Feel the Burn

It’s a bright and sunny August Sunday. The weather forecast for this week is HOT: Sunday 104, Monday 103, Tuesday 101, Wednesday 101, and Thursday 102…and if that isn’t bad enough, the lectionary readings for today seem to be conspiring with the weather to turn up the heat as well. Lots of talk about fire; lots of uncomfortable words in the scriptures and in the worship guide, too – “swords, division, crises, unsettle, conflicts, difficulties, bloodstained, nervous, unsafe, broken, dangers”…. All of this seems to say to us today that, in case we were thinking otherwise, Christianity is not an insulation from pain – that our God isn’t just asking us to be nice and to enjoy a life of ease and comfort. The Christ is calling us to awaken – to feel the burn – it’s the fire that creates that edge where change is possible – and so you are invited to bring your scars and your woundedness – to feel the rawness of that, and to open yourselves to God’s consuming, fiery presence – and to be transformed.