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Let God Kindle

a Fire Within

One of the haunting memories from my childhood, and one which has been reinforced repeatedly by my parents retelling the episode, was an experience I had as a small child. One day I walked into the woods near where we lived. I had taken a box of matches with me which I had seen lying on the stove. I had decided to build a fire like the ones I had seen other people start. I gathered some sticks and leaves and placed them in a small pile. Then I took a match from the box, struck it, and put its flame against the leaves. Instantly the leaves began to burn, and soon the twigs burst into flames. They began to burn and burn and burn. And soon the whole woods was on fire!

At that point, I did what any small child would do. I ran for home. I could hear the sirens of the fire truck off in the distance. Someone had seen the fire and called the fire department. I ran up the steps of our house and went upstairs into our attic. I sat down in a rocking chair there and began to rock back and forth. My mother did not have to ask me: “Who started that fire?” She knew who had done it. The fact that I went rushing from the fire up to the attic and did not bother to go see the fire engines was very revealing to her. She said that this was one of the few lessons from which I did not have to have some other reinforcements to enable me to remember them. Later as I became older, I learned through Boy Scouts how to build fires properly in the woods.

We have all had some experiences with fire. Some of you may have been the victims of a fire in your home. A hotel near the church I was pastoring in another city, burned to the ground. While I was away at college, I heard that a large part of the downtown section of my hometown burned down. We have seen pictures on T.V. of the walls of flames that have consumed so much of our national forests and a whole town in California. As a congregation, St. Matthews Baptist Church, where I served as pastor, experienced the loss of its church buildings by fire before I began my ministry with them. We all know something about fire. Images and memories of it fill our minds.

Fire as a Powerful Symbol

In the Bible, fire is used as a powerful symbol. In the Old Testament Moses encounters God in the flames of a burning bush which is not consumed. God led the children of Israel at night with a pillar of fire. The children of Israel on Mt. Sinai worshiped God. Some scholars believe that Sinai was a volcano or maybe some thunderstorms were constantly at its top. But the Sinai concept of God as fire had a tremendous impact on the children of Israel and their understanding of God. Elijah departed this life in a chariot of fire. John the Baptist said that “there was one who was coming after him who will baptize with water and with fire.” Jesus said to His disciples, “I have seeded you with fire.” In the Book of Revelation, the writer tells us that the appearance of the Christ will be with “eyes like flames of fire” (Revelation 1:14).

Jesus Christ was himself the torch that ignited the flame that came into the world. In Luke 12: 49, we capture an insight into the very heart of Christ himself. He seems to be saying that he has feelings of reluctance in what he must do, but he also discloses a sense of impatience. He cries: “Oh, I would that the fire had already come, that it was already kindled.” In Christ we recognize that the fire is not truly kindled until his death comes. Jesus knew the baptism that awaited him--­the baptism of fire--was suffering, crucifixion, and death. He did not go toward that crisis enthusiastically, but reluctantly and, yet he knew that through that crisis experience would come the refiner’s fire of judgement. Jesus knew the opposition and persecution which his gospel would create.

But how startling the claim seems to sound from Christ. “I, a Galilean peasant, will set a fire on the earth that will burn with a raging fury.” But he did! This same Christ brought the fire of heaven down to earth in the incarnation of his spirit. This very Christ, when his body was broken, set loose a fire that has raged down through the centuries to bring men and women to Christ. He is literally the torch that transforms lives. His death was the baptism which launched his kingdom.

Fire as Metaphor for Judgment

Think with me about some of the metaphors for fire which we find within the Scriptures. Fire is sometimes used as a metaphor for the judgment of God. Fire in the Scriptures is often symbolic of the consuming, terrible wrath, and judgment of God. The Book of Hebrews, the twelfth chapter and the twentieth verse, tells us that God is a consuming fire. In our day and age, we spend a great deal of time, which is very important to do, talking about God as a God of love. But I am convinced that sometimes our understanding of the love of God has made God’s love like mush. There is no depth or substance to it. There is no understanding of the disciplined side of love which is judgment. Any parent who really loves his or her child will give them a sense of disciplined love. They will not offer to them the freedom to be and do anything they might want. We have to understand that there is responsibility which goes with one’s actions. Love from God’s perspective carries judgment with it. Sometimes, as we encounter the power of his holiness, our sinfulness does stand in judgment and needs to be transformed and changed.

Fire as Purifying

Fire in God’s judgment is seen as purifying. When your spirit and mine encounter the grace and love of God. God doesn’t say to us: “0h, it’s o.k. It doesn’t make any difference what you do or what you say.” God comes and says to us: “Be holy as I am holy.” We are challenged to seek to be like God. Our lives are encountered by is spirit, and we are lifted up to be purified so that we may be more like he is.

