There were so many good sermon titles to go with this text. I really had a hard time deciding. In deference to the weather lately and Jesus' talk about fire, I considered titling it, "It's Gonna Be a Scorcher." That led me to, "Fire and Brimstone," but it felt too much like televangelism, and I thought I'd have to wear more mascara. Then I thought of the T-shirt one of my seminary classmates (a Methodist) would wear the last day of class for the quarter. His T-shirt was a cartoon drawing of black and white spotted dogs sitting in a congregation, listening to a spotted preacher-dog who was saying, "No! No! Bad dog!" The title of the T-shirt was "Hellfire and Dalmatians."

In the end, I decided on, "Don't Confuse Evangelism With Marketing." I was anxious to find a title that would intrigue people. How many of you came today because of the sermon title? That would be marketing. Positioning the church and the gospel for the most attractive cost/benefit ratio. But marketing is not the point of either preaching or snappy sermon titles. Not that marketing is bad. It's the gospel that's the problem. The gospel is not a marketable commodity. There is no cost/benefit we can assign to it.

Even Jesus tells us that. In today's scripture passage, Jesus warns his disciples that he came to bring fire and division rather than peace. Maybe he is distancing himself from the baby in the manger and syrupy Christmas cards.

He is a long way from that manger. He's on his way to Jerusalem. Maybe because he's now so far from that manger, Jesus talks to his disciples about his mission. We don't know if Jesus "knew" in any literal sense that he was going to be tried in civil and religious courts and then crucified, but from the urgency of what he says today, Jesus knew some kind of showdown was in the works. If he were trying to establish a market position, his description of the effect on his followers of faithfulness to his mission would most certainly lose him market share. Who would want to sign on with this guy, knowing that conflicts with the family meant economic suicide and loss of identity? In today's terms, Jesus' ad campaign says, "Join our church! Forget your name, give up your pension plan and Social Security benefits, leave your house and all financial support. And enjoy our coffee hour." It would be a tough sell. Jesus' picture of conflict around his mission is not about controversy within the church. We are used to controversy within the church - ordination of homosexuals, stem cell research, abortion, the death penalty, investment of church funds in global economy, what color to paint the bathroom. These conflicts are not the kind of division Jesus meant would validate his mission. Jesus said unity within the church was a sign of being on track. "They will know that you love me," he said, "because you love each other." We do argue with each other - Presbyterians are especially good at that - but I don't think Jesus had in mind homogeneity of opinion within the church. What he had in mind was agreement about mission, unity of spirit, faithfulness to the gospel. When our arguing is the means of ethical discernment within the community, when we disagree in love and work in unity of the Spirit, we are still faithful to Jesus' vision of the church.

No, the division and conflict that Jesus is talking about today is conflict that pits believers against all that is counter to the gospel. That's where the distinction between marketing and evangelism comes in. My sister once took up golf. Sometimes people golf for exercise, or because they can meet clients on the course and do some marketing, and some even golf because they enjoy the sport. My sister took up golf because she liked the clothes. Jesus encourages his followers not to join the church just because they like the clothes, because when the conflict comes they won't be able to weather the storm. That would be like joining the church because you're awake anyhow, and it's early enough that it doesn't wreck the whole day. Or because you meet people helpful to your career. We join the church because we love God, and we need each other to grow in our relationship with God. It's about God. All of it. The sending the birthday cards, the phone calls we make for the prayer chain, the bringing cookies for fellowship hour, the writing to our sister church in Cuba, the canned goods and toothpaste we leave in the basket in the front hall for the Family Resource Center, the long session meetings. It's all about God - God's love for us, our love for God, our love for each other in God.

But Jesus says he came to bring fire to earth and division rather than peace. When Jesus says he brings fire to earth, this recalls the fires of the Hebrew prophets - fires of judgment, purification, discernment. Big stuff. Scary stuff. This is fire season in the Pacific Northwest. When Rick and I were on vacation in the Olympic Peninsula, one of the rangers told us that last summer's big fires were the result of not managing the fuel in the forests - not doing selective burning. He said that dougs and other big trees can withstand the little fires that clean up under story trash, but if there's too much fuel under too-dry conditions, everything goes.

With that information in mind, this country preacher has to wonder whether Jesus means that the fire he brings to the earth is part of responsible forest management, or if it is like the Quartz fire in the Ashland area. One type of fire is about management and transformation, the other is about judgment and destruction. It's up to you. Ooh. No one wants to hear that. A careful reading of the text shows that Jesus is longing for the completion of his own baptism by fire, not ours. All the Presbyterians can say "Thank God!" The preacher won't lapse into her Baptist childhood and start doing the fire and brimstone thing. It doesn't get rid of the fire that Jesus brings, though. The fire Jesus brings is still present, and it points out the difference between evangelism and marketing. The difference is the critical presence of Jesus. "Critical" as in "crisis situation," not "critical" as in "I've found more lint on your sweater and tuck in your shirt."

Jesus causes a crisis. That is the division and conflict. Jesus' incarnation brings the earth to a moment of truth. Decision time. The evangelism question is not whether our church should grow. Of course our church should grow. That is what Christians are supposed to be about. But evangelism is not growth for the sake of bigger churches. To avoid growing is not faithful to the gospel. Evangelism is our imperative, but don't confuse our imperative for evangelism with marketing. Modern day saints of the church - Henri Nouwen helping people with disabilities, Archbishop Romero martyred in central America, Sister Helen Prejean counseling dead men walking as well as the families of their victims - these saints weren't just loving God with their heads. Presbyterians are good at loving God with our heads. We study scripture--and we should! We won't grow, either individually or corporately, if we don't study scripture. But we are unfaithful if we just leave our faith there. We must also love God with our hearts. Many of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters could teach us a thing or two about loving God with our hearts - praising, singing, using emotion to love God. But if we just love God with our hearts, or only with our heads, we are unfaithful. I'm talking evangelism, not in terms of knocking on doors and inviting people to church. We should invite folks to church, we should share our faith. I'm talking evangelism in terms of loving God with our bodies, in the same way that the modern saints of the church love God with their bodies. It makes a difference that we show up. Showing up - using our bodies to love God and each other - is the difference between evangelism and marketing. Loving God with our bodies as well as our heads and our hearts forces others to decide. What we do forces others to decide. It forces us to decide. When we bring Jesus into the world by our actions, others are forced to decide either "for" or "against" God. We are the incarnation of God.

Rick challenged me to think of another modern saint - one who is an evangelist who proclaims by head, heart, and body. Jimmy Carter came to mind. Here's a public figure who is open about his faith, a Bible student and Sunday School teacher, a man whose faith requires him to act in the name of Jesus - Habitat for Humanity and all his statesmanship. In all of these things, Jimmy Carter proclaims God's love. We too must concretely proclaim to the world, "GOD LOVES YOU!" We must proclaim it by what we do. It is neater, cleaner, more appealing to our sense of "decently and in order" to love God only with our heads. It is satisfying to love God with our hearts. But neither heart nor head love on its own is evangelism. Remember Francis of Assisi: "Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words." Evangelism, the whole Christian life, is not marketing. It's growing into who God created you to be - head, heart, body. It's continuing Jesus' work of redemption - offering that hope to others by showing love. Don't confuse this with marketing. Live your life as evangelism, as proclamation of God's love. Use your head, your heart, your body to do God's love in the world. Amen.