This line from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah was among those read last Sunday in many churches around the world, including churches in and around Los Angeles. Our context frequently influences the way we hear and interpret Scripture. No doubt Los Angelenos who listened to these words being read last Sunday, heard them in some very specific ways. It\u2019s said that these urban wildfires, which are as yet, not fully contained, will redefine L.A. in many significant ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original context in which these words from God spoken through Isaiah were heard is strikingly similar. It wasn\u2019t Santa Ana winds that brought fire to Jerusalem<\/a> in 587 BCE, it was the Neo-Babylonian imperial army. The destruction was profound. A city, composed mostly of limestone, burned to the ground \u2013 the grand Temple of Solomon with it. Those who went into exile were forever marked by their experience and they kept the memory alive for subsequent generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a more positive way, Babylon and fire are associated in the tale of the three men in the fiery furnace, recorded in the Book of Daniel<\/a>. There, the saving presence of God is much more obvious. The king gazes into the furnace and not only does he see the three young men who have defied his orders to worship the gods of Babylon in the furnace unscathed, but a fourth, \u201cwith the appearance of a god\u201d has joined them! Both of these memories, the destruction of Jerusalem and Daniel\u2019s three men, would have come to mind for early Christians who heard these words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The lines before them \u201cWhen you pass through the waters, I will be with you;\u2003and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;\u201d would have called to mind other saving acts of God \u2013 the story of Moses and the crossing of the sea and the one of Joshua leading the people across the Jordan to the promised land. To that they would have added John the Baptist, standing in the Jordan River declaring that one who would come after him \u2013 Jesus \u2013 would baptize the people with fire! Again, saving work, if not necessarily welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We might think that it would have been good had God shown up in L.A. when homes and property were burned and lives were so quickly lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is God did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian wisdom has long taught that our suffering is a participation in Christ\u2019s suffering and his, ours<\/a>. The presence of suffering in creation is not a sign of God\u2019s absence or abandonment, quite the opposite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, we can find tangible evidence of the presence of God in the way that divinely created humans \u2013 humans of all ethnicities and religions \u2013 are moved to profound acts of service in the face of their neighbor\u2019s suffering. The news from L.A. is rife with stories of unmanageable fire and destruction, but it\u2019s also full of accounts of all sorts of people moved to acts of service and sacrifice<\/a> in the face of overwhelming need. People hear a call to service and answer it. I think this phenomena is a mark of our creation by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s even more! When John the Baptist declared that one was coming with a winnowing fork<\/a> to burn away our chaff, he had another characteristic of fire in mind \u2013 that of a purifying agent. This metaphor can work powerfully in the lives of we who are only reading the news and offering prayer and financial support to victims of disaster. The sight of people losing everything and yet finding hope can call the rest of us to reevaluate our own priorities. Perhaps we\u2019ve been placing too much importance on nice, but unnecessary things in our lives. Perhaps we\u2019ve harbored unkind or even destructive thoughts about those who see the world differently than we do and the sight of people overcoming their differences to offer indiscriminate help jolts us into realizing our smallness of heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we are called \u2013 by our conscience, by the example of others, by the Spirit of God \u2013 to set aside things that do not give life and get back on the way of love that is rooted in God\u2019s love for us, that can be like a fire that is burning away chaff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Holy God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is there too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peace be with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pr. Jim<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rev. Katherine Museu<\/a>s<\/em> and Rev. James A. Wetzstein<\/a> serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This line from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah was among those read last Sunday in many churches around the world, including churches in and around Los Angeles. 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