Fire!

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - August 19, 2007

Just a spark, a lightning strike, momentary carelessness or willfulness...and fire can quickly spread and destroy life and livelihood.

The incendiary bombs wreaked havoc and terror in London in WWII, and so many other places since then.

Fire...can destroy.

But that is not all; fire can also purify.

We have visited Hopewell Furnace on several of our catechetical trips over the years.

Iron ore and limestone and charcoal were dumped into the stone cylinder

and set ablaze with air being pumped into the mixture with the power of a water wheel.

The limestone gathers up the impurities and the molten iron ore pours out the bottom of the furnace.

The fire makes possible the purification, and later the shaping of the iron.

Fire... can purify.

And there is still more:

We all appreciated the fire that is available in the basements of our homes and other places where we work and play.

Fire warmsus, cooks our food, and lights the way...and we are gladdened.

But we also know that if we do not follow carefully the proper procedures to use the power of fire appropriately, there will be disaster.

No matter how hard we try to manage things, still there is something wild and un-mastered about fire.

And that is precisely why the Bible writers made use of the figure.

From the very beginning, we cannot control fire. A fiery sword stands to prevent Adam and Eve from returning to the Garden they have mis-used.

And Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire to the earth, a consuming fire.”

Moses is hiding out in the wilderness since he has killed a man, when a bush bursts into flame one day.

After thus getting his attention, God says “I'm sending you to stand up against great Pharaoh. Go! Speak!”

And Jesus says, “I'm full of that fire, and I intend to ignite you, too!”

Later in the great Exodus stories, God does not deal with the Hebrews complaining by soothing words or slowing down his pace, but by sending them a pillar of fire to lead them through the darkness,
to lead them into the future he has planned for them.

And Jesus says, “You think that you can predict the weather. You'll have even less success trying to control the fire I'm lighting right now.”

In the New Testament version of the Exodus story , the death and resurrection of Jesus and its aftermath, the disciples are huddled together in a locked room.

They are rightly fearful of being strung up as was Jesus; and yet something wild and uncontrollable happened that day.

The fire of the Word of God catches hold of them, purifies them from their fears, and sends them out with a new task.

And Jesus says,

--“This fire will divide you from all of the old associations, perhaps even from family itself.

--This fire will drive you together with others who are also strangely warmed.

--This fire will continue until everything I want is completed.”

There are of course some who think that the church is supposed to be a safe, quiet place with a serene fellowship.

A place removed from contentiousness.

Consciously or unconsciously, we often build church buildings like fortresses to keep the nasty world out, but now and again a purifying and enlivening fire breaks out inside anyway.

One of those times was during the 1980s in Leipzig, East Germany.

St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig was one of the very few places where one could express unhappiness with the closed society that was the old communist regime.

And so hundreds of people gathered there in vigil, and week after week after the prayers, they began a walk around the center of the city beginning from St. Nicholas, never knowing if or when the police would begin shooting.

Week after week, the event that began with fervent prayer ended with that march against the powers of darkness;

Until at last the old government fell, and the people had a fresh chance at life.

One of the long-term results of that fire in the church was that within a few years there were more persons in seminary than there were pastoral openings to work in Germany, and so we in the Upper Susquehanna Synod have the benefit of a half-dozen young German pastors serving in area congregations.

A few fiery people affected other people, who in turn have affected us and our sister congregations here in this area.

We would never have imagined that happening 20 years ago, but obviously the Spirit has more fire and imagination than we do!

We know that there have been lots of twists and turns in church life since then, but we are bid to be on the lookout for the fire that purifies, the fire that guides to new life.

The church has been called “an incendiary fellowship”, a group of people on fire.

It is not always clear as it is underway what kind of fire it may be: are we merely a destroying fire, or are we living with a purifying and guiding fire?

Sometimes folks will say things like “It's OK to have some faith-stuff, but be reasonable about it, have it in moderation.”

In today's Gospel, Jesus doesn't sound as though he is interested in that at all!

“I came to bring fire to the earth,” he says, “and how I wish it were already kindled.”

A college chaplain writes that from time to time he receives irate phone calls from parents who say something like:

“I sent my son or daughter to the college to get ready to be a success, and now he or she is a religious fanatic.”

What horrible thing has John or Suzie done?

He or she may have decided to go on a mission-working trip during spring break instead of engaging in the hedonistic pleasures of the beach in Florida.

Perhaps he or she has changed directions in career-preparation based on something more significant than which career will garner for him or her the most cash in the shortest amount of time.

That will disrupt many a family!

Too much of the time, we coast along , the same thing day after day,

but now and again someone catches fire,

and what a difference that makes in the world.

In every cycle of our catechetical students, I ask each student to investigate and write a brief paper about an exemplary Christian, one of the forgiven sinners we call a saint.

We'll all have an opportunity soon to read what this year's students have thought and written.

One of the questions I ask each student to answer is this:

“What is there about this person's life that you would like to emulate?”

First they have to look up the word emulate and then do some thinking about what they have read.

By what I have read so far in their first drafts, there just might be some fire going on in these students' lives in the years ahead!

I hope it doesn't get smothered by the weight of daily life as we continue to live and work and worship together.

What they have heard and read and seen just might be the tinder set to be sparked by the Holy Spirit into the fire for the next generation.

May it be so! May God make it so!

I was recently approached by a person who said that a lot of poor choices had been made thus far in life, and that it was time to make better ones.

Things needed to change, from the inside out.

Could I help?

Don't you think that I as a pastor would be delighted to strike a match there,

to make room for the Holy Spirit to purify and to guide that person's life in a new direction?

If we're able to proceed in these conversations, won't that change all of this person's relationships? Surely!

Will it be worth it? Yes, indeed!

It is time to be gearing up toward the start of our process called The Way ,

to encourage persons to live active lives as followers of Christ.

Following the pattern established by the ancient church, Bob Schultz and I have worked out a plan for how to proceed over the next 9 months in The Way.

But one part of the excitement of it is that we don't know how it will turn out.

We don't know what fires our match-striking conversations will light;

we don't know what the Holy Spirit has in mind for us as leaders and for others as mentors and candidates.

Will everyone catch fire?

Oh, don't we wish it were so!

There will always be some who decisively turn away claiming “This Jesus has nothing for me.”

There will be some whose ears are stuffed with the siren call of other things, other gods.

There will be some who are simply coasting, not thinking about much of anything.

But there will be some -- let us pray that it will be many! -- in whom the spark turns to fire, who are not dissuaded by knowing that this fire comes at a cost, the cost of comfortable old things that are burnt away.

Let us pray not to be content

as mere observers watching others become fiery people.

Jesus says that anyone whose old life is destroyed for his sake and for the sake of the Gospel, will receive new life!

May God's strong Word stir each of us to the discipleship which points us to life now and forever. Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.