The Rebirth of the Church. William Powell Tuck
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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