Grandpa did not offer a great deal of advice even though I have said he taught me everything I know. He would ask questions, or make sly comments that would make me think and reconsider things.
I once tried to start a fire to burn trash out on the farm, and it had been raining so the fire would not start. I so I in my wisdom decided to throw some fuel on the fire. I tried diesel because I was not dumb, but it was not having the effect I wanted, so I considered gasoline. I knew enough to know that gas would explode so I put it on the trash, and I walked a long way off and threw the match. Flames shot out of the top of the silo and out the door toward me and I felt the heat engulf me for a few seconds, and when I opened my eyes, grandpa pulled up in the pickup. I got in and as he had his little smirk and he said, “Welp, that was pretty dumb wasn’t it.” That was all that needed to be said. In that simple statement he expressed how concerned he was, how overjoyed he was that I was safe, and how I should probably come up with a better plan next time. And then he put the truck in gear and gave me a ride to the next thing that needed to be done.
My grandpa did not say much, yet he was a steady source of wisdom and encouragement. And when he handed me a check for that trip to Ukraine, he said something I had never heard him say to me before. He said, “You are going into the land of the enemy, I will be praying for you.” I knew my grandpa’s faith. I listened to him sing every Sunday as we worshiped. I watched as he silently listened, or nodded at what was being said. He was usually quick to help where ever he was needed, but rarely did he speak in such a serious tone. Most of his testimony was some random song or obscure verse within a hymn that was never sung. His quiet faith, his encouragement, and his concern was very clear to me. And that he wanted to make sure I knew that beyond a witty song spoke volumes to me.
I carried those words with me when I flew to Ukraine. I felt as if I was going behind enemy lines. I felt as if I was sneaking Bibles over the Iron Curtain. But when I actually got there and began talking to people, things changed. They were people, just like me. They liked similar music, I could not understand their music but they had similar rhythms, with some folksy differences. They had the same hopes and dreams. They wanted to go to college and get a good job. They wanted to get married and have a family. They wanted to go to the club to dance like all the friends I had in school, although I never went with them since I was always working. As long as they spoke English around me I never would have thought I left Kansas. I even had some conversations with some of the Ukrainian teachers, and they would talk about when they were in college during the Cold War, and I would tell them stories that my family had told me. The stories were similar, yet it was like hearing it from the other side of the looking glass. But they were watching us.
One of my friends, who had just graduated from the university and had taken a job in the ministry of Agriculture spent many hours talking with me because we had a lot in common. He eventually asked me, “Why are you all here, why do you care about Ukraine, weren’t we your enemies.” After hours of laughing together this was the moment things became serious. I told him that in my faith we are taught to love our enemies and do good for them. That we are to make every effort we can to make peace and to become friends.
I felt like a failure at that moment, I was supposed to have presented the 4 Spiritual Laws and draw a little picture of the cross bridging the gap between humanity and heaven. But instead all I could say was its better to have friends than enemies. He did go to church with me that next Sunday but I cannot tell you if anything changed in his life, because after that we continued to talk about grain markets, fertilizers and what we would do if we had land in each other’s countries.
One Sabbath, Jesus was invited to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. They had just emerged from worship and now it was that time of the day where the community would celebrate together around the table. He went and ate with the people that were challenging everything about him. And we are told that they were watching him carefully.
They were watching him carefully. This is an interesting phrase that “watching” just does not really cover. It means direct perception, inquisitive attention, or to keep under supervision. The Pharisees were watching, they were studying Jesus like he was some mysterious phenomenon, which he was and is. But they were investigating every action. They would call him out on certain things, and sometimes Jesus would respond, and at other times he would just quietly continue doing what he was doing.
They were watching but why? People both inside and outside the church are observing us. They are studying us, seeing if we are living the lifestyle we are claiming. And this is what they were doing with Jesus. This is why the teaching, “Do not take the name of God in vain,” is so important. In that commandment or word of wisdom, the word take, we regard as misusing the name of God in our language. And I can still taste the lava soap for speaking the name of God in vain. But the word we often translate as take, means to take up or bear, it means to carry the name of God. This teaching is so much deeper than the words that we speak. It is everything we do and say. It is everything we do not do or say. It is us as people that claim faith bearing witness to our understanding of God to the people around us. Are we making diligent effort to acquaint yourselves and those under your care with the spiritual and material needs of the world?
When we are consumed by the news, drawn into the never ending cycle of rage inducing commentary, we can be distracted from something important. That there are real people involved and that the presentation of the story is trying to emotionally tilt us one direction or another. We must be careful, because those around us are watching us. They are wanting to see if our response will reflect the faith we claim to have.
