Preach : Embers & Ashes : 17-Feb

We had a pastor visit us at CCK today - he was from Switzerland (but spoke incredible English, with only a slight German accent). He started off sharing about a senior catholic pastor in Switzerland who had recently written a book about embers and ashes - that as a church, they (and other churches) may have become to focused on the ashes produced by the fire, and lost focus on the embers, on the fire.

Leviticus 6:8-13 (NIV) - The Burnt Offering

8 The Lord said to Moses: 9 “Give Aaron and his sons this command: ‘These are the regulations for the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. 10 The priest shall then put on his linen clothes, with linen undergarments next to his body, and shall remove the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed on the altar and place them beside the altar. 11 Then he is to take off these clothes and put on others, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. 12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

1) The fire needs to keep on burning. A critical point drilled in by the fact that it is stated multiple times in the text.
2) Fire falls on sacrifice - sacrifice is dead flesh. Are we willing to let our flesh die, to sacrifice that at God's altar? Ultimately God is a consuming fire, and whilst we recognise his grace and love falling on our lives, we also need to recognise that his fire will also burn all that which is not important - are we open to that happening?
3) You cannot have continuous fire like without producing ashes - ashes are not bad, and should be treated with the due respect (the priest needed to change clothes for this, and place the ashes in a special place). However need to recognise the ashes are not the focus - they are not holy, the fire/sacrifice is holy, so the ashes were holy, but no more.
4) Do we recognise where we have lost focus - where we have become to focused on the ashes, on the rituals or other human creations, which were born out of something good, but are no longer good themselves.
5) "A third of my theology is wrong, but I am not sure which part it is" - NT Wright. Scripture can create ashes through own misinterpretation - are we open to being told by God, area's where our interpretation is wrong?