When ore is placed in fire, impurities rise scum-like to the top and are ladled off. Ore is purified by the process of burning. As we come into the burning presence of God and stand in his judging grace, we experience the power of redemption which is transforming and purifying. God then points us in a new direction because we have become new creations.

Fire as Revealing

But fire is also revealing. I love to watch wood when I throw it into the fire. You can tell something about what kinds of oils, acids, and other ingredients are in the wood by the way it burns. Elm burns very slowly because it is damp. Green sycamore is like a rock and is almost impossible to burn. Balsam or hemlock, when placed in the fire, explodes sending sparks in every direction as though they want to take somebody with them in their demise. White paper birch sends up a yellow flame. Apple wood sends up a multi-colored flame. Hickory, the hardest wood of all, sends forth a very hot flame. The flames reveal the ingredients of the wood in their process of burning.

The burning of wood reveals something of its inner nature. I have walked with some persons through their fires of difficulties, pain, suffering, and turmoil. I have seen revealed in the lives of so many within this congregation inner strength, faith, and courage. In the times of testing these people have revealed a deep abiding faith. When our church experienced its great ordeal by fire, many of you were present then, and you have shown a strong inner fortitude, a deep faith, and continued faithfulness in your support of this congregation. Fire reveals something of our inner nature.

Fire Providing Light

Fire sometimes provides light. In England, for example, when persons refer to a flashlight, they call it a torch. Their “torch” throws a light on a path so one can walk in its light. Fire is a source of light and guidance for direction in our lives. Christ becomes the supreme fire of light. From his presence we find light to walk in the world.

Christ as a Disturbing Fire

In the metaphor that Jesus used about fire in Luke 12: 49, it is depicted as a disturbing force. The torch of Christ in the world comes as a disturbing force, as fire often is. It comes with consuming power. It comes demanding loyalty to him. He says, “I am the way.” You must realize, he says, that if you commit your life to me, it is a narrow way. It may cause, Jesus says, separation from families and friends. Sometimes it may cause misunderstandings and rejection, because the Christ who comes as a disturbing force in our lives, challenges us to follow in His way and to be like Him.

When I was a summer missionary in Hawaii, while I was a student in college, a young man, who was Japanese by birth, committed his life to Jesus Christ and accepted Him as Lord. When he made this decision, he was no longer considered a part of his family because of his commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. It was costly and disturbing to him. Do we have this kind of commitment today?

In one of his books, Karl Barth wrote powerfully about the spirit of Christ as fire in the world. He observed: “Oh yes there is much smoke upon the earth, smoke of fervid, urgent love for God and man; smoke of quiet, sincere faith; smoke of anxious, unshakable hope; smoke of profound, progressive ideas, ideas so exhausted that they reach that beyond which we cannot think; smoke of noble, courageous zeal for the good; smoke of universal movements for the betterment and re-creation of temporal circumstances. Who would dare to ignore this rising smoke? … Where there is smoke there surely is a glow, always and always the glow that Jesus has started. But smoke is not fire, even if there is ever so much smoke.”4 There is a great deal of smoke today. But I sometimes wonder where is the fiery zeal that Christ has called us to have. It is not always very evident.

When I was a graduate student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, I had an opportunity to preach several times in a church not too far from campus. The church was in a declining neighborhood. The church building was large and probably seated about 800 people. But on Sunday morning when they met to worship, they would have only about fifty people gathered there. It was a difficult church to try to preach in, because they had pulled so much into themselves and took no interest in their community around them. Their chief thought was simply to preserve their building and church as it was at that particular moment. The church was dead because they had no desire to be any more than they were. They were content and had no desire to change or grow.

One Sunday while I was preaching there, the fire alarm went off in the church building. Someone went immediately to see if there was a fire. Finally, someone came back and told us that there was no fire. It was only a false alarm. But I started thinking. I wondered if God’s spirit sought to break into the lives of those people, if they would be as disturbed as they had been when the fire alarm went off that day. For most of us, if God’s spirit really touched us in a service of worship, we would be as surprised as though a fire alarm had gone off. It would be unexpected, and in no way would we have sought it. We come repeatedly to worship without expectation or looking for the spirit of God to come into our lives. But there was no fire in that church in any way!

Several years ago, St. Matthews Baptist Church’s building burned down. However, the church didn’t burn down. Only the buildings burned down. A church needs to be on fire. The people in the building need to have a vital sense of having been touched by the powerful presence of God. God’s presence may come into our lives to disturb us and drive us into action.

Fire as Transforming

Fire comes as a transforming element. When we put coal, wood, gas, or oil into fire, it becomes heat, energy, or light. It is transmuted. It goes from what it was to what it can be, and it takes on a newness. Christ has come into our lives to transform us, to give us a newness, to give us new direction, to make us other than we have been. He points us to be what God created us to be.

