“REFINER’S
FIRE”
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A Sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church,
Exeter, Readings: |
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Top Left: Fire
Bottom Left: Israeli Flare over
Bethlehem (Pax Christi photo) Right: Tornado hits North
London
“He will be like a refiner’s
fire” (Malachi 3:2)
Did you see those amazing pictures
from North London on Thursday –
a tornado
ripping through a suburban street,
snapping trees like matchsticks, lifting roofs,
even taking off the side wall of a whole house.
Imagine coming back from the shops for a mid morning cup
of coffee,
turning the corner into your street and finding a tornado had struck.
Somehow you know these huge forces of nature exist,
but not in your street at 11 o’clock on a Thursday morning.
That is
really the advent message – the advent wake up call.
There is more to life than the daily routine –
there are powers at work in the world,
beyond our local mundane experience,
and we need to take them seriously….
The power
of God’s justice is waiting to come into our life like a tornado –
ripping off the walls which protect us
and revealing our inner selves as we really are…
It is just a matter of when.
John
Morris imagines a
scene where someone is sat happily by the fire,
happily listening to Christmas Muzak –
White Christmas or Winter Wonderland
Then “Suddenly the door bursts open,
a gust of wind blows snow into the room,
and a man with a bushy beard
and camel-skin tunic strides in.
There is fire in his eyes.
As he chews on a handful of locusts, he says,
"How nice that you're feeling cozy and happy.
Your holly and mistletoe look lovely over the fireplace.
But what have you done lately
for justice and peace among all people?
And what effort have you made recently
to respect the dignity of every human being?"
So he imagines a latter day John
the Baptist
bursting into our modern day lives like a tornado of judgment,
ripping through the tinsel like a forest fire
Or maybe the
music isn’t Bing Crosby –
maybe it is “O
Little Town of Bethlehem” –
Pax Christi have produced a powerful set of pictures
illustrating the words of “O Little Town” -
The pictures are here at the front, and
Debbie has talked already about them earlier in the service
before the young people went out:
The
words: |
The
picture: |
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O
little town of Bethlehem |
Bethlehem
covered in a pall of smoke following Israeli shelling |
|
How
still we see thee lie |
A
deserted rubble strewn street |
|
Amidst
thy deep & dreamless sleep |
Smoke
billows out of a building |
|
the
silent stars go by |
An
Israeli military flare over the Church of the Nativity |
|
yet in
thy dark street shineth - the everlasting light - |
A tank
on night patrol - thunders forwards, headlights glaring |
As a human race we
stand judged by these pictures.
Here is Bethlehem - the place which God was pleased to call “home”
and look what we have done to it.
But of course it is
not just Bethlehem which condemns us.
God came to make the whole world his home,
and wherever and whenever our world is marred by sin
we pervert, pollute and destroy his earthly dwelling place.
The advent message is this.
When the last day comes,
we will stand before Christ in glory
and he will cut through our pretence and our pride and our self-deception
and lay bear who and what we are.
And, on that day, the darkness and evil
which is revealed by the light of the glory of his presence
will be consumed in the fire of his judgement.
Which may sound a bit of a bleak Christmas message –
Not necessarily….
Indeed, for the downtrodden
and marginalized and dispossessed of the world,
here is a deep deep word of hope–
Christ comes to this dark and troubled world,
and like a tornado he will strip away that which oppresses the needy,
turn the world upside down
and like a forest fire clear away the powers of evil.
This good news to the poor.
But what of you and me?
What of those of us (if we are honest)
who are so often on the side of the oppressor and the comfortable?
Well if God’s judgement fire comes to cleanse,
to purify, to purge the world of evil,
and if we are part of that evil,
we should expect to feel the heat of the flames.
But this is still good news!!
The
flames – and this is the key point –
the flames are ultimately not flames of destruction but salvation.
Let me ask
you.
What do you think will happen on the
Last Day
when you stand before Christ on the throne of heaven?