For those that are not overly concerned with temporal affairs, we also have a danger. We may not know what is going on around us, we can be going along blissfully thinking that everything is fine , while the world is burning. They are watching us. They are wanting to know that even now in this moment God cares. Are we living the love of God with them?
The Pharisees wanted to prove that they were right and Jesus was wrong, but the problem was Jesus acted and spoke into the moment with authority. And even when his actions may not have agreed with their traditional understanding, they were silenced because as he taught he would often reveal the inner light at the heart of the Torah. Should we work on the Sabbath? The quick answer is no, but are their exceptions the reality is yes. The exceptions are when we are acting as image bearers of God, and stepping in to preserve life, because when we honor the life that God has given we honor God.
This is what going to Ukraine revealed to me. They were not my enemies, they were people. People with similar hopes and dreams, and similar struggles. The difference between us was very narrow, and largely revolved around the privilege of opportunity.
This is what Jesus is highlighting in today’s parable. Each of them had been invited to eat with the ruler of the Pharisees. This is an honor to eat at a ruler of the Pharisees’ house. We often look at these things as being more like our own community, but this is big. A rulers of the Synagogue would be like eating with the local pastor. You all can do that after worship if you would like. But to at with the ruler of the synagogue would like eating at the Vatican or even the White House to them. These were the people that had power an influence not only in their community, but their entire culture. And they were watching Jesus carefully.
A disabled man came in and Jesus healed that man, on the Sabbath, and as Jesus healed the man he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” Life is more important than law.
But which life is most important? “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you bother will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.” He then concludes, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus then continues, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
I want us to consider this in light of our query.
Jesus is telling these rich and influential people that their attention has been diverted. They have isolated themselves in their own echo chamber. They were blissfully unaware of the conditions of the world around them. In their minds everyone in the world was well fed and in perfect health. And when they did have the occasion to see something different they looked upon the undesirable state in disgusted because this would only happen to the lazy or the sinful within their circle. They judge the less fortunate but do not recognize that the poor, crippled, lame, or blind person in front of them is also an image bearer of God. Their response to this less fortunate individual bears witness, it tells a story.
Are we aquatinted with the spiritual and material needs of the world? Do we understand what they really need? Or are we filling the void with stories built on fantasy? Have we taken the time to listen to them? Have we listened to the testimonies of those that have spent time with people living in a less privileged aspect of life?
My understanding of Ukraine prior to boarding a plane to fly over an ocean was based on stories like Hunt for Red October or Red Dawn. Well actually it was probably more informed by James Bond and Austin Powers but it was limited, skewed, and fictional. The reality was very different.
We had not invited them to the table. We had not really listened to their voices. In many cases we were not allowed because the truth was purposefully withheld by people living in ideological isolation. We were told lies, they were told lies, both cultures were hiding under their desks and tables because the enemy was at the gate. Yet all the while we were going to school and work. Encouraging our families. And trying to make our lives just a bit better for the next generation as best as we could. The difference is the privilege of opportunity.
What story or what witness are we giving to those within the world through our lives today? Are we telling a story that there is a different way? That there is a life where opportunities are available?
I came home from Ukraine. I came home realizing that people are people. Of course I knew this, but I had not experienced it. That experience inspired my future, it was in that short two month stay in a land so different and yet the same as my own hometown, God place within my life a different path, a different passion. I left the study of crops and soil. I left the things that I once knew and began to move into the unknown. I listened to the voices of people not like myself and my heart broke. I realized that in Kansas my own home state there were children that did not believe that graduating from High School was an opportunity that was available to them. We have free public school available to all children, yet they did not know it was an option for them. Why was this unknown to them. They were bright intelligent students. It was not available because the cost to their family was too high. They needed to go to work as soon as legally possible so that they could survive.
I was privileged. I could say that I had to work, and I did I worked hard all through school. I cannot hardly remember a time in my life I did not work. But my labor at that age was not a necessity for survival. God humbled me. We will never know unless someone lets us know, and what we think is available may not really be available unless someone steps in and shows them that a different path can be taken.
Jesus went to the ruler of the Pharisees’ house to eat the Sabbath meal. He knew they were watching. He knew that they were looking for a reason to love or hate him. They hated him because his love for the people revealed to them just how far from God they were. They hated him because they knew that they had the means to help but refused. They hated him because they had a privilege of opportunity, and in so many ways they were restricting others that opportunity because they would rather stay isolated in their blissful ignorance.
