Fire

A sermon preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields by Revd Andrew Woodward on the Ninth Sunday after Trinity, August 17 2025

Reading for address: Luke 12: 49-56

For me, the word ‘fire’ evokes all sorts of reactions. Many years ago when I had a flat in Woking, there were several guys on the communal roof replacing the felt on the flat roof next door to my mine. It was a hot day and one of them came running to me in a panic, asking for water, as they had set the roof alight. By the time I had managed to fill several buckets, the fire had spread. Thankfully the fire service arrived within minutes and contained the fire, but the smoke damage was significant. The thoughts I had at the time were that I might lose everything in this consuming and frightening fire.

We see images of fire so often in a negative context, the fires as the result of the bombings in Gaza, in the Ukraine and in Russia. We see fires springing up across the world due to climate change. The raised temperatures across Europe particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal have caused fires which have brought significant devastation. In the UK, we are exposed to similar risks, such as the wildfires last week at Wanstead Flats.

There are however more positive images for fire, for example, when we might gather round an open fire in the winter to warm ourselves, or attend a bonfire celebration with friends.

Neel and I sometime go to a restaurant where there is a huge pizza oven. We can see the flames, but the fire is safely contained and the result is amazing.

Fire is essential for smelting and shaping metal and for purifying precious metals.

The words of Jesus in our Gospel today might be tempting to skip over –

‘I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled.’

Perhaps purification is the image Jesus is using in our Gospel, rather than one of destruction and devastation. A fire that reveals things such as our attitudes and relationships that may need to change and develop, as we grow together into the likeness of Christ. A fire that challenges injustice, that burns away hypocrisy and refines our hearts.

On Easter Eve, in our Easter Liturgy, the new fire is kindled as the priest speaks these words –

Eternal God,
who made this most holy night
to shine with the brightness of your one true light:
set us aflame with the fire of your love,
and bring us to the radiance of your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

At I pondered these words, they reminded me of the lovely hymn by Charles Wesley which we had as our gradual hymn –

O thou who camest from above,
The pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love,
On the mean altar of my heart.

There let it for thy glory burn,
With inextinguishable flame,
And trembling to its source return,
In humble prayer and fervent praise.

Fire in the Bible is often a symbol of God’s presence – think of Moses and the burning bush or the tongues of fire at Pentecost.

Fire burns away the old to make space for the new. It challenges our way of doing things, our prejudices, our positions and our power.

If to follow Christ means a change in our hearts, as we claim that it does, it will entail significant consequences. The fire of God’s love reveals our inconsistencies, our pretence and any double standards.

It calls us to honesty and integrity, which may affect our relationships, some of which may not be fully wholesome, and as such it will cause division. Becoming the  person who God has called us to be, in our glorious distinctiveness, and leaving behind the image of our self, made in the image of another can be painful. Fire can burn away those things that prevent us from becoming fully human – those things that constrain us from revealing our true selves, in all our vibrant difference and diversity.

Jesus has come to burn these things away in fire, like the fire encountered by Moses in the burning bush, one that roars with the loving and eternal presence of God, a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

It can be so easy to be caught up with things that become a distraction, the constant invasion of social media, pervasive advertising of products that promise to bring satisfaction in life – these are the weights that the writer of the Hebrews refers to.

They may be different for each of us. We are to lay aside these things and to run with perseverance the race that is set before us. When distracted, we can forget our mission is to those who need us, especially those on the edge, on the margins, or on the outside.

We are instead to look to Jesus as our model, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. The writer refers to those whose faith endured and who through faith and action conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions and quenched raging fire.

Hebrews continues and encourages us with the example of those who were carried through their pain by the vision of the one ‘who for the joy set before them, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God’. A picture of our own journey through many challenges towards finding our true home in God’s presence.

Our Old Testament reading paints a picture of what it might mean if we fail to respond to God’s call, yet fortunately God’s last word in the previous chapter of Isaiah is not one of destruction but rather one of re-creation.

The story of family conflict that we read of in the Gospel is a direct quote from Micah 7, where it expresses the alienation experienced by those who want to trust God in the midst of a society which has turned its back on him. Jesus is telling his disciples that following him has a similar expectation attached, and the passage is simply quoted in this context.

As Christians, we are not passive observers but rather called to be the change required in a needy world through our prayers and our actions. Those actions do not need to be huge, simply being active participants in the work of healing, justice and love – even when it costs us. This can happen in practical ways – spending time with visitors, speaking with the stranger, listening to others’ concerns. Being there and being with.

Praying for the kindling of the holy fire within us, a fire that burns with love, courage and truth, may not always be comfortable and may lead us into hard conversations and difficult decisions. But it is the fire that leads to life.

Wesley continues in his hymn with words that resemble a personal prayer which I invite you, if you wish, to make your own –

Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
To work, to speak, and think for thee:
Still let me guard the Holy Fire
And still stir up thy gift in me.

Ready for all thy perfect will
My acts of faith and love repeat
Till death thy endless mercies seal
And make the sacrifice complete.

May we not be afraid of the fire Jesus brings. May we let it refine our hearts, and may we be bold enough to choose him, who is the way, the truth and the life.