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
