God’s Refining Fire: Exposing, Strengthening, Reordering

Introduction

God’s fire does not come to keep us comfortable; it comes to shake us awake.

This past week, we saw that fire flare up again in the headlines.

A former Kentucky county clerk who, back in 2015, refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples...

...has once again made her way into the news.

This time, she has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.

The landmark case that legalized marriage equality across the country.

Think about that for a moment.

Ten years after advocates poured their

energy,

their time,

their tears,

and in many cases their very lives into the fight for marriage equality...

What seemed like a settled question is now once again up for debate.

What so many celebrated as the fruit of long struggle is being called into question.

For those who fought the hardest, risked the most, and believed the vineyard was finally producing good fruit...

...this moment must feel like a bitter harvest.

And it’s not just this issue.

We all know what it feels like to pour ourselves into a cause, a dream, or a relationship, only to wonder if it will hold.

Sometimes the status quo seems

too strong,

The resistance is too entrenched,

The fruit is too sour.

And in moments like that, we are tempted to grow weary. We are tempted to say, “What’s the use?”

We are tempted to step back, grow silent, and let the vineyard lie as it is...

But scripture does not call us to complacency.

Isaiah sings of a vineyard God lovingly prepared, only to see it yield wild grapes...

...and the editors of Isaiah names that failure for what it is: injustice.

Hebrews reminds us of the great cloud of witnesses who persevered, even when they did not see the fruit of their labor...

...urging us to keep running the race with endurance.

And Jesus speaks of fire, of division, of disruption...

...not to destroy us, but to refine us...

...to shake us awake...

...to call us into God’s new order of righteousness.

So the question before us this morning is this:

What does it mean for us, as followers of Christ, to welcome disruption as part of God’s refining fire?

God's Fire Exposes What is Broken

To welcome disruption as part of God’s refining fire is to allow God’s fire to expose what is broken.

Picture a vineyard.

Every stone cleared,

Every vine planted,

Every wall and watchtower was built.

The vineyard owner has done everything right, expecting sweet grapes.

But at harvest time, instead of a rich crop, the vineyard produces sour, wild grapes...

...useless, bitter, disappointing...

That is Isaiah’s picture of God’s people...

lovingly planted

carefully nurtured

Yet yielding injustice instead of righteousness.

In Isaiah 5, the vineyard represents Israel.

God gave them every gift...

law,

covenant,

land,

prophets...

...expecting fruit of justice.

But when God looked, there was violence and bloodshed.

When God listened for righteousness, God heard cries of distress.

Isaiah’s song is not just about the past...

Friends, it is a mirror, showing us how even God’s people can fail when they grow complacent.

And yet, before the fire ever blazes, before judgment is pronounced, God has already been at work.

In our Wesleyan tradition, we call this prevenient grace...

...the grace that goes before, the love that clears the stones...

...plants the vines...

...builds the walls...

...and nurtures the soil...

Prevenient grace is God’s steadfast love, preparing the vineyard for fruitfulness.

But when the harvest shows bitter grapes instead of sweet fruit, God does not look away.

Then comes what we might call convicting grace...

...the fire that exposes what is broken...

...not to destroy the vineyard, but to reveal what must be uprooted so new fruit can grow...

Convicting grace awakens us to see what we would rather ignore...

...confronts sin we might excuse,

...and demands a response that turns our hears back to God.

We have seen this in our own time.

Think about the church’s history with race, sexuality, or gender.

There were moments when Christians believed in themselves as being faithful...

defended slavery,

segregation,

or exclusion.

They thought they were tending God’s vineyard, but the fruit was bitter.

Even today, when headlines resurface about attempts to roll back marriage equality...

...or when bias quietly shapes how we view those in rural or urban communities...

....we see the vineyard yielding sour fruit.

These are moments when God’s fire exposes what is broken...

...so we cannot pretend the vineyard is flourishing when the fruit tells another story.

The first step in welcoming God’s refining fire is honesty.

Where in our lives, church, or society are producing wild grapes instead of good fruit?

Where have we confused...

comfort with righteousness

silence with peace

Or, complacency with faithfulness?

God’s fire asks us not to look away, but to look closer...

naming what is broken, so that it can be made new.

To welcome disruption as part of God’s refining fire is to allow God’s fire to expose what is broken.

God's Fire Strengthens Perseverance

To welcome disruption as part of God’s refining fire is to allow God’s fire to expose what is broken…

...but we must then allow the fire to strengthen our perseverance.

Running a race is not easy.

The first mile may feel light, but as the miles stretch on, the body tires, the lungs burn, and every step feels heavier than the last.

The crowd at the finish line is still too far to see.

Yet runners push forward...

...fueled by those cheering from the sidelines and the conviction that the race is worth finishing.

The sermon to the Hebrew people calls us to picture life of faith as a long race.

The preacher reminds us of the saints who came before...

...the ones who crossed the Red Sea, tore down walls, endured torture, exile, and death...

Yet many never saw the fullness of God’s promise in their lifetime.

Still… they ran with perseverance, trusting that God was faithful.

Their witness now surrounds us like a great cheering section...

...urging us to run with endurance, fixing our eyes on Jesus...

...the one who endured the cross for the joy set before Him.

Their witness is a testament to justifying grace, that assurance that in Christ the race has already been run, the cross already endured, and reconciliation already secured.

Disruption, challenge, even suffering...

...these do not stop the race.

They strengthen us for it.

We know what it feels like to get tired in pursuing justice.

Think of the climate strikers who filled city streets with thousands of voices, demanding change, only to see policy stalled.

Or advocates for racial justice who march year after year, waiting for real reform.

Or those who fought for marriage equality, only to see it threatened again a decade later.

The vineyard still looks messy, and the race still feels long.

And yet… and yet...

Like the cloud of witnesses, their persistence becomes fuel for us.

...reminding us that endurance is itself an act of faith.

God’s fire strengthens perseverance.

It burns away the illusion that faith will always be easy, or justice quickly won.

It calls us to keep moving when we would rather stop, to keep showing up when the fruit looks slow to ripen.

Where do you feel weary?

Where do you wonder if the race is too long, the vineyard too broken?

The witness of scripture and the fire of God’s Spirit urge us: do not give up.

Keep running.

Keep trusting.

For the One who endured the cross is running alongside you.

God's Fire Reorders Our Lives

As followers of Christ we welcome disruption as part of God’s refining fire by...

...exposing what is broken...

...strengthening our perseverance...

...and opening ourselves to reordering our lives...

Think of a controlled burn in a forest.

Fire crews set the blaze carefully, not to destroy, but to clear away what is dead and overgrown so that new life can emerge.

At first, the flames look terrifying...

...trees scorched...

...smoke rising...

...the landscape stripped bare.

But months later, green shoots break through the soil...

...and the forest is healthier than before.

Fire, in the right hands, makes way for renewal.

In our gospel reading, Jesus says something that can be unsettling:

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!”

Wesley might say that Jesus speaks of sanctifying grace…the Spirit’s refining fire that reshapes our lives toward holiness of heart and life.

Jesus speaks not of a gentle peace, but of division...

...even within families.

Why?

Because the gospel disrupts. We talked about this last week...

Where Jesus turned societal norms upside down and cast a vision of Kin-dom, where the majority serve the marginalized.

This week, Jesus upends false peace built on silence...

...and forces us to choose God’s kin-dom over the world’s comfort.

His fire reorders our lives, burning away what cannot remain so that God’s new order of...

Justice,

Mercy

and truth can take root.

It is a hard word...

...but it is also a hopeful word…

...because it means God is not finished with us.

History is full of these refining fires.

Think of the Civil Rights Movement.

Churches, schools, and even families were divided over

...segregation...

...voting rights...

...and equality...

That disruption was painful and costly.

Yet out of that fire came...

...new laws...

...new opportunities...

...and a reshaping of the American conscience.

Today, we wrestle with gender and sexuality...

These are not easy conversations, but through them...

...God is clearing away what is unjust so that new life can grow.

God’s fire still reorders our lives today.

It asks us to let go of our illusions of comfort, to allow our assumptions and biases to be burned away, to reorder our priorities around Christ’s kingdom.

Welcoming disruption means trusting that when God unsettles us, it is not to destroy us, but to renew us.

The vineyard can bear good fruit again.

The race can be finished with joy.

The fire that unsettles us is the same fire that purifies and makes all things new.

Kerygmatic Fulfillment

The good news, Church...

…is that God’s fire is not the fire of destruction...

...but the fire of love.

It is the fire of Christ themself, who for the joy set before them endured the cross...

...scorning its shame, and now sits at the right hand of God.

This is prevenient grace...

...the fire that goes before us,

awakening us to what is broken,

refusing to let us settle for wild grapes when God planted us for justice.

This is justifying grace...

...the fire that assures us the race has already been won in Christ...

...that we are reconciled and made whole not by our effort...

...but by our Creator.

And this is sanctifying grace...

...the fire that keeps burning within us...

...refining us toward holiness of heart and life...

...calling us to love God and neighbor until righteousness takes root.

So when the vineyard looks barren...

When justice feels fragile...

When the status quo seems immovable...

We remember… Christ has already run the race...

Christ has already borne the cross...

Christ has already overcome the grave...

The victory of God’s justice is not uncertain… it is already secured in our most Holy God.

That means we do not give up...

We do not throw up our hands in despair...

We welcome the disruption because God is making all things new through it.

So let us rise as people of the vineyard...

...as runners in the race...

...as witnesses to the fire...

...not shrinking back, but leaning forward.

The One who shakes us awake is the same One who plants us, sustains us, and promises that righteousness will take root.

In the name of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.