In 1624 the French philosopher Pascal had an experience with Christ which he said was so overwhelming, radiant, and powerful that there was only one word that could describe it. He wrote his experience down and pinned it to the inside of his coat. He said that word was “Fire.” God had come into his life in such a moving way that he had been transformed.

Nels F. S. Ferre’ quoted a prayer a number of years ago that expressed his experience with God:

Come as the fire and burn.

Come as the wind and cleanse.

Come as light and reveal.

Convict, convert, consecrate.

Until we are wholly thine.5

God comes into our lives to transform us and bring us in harmony with his spirit. God moves within us to stimulate us to be his people in the world to share his grace with others.

Christ as the Fiery Torch

Jesus Christ is the fiery torch. He lifts his torch to show us the way to life. We are reminded that fire is also a symbol of life. We are absolutely dependent on the sun for light and life here. Without the flaming ball of the sun, we would not have light or heat. We acknowledge that fire and heat are essential for life. Fire is a symbol for life. Christ is the flame of real life. He is the one who gives illumination. He is the one who brings us life. He is the one who has brought “the life” into the world to ignite it with real living. He, when He is lifted up, gives us light to guide our walk so that we can see how to live as redeemed persons.

Fire as Warmth

Fire is also a metaphor for warmth. I hope as a congregation we will extend to others something of the personal warmth of the experience we have in Jesus Christ. Though we may be a large congregation, we should never forget that God works primarily through persons. God is concerned not with masses of people but with individuals, and he reaches out to you and to me with the warmth of His presence to love us and to care for us personally.

I remember an experience I had in graduate school with a noted professor. He had written a dozen books or more and was known internationally for his great scholarship. I recall one day taking an assigned paper by his office to give it to him. I knocked on the door. He came to the door and opened it just wide enough to see me and said, “Yes,” I said, “Dr. So and So, I have the paper you asked us to turn in.” He opened the door just far enough to receive the paper and said, “Thank you,” and closed the door. Now I learned, not just through that experience, but through the experience I had with him in class, that he was mostly concerned with ideas. He was basically interested in the abstract and his own or other’s understanding of philosophy. He was not interested in us as persons and only interested in us as students as we helped in his research and formulation of his own ideas.

I hope that our church will never give an image to people that we, who claim to have experienced the power and warmth of God’s presence, are only interested in masses or large numbers of people but are not interested in individual persons. I think we have missed the essence of the gospel itself and the spirit of Christ when we do not care for individuals and love them and minister to them.

Fire as Encouraging

Fire has always been an encouragement to me. I love a fire in the fireplace. When I used to camp a lot, there was nothing friendlier or more encouraging than to have the warmth of a fire at night or early morning on a camping scene. Fire is a sign of encouragement, and we all need encouraging. Who among us does not have low moments? There are times when somebody else needs to lift us up and to say the right word. I hope, as a congregation which has been tested by fire, difficult experiences, and having been displaced, that now we shall be better people because of what we have been through. I hope that we shall be more encouraging to others and more caring because of what we have learned in our trial by fire.

John Killinger tells of a regionalist writer in Maine whose name was Sarah Ome Jewett. She wrote once about an old spinster named Miss Tempey. In her account, she described the watchers who had come to “watch” on the night before the burial service for Miss Tempey. Two elderly women were talking about the spinster and they began to reminisce about the marvelous quince jelly that she used to make. They agreed that it was the best jelly they had ever eaten. Then they began to wonder about the thorny, half-dead, old quince tree from which she got the fruit for her jelly. They confessed they didn’t know how she did it, but she always seemed to be able to encourage that old tree to bear one more year. She always seemed to be able to encourage it to give one more crop.

We need more encouragers. We need those who will say the right word at the right moment, those who will give an embrace at the right occasion. We need more people who will show concern to us at the needed time. We all need to have a strong sense of the warmth of encouragement.

Fire as Inspiration

But fire is also a symbol for inspiration. We speak of persons being “on fire.” They are filled with the fires of enthusiasm. The “tongues of fire” recorded in the Book of Acts came upon the disciples and filled them with inspiration and enthusiasm to go preach and serve in the name of Christ.

Those who have caught something of the illumination of Christ will have the fire and zeal of his spirit filling their lives. There is nothing worse than trying to warm up frozen spirits. It’s much easier, I think, to try to cool a volcano than it is to try to heat up an iceberg. Sometimes I would rather have people who are overly enthusiastic than those who don’t have any enthusiasm. Jesus Christ has come to ignite us with the zeal of His spirit. He has come to set us aflame as his people in the world to work and serve in his name. We are to be, to use Elton Trueblood’s phrase, “The Incendiary Fellowship.” In his rousing hymn, Trueblood has challenged us to be aglow with God’s spirit.

