Fire and Worship

Fire Falls On Small Town
When I was a teenager an event took place in our backyard that was so funny, we rarely even speak about it for fear of laughing ourselves to death. Here is what happened. Remember, do not attempt this in your own home. We were trained professionals, prepared and equipped to cope with this kind of thing. Almost.

Well one time we had some meat in our refrigerator that had been there too long and it had started to go bad. My father decreed that it should not be put in the trash but it needed to be destroyed by fire. In our backyard there was a small concrete incinerator that we used for getting rid of rubbish and generally amusing ourselves.

My father placed the bad meat in the incinerator, lit some paper and threw it in and waited for something to happen. Of course, nothing burned except the paper so in an act filled with great purpose and hidden destiny, my father bled some fuel from the gas tank of our lawn mower and carried it in a tin, to the fire.

As the fire was still burning slightly, he tipped the fuel in on top of the flames. Strangely enough, the fuel simply extinguished the flames. Although perplexed, he was possessed of the belief that fuel and fire together should do something. So he tried one last time. In an act owing more to persistence than forethought my father threw in a lighted match. What happened next was so spectacular that it will never be forgotten as long as we live.

First there was a huge explosion. It had a satisfying low rumble to it and was so loud that citizens of Australian within several blocks radius ran out of their homes to see what had occurred. Remember this was during the cold war so some were wearing helmets and had aluminium foil wrapped around the parts of their bodies deemed to be most susceptible to radiation.

My brother and I were in the garage, but just a few metres (or yards) from the epicentre. We ran into the backyard only to see the last wisps of smoke drifting from the incinerator, and all the roofs, fences, clothes lines and backyards of our neighbours houses dotted with burning stuff that looked suspiciously like napalm.

The napalm-like substance was in fact the rotting meat my father had been trying to burn. Instead of destroying it he had delivered it, still burning, to all of our neighbours. This was oddly appropriate as he was by profession a mailman. Confusion and fiery lamb chops in equal amounts had rained down on our town. People wandered around shocked, arms going slowly up and down, looking up at their roofs with their mouths moving but no words coming out.

The best thing about it was that it was so hard to explain. Apart from my father’s suspicious lack of eyebrows, hair that had been blow straight up and slightly smoke streaked face there was little to tie him to the attack. And as he was still rather stunned and deafened by the explosion, he could attempt no explanation and therefore was never really suspected of being the mastermind behind the Great Burning Meat Attack of ’68. Every trace of fire and meat had been blown completely clear of the incinerator, and indeed our own backyard. Not even the team from CSI could have pinned this one on the Fragars.

The event passed into memory slowly, as all unsolved crimes do. And yet a dark cloud of fear had come upon Penrith. There was always the chance this strange and unexplained event could happen again one day, without warning. And have you even noticed that the last part of “Australian” sounds just like alien? Many theories were put forward to explain what had happened but none seemed to answer all the questions. After careful consideration, we never used the incinerator again.

Meat and fire go together like thumb and mousetrap. And a barbeque is simply men using meat to play with fire while appearing purposeful. Life doesn’t get any better than that. If I tell you there is a connection between this event and worship, you would be forgiven for thinking I was crazy. As it turns out, we could both be right.

The First Worship
The earliest mentions of worship in the Bible were not about music and such, but about animal sacrifices. And the very first mention of worship, the proposed sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac was about a sacrifice involving faith. Eventually as you will recall, sheep (not Isaac) became the sacrifice.

Ge 22:5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you ”
Ge 22:6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
Ge 22:7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Ge 22:8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

And later in Hebrews we read about the “sacrifice of praise”.

Heb 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

What is the actual sacrifice here? I think this term has layers of meaning depending on where we are in life but the most fundamental meaning concerns the sacrifice we as Christians offer when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives in place of ourselves. Once we have done it we realise this is a fantastic “upgrade” but sometimes we struggle to get ourselves there. Handing over the throne of our lives is indeed a sacrifice.

But think about the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament for moment. The family would turn up to the temple with their animal (or animals). The priests would receive them and the animals would slaughtered on the altar in accordance with scripture. Sometimes we get that far with God. We “sacrifice” to God: we get ourselves out of bed and go to church, maybe a cell group, serve in the welcome team or worship team, we give money, maybe even tithe. Come the worship time, we sing along. And in doing so, we are fairly sure we are pleasing God.

But the sacrifices of old went one step further than just the actual sacrificing of a valuable animal, and it is a very important step. You see, if they had just slaughtered the animals and then left them lying there on the altar, very soon the meat would attract flies, then it would begin to smell “off”, and eventually it would smell so bad nobody would want to go anywhere near it.

The Fire
The missing step is the fire. The priests built a fire and, in essence, cooked the meat. Instead of a rotting smell, they presented to God a great cook-out the smell of which, the Bible tells us, rose up and pleased God.

Lev 1:9 He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

Can you see where this is going? When we bring our sacrifice to God we must put fire to it. And this especially applies to our worship. If we don’t do that, we become just religious.

Isa 29:13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

Our worship will lack passion and power. And the smell that will go up before God is not the great smell of a grill, but the smell of decaying flesh.

When we add fire to our worship of God, it is wonderful. It has a great aroma and it actually makes hungry people desire what we have. The fire makes our worship fit for “consumption”. They want to join in. Fire is always intended to be part of our sacrifice of praise.

I can only think of a few occasions in scripture when God Himself put the fire to the sacrifice (including Gideon and Elijah). On almost every occasion it was the people who added the fire.

When we just "sing along" with the songs in church, the fire is missing.

But when gratitude grips our hearts, when tears come to our eyes, when we sing with all the strength we have, not caring what our neighbours think…that’s when we are worshiping with fire. That’s the worship that rises to God as a fragrant offering.

Keepers of the Fire
Like the priests of old we are all the keepers of the fire. Sometime all that was required was that the priests stir up the coals from the previous day and the fire was ready to go. Sometimes after a stormy night the fire would need to be re-lit. And so with some dry straw, a few sticks and a couple of pieces of flint the priests would get together and bring the precious fire to life again.

Sometimes it seems that the worship never really stops in our lives and the fire in us just burns day after day. Then there are those times when we have to relight our fires, maybe even using someone else’s fire to get ours going again. Maybe we need to get with some friends, and together get the fire going once more. In fact I think this happens for some people in church every Sunday.

Ultimately, I am responsible for the fire in my worship. I can do this by deliberately controlling the thoughts I dwell on, choosing wisely who I hang out with, by what I read, and by making positive decisions about what I become emotionally attached to.

Some things in life just happen to you. That is true. But that is far from the whole story. If Christ is my King, then I am His kingdom and Godly worship becomes the true music of my life. I don’t have to start worshiping…I just have to open my mouth and let it out!

Worship is so much better with fire. There is always something happening, there is always a crowd gathering around, things smell great and everyone is joyful.

Finally, Can Vegetarians Worship?
I know some of you don’t like to eat meat. That’s fine, and just for you, the Bible also has grain offerings so that you can be join in too. Very nutritious. For me, I’ll stick with the barbeque.