I really
hadn’t planned on telling you this, but our lectionary study group this morning
enjoyed the story so much I thought I’d share it. We were, of course, talking
about Jesus and fire and this morning’s Gospel.
Some time ago, a bishop (not
Bishop Ed, I hasten to add), was visiting a parish where the priest’s young son
was an acolyte. The bishop had served in WWII as a chaplain and taken shrapnel
in one of his legs. Walking could sometimes be painful so the bishop’s custom
was to sit in the bishop’s chair as the rest of the altar party processed.
The
bishop was sitting in his chair, waiting for the procession to begin, when the
priest’s son came in to light the candles. It was autumn and there was a large
arrangement of dried fall flowers next to were the bishop was sitting. As the
kid lit the candles on one side of the bishop, he was a little nervous and he
whirled around rapidly to light the candles on the other side. As he did so, he
set the dried arrangement on fire, and set the bishop’s sleeve on fire. The boy
stood terrified, frozen, not knowing what to do.
The
bishop reached over, calmly patted out the fire on his sleeve, and extinguished
the flower arrangement. The kid was still frozen. The bishop leaned over, put
his hand on the boy’s arm, and said, “Listen son, if more bishops got set on
fire, we’d have a better church.”
Have you ever
noticed Jesus always seems to burn white hot? He is never lukewarm. Take this
morning: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already
kindled! Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you,
but rather division!” Yet near the end of Luke’s Gospel when Jesus appears to
his disciples after he is resurrected, we hear, “Peace be with you.”[1]
And, in John’s Gospel both before and after the resurrection, Jesus says,
‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you“ and “Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.”[2]
Is it possible that
this morning Jesus is trying to tell us God sends fire for a purpose? That fire
is not simply to burn and wound, but is to transform and heal? The Old
Testament, the Hebrew scripture, has a wonderful example of this transforming
and healing fire in the Book of Daniel. If you haven’t read it, you might want
to check it out. It’s an exciting story full of dreams, famines, feasts, fiery
furnaces and fierce lions.
In the Book of Daniel, King
Nebuchadnezzar has three young men thrown into a fiery furnace. It’s clear his
motive is to burn the three young men. Yet what Nebuchadnezzar witnesses in the
fiery furnace transforms and heals him. The King’s anger leaves him and is
replaced with awe, as the fire does not burn the young men. The King sees the
action of God in the fiery furnace and becomes a believer in the God of the
three young men. The refining fire of the fiery furnace burns away the barriers
keeping the King from recognizing the presence of the living God.
Let’s not deny,
though, that fire does burn, and fire can be painful. Any one of us who has
gone through a personal or church transformation has experienced pain and
suffering. Transformation is hardly ever easy and hardly ever gentle or sweet. God
seems to get our attention with fire. And transformation by Jesus is the white
hot in the middle of the fire.
I can tell you
what I learn again and again by going to places like Colorado on my vacation. I
learn the healing power of fire. And I learn the necessity of fire; that fire
must occur for transformation and new life.
A Colorado wildfire,
or for that matter, any out of control fire is frightening. In the aftermath you
see the smoking blackened forest, the skeletons of dead animals and birds that
were unable to escape, and you see the charred trunks of trees and feel a brittle
crunch when you walk. All of it is horrifying. And yet, if you come back a few
weeks later, a cool quiet soft green has begun to come up out of the earth.
Like a thin gentle blanket the pale green covers the ground, climbs softly over
the stumps, and spreads across barren fields. This is new growth.
Did you know
that a burnt forest goes through something called plant adaptation? Adaptation
occurs in different ways, but in forested areas trees and plants will often
adapt by becoming more resistant to fire. Trees become stronger and better able
to withstand future fires. In addition, the fire’s heat will cause pinecones to
burst open and land in earth that has been enriched by the ashes. Fire is
actually one of the ways God enables new life for a forest.
Jesus says, “I
came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” The
next time you find yourself in the fiery furnace of transformation, remember
the forest. Remember that fire is the way God transforms and heals. Remember
that just like the three young men in the fiery furnace, God is with you in the
flames. And remember that like the newly enriched earth after the fire, you
also will feel the thin gentle blanket of new growth creep across the landscape
of your soul. Remember God’s purpose in the fire is never to burn and wound but
always to heal and transform. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette
Papanek
©2016
No comments:
Post a Comment