Thou, whose purpose is to kindle:

Now ignite us with Thy fire;

While the earth awaits Thy burning.

With Thy passion inspire.

Overcome our sinful calmness,

Rouse us with redemptive shame;

Baptize with Thy fiery Spirit.

Crown our lives with tongues of flame.6

Ignited by the Flame of Christ

Jerome Ellison, in a book entitled Report to the Creator, tells about an experience he had as a youth in his home church. While he was at worship, he had an experience with the power of God’s spirit that touched his life. He said he became so excited that he could hardly wait for the benediction to discuss his feelings with his parents and some other adults and to tell them about the excitement that had been created in his spirit by God. But everybody was busy talking about other matters, and nobody had time for him. Finally, someone did notice him but only remarked that he looked pale. Another said that maybe church was too much for him and laughed. He was deeply crushed and concluded that all adults were hypocrites. This experience led him to years of religious indifference and doubt. Years later, after much study and thought, he returned to church and said the amazing thing was that as an adult God reached down and touched him again in that worship service and his experience was ignited again by the presence of God. But he said, “Now I was an adult, I would not remain silent. Whenever there was an opportunity I spoke shouting, “Look who is here!”7 Look who is here in this place of worship and many of you have not seen him. He is come that we might experience the power of his presence. Look he is here!

Walter Russell Bowie wrote a book several years ago entitled Men of Fire, which today would have to be retitled Men and Women of Fire. In his book, Bowie traced twenty-six exciting biographies of torchbearers of the Gospel from biblical days to the present. He writes about Jesus’ statement: “1 have come to cast fire upon the earth.” “So, Jesus said to his disciples; and the fire indeed was kindled. It would be a fire of affliction in which their courage would be tested, as gold in the furnace is tried, a fire on the altar of sacrifice where fear and selfishness could be burned away. It would also be like the light of a lamp to illuminate their minds and consciences; and a flame within their hearts to burn there as an unquenchable devotion.”8

Jesus Christ comes into our lives. His presence comes as a flame to make us different. The flame of his presence refines us, cleanses us, directs us, empowers us, and inspires us. It comes and touches us in such a way with the power of is grace and love that other people can see that the torch of His experience has ignited us.

Harry Emerson Fosdick tells about a young man whom he was counseling who was a borderline alcoholic. He worked with that young man for months before he was able to control his drive. When this young man came to Fosdick he was not a believer, but when he left Fosdick after his last counseling session he said: “If you ever find anyone who doesn’t believe in God, send him to me. I know.’’9 He was living proof that God can make a difference in a person’s life.

Your life and my life, when the experience and power of God have ignited it, should be radically different. I hope that the enthusiasm and the power of God’s spirit will permeate your life and mine. I pray that we will be excited about God’s presence in our lives. I hope that you and I will be ignited by God’s flame and excited about our church as the place for us where God is seeking to work in our community.

Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire on the earth.” If you and I are really going to minister and be the kind of church that Christ wants us to be, there has to be that fiery glow within us that comes from the presence of a living Lord who makes all things new within us.

One evening Emily and I were walking down the main street in Edinburgh, Scotland. As darkness began to fall on the city, I remembered a story I had heard years ago. This story was about a stranger who came to Edinburgh around the turn of the century before the city had electric lights and the street lamps were lit with gas. The visitor to the city was standing on the balcony of his hotel when he saw the lamplighter approach. The lamplighter reached up to the lamp with his torch and thrust it into the gas light. The lamp exploded into a flame. The visitor watched the lamplighter as he continued to walk down the street and stop and set his torch to touch another light, and it began to glow. He seemed to be punching holes in the darkness. He watched the lamplighter until he finally disappeared. He could see the lights bursting into flames here and then there. Another lamp burst into flames, and then another, then another, and another, and another.

When you and I leave the church when we worship, we ought to go into the world to let our lives be flames of light for Christ. Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and I wish it were already kindled.” Through the baptism of his death and sacrifice, he has kindled that fire. You and I have responded. Let that glow of his love so radiate from your life that in all that you do others will see and be drawn to Christ and experience his love and grace.

4 Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen, Come Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, Co., 1978), 112-113

5 Nels F. S. Ferre’, quoted in Elton Trueblood, The Incendiary Fellowship

(New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 108-109

6 Trueblood, Ibid, 11

7 Jerome Ellison, Report to the Creator (New York: Harper & Bros., 1955), 201, 205.

8 Walter Russell Bowie, Men of Fire (New York: Harper & Bros., 1961), ix.

9 Lionel G. Crocker (ed), Harry Emerson Fosdick’s Art of Preaching: An Anthology (Springfield: Charles C. Thomas Publishers, 1971), 52.