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Tag: fire

Even So

March 22, 2018 /

burning match

Dear Friends,

The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found in Daniel 3 has always intrigued me.  In the story, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a man with significant leadership issues, concocts a scheme to construct a giant gold statue, place it in the plain of Dura, and then command all of the people to bow down and worship his golden abomination. Those who failed to bow down and worship the golden figure were to be given the opportunity be special guests in the king’s sauna of fire.

Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, exiles from Isreal, are not too keen on this new plan of the monarch. They unequivocally refuse to bow down to worship the shiny man because to do so would be an anathema to their God. This royally ticks off the king who forgets everything he learned in his years of therapy for anger management issues and he orders the three men to be thrown into the blazing furnace but just to make sure the men are really dead dead and not just dead he orders the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. Unfortunately, this story happened in the days before OSHA. The heat from the furnace was so extreme it killed the soldiers who had been given the charge to toss the three men into the furnace. We all know how the story ends. Once they are tossed into the furnace the three men are joined by a fourth for a little furnace warming party. When the festivities are over, the original three walk out of the furnace without a scorch to a hair on their head or even the smell of fire on their clothes.

What fascinates me most about this story is not their miraculous deliverance from the furnace, as amazing as that is, but the speech they give to Nebuchadnezzar just prior to his attempted murder. With defiant courage they boldly declare to the king, ” If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand” (vs. 17). That had to take some major chutzpa to declare with such confidence their deliverance to the king who was about to have them burned alive. It is their next words that are the words of dazzling faith, “But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (vs. 18). That’s unconditional faith.

How often do we pray with conditional faith? Conditional faith is a faith that says to God, “I will worship and follow you so long as you __________.” There are so many things we could finish the sentence with:

So long as nothing bad happens.

So long as I get to live the way I want.

So long as you give me what I want.

So long as you don’t ask me to give up anything or move to another country or change jobs.

Our three friends have a very different kind of faith. Their unconditional faith recognizes our ways are not God’s ways and his plans are not our plans, and even when things don’t go the way we would want them to we will still worship God.  Their faith says:

God, I know you are are able to rescue me from the furnace, but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to heal this sickness but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to provide me a better job, a new house, a car that runs but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to mend my broken relationships but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to take this depression, darkness, and anxiety from me but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you can remove the cancer from my body but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are the one who raises the dead but even if you don’t rescue me from death (my own death or that of someone I love) I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to prevent wars and famines but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

This is the profound faith in God demonstrated to us by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their faith in God remained unchanged even if God didn’t “come through” but what about us?

Blessings,
Stephen

Fire is Life

September 29, 2015 /

campfire

One of my proudest moments as a Boy Scout came while on a winter camping trip as a guest of another troop. As one might expect, significant rivalries can exist between Scout troops, ours was no different. Each task became an attempt to show whose troop was the best. So it was that a little contest was set-up to see who could build a fire the quickest. Each of us was given one match and the charge to build a fire. The first to do it gained the glory for his troop. I should point out the little detail of there being two feet of snow on the ground, just to make it a challenge. At the shout “Go!” we each trudged through the snow and into the woods to figure out the challenge. Much to the opposing troop’s disgust ,in less than five minutes I had a raging fire going. The others had not yet even figured out how they were going to do it. It was an unprecedented trouncing of the competition. How did I do get a fire going so quickly in two feet of snow and with only one match? I can assure you I didn’t cheat in any way, but if I told you I would have to kill you. Sorry, I must maintain the pride of my troop. Why was it an important challenge? In a survival situation, the ability to build a fire can mean the difference between life and death.

In fact, for all of us, fire is life. Having a fire means the ability to stay warm when it is cold. Having a fire means the ability to safely prepare food. Around the fire, community happens. Stories are told and the legacy of generations is passed down. Even in our suburban homes, fire is still life. The fire may be a Lennox furnace, a Maytag stove, and a Kenmore microwave, but its importance to life is no less significant.

A person whose fire has gone out is in a vulnerable position. The cold night may suck their life away. The inability to prepare food puts them on the edge of starvation, because fire is life.

A few months ago, I was having a conversation with a fellow pastor. In that meeting, he shared with me an insight from an Egyptian Christian pastor that he knew. The insight pertained to a passage of scripture I never really understood. The passage comes from Romans 12 and Paul is giving instruction as to the practical realities of living as a follower of Jesus in a hostile world. Paul says to his readers, quoting Proverbs 25 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20-21, NIV).

It seems that Paul has turned his own words onto their head. Is he really saying that our hospitality is an opportunity for us to heap guilt and suffering upon our enemy, as though we were pouring burning coals on their head? In effect, we serve them as a way to get back at them? While this meaning is not consistent with the surrounding verses, it certainly does seem to be the most obvious interpretation of the text. It’s an interpretation I have heard preached many times. Still it has never sat well with me as it appeared to be inconsistent with the larger context of the passage and the Bible. That was until my a recent conversation with my pastoral colleague. He shared that the Egyptian pastor said, as a middle easterner, he reads this passage differently. For him, fire is life. To heap burning coals upon your enemy’s head is to fill a jar with coals that may be taken home, carried upon the person’s head, so that they may restart their own fire. It is to give life to one whose fire has gone out. In effect Paul is saying, when your enemy has come to the edge of death and their defeat is imminent, give them life. Overcome the evil of your enemy with the goodness of life.

For millions of Syrians, their fire has gone out. They are in desperate need of someone to heap burning coals upon their heads and give them life before it slips away in the bitter night. Many Christians are tempted to look upon their suffering with fear. We wonder how many of their ranks are really members of ISIS, our enemy. Could we, by welcoming these refugees into our lives really be giving aid to our enemy and giving life to a person who, by our doing nothing, would be defeated? If our enemy’s fire has gone out, should we not let the darkness envelop them? Would this not be in the best national interest of our country?

Maybe it would be, but as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we live by a different standard of life. Our king says to us something so radical as “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”

Pastor Stephen

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