This is my homily that was shared at a recent Academy for Spiritual Formation at the Warren Willis camp, a United Methodist retreat center in central Florida. Reflecting on Macarius of Egypt as well as the story of my own grandfather, it's about discovering the fire within us, fueled by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
First Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”)
Gospel Reading: Mark 9:2-8 (the transfiguration)
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Sometimes I identify with Peter, not so much when he is doing well but when he is doing poorly. He starts his little speech with “It is good for us to be here,” which is what I catch myself saying when I have no idea how to start. It does say in Mark, “he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”
So instead, let me start by telling you a story about my mother. She was an amazing person of faith. She was the daughter, sister, niece, wife, mother, and mother-in-law of Methodist pastors (the last one is because I married one). But SHE was the spiritual leader of our family.
I was one of four boys, and one of my early memories is of how she took my brothers to school, then she sat in a particular rocking chair in the kitchen with her morning coffee for about 45 minutes. She called it her “quiet time.” We were not to bother her during her quiet time! I vividly remember sitting on the couch, listening to her coffee cup click and click on the saucer, wondering when she was going to be finished.
I didn’t know it yet, but she was instilling a longing for God in me.
She was also the kind of person who planned for anything, and that’s where my story comes in. She had a funny habit; when staying at a hotel, the first thing she would do was make sure she knew where fire escape was. Know the type?
One time she and Dad went overseas, and they checked into a hotel. She couldn’t figure out where the fire escape was (there were unfamiliar markings in another language), so she started checking doors. She walked in on a fellow who was in a small restroom. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was just looking for the fire escape.” She quickly closed the door and kept looking.
A minute later, here came that fellow running down the hall, hurriedly pulling his pants up. He was yelling, “Where’s the fire? Where’s the fire?!”
Over the last few years, I’ve been asking myself that same question. Where’s the fire?
After a long Covid shutdown followed by an anti-science blowback, I was left asking, “where’s the fire?” After an uptick of racial tensions followed by extremist insurrection against our capital, and then after a rancor-filled season of division in my denomination, so many things have left me asking “Where’s the fire?”
I didn’t have to ask “where’s the dumpster fire?” We’ve seen plenty of those.
Where’s the fire that burns in the heart, the fire that changes the world?
I had no idea Dwight would teach us about Teilhard de Chardin saying, “Someday … we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, [humanity] will have discovered fire.”
THERE’S the fire. THAT’S the fire my soul longs for.
The word for the day is ENCOUNTERING. I want to introduce you to my friend here. These are icons of Macarius the Egyptian. These particular versions of the Macarius icon look less like Lew than the one I brought here a few years ago … these have more hair! But I chose these particular versions because of a common motif in Macarius icons … his HANDS are held up in the GLOW of God who is all light, all flame, and who illumines the soul.
Macarius was a 4th century monk, one of John Wesley’s favorite spiritual ancestors. We know this because Macarius’ book of fifty sermons were required reading for Wesley’s class leaders, and Wesley himself quoted him in his sermon “The Way of Salvation” when he describes “sanctifying grace.”
I read the sermons of Macarius. It changed my life.
This is partly because I discovered Macarius was the original source of Wesley’s theology of how grace comingles with our free will, and of what BOTH of them called Christian perfection (not flawlessness, but a journey of being perfected by the holiness of love).
Reading his sermons also changed my life because while Wesley used very exacting language (like “prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace”), Macarius used the most wonderful metaphorical language I ever heard, like our SOUL is a ship, or a moving throne, or a chariot with Christ as the charioteer, or a castle (yes, Teresa of Avila picked this up from Macarius and ran with it 12 centuries later).
Do you know what Macarius said about spiritual formation? We are all gathered around a FIRE. I invite you to hold your HANDS UP like Macarius, and hear his words:
“As many lights and burning lamps are lighted from fire, but the lamps and lights are lighted and shine from one nature, so also Christians are enkindled and shine from one nature, the divine fire, the Son of God, and they have their lamps burning in their hearts.”
Do you know what else he said about that lamp burning in each of our hearts, lit from the one fire? He said our SOUL is like a BRONZE vessel you put burning fuel under so the INSIDES are made warm. He adds, “So also grace, the heavenly fire, is also within you.”
The FIRE of the Holy Spirit burning under us becomes a heavenly fire that burns WITHIN us.
So … “where’s the fire?”
The word of the day is “encountering” and part of us LONGS for that kind of encounter with God - an encounter like Peter, James, and John on the mountain, or like Moses whose face was glowing from a personal encounter with GLOW of the great fire.
Let me tell you a personal story about finding that fire.
After a grueling few years of defending my annual conference from harm (some of you know my journey with the “Stay UMC” movement), one day I got out my Grandpa’s Bible.
I didn’t bring it today (it’s too fragile and priceless) but I keep in on my shelf. If I had time, I would tell you a story of Grandpa Hamby (he led a revival in the 1920’s, and brought pistols to the pulpit to defend the church against bootleggers who were trying to shut it down). It’s a colorful story … after all, I am from Alabama.
So I have his preaching Bible. (My uncle gave it to me when I was ordained). One day recently I got it out, and something dawned on me after all the pain of the last few years. I realized it was probably the SAME Bible that sat on that pulpit between those two pistols. But I had never gone through his sermon notes that were folded within its pages.
Well, a few weeks ago, I did. I found a particular one … it was entitled “Why I Love the Church.” Grandpa wrote:
“With all its admitted frailties and human weaknesses, we dare to join with David. Why did David so love the house of God? …
He shared a few thoughts, followed by this: “We love the Church because of what it cost. The Church is a costly institution. Its history is a story of divine and human sacrifice. Divine. Human. (He underlined these two words)
“Last of all, we love the Church because of its future. We are not manning a sinking ship. We are not fighting a losing battle.”
I then had one of those mystical experiences when I wondered if that was the very sermon he was preaching that day with two pistols on his pulpit to protect his church from getting shut down by those bootleggers. Was it his sermon on “why I love the church?”
What do you know. I would never take guns to church, but maybe it’s part of my spiritual DNA to “stick to my guns.”
What you also need to know is my Granny’s poem is in front of that Bible, written to my uncle on the eve of HIS ordination. I brought a picture so you can see. It’s entitled “Don’t Forget the Glow.”
This poem has always been dear to me, but now it’s taking on new life:
“I stood beside him proudly,
So much he’d learned to know.
And yet I dared to whisper,
‘Son, don’t forget the glow’.”
“The glow that feeds the hunger
In restless human breasts,
The glow that gives the answer
To life’s long, ceaseless quests.
“The glow that’s so rewarding,
When through the preach’d word
They breathe a prayer of ‘thanks, Sir’
For the wondrous things they’ve heard.
“Always put it in your message.
Hungry hearts, of God’s lost sheep,
Reaching out for strength and courage,
Need soul-food to climb the steep.
“The glow by which your father
Led countless souls to see
The ‘glow-ry’ of the gospel
As it’s surely meant to be.
“A diamond studded highway
Whose end is sure reward.
So keep it bright and shining,
The glory of his Word.”
Are you asking yourself “where’s the fire?” Are you longing for an ENCOUNTER with God?
There’s already a FIRE that burns beneath your “bronze vessel.” It’s the fire of God’s love. Our part is to fuel it with spiritual practices.
We didn’t START the fire. But if we keep the fuel coming, the holy fire grows hot. After simmering a while, we may find that the heat starts coming from within, too.
And when it does, well, don’t forget the glow.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
