The Fire of God

It is pretty cold today: a good day for staying in. It might even be a good day for a fire in the fireplace. As a species, we have been utilizing fire in a controlled way for a long time; we might say, from the beginning. By the microscopic evidence of wood ash in certain sites, we hypothesize even our old buddy, homo Erectus, was using fire one million years ago.

Just fifty-five years ago I remember my dad showing me how to make fire with friction. He used a vertical stick with a leather thong attached to both ends and with lots of slack. The thong was also wrapped once around the middle of a vertical stick, Drawing the horizontal stick back and forth, rotating the vertical stick with enough speed to set bits of tender organic strands to smolder. Once glowing, a little blowing of those strands brought the flame, and suddenly we were fire-makers. With the patience, time, and effort it took, one of the lessons was, “Wow, matches were a great invention.” That is all about created fire: the combustion that releases the carbon trapped in an object into the atmosphere.

In parts of the biblical narrative, there are scenes in which the fire of God is mentioned. This is the fire that shows the presence of God, the power of God, and the uncreated energy of God.   In the stories, it is a visible manifestation of the mysterious and powerful properties of the Holy. In Genesis, a flaming torch escorted Adam and Eve out of the garden and into their next habitat. In Exodus, the mission of Moses came from a bush that was aflame, but not consumed. A pillar of fire led the escaping children of Israel at night away from their Red Sea crossing and on to their adventure in the wilderness.

There are examples from nearly every book in the Bible, but let’s jump back to the middle of the Old Testament: 1 Kings 18, where fire from above consumes in an instant the sacrifice prepared by Elijah on Mount Carmel. Please let’s hold before us our amazing first lesson for this Sunday from 2 Kings 2, in which a fiery chariot with flaming horses carries Elijah away from his acolyte, Elisha, off into heaven. The power, the presence, and the purpose of God are all in play in the scene. The mantle of prophecy is passed from Elijah the great prophet to Elisha the pupil, and Israel keeps its imposing but crucial guidance from Yahweh.

I hope that you know, your soul is a wick, and the flame of God’s Spirit has it lighted. The degree to which you freely give yourself to God’s love and guidance determines how high the flames go. This takes letting go, and that takes a lot of trust in the love of God. I know that the culture and our own cautious natures keep us from stepping through our vulnerability and giving ourselves more freely to the Holy One. In this timidity, we are afraid to get carried away with life in the Spirit. Elijah was too. Even he had his seasons of tentativeness and was afraid to get carried away with the Spirit, but as you can see, he got over it.