Do you make diligent effort to acquaint yourselves and those under your care with the spiritual and material needs of the world? Do you support by prayer and systematic giving those who are laboring to extend Christ’s kingdom, and do you make evident your loving sympathy with them and their service? “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth.” (1 John 3:17-18 NIV)
We are all guests at the table, by the grace of God. While we were still enemies Christ died for us. We do not deserve to be where we are. We did not earn it. They are watching us, they are observing our words and our actions, what gospel are we preaching? We have the privilege of opportunity, let us make that opportunity available to others and live the love of Christ with them.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church July 19, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 8:12–25 (ESV) So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church July 5, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Hebrews 12:1–3, 12-17 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 28,2026 Click to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 6:12–23 (ESV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
August 17, 2025
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
Luke 12:49–56 (ESV)
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
“I came.”
I made an arrival.
I became present.
Today we are again looking at the message that Jesus gave to the people, many of which were religious leaders within the community. Much of these teachings resemble the teachings that were recorded in Matthew that we collectively know as the sermon on the Mount. Luke however does not mention a sermon on the mount, but a sermon on the plain and Luke does not place all of the teaching in one place as Matthew does. But some scholars believe that this might be part of that great collection of teaching.
It really does not matter where or even when the teaching occurred. The point is that Jesus taught. That Jesus came. He brought the wisdom, the teachings, the commands, or the word of God to live among us. He is the incarnate word. I am arrived.
There is something powerful with this thought.
In most religious concepts the deity, or God, is far off seemingly inaccessible. The practitioners would perform acts and rites with the hopes that just maybe they might attract the attention of this powerful being just enough for them to grant them favor. But often the favor was not found. Most performed the rites for a different reason, they hoped that they would appease the spirit or distract them enough that they would not cause them trouble. In the eyes of most religions humanity was lessor, they were corrupt, or at times minions that could be tormented or toyed with. Sadly this is the idea that we often still hold. When we say things like lightning will strike if I do something, this is the ideology we are professing. It is a pagan view of the cosmos where God does not come live among us, God is instead looking to cause us harm.
Yet Jesus says I came. God came to live among humanity. He clothed himself in human flesh, he lived a complete human life, from the moment of conception to his death. And then he showed us there is more. I came, Jesus says.
“I Came to cast fire on the earth…”
I want us to consider this for a moment. What feeling do you get when you hear those words?
Our initial response is dread. In our minds we see this wild, and uncontrollable inferno threatening our very existence. That is exactly the image that Jesus is portraying, because that is the image that most people have when it comes to our interaction with God. We are fearful. Not a respecting fear that we often proclaim, we are literally afraid. We think that God could harm us. But Jesus does not end with those words. He has a second phrase, “and would that it were already kindled!”
I grew up on a Kansas farm. And when I read these verses, I have grown into a different understanding of what Jesus might be saying because of my experiences.
Early in civilization the harnessing of fire was one of the tools that moved humanity toward civilization. The main instrument of civilization was agriculture, particularly when humans learned how to make beer out of grain. But before they could make beer, our prehistoric ancestors learned how to use fire.
Prior to harnessing the power of fire, this force of nature was seen as a dangerous almost divine force. Fire would sweep through the forests and the along the plains and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. Our primitive ancestors would see the smoke in the distance and run. They ran away because the fire would consume everything: trees, the wildlife, the grasses that produced the grain. The wildfires left the people devastated.
Eventually our ancestors walked out into the devastated landscape and they saw a small ember. One brave soul walked over to that seed of destruction and was able to feed it, and domesticate it. This once destructive force was harnessed and soon it became a tool. They used this once feared phenomenon to heat their dwellings. The heat produced by this perceived element of nature changed what they ate and how they prepared their food. This thing that they once feared became an essential part of their life. They learned how to feed it so it would not die, they created methods to create it without waiting for nature to provide the mixed blessing from the heavens. And eventually they began to utilize it as a source of strength. They would unleash its destructive power on their enemies and their prey. Fire is just one of the many destructive tools that have been harnessed by humanity. We have control over fire, yet it remains a destructive force within our society. It remains one of the most feared forces of nature. Because like most things if we do not use a tool properly it can cause great destruction. Any tool can be used for good or evil.
As a Kansas farmer fire is an essential tool. We fear fire, and rightfully so, but fire is important. The picture on the slide today is a glimpse into fire being used as a tool. Every spring the managers of the range, or the tall grass prairies will systematically burn portions of the Kansas landscape. This is called a controlled burn. The fire will use its destructive nature to consume everything on the land. It will burn bright and hot, leaving destruction and ash behind it, but they do this for a reason.
