| |
|
|
| |
Reformation Sunday -- October 26, 2008 There is a burning. Fire is one of the most destructive forces known to humankind! Whether it is a house or building fire, a forest fire or a field of dry grass burning, there is devastation leaving a scene that looks like some kind of alien landscape or something left over after Mount St. Helens erupted back in the 1980s. There were hundreds of forest fires burning at the same time in California earlier this year. Most of them started by lightening in what you might call a “dry thunder storm” where the rain evaporates before it reaches the ground and lightening strikes wreak havoc across the land. Fire fighters were coming from all around the country to assist in putting out these fires, and the smoke literally covered most of the Sacramento Valley, all the way up the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas. Fires were also known in the ancient world - a devastating fire is not a modern phenomenon. In biblical times there were many references to Gehenna where fires burned all the time, not only because it was the place where everyone in Jerusalem took their trash but also because this is where some of the sacrifices to Moloch took place. I wonder if this was on John the Baptizer’s mind when he spoke to the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and teachers of the law. The Baptizer told them that one who was coming would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit, that the axe was at the roots and those not producing the fruit of repentance would be hewn down and cast in the fire. He told them that the one who was coming had his winnowing fork in hand and that the chaff would be thrown into the flames. I think of the conflagration in Rome which Nero blamed on the Christians and the Jews, and those who did not flee were burned at the stake or coated with pitch and used to provide illumination at Roman garden parties. I think of Pope Leo and how he wanted to see Martin Luther and other reformers burned, as was Jan Hus earlier. But fire, then as now, was also a useful tool when properly managed. Fire produces heat and light. I remember how grateful I was for a nice campfire when as a young Boy Scout I fell through the ice of a river while on a winter camporee. I had a change of clothes along and you can bet that I dried off and changed in the warmth of that fire. The members of my congregation at the church where I was interim pastor earlier this year experience long power outages as a matter of course during the winter months. Virtually all of them had modern, very efficient, wood stoves inset into their fire places, which would produce enough heat to keep them warm when the power was out, sometimes for several days at a time. They also used lanterns and candles to provide light, because as you can imagine, battery power just won’t cut it for that long a period of time. God also uses fire, sometimes to get our attention, just as he did with Moses in our first lesson. There is Moses, tending his father-in-law’s sheep. He sees a bush burning fast and furious but notes that the flames do not consume the bush. He turns aside to see this marvel and God speaks to him from the flames, telling him I have heard the cry of my people, and I am sending you! Now imagine what would have happened had Moses, when seeing that burning bush, not turned aside. What if he had said something like “Can’t happen, must be my imagination.” Or seeing that an ewe was lambing went off the help, or perhaps needed to right a sheep that had fallen over and was lying on its back. Maybe he noticed a wolf in the distance. This is something to which we can relate - you might say that God uses a form of burning bush to get our attention, but we are busy, too busy to turn aside, to hear God call to us. Getting ready for the holidays, got to go to soccer or hockey practice, going hunting, going fishing, going golfing, just plain going. You get the picture. And we never turn aside. My burning bush happened to be my son who got me to turn aside, to hear God calling me. God who has called me and sent me. And the fact of the matter is, brothers and sisters, that we each have a burning bush. I cannot tell you the form of your burning bush, but I can tell you that there is one and God is waiting for you to turn aside and listen to his call. Thinking back to what John the Baptizer said about Jesus coming with a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, I am reminded of my own baptism. Like your baptism, I was baptized with water and the Holy Spirit. But the thing is, because of the Spirit, we are like the thousands who received the Holy Spirit on that Pentecost morning so long ago. We may not have a flame of fire that visibly appears over our heads, but our baptisms have also led to a flame. A flame that burns in our hearts, like that of Cleophas and his companion on the road to Emmaus. Remember how Jesus walked with them, explaining Scripture to them but they did not know him? After Jesus had made himself known to them in the breaking of bread and then left them, they returned to the disciples, remarking that their hearts had burned in the presence of Jesus. And our hearts too burn in the presence of Jesus, whether we recognize him or not, he is with us now, he is with you always. And your heart burns. You may not know him, you may not want to know, but he is waiting for you to turn aside and listen to his call, to listen to the commission that he has for you. To use the gifts of the Spirit in service to him by ministering to one another, by giving a drink to one who is thirsty, a coat or shelter to one who is cold, food to one who is hungry. Back in the 1500s Martin Luther and others started a conflagration in the church of their day. A fire that reformed and renewed the church, much as a forest fire renews the soil when it has passed by. Luther had his own form of burning bush, and you might say that he turned aside and heard God’s call. Brothers and sisters, turning aside and hearing God’s call is part of our Lutheran heritage and we celebrate it today. Let’s turn aside together. Amen. Rev. Bruce Hannem,
Associate Pastor |
|
|
See the index of our
online sermon collection |