Don’t Forget the Fire
This past Sunday we had a baptism after our morning service. During the sermon, I had asked for 4 volunteers from among those who would be baptized to come to the front to help me with something. “It’s not going to be painful or embarrassing,” I told them. Three young girls immediately jumped up and started toward the front, and then one boy joined them, after I laughed and said, “Where are the young men?”
I was prepared for this demonstration because I had a conversation the day before with my son-in-law, a captain with the Leavenworth, Kansas fire department. He told me there are four positions on their fire trucks. On each truck there is a driver. You can probably figure out what he does. In the seat next to the driver sits the captain. He is in charge of the scene, whenever the truck arrives at the place to which it has been sent. Then behind these two are the nozzle man and the hydrant man. The nozzle man is in charge of the hoses, getting the pipes unrolled and to the structure that is on fire. The hydrant man is in charge of locating the nearest hydrant, so the pipe can be connected to a water source.
I assigned each of the four children a job, and told them that they were firefighters, on their way to a fire. We all looked out over the congregation, as though we could see the fire in the distance. I asked them to remind me what their jobs were. “Driver! Captain! Nozzle man! Hydrant man!” they shouted, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. I asked them again, “What’s your job?” They answered again, looking intently down the road at the blazing inferno. Then I said, “But wait a minute. What is your job, really? I mean, what are we going down the road to do?” They looked at me with puzzled expressions, and then one of the youngest girls said with authority, “Put out the fire.” Ah, yes. Don’t forget the fire.
Do you remember what Jesus said to his disciples right before he ascended into heaven? In simplest terms he said: Go. Make. Disciples. We live to follow Jesus, and to make disciples of others who will grow as followers of Jesus Christ, and make disciples themselves.
In the same way that God did not design just “certain humans” to be able to reproduce, God did not call only certain Christians to “go, make disciples.” He has given each one of us who belong to him everything we need to be able to do that. If you say, “I can’t do it,” let me remind you that you have the Spirit of the living God in you. If you say, “but evangelism is not my gift,” that is OK, too. It is not most people’s gift. But the gift of evangelism is just an extra empowerment to do what each of us is called to do: be a witness for Jesus Christ.
Some say, “Well, I witness with my life.” That’s great! But when Paul asked for the Ephesian church to pray for him, he didn’t say, “pray that my life might be more visible to the lost.” He asked them to “pray for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.” Sometimes people misquote St. Francis of Assisi, who never said, “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” The closest he got to it was encouragement that we must make sure our lives match what we say. To say “preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words” is like saying, “Feed the hungry at all times, if necessary, use food.”
If we are to make disciples, we will need to use words. If you say you don’t have time, you misunderstand the command. Jesus was saying, “As you go,” make disciples. It doesn’t mean you have to stand on a street corner and preach, although you can. It means that your lifestyle intentionally becomes gospel-oriented.
Like the four firefighters, we each have different talents, ministries, and callings. But they all are given by God to serve the same purpose: to make disciples. Don’t forget the fire.