Fire is an important part of the ecosystem. It removes what is dead and useless so that new life can emerge out of the ashes. For a plant to grow they need three basic things: the light from the sun, soil, and water. A healthy prairie is vital to the carbon cycle and ecosystem. In school we often hear about how important trees are to clean air, but we often do not hear about the importance of the prairies. A tree will remove the carbon dioxide from the air and it uses that carbon to produce massive trunks that we can then harvest and use to build our homes. We love trees for this reason and we have become mindful of the importance of replanting trees to replenish the ones we removed by harvest.
What we often do not realize is that the grasslands are just as important as trees to the overall health of the planet. Unlike a tree, the grasslands take the carbon from the air and it places the vast majority of that carbon into its root system. When organic matter remains above the soil, as it decomposes that carbon is released back into the air. But the prairies move the carbon from the air and puts it into the ground. When the carbon is in the ground insects, worms, fungus, and microbes can convert the organic matter into usable materials encouraging the growth of plants. And as these organisms consume this organic matter it becomes a vital part of the soil called hummus which give good soil the dark brown to black color. The humus holds moisture in the ground, and the structure of this organic particle in the soil attracts nutrients that fertilize and promote healthy growth. Every year the prairies do this, because every year a grassy plant grows and dies. All the carbon that was taken from the air is already in the ground for the next generation to use.
Grass does grow above the ground also. And the material that grows above the ground shades the soil from the heat and light of the sun. This is where fire helps. The fire quickly removes this dead material from the soil surface and as it does this it provides heat to the ground. The soil is now longer in the shade, and there is black ash remaining that soaks up the heat from the sun. By burning the prairies range managers encourage spring growth sooner and the result is thicker and higher quality grass for livestock.
Jesus says, “I came to cast fire on the earth.” So often we see this as a negative statement, a statement of destructive force. But what if it is a prescription or treatment instead of judgment?
Fire in the grasslands is one thing, but the entire world is not covered with grass. Fire is just as important to the forests. Trees grow, the wind blows, and sometimes branches break. This falls from the heights of the canopy and accumulates on the ground. It dries out and we walk around looking for them so that we can use these dry branches in our campfires. Wood needs to dry before we can burn it.
How many of us know what a healthy forest look like? For most of us we think a forest is somewhat impenetrable. There are shrubs, vines, thorns, logs and everything else all over under the trees that hinder progress. But that is not a healthy forest. A healthy forest has all of these things but they are in balance. You should be able to find a path through a forest with little to no trouble. Fire assists in this too. The fire clears out the weeds and debris, it opens the ground for the life giving plants to grow. The soft grasses for the deer to eat, the berries we seek for jams. And it assists nature to break down the dry dead woody branches into a form that can return to the earth below.
We fear fire, so we prevent fire. Often when we see a fire we call the fire department to come put the fire out, and rightfully so because an uncontrolled fire is destructive. Year after year we do this and each year, more debris builds up increasing the amount of dead material all around. This then becomes fuel for destruction. The forestry department like the range managers will often systematically burn portions of a forest to clear out this debris. They need to do this, because wild fires will be less likely to occur when the forests have been kindled.
For healthy forests, and healthy grasslands we need fire. It removes death from the environment and converts it to something useful. But that is not all. Even farmers can use fire at times as a form of weed control. The heat from a fire can destroy the seeds of unwanted plants while leaving the desired seeds unhindered. This is often how farmers will remove grassy weeds from a field, before herbicides became common. When Jesus taught about the wheat and tares, the tares are a grassy weed that has a similar life cycle to that of wheat. It will grow along side it and steal the valuable water and soil nutrients, dramatically reducing the yield. But wheat has been breed for survival where tares have not. Part of that breeding is a resistance to heat. When a field has too many tares the farmer can burn the stubble removing everything from the surface and as it burns the seeds of the tares are destroyed. Then when the sower comes the next year the wheat will grow unhindered. That is prior to germination, what about after the plant emerged?
As more and more plants become resistant to herbicides, one of the tools that farmers are beginning to go back to is the use of fire. They will attach specialized flame throwers to their tractors that will shoot intense flames around the base of the plants. The crops are often protected because they have been breed for thicker cellular walls that can withstand wind and drought, but the weeds do not have this special breeding so the flame super heats the water within the plant bursting the cell walls, causing the weeds to wither while the hardier crops remain healthy.
We fear fire, yet we use fire in many aspects of life. Our environment needs fire, yet in our fear and ignorance we often prevent the natural rejuvenating qualities of this ferocious force. Fire can be a powerful tool of life, and it can be the source of traumatic death. What is Jesus meaning when he says, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!”
Often when we read through these words we see it in a couple of ways, judgment or righteousness . For those that see judgment, we have in our minds the wrath of God just looking for a reason to pounce on the unsuspecting soul that found themselves within a seemingly innocent blunder. We read these words and we sit paralyzed in fear unable to approach God because we might be burned. Isaiah had this in mind when he gave his prophetic teachings. “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” And what does the angle do when Isaiah utters these words? The angel takes fire from the altar and touches it to his mouth saying, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah was paralyzed in fear, he thought that the sin of his people along with his own sin would cause him to burn, but the fires of God and not always what they seem.
We might look at this from a different perspective. Fire is a tool, we as humans can wield this tool for our own desires. For some they might use the fire to smoke the best meats in Kansas City, yet for others they might start a fire and watch it burn across the land in an attempt to starve and dishearten their enemies, as Sherman did in Georgia during the Civil War. Fire is a tool for good and evil. We see the fire as judgment because the domain of the evil one is said to be a place where the fire is not quenched. Those that see the fire as a tool for righteous judgment often want to brandish it. They will quote scripture and utter judgmental words from their mouths like they are carrying a flame thrower into society. They whip it to and fro with little regard to what is happening on the other end, because if you were right with God you would be behind them not in front of them.
I have been burned by the religious flame throwers. I know how it feels to be on the wrong side of their words. And the problem with a flame thrower is when used carelessly the one holding the devise can often become engulfed. Jesus once taught that we should take the plank out of our eye before we remove the speck from someone else.
This is not what Jesus is saying. He does cast fire on the earth, He does judge, he does often allow pain to enter our lives. This is part of the human experience. But where does this pain come from?
This is where kindled comes in. The term for kindled is to be in that state of burning, and in some cases already burned. Most would say that this means already burning. This is most likely the most accurate interpretation. With this interpretation the idea of fire is not judgment but spiritual passion, like a candle burning and sharing the light. This is the righteousness view of this passage. We are already burning with the light of Christ.
I want us to think about this for a moment. Jesus did not speak of a candle burning, if that was his meaning he would have said I came to light a flame. Instead he said cast fire on the earth. This implies something greater. But when he said it he pulls back, and would that it were already kindled.
I believe, and this is my own belief not something that I can prove in scripture. Jesus is wanting to start a controlled burn. There is much death in this world. Jesus highlights this later in the passage, “For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three…father against son and son against father.” He is telling us that there is death within our relationships. Instead of being life giving we are broken and dying, our desires are for our own well being instead of what is best for the community.
We see this all around us. There are portions of the church even that will say that empathy, or the ability to recognize and relate to the emotional state of others is toxic. We are promoting self indulgence and death. What do we get with self indulgence? We get a lot of trash, and a ton of baggage. If our relationships were a forest how would they look? Thorny, broken limbs littering the ground, weeds growing without a purpose. We are disasters waiting to happen, time bombs so to speak. And one little spark will light it all up into a raging inferno. This is what Jesus is speaking of. And he says, “would that it were already kindled!”
He is encouraging us to examine our lives. To take the time to remove that which is dead now and replant with something living. Jesus is encouraging us to look at our relationships, how are we interacting with those around us? Has the prairies of our community become overgrown and withered as we have aged, are the things of the past overshadowing and delaying the new growth? Jesus is with us here and now, he comes with the spirit’s fire and is wanting to rejuvenate our lives. Would that it were already kindled, he says. Would that we were already prepared so that as he comes to visit on our day of visitation we are ready and will not be consumed and destroyed, but instead we had already been at work, pruning out the dead branches that are holding us back and hindering our growth. That we had mowed and trimmed the grass so that when it catches fire it can be managed and used for good instead of causing destruction.
“You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky,” Jesus says, “but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
Brokenness is abounds in our society. Loneliness is said to be an epidemic in our culture. We are fighting a culture war wanting the people of our society to come back to God. But I want to ask a simple question, what are they coming back to? They do not know God, all they know are the people who are called by God’s name. We are the ones that are bearing that name. And how do we carry ourselves? Would that it were already kindled. Would that we were already active in our lives examining how we interact with others, how we encourage one another and promote life together. Would that we had already been active in the lives of the youth so that when they become teenagers they know what a proper relationship should look like. Would that we stop hiding our own brokenness and pain and let people see how faith can carry us forward. So often the world only see flame throwers, because we have not taken the time to relate, to encourage and prepare and they get caught in the wild fire instead of experiencing the life giving flames of discipleship.
As we enter into this time of open worship and communion in the manner of Friends. I encourage you to consider the implications of the flame of Christ. Is it a wildfire of destruction or the controlled burn to bring life. And I encourage you to examine your own experiences and consider what you want and need in the future. And as we sit in Holy expectancy with God, let us allow him to burn away the death that hinders our future, and let us walk forward into this world around us Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 14, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:1–8 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 07, 2026 Click here to join our meeting for worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 4:13–25 (ESV) 13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 31, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Corinthians 13:11–14 (ESV) 11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
August 10, 2025
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
Luke 12:32–40 (ESV)
32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
The past couple of weeks, I have probably challenged some of us. I made the bold claim that we should only pray for what we need, and not for what we want. When we discussed what Jesus taught his disciples to pray. I do think I need to make some clarifications to that statement, because it was challenging to the religious culture in that day just as much as it challenges us today. Only the challenge was a bit reversed. When the disciples said to teach us to pray, they expected to gain the words or the proper sets of scriptures to use in their prayers. This is where we get things like the Psalms. The Psalms is a book of both songs and prayers. This tradition has been carried on from the Jewish into the Christian traditions, and to this day we will repeat words that others have written for us to pray.
In Evangelical circles we might be smug and say we do not need prepared prayers because we have a personal relationship with God, and we are not wrong. We need to be a bit careful when we say this though, because how many of us began our journey of faith by saying something called the “sinner’s prayer?” Where we repeat the words given to us by some evangelist. The prayer that Jesus taught is interesting. He taught us that it was not the words that mattered it was the heart. It was that we took the time to converse with God just as we would our spouses, our closest friends, our children or our parents. Jesus taught us to be real when we pray.
Then last week. I spoke about the foolish and selfish rich man that wanted to Jesus to tell his brother to split the inheritance. This might not have challenged you as much. But there is something in that passage I think I need to clarify too. The laws of inheritance were not about what we get but they were about the community. The eldest son received the double portion not because the eldest son was better or that it was all patriarchy. It was patriarchy, but if you were to compare Hebrew teachings to other contemporary teachings in that region, you would find that God was pretty liberal in many cultural ways. And when I say liberal I do not mean liberal in the manner of our current political climate, I mean liberal as in God grants us a great deal of liberty, and that God was concerned with the well being of the people.
I mentioned the practice of slavery last week. And I mentioned that there are more scriptural verses that promote the practice of slavery than those of abolitionism, and that pains me to say. But there is a difference in how scripture handles slavery than the other cultures of the world. In scripture the slave was to maintain a certain human identity. We can look at this today and be shocked that scripture did not outright oppose the practice, but there is still liberty. Scripture taught that a slave was not to always be a slave unless they chose that lifestyle. This is liberal even though it permitted the act. God taught that it is not proper for humanity to be enslaved forever, and those that are to be called followers of God would be required to free those in bondage, and that those that were once in bondage would have restored to them land of their inheritance.
I want us to just consider how liberal that truly is. Not only were they to be given their freedom, their liberty, but they were to be restored. Sadly history cannot prove that this was ever fully practiced among the people, but that was the teaching. The situation that you are facing right now though it seems bleak, though it seems like it will never end, though it feels as if there is no way out. God is tell us that there will be liberty. That there will be a time where all things will be restored. That even the slaves will have an inheritance.
And that is why inheritance was important. It was not about the money, it was about life. The eldest son received a double portion because that son was to ensure that the family would remain. That when the world came crashing in on humanity that there would be someone with something that the family could come back to. And when the day of restoration occurred their name would not be forgotten. But it was more than just the family name. It was the entire community, the hired hands that helped work the farm, were part of that family name. The sisters and the brothers all part of that name. And yes even the slaves. God was concerned for the lives of the entire community, each human being was important, and had a role to play in the community and it was our responsibility. It is our responsibility to care for those within our community.
Which brings us back to prayer. Father, hallowed is your name, your kingdom come. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us just as we have forgiven all who are indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.
Do those words bring us comfort? Do they challenge our understanding of life? We are saying God is Holy and hallowed with our without our recognition. God is set apart from all other beings and it is his kingdom that is to come not ours.
What is the kingdom of God?
It is the influence of God. It is the commandments of God. It is the wisdom and the teachings of God going out over all the world, bringing all the descendants of Adam and Eve back to where the were created to be. Man, male and female, created in the image of God.
Where is slavery in that? It cannot exist because it would deny that a human being is a descendant of Adam and Eve. To deny the humanity of someone is to deny that they bear the image of God, and in that moment we are bearing the name of God in vain. And according to our scriptures we are in violation of the commandments and we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
That is the power of the teachings of God. It is not a rule book telling us how to live a holy life. The words of scripture are conversations between sinful humanity and God, where God is patiently teaching us to recognize who we are, and who he is, and as we begin to see this we fall on our faces knowing that I have failed and I need help.
“Fear not, little flock.” Jesus tells us, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
He wants us to be restored. It is his one and only desire that all of humanity would be restored to liberty. That we would see the areas of life where sin has grabbed hold of us and held us in bondage. But when we pray, Jesus teaches us to say, “forgive us as we forgive those indebted to us.”
I want us to think about that just a bit more. We were in bondage, and we are not any more. How are we going to live now? You were once under the a crippling weight, you were once suffering, you were once a slave in Egypt, scripture says, and it says remember. Remember where you once were, and look at where you are now. How did you get here? Who was with you?
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It is God’s pleasure to give us the kingdom. Does this mean we are supposed to take the seven mountains of culture for Christ? Are we supposed to hold the offices of the culture and government? Are we supposed to go across the world making sure everyone lives our way? No he is giving us his kingdom, not ours.
Our kingdoms are filled with fear. So much fear. We need to make sure we vote a certain way because if we fail to do so God will turn his back on us. If we do not save, if we do not prepare, if we do not worry about what we will do, everything will fall apart.
Is this the teachings of Jesus? There are seven imperative or commanding verbs in this passage today: Fear not, Sell, Give, Provide, Stay, Know and Be. The first is not to fear. We should not fear because we have prayed, Father hallowed be your name your kingdom come, give us today our daily bread and forgive us as we for those indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. We should not fear because we know that God will give us what we need. You will have what you need, this day.
I want us to just rest in that for a moment. Just think about all the things you are worrying about right now. How many of those things are things you need today? I am not saying they are not important. I mean it is important for a student to know where they might attend school in the future, and how they are going to pay for that education. It is important for us to have a job. It is important for our children and our other relatives to have good doctors and the best treatments. These are important things. And they often cost a great deal of money, and tomorrow that mail delivery will probably bring more things to our door to worry about. But I want us to just rest for a moment, is that today? Do you have what you need today?
This changes things. When we stop worrying about everything in the far future it can paralyze us. But what if we just worried about what we can do today? Today I noticed that I am running low on socks. If I have the time right not to put them in the wash maybe that is what I should do. It is something I can do today. I have a bill in the mail, do I have the money today? No, ok, so what can I do today to make sure it is covered? If we just look at today, many of the fears we once carried fade. They don’t necessarily disappear but they fade into something manageable.
Now we get into something different. We are no long in fear because we are praying for today. Now we have stuff. We have possessions, abilities, and talents. Sell it.
God is commanding us to sell what we have available to us. Sometimes we do not understand what this means. Are we supposed to just get rid of everything we have all at once? No, the verb is sell. It means to exchange things of value for other things of value or its equivalent. It means that we should participate in the economy, it means we are supposed to work, construct, knit, do everything you always do, so that you have the things that you need. Sell what you have available to sell. And then what are you supposed to do?
Give to the needy.
I am often challenged by this. And I have often been accused of being a hypocrite about this part of the verse. I have had people come up to me trying to accuse me of not following Jesus because I have a car. If I was a true follower I would give my car away. I have had these accusations come not from people in the world but from people in the church, that were in disagreement with me for some reason. Jesus does tell us to sell our possessions and give to the needy, but I need my car. If I did not have a means of transportation someone would need to give me a ride. And I do give my car away at times, because I have often given people that need a ride a ride.
Everyone has needs. You have needs, and your selling of your possessions should cover your needs. This is the first priority, but often you have more than you need. I once heard a story about John Wesley, that he would strictly conform to a budget where he would live on something like a tenth of his income. He chose this number because he determined that all of his most important needs could be covered with that amount. And he stuck to this budget so that he could give more away. I am not telling you that you should do that. I fact do not think that it is possible. What I am saying is that we should be aware of what our needs are and live in such a way that we can give to others in need. And this giving comes in just as many forms as we can imagine.
If you own a business, and you find that you have more income from your selling of goods and services than you need. The giving you can do may come in the form of buying the service of another so that they will have their needs met. Hiring employees is a way of giving to the needy, but often when we hire people we hire based on what we get from them not what we give so it might not be the best example. But what if we did something risky. What if we were to hire the person whose resume may not be the best for the position? What if we were to hire the person that recently had a criminal conviction. What if we took a chance on someone? By giving someone an opportunity that seems illogical in the kingdom of the world, we are participating in God’s kingdom. We are giving because we are investing in the greater community. We have turned our attention away from what I can get and obtain, and have made a conscience decision to give what we have to the needy.
What do we get when we do these things? When we give food to people that are hungry, when we give clothing to people that do not have socks, when we give a job to the person that is willing to work but might not be the best fit. We are building a stronger community. We are recognizing in that person that they are more. That they have value in this community not because of what they can give to us, but because they bear the image of God. And when we are focused on the community around us, we are participating in the Kingdom that God is pleased to give us.
In the kingdom the things of value are not the things that we value in the kingdoms of men. Have you ever wondered why John described the street of heaven as being made of gold? I have often heard that it is because God is so marvelous that heaven would reflect the splendor. But I got to thinking about it a bit more. Maybe the streets are made of gold because God was showing John that the things that we find as valuable on earth are not the things that are valued in heaven. That the one thing we will spend our entire lives to obtain, in heaven will be unimportant, something we would walk on to go from one place to another. But what God values in the kingdom is the crowning achievment of creation, humanity. When we focus on our community, when we adjust our lifestyles to focus only on today’s needs, selling our possessions and giving to the needy we are providing ourselves with restored humanity to populate the kingdom. And Jesus says for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Where is our heart? What do we treasure?
There are three more verbs. Stay dressed for action. The sense of this verb is to be in a state of being. To remain ready to go at a moments notice. Jesus illustrates this with a wedding feast. To me this does not really make sense. Maybe it is because I am a guy and when it comes to weddings I just do not care as much as I should. In my opinion the most important part of the wedding is the joy of the celebration after, because that is where the cake is. This is probably why the weddings I do are extremely short. But in Jesus’s culture a wedding feast was a multi day event. The families had already made the arrangements and as soon as all the requirements were met, the groom would go to the bride’s house and the wedding celebration would begin. You did not know exactly when that would be so the servants of the house would have to always be ready to begin the work.
“But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.” This verb know, is connected to the one for stay dressed for action. We do not know what we will do in life, we do not what struggles we will face. Yet Jesus commands us to know. In this sense to know is to know experientially. Or if you have read George Fox’s journal, he says experimentally. This is practice. We must train ourselves, discipline ourselves, prepare ourselves. Put ourselves into positions where we are able to respond.
This applies to the Quaker Query in our faith and practice. Query 7, “Do you try to observe simplicity in your manner of living? Do you frequently inspect your affairs and settle your accounts? Are you careful to live within your income and avoid involving yourselves in business beyond your ability to manage? Are you just in your dealings, punctual to your promises, prompt in the payment of your debts, and free from defrauding the public revenue?”
We encourage simplicity in life. This is a discipline of living withing our means. Of focusing on a lifestyle with few luxuries so that we are not encumbered by possessions we need to protect, or bills that we need to pay. It means that we mindful of our time and what taking on another task will do. And most of all it deals with how we are interacting with those around us. Can people trust our word. The last part of this query is the one that bothers me, “Free from defrauding the public revenue.”
That literally means pay your taxes. There was and still is a practice among Friends where some within our extended family within the faith tradition would not pay a certain percentage of their taxes if they were going to be used for things they found morally wrong. Traditionally this would mean if the government spent forty percent of the budget on military, they would only pay sixty percent of their taxes. They know that they are breaking the law when they do this, and some of the people will put that forty percent in a savings account just in case the taxman comes knocking. When the Unified Discipline emerged shortly after the civil war, this was part of that original faith and practice. We say we do not agree. We will actively protest and work to alleviate the need the public revenue to spend money on these things we find morally wrong, but we will pay.
Why? Because even though the world around us may be living in sin, our job is show them a different way. We are to stay, know, and be ready to spring in to action. We should position our lives to sell what we have, and to give to the needy so that when Christ calls us to provide an answer for the hope that we have, we are already prepared to answer that call. But we will not fear.
To not pay our taxes is saying that we are afraid that people will use our money immorally. Guess what they will. You do not need to be afraid. But it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. That means if you find something immoral in our community you get involved. If abortion is immoral in your eyes, you take care of the needy. That does not only mean make laws preventing the practice, it means helping those in the situation. If war is immoral, then what are you doing to prevent it? Are you teaching your children a healthy way to resolve conflict that they can teach others? And are you willing to go, or assist others to go to areas of conflict to provide aide?
I wrote this last night, after thinking and praying. I thought about all things I have watched this week, all the news, all the commentaries of the world. I thought about the bills sitting on the table, and my own health as I sat with a migraine half the week. And I came to the realization. God wants us to pray. Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us today our daily bread, forgive us as we have forgiven everyone indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
He wants us to pray, to have a conversation with him, and then he is sending us out to the world outside our doors. He is sending us into the kingdom which is our inheritance. This is our inheritance. It is what we are giving to our children and it is what we will have on the day of resurrection. What are we doing? Are we letting the thief take it or are we building his kingdom?
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 24, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Corinthians 12:3–13 (ESV) 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 10, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 3:13–22 (ESV) 13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 03, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 2:2–10 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have…
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