Today was supposed to be a different kind of day. Yesterday was supposed to be the day of my ordination and today was to be a day of celebration. But, just as Nadab and Abihu learned… when you play with strange fire, sometimes you get burned. So, this isn’t going to be the typical sermon I preach when I visit. Its not going to be about some issue of social justice or giving advice about how to live out God’s word. Today, I’m going to talk about the thing that SHOULD have happened this weekend, but didn’t. I’m going to share with you perspective on the events that led up today and share with you a little discussed story from the Old Testament.
Nadab and Abihu had been called to service in the priesthood.
Nadab and Abihu had been called… called to service in the priesthood.
It means giving up a part of yourself in service to God.
1. What does it mean to be chosen or called?
It means that a person is set apart for a specific task. In the case of Nadab and Abihu this occurred at the very inauguration of the priesthood. Aaron and his sons were the first to be officially called out and ordained for service.
What did this mean then?
The priesthood was a very serious undertaking in early biblical times. Although any Israelite could commune with God, the levitical priests directed the worship at the central sanctuaries. They were primarily responsible for making sure that the well loved religious traditions were honored.
Priests performed four major roles: 1. keepers of the sanctuaries, 2. delivered oracles from God, 3. preserved, interpreted, and taught the sacred tradition, and 4. offered sacrifices. They served as mediators between God and the people and between the people and their God.
What does this mean now?
Well, in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - or CC DOC, it means that someone has professed a deep faith in God and Christ and has felt a definitive call to the ministry and have maid an Definite and informed decision, in response to God, to serve in the Order of Ministry.
2. Care for the common life of the whole body within which all members come to know themselves as children of God and find confirmed their gifts and callings for special service;
3. Mediation of the divine love to the life of all persons, including the society as a whole, through loving service particularly at the points of greatest human need and primarily through the daily work of God's people.
My offering became unholy because it no longer came out of love.
2. How do the “chosen” make mistakes?
Nadab and Abihu
Here are 4 different theories on what went so wrong that day:
1. some say it’s the *way* that they offered the fire. They used the wrong coals or said the wrong words.
2. some say it’s the timing: that they somehow messed up the order in which the sacrifices were to occur and because of that they were zapped.
3. others say they did it in the wrong place, they used the wrong alter or the wrong kind of offering for the altar or something like that.
4. and then there are those who say that they were just drunk.
In the previous scene, the Tabernacle had been recently dedicated and the priests consecrated. Moses and Aaron prayed for the "glory of God to appear" (Leviticus 9:6). And, God's glory did appear—as their offerings were accepted through fire. Moses and Aaron received a gift: God's presence on the altar. Whereas Moses and Aaron followed the will of God without expectation, Nadab and Abihu believed they could control God's tangible presence in their lives. Their religious zeal was to embrace God's presence whenever they wished. Their fault lay not in their intent, but in their motive.
They wanted to badly to do the right thing—the religious thing. They wanted too much to be pleasing to God, but instead of doing things the way they were prescribed, they took matters into their own hands and paid a fiery price.
Me/Committee
I’m a lot like Nadab and Abihu. I was chosen for this. I was called by God to this thing we call ministry and I wanted it badly. I wanted to answer the call. I wanted it badly enough to quit a good job, uproot my life, go through four years of seminary driving day after day after day to Lexington and back, writing countless papers, taking tests, doing assignments, and completely stressing out myself, my husband, and my family. I wanted it. I wanted to do the right thing, to answer the call and to be what I thought God was asking me to be.
And maybe? Just maybe? Maybe I wanted it too badly. I worked too hard. I did too much and I took on a full time ministry that only paid me for part time work. I burned myself out nearly completely. I was nearly consumed by my own desire to serve.
We become so consumed by what it is we think God wants us to do that we stop listening to God.
3. So, why is “strange fire” so dangerous?
We don’t understand it or its power, nor do we understand the consequences of offering it.
Nadab and Abihu did not understand what they were doing. They did not know what their offering would mean or how it would be accepted. Their ignorance had a high and dangerous price. When we don’t understand what we are offering we can become consumed…even if we THINK we know what we are doing.
Just as Nadab and Abihu were consumed…just as I was consumed…the very thing we offer can completely overtake us and we will be left with nothing but ashes.
It happened to me.
We become so consumed by what it is we think God wants us to do that we stop listening to God. We stop hearing God. We are overtaken by the role we think we are supposed to play that we forget who originally ordained us to perform that role. