FIRE DESCENDING

The Fire of God Descends Upon the Altar, Sanctifying and Renewing the People of God

A SERMON FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

INTRODUCTION

Brethren beloved, as we gather in prayer today at the Cathedral Parish of Sts. Mitrophan and Alopen, our hearts are drawn not only to the holy Scriptures set before us, but also to the company of saints who shine as witnesses to the one, catholic, and apostolic Church. The collects of our liturgy name for us a great cloud of witnesses: saints who preached, prayed, suffered, and taught across many lands. We are not parochial Christians, shut in by the narrow walls of empire or race. We are heirs of a faith that stretched from the banks of the Tigris to the wild Atlantic cliffs, from the high deserts of Mesopotamia to the green isles of Britain.

Consider the saints of the East: Sts. Qardagh, the great warrior prince; Mar Shimun Bar Sabbae, the great Cotholicos and Confessor; Ephrem the Syrian, who sang his theology in hymns sweeter than honey; Isaac of Nineveh, who plumbed the depths of divine mercy in the quiet of his cell; Aphrahat, the Persian sage, who taught with clarity and sobriety what it means to follow Christ in truth and love. These holy fathers, formed not in the courts of Constantinople nor beneath the shadow of Rome, but in the deserts and valleys of Mesopotamia, bear witness that Christian universals are not defined by empire, but by holiness of life and soundness of doctrine.

It was not the shifting politics of emperors that kept their faith, but the burning love of Christ, the light of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching handed down from the Apostles. They remind us that the true East, not merely Byzantium, but the land watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, cradle of Abraham, Daniel, and all the holy prophets, preserved for us the same Gospel we proclaim today. Their voice is our voice; their confession is our confession.

And consider the saints of our own margins in the West: the Anglo-Celtic fathers who prayed in windswept stone chapels, who fasted on the northern hills, who carried the Gospel to the Norse, the Angles, the Saxons. Though far removed in land, they were close in spirit to their Mesopotamian brethren. They too knew the faith apart from imperial politics; they too understood that the universality of the Church does not rest on Caesar’s sword, but on Christ’s cross.

Thus, in our Western Orthodox patrimony, we look both East and West, and find our home on the margins of empire. Our Anglo-Celtic saints and the Mesopotamian fathers speak with one voice across continents, testifying that the Church is not the property of human power, nor the invention of scholars, but the dwelling of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, the altar upon which God pours His holy fire. Their universality is not imperial, but spiritual: a universality of repentance, holiness, and sacramental grace.

It is in their company, and under their witness, that we now turn to the holy Scriptures for this Sunday. For the same fire that fell upon the altar in the days of Aaron, the same Spirit that inspired the Apostle Paul, the same Lord who wept over Jerusalem, still comes to us here: in this land of the Far East, in our tongue, in our worship. And it is in that Spirit that we hear and proclaim the Word of God this day.

SCRIPTURE

Leviticus 9:1–24

And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel. And he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering. Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a meat offering mingled with oil, for today the Lord will appear unto you. And they brought that which Moses commanded before the tabernacle of the congregation. And all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded that ye should do, and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you. And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself, and for the people. And offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them, as the Lord commanded. Aaron therefore went unto the altar, and slew the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron brought the blood unto him, and he dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the bottom of the altar. But the fat, and the kidneys, and the caul above the liver of the sin offering, he burnt upon the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses. And the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire without the camp. And he slew the burnt offering, and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled round about upon the altar. And they presented the burnt offering unto him, with the pieces thereof, and the head, and he burnt them upon the altar. And he did wash the inwards and the legs, and burnt them upon the burnt offering on the altar. And he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first. And he brought the burnt offering, and offered it according to the manner. And he brought the meat offering, and took a handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning. He slew also the bullock and the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the people. And Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled upon the altar round about, and the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump, and that which covereth the inwards, and the kidneys, and the caul above the liver. And they put the fat upon the breasts, and he burnt the fat upon the altar. And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses commanded. And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

1 Corinthians 12:1–11

Brethren, concerning spiritual gifts, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

St. Luke 19:41–47

At that time, when Jesus was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple.

SERMON

I will say these to you In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Beloved in Christ, today’s Scriptures summon us into the blazing presence of God, and they warn us of the peril of turning aside from His visitation.

From the Old Testament we hear of Aaron’s consecration in the wilderness. Moses commands, the sacrifices are laid, and then, “the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat; which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces” (Leviticus 9:23–24). God’s holy fire is not a tame symbol, nor a religious ornament. It is consuming, it is real, it is fearful, and it demands reverence.

