You must forgive me but I am going to start with a little boast. Two weeks ago, Jennie and I went with Laura, our eldest daughter to help on her allotment for the afternoon. Now Laura knows that I have a real difficulty working up an enthusiasm for gardening. And it was my day off! “Don’t worry Dad, I have a special job for you, a manly job.” So she did! Over the winter, piles of brambles and weeds had been cleared on the plot and needed burning. A bonfire! That’s my kind of gardening! Now, admittedly, it was dry and hadn’t rained for a week or two, but even so, one match is pretty good! Yes, only one match to start a bonfire! I was happy. And of course, the trick with bonfires is to keep them fed, yet contained – and there was a danger it could spread through the undergrowth. We burned more than we expected and felt very satisfied. That’s my boast over with – you can congratulate me afterwards!

The word ‘fire’ appears nearly 600 times in the Bible, in the Old Testament 418 times and in the New Testament 74 times. Yet only once is God described directly as fire, and it came in our second reading. (I have always loved this passage and was delighted it was set for today).The last verse in Hebrews 12: ‘for indeed our God is a consuming fire.’ The writer may have been drawing on the prophet Malachi who says ‘He is like a refiner’s fire’ (you can hear Handel’s Messiah can’t you?). The author of Hebrews goes a little further – ‘our God is a consuming fire’. And I wouldn’t argue with him. As I watched my bonfire I was reminded that fire is energy, powerfully burning up what is not wanted. Sometimes that energy is harnessed and converted, as in a power station or furnace for an engine. Energy is good because it comes from God. All life and energy originate in the Creator. Our God is energy, positive passion which drives and sustains all life, including you and me. Now today is Passion Sunday, the beginning of Passiontide. And yes, we know, that the Passion refers to the suffering of Christ, rather than energy but there is a connection, which we’ll see shortly.

For now, let’s stay with energy. What drives you? What things do you feel passionate about? If you like, what makes you mad? Or puts a fire in your belly? What inflames your passion? (Notice the fire metaphor here). Foe example Does your blood boil when you see retired bankers getting huge pay-offs? Do you get steamed up when you see corrupt African leaders getting richer whilst their people get poorer? Do you see red when a black VW Golf jumps the red light with music thumping and the driver talking on his mobile phone? (I admit, that winds me up!) When we look at the state of the world do we not want to say (if we’re honest) “Why doesn’t God do something? How can He let them get away with it”? Or closer to home, when someone near to us irritates us in some way do we simmer away quietly, wishing they would be different? The thing is this… We want God to bring His judgement to bear on others, to deal with them. However, what God wants is permission to purify us. In Bible terms, God’s judgement means the moment of crisis, putting things right. As GK Chesterton put it, “What is wrong with the world? I am!”

He also said: "Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick." We are all affected by the turbulence around us and the sin within us.

Now we may say, Amen to that, I agree, but how does God bring about the change within the human heart. This is where it gets exciting. The message that comes through in the Bible again and again, is that justice is written into the fabric of the universe, so that things WILL be put right. What is spoken in secret will be shouted from the roof tops, said Jesus. When an M.P. fills in his/her claim form for living expenses and stretches the rules in their favour, it may get exposed. When financiers take highly irresponsible risks to out-do their competitors and build up profits for their firms (and themselves), it will crash; there will be a period of crisis, a calling to account. When you and I pass uncharitable comments about another, our own lack of grace is likely, at some point, to be exposed. There is a day of reckoning, either in this life or the next.

Human beings do have the capacity to do good things and even great things. We have great energy and passion within us. But we also have what St Paul calls ‘unruly passions’ – and he lists them as ‘the works of the flesh’; here are some of them - fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy, and we might add greed. Many of these are actually healthy desires and drives which have gone too far and in the wrong direction. Our passions are a little bit like the bonfire which needs boundaries around it so they don’t get out of control and into areas where they will hurt others.

The trouble is that simply setting rules to live by doesn’t work. The Law of Moses was wonderful; it reflected the character of God, His love and mercy and sense of justice. But, it is hard to live by external regulations and commandments. The writer of Hebrews reminds his readers of what is recorded in Exodus 19; a powerful description of a holy God visiting His people on Mount Sinai. Thunder, lightening, smoke and fire, the trembling of the mountain, a loud trumpet blast and a voice like thunder; neither people nor animals were permitted to approach the mountain beyond the limits set. No wonder Moses trembled with fear. It was a terrifying experience which accompanied the giving of the Law. But we have not come to that mountain says, Hebrews, to that terror, that fear of judgement. Because of the Passion of Christ, because of the offering of himself, a new agreement has been made. We have come to Mount Zion, a mountain of peace where God can be approached because Jesus has mediated this new covenant. The deal is done and we are beneficiaries of it.

So has the fire of God gone out? Has His judgement been completed, his wrath spent? Not at all. Jesus says in Luke 12: ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!’ In the horror and violence of Jesus’ suffering we see the fury of human passion, but we also see the fire of God, the judgement of God on the human condition taken full on by Jesus. All that is unholy, that is human chaff and rebellion is burnt up, in the furnace that we call the Passion. ‘For indeed our God is a consuming fire’.

Of course human rebellion and sin is still very evident in our world. But the way to deal with it is now open. For now, in a sense, God is limited to those who allow His fire to burn in them. John the Baptist promised that Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So it was on the Day of Pentecost that tongues of fire appeared on the first followers. The Holy Spirit can now dwell within and His purifying work changes people from the inside. The work of burning up the weeds within us and being purified can sometimes feel like being in a fiery furnace. God uses difficult circumstances – and especially difficult relationships – to refine us as gold is refined in the fire. But it’s what God’s people sign up to. And in return we are assured that, as Hebrews puts it ‘we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.’ We are living in times that feel like the earth is being shaken. In a sense Judgement has begun; and we are told that one day it will be completed. In the Parable of the Sower in Matthew Jesus says that just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. Paul echoes this in first Corinthians saying that whatever we build in this life will be tested by fire. So I finish with words from the Second letter of Peter, and Chapter 3:

“The present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the godless.

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.”

“For indeed our God is a consuming fire.”