You may say that is a silly question - Only
that day will tell –
and human language cannot encompass
such mysteries –
Of course
you would be right –
but theology is all about wrestling with the mysterious,
trying to describe the indescribable -
do here is my attempt to foresee that day.
I imagine Christ greeting me from the
throne and saying
“My child, you need say nothing,
for I can see every corner of your life –
every hidden room in your heart which you thought so well hidden
from me and perhaps even from yourself.
And I know every hurt you have done to your sisters and brothers –
I know it because every hurt I feel as my own.”
Then the
Lord will show me the wounds
in his hands and feet and say gently
–
you did this – you and your brothers and sisters –
in the streets of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Baghdad and Exeter
and a million places beyond.
And still I feel the agony of every single nail.
But my
child, I am God not man, and I cannot forsake you –
still you are my child and I love you.
How then do I feel?
I burn with shame and remorse. I say “Lord, let me be.
I can’t see you like this – If only I could have my life again.
What have I done? How can I forgive
myself?....
And he
says “I will do the forgiving –
don’t worry about that.
But I know it is hard and painful.
Every sin brought to light pains you now,
and you have so many pains…
But do you not see, you
need to see things as they are,
and all you feel now is the anguish of
penitence,
which is but the way that sinners find
my love.
So come my child and let us rejoice
together –
for you my son were dead and now are alive,
you were lost and now are found.
That is the fire of God’s judgement,
the burning coals of his love poured out on us.
Here is the purging fire of love and justice which,
·
out
of the dross of base ore brings forth pure silver and gold
·
out of base sinful humanity brings
those who for the first time are truly human,
at one with God, re-made in his holy image.
One of the great saints of the 20th Century,
Thomas Merton, used to speak of Christ coming to burn us.
Then, he says, as we meet Christ we draw our hand away in pain
until at length we come to know Christ, as he describes him -
“the Christ of the Burnt Men”
[There is here a deep irony that Merton himself died –
as it happens on this very day, 10th December, 1968 –
as the result of a freak accident – electrocuted by a faulty wire.]
Even in sin and death and the fire of judgement
we find that Christ (the Christ of
the cross) does not desert us –
for he loves us through the fire
·
he
is the 4th man in the flames
with Meshach Shadrach & Abednego,
·
he is the Christ of the burnt men.
·
He
is the refiner’s fire.
So as Paul tells us,
shall we be saved,
as one saved from the flames (1 C 3.15)
So, let us say to the Lord –
May thy Kingdom come –
and may it begin with me.
And Lord, let me not wait till the
last day –
come to rule my life now in this moment.
Make no mistake – if
we will let him,
he will come with the fire of the Spirit.
And if we will let that fire sear our souls, well,
we will know the Day of Judgement.
But, praise God, we will also discover
that Christ’s judgement is ultimately one of love.
And when we have endured the fire with him
we will yet stand and be saved.
For remember –
“God sent not his Son into the word to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved (Jn
3:17)
So let the tornado
come.
Let the fire of the spirit blaze within us
Then, through the refining fire of God’s eternal love
may we know the day of our salvation.
ORDER OF SERVICE
Hymn 86 “Tell
out my soul”
Prayers
All Age Ministry – Debra Myhill
Hymn113 “O
Little Town of Bethlehem”
The
Peace Leader: Let us share the peace
Adults: The peace of the Lord be with
you
Children: And also with you
Leader: Go in peace
[Young people leave for their own sessions]
Readings: Malachi 3:1-4 (p. 961)
1
Corinthians 3:10-15 (p.1146)
Hymn
“How firm a foundation” (Tune 9 St Denio) (Richard Keen
c.1787)
Sermon “The Refiner’s Fire” -
Andrew Sails
Hymn 327 “Spirit Divine”
Offertory
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer - Michelle Ireland
Leader: …….Lord, hear our prayer
People (sing) Bless the Lord, my soul,
and bless God’s
holy name
Bless the Lord, my
soul,
who leads me into
life.
Hymn 241 “Lo
he comes”
Blessing