For you see, this was my first real experience with the science of fire, was being an acolyte in my church growing up, and using the lighting wand. When the service was ending, we were told to go to the front of the church, bow reverently before the altar of God, and then hold the snuffer over the candle until it goes out. Well, we were twelve then, and we all thought that it couldn't be that easy, to just hold it there, we figured that there had to be some sort of mechanical component to it, so we crammed the snuffer over the candle as hard as we could, to force the candle to go out.
We didn't need to do that. The candle would have gone out all by itself, if we would have just left the snuffer over it quite passively. It would have burned itself out. Starved of oxygen, which is a vital fuel for fire, the snuffer ensures that the flame will burn through all the oxygen in snuffer, and then go out. Science!
Why are we talking combustion? Well, the disciples, this weekend, when they heard something they didn't want to hear, responded to Jesus with a resounding 'Lord, increase our faith!' As well they ought. Jesus had just told them one of the more difficult things that they were ever going to hear, which was that forgiveness, for a Christian, isn't optional. This injuction from Jesus stings. It hurts to hear it. It cuts us in ways we'd rather not be cut, because it tells you that the commandment from Christ to forgive is every bit as binding as any other. We're happy to talk about why couples shouldn't be cohabiting before marriage, and about how gambling is of the devil, but it's comparitively rare to talk about how forgiveness after sin isn't an option. You don't get to choose. The language of Jesus, your Lord, is perfectly clear. 'If your brother sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times saying "I repent," you must forgive him.'
You must forgive him. Emphasis mine, but honestly, emphasis also Christ's. We don't truck with that kind of controversy, you know. We don't tend to give people a hard time in the church for long standing, unresolved grudges, but we ought to, given that Jesus spoke specifically about that. He spoke in no uncertain terms about how forgiveness has to happen, and we don't exactly take that seriously. Actually, we want to pretend that it sort of never came up.
Much to our detriment. For you see, the prayer that we have all memorized, the prayer that Jesus gave to the disciples when they asked to be taught how to pray, that prayer has in it the line 'forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.' Of course, we are tempted to say 'well, that's part of the prayer, but Jesus meant it metaphorically, right? Well, there's a problem with that, and it comes with the verse right after the Lord's prayer.
'IF you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.' -Matthew 6:14-15.
Oh. Talk about your inconvenient truths. And when you hear this, large as life, I know it's tempting to close the book and prented that it didn't happen, and wasn't ever said, but the opposite reaction is demanded. The reaction of the disciples: Lord, increase our faith!
For you see, we want to be shielded from this kind of discussion from Jesus, we want to avoid it, to bury our heads, and insulate ourselves from it. We want to be protected from it, so we put a bushel over ourselves to try to avoid those words we don't want to hear. But the bushel, the thing that we put over ourselves, over our hearts to insulate them from God's word, it just ends up being a snuffer, and puts out the flame of our faith. Because our faith was never intended to run on this.
We think of our faith as a candle, and if it is blown on, it will go out. That's how candles work, you know. Children know that from a very early age, they know that if you blow on fire, it goes out. That's basic observation. But that's why the reality of the situation is so much stranger than you may have expected.
If you blow on a candle, it goes out. No problem there. But if you have dying embers left, if you had a roaring fire at one point, and it has died down to embers, how do you get it to spring back to life? You blow on it. The same thing that put a candle, a weak flame out, brings a strong fire to life. It's crazy, it's counter intuitive, but it's the way the world works.
We think our faith is weaker than it is. We think that the faith given to us in holy baptism is weaker than it is, that the holy spirit that dwells within us is weaker than he is, that faith is a frail candle that can easily be blown out. But it is the opposite. In the epistle reading, Paul tells Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God. How do embers get fanned into flame? Rekindled? By being breathed on.
In the scriptures, Jesus breathes on his disciples and tells them to receive the holy spirit. In Greek, the name of the Holy Spirit is either the Holy Spirit, or Holy Breath. It is the breath of God that fans our faith into flame, and that breath of God is given in the holy scriptures. I know your reaction is to look at what we're given in the word of God and to avoid it, that his injunction is too hard, his rules are too much, and we want to pop on the ol bushel basket and pretend it didn't happen. But the reality is that our faith, the gift of the Holy Spirit given to us in baptism is a burning flame, which can die out, it simmer down, but it doesn't go out. The thing we want to avoid is the thing we need, the words of Christ we want to side-step are the words we require. They build faith, not avoiding the air that our faith needs.
Essentially, what it all boils down to is that by trying to protect our faith, we tend to put it out. By trying to protect the flame, we snuff it. Avoiding the breath of God, the word of God, it just makes things go out faster. For the breath of God is the fuel that our faith runs on. Grow in it, be immersed in it, and realize that the words you want to avoid, they're the words you need to hear. They're what are going to increase your faith.
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