From the New Testament, Saint Paul teaches that this same fire now burns in the Church through the gifts of the Spirit: “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4). Yet these gifts are not playthings. They are not for self-exaltation or for disorder, but for “the edifying of the Church” (1 Corinthians 14:12). Paul reminds us that even prophecy and tongues are nothing without love: “Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

And in the Gospel, our Lord comes near to Jerusalem and weeps. “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:42). He who is the Glory of the Lord in the flesh, greater than the fire on Sinai, greater than the fire in Aaron’s day, greater than the fire of Pentecost, stands before them, and they know Him not. The judgment He pronounces is fearful: the temple will fall, the stones will be cast down, and Jerusalem shall be left desolate.

FIRE, GIFT, AND JUDGMENT

Do you see the unity? In Leviticus, fire descends to consecrate sacrifice. In Paul, fire descends in gifts of the Spirit. In the Gospel, fire is poised in judgment against unbelief. The same God, the same holy fire: to those who worship rightly, it is light and life; to those who resist, it is consuming flame. As the Epistle to the Hebrews warns: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

St. John Chrysostom said: “The fire came down upon the altar in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament the fire comes down into the souls of the faithful.” What was once external, burning flesh and fat, is now internal, burning away sin and kindling divine love. The Church Fathers understood this: Origen called the Holy Spirit “a fire that consumes the thorns of sin, but illuminates the heart with divine wisdom.”

But if the Spirit is given to us for edification, what happens if we misuse or despise His visitation? Then, as St. Augustine observed, “the very gifts that should have been for salvation become occasions of condemnation.” If we exalt tongues above love, if we exalt ritual above mercy, if we exalt our own pride above the humility of Christ, and we turn the fire of God into our own destruction.

THE TRAGEDY OF JERUSALEM

This is what our Lord wept over: the holy city, consecrated for God’s dwelling, had become a “den of thieves.” The temple cleansed by fire in Leviticus now needed cleansing by the whip of Christ. Jerusalem had missed her visitation. How great the tragedy, that the very city built to be the dwelling place of the Glory could not see the Glory when He came!

And yet, beloved, how often do we resemble that city? We, too, are consecrated as temples of the Holy Ghost, and yet we clutter our hearts with thieves: idols of lust, envy, resentment, greed, pride, and vain ambition. We have known the fire of God at our Baptism, at our Chrismation, at the Holy Table where Christ gives us His Body and Blood, and yet we live as though He had never visited us at all. Christ weeps not only over Jerusalem, but over every Christian heart that shuts Him out while claiming His name.

THE CHOICE BEFORE US

Here, then, is the challenge of today: shall the fire of the Lord be for us glory and transfiguration, or judgment and ruin? If we walk in love, the Spirit’s gifts will burn bright in us for the edification of the Church and the salvation of the world. If we harden our hearts, the same fire will consume us.

The great English poet, the Rev. George Herbert once prayed in “The Altar”:

“A broken altar, Lord, thy servant rears,

Made of a heart and cemented with tears;

Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;

No workman’s tool hath touched the same.

A heart alone is such a stone,

As nothing but thy power doth cut.

Wherefore each part of my hard heart

Meets in this frame, to praise thy name.

That if I chance to hold my peace,

These stones to praise thee may not cease.

Oh let thy blessed sacrifice be mine,

And sanctify this altar to be thine.”

Fr. Herbert understood: our hearts are altars, and God’s fire must fall on them. We must present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God (Romans 12:1). We must love one another with pure hearts fervently, or else the temple of our lives becomes desolate.

THE SUMMATION

Beloved, today Christ visits us anew. Let us not, like Jerusalem, fail to recognize the day of His visitation. Let us welcome the holy fire that purges and illumines, let us seek the higher gifts, let us pursue love above all, and let us cleanse the temple of our hearts that the Spirit may dwell there in glory. Then when the fire falls, it will not consume us, but perfect us, until we see Him face to face.

COLLECT

Let us pray…

O Lord our God, who of old didst send forth thy fire to consume the sacrifice, and in these last days hast poured forth thy Spirit upon thy Church to edify and to sanctify thy people: Grant us grace so to offer unto thee the sacrifice of a pure heart, that the fire of thy love may cleanse us from sin, kindle us unto charity, and make us temples meet for thy dwelling; that we, knowing the time of thy visitation, may not be cast down in judgment, but lifted up in glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.