All that fire

"Were not our hearts burning within us?"


It's one of my favorite quotes from the Bible and it comes from Luke's story of two people walking the road to Emmaus.  A  stranger joins them on this journey and pretty soon the stranger is talking scripture (the Hebrew scriptures or what we Christians would call the Old Testament since that was all that there was).  It turns out that this stranger is the risen Jesus and he is connecting the dots in the scriptures .....which, I would guess firmly point to him as God's Messiah.  When the two companions finally figure it all out, one says, "Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened to us the scriptures?" Apparently, God's Word and fire are not uncommon. Luke 24.32

In the book of Exodus, Moses encounters a bush that is burning but not consumed....the famous 'burning bush' story.  As Moses comes closer to inspect this phenomena, a voice says,  'take off your sandals.  You are standing on holy ground'.  Yep, that was God, calling Moses to be God's servant and the liberator of the Hebrew people.  Exodus 3.1ff

The prophet Jeremiah is another example.  In the 20th chapter, after having endured consistent and nasty responses to his faithful preaching, Jeremiah has had all he can take.  "You have enticed me, and I was enticed" Jeremiah cries.  [There are some very interesting variations on the translation of that word 'enticed']

If you have read all the previous 19 chapters you would probably agree with the crowd; Jeremiah, who is known as the weeping prophet, is a buzz killer.  As a result, he was called names, called out, ostracized and pushed around, and just because he is doing what God called him to do (see chapter 1), that is, to speak the words that God put in his mouth.  No one likes the message, so they want to get rid of the messenger.

Jeremiah wants to get rid of the Word of God that is constantly coming to him; he wants to retire from his job as prophet.  So he says,  "If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot."  God's Word was a fire in his bones.  Wow.  Jeremiah 20.9

When the disciples gathered after Easter for the feast of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came among them like tongues of fire with a tongue of fire resting on each one present.  Soon everyone was speaking and hearing languages they didn't otherwise know.  Hmmm  Acts 2.3

When was the last time God's Word lit a fire in your belly?  When did it compel you to speak?  When did God call you to be a servant and liberator of others?

I would guess there are times when a gentle nudge is no longer enough to get God's people moving.  Sometimes it takes a little heat, applied wherever God believes it will do the most good.

Have you felt the heat lately?

Thirst and fear.....a bad combination

Do you remember when Hurricane Katrina hit and thousands of people were housed in the local football stadium....and they ran out of water?  Folks were desperate.   Those of us looking on from afar couldn't imagine how the government didn't plan for this eventuality.

Thirst can kill you......and a whole lot quicker than starvation.  So it is no wonder that the Israelites are an anxious group when they arrive at Rephidim and can't see any water anywhere.  This is not the kind of problem you can allow to simmer for a couple of days.  A couple of days without water is torturous.  Exodus 17.

So they turn to Moses.....in fear.  Fear for their own lives; fear for the lives of their children.  I can imagine them looking at one another and, like we did with the federal government, wonder what Moses was thinking when he took this route.  It is easy for us to suppose they should have trusted in God to provide, for God had provided before.  But a lack of water is something you need to be on top of.

They were afraid, and fear will erode faith faster than doubt any day....and at its core is death.  It is death we fear more than anything else.  Little deaths, big deaths.  Financial setbacks make us fearful; a dying relationship makes us fearful; a trip to the doctor makes us fearful.  Add to the list.  Each fear points to the death of some part of our self-image, our self-sufficiency, our hope for tomorrow.  Each fear has the potential to pull us away from God.  You don't have to stop breathing to experience death.

What do we do with our fear? (because we will continue to fear; it's human)  Two things:  talk to God and talk with a trusted person of faith.

Talk to God:  we are a resurrection people.  Not just the BIG RESURRECTION on Easter with lilies and trumpets, but a thousand small resurrections every day.  Every time fear creeps into our lives and we can see the shadow of death in the wings, we are ripe for a little resurrection.  We turn to God, confess our fear and watch for God's abiding presence as we walk through this place of darkness.

Then we talk with a trusted person of faith.  Someone who can remind us of the stories of faith, of Israel's fear in the desert, of Peter's fear during Holy Week, of their cousin George's fear when cancer was diagnosed and then witness to God's constancy.  We ask someone to surround us with the stories of faith so our fear does not drag us down into a tomb but rather, we are strengthened for the journey.

What fear handicaps your trust in God?  Take a moment and name it to yourself and then talk to God about it....the same God who raised Jesus from the dead.  There is a resurrection waiting for you.

Life or death, blessings or curses

Wow!  How hard a choice can that be?  Of course we would choose life and blessings rather than death and curses.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

So, if it was so easy, obvious, straightforward.....how come lots of folk often seem to be on the wrong side of that equation?  How come we think we are choosing 'life' and end up with 'death' instead?  It could have something to do with our short term thinking and definitions of life.

We are a people of the cross, and any reasonable person would look on a cross of crucifixion and tell you that death was staring you right back in the face.  Except they would be wrong.  The cross of Jesus Christ turned this world upside down and inside out, and the cross became God's instrument for revealing God's power and intent for creation: life after life, life upon life.  Death was defeated (not eliminated, defeated).  Ultimate power goes not to the executioner but to the God of all creation. Point, set, match.

Well, with that kind of turnaround, it is easy to understand how we could look at a high paying job with lots of perks as life but discover that the unquestioning loyalty it demands, along with long hours, middle of the night phone calls and no time for family sure feels like death each Monday morning.  A new industry in town providing hundreds of jobs and sparking the economy looks like a blessing until we realize that we have permanently poisoned the local lake.  We have such a small view of life (not our fault by any means) that we are often fooled into thinking that bad is good and horrible is better still.  We'll chase anything that is shiny and bright.

The writer of Deuteronomy, speaking as Moses, calls to the people of Israel to choose life.  Choose God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who brought you out of slavery, the God who will lead you to a land of fertility and plenty.  Choose God - for in the end, no matter how good or bad today might look, God is in it for the long term.  Choose God and you will have chosen life.  Deu 30.15-20

God loves you and will lead you home.  Choose that which is eternal.  God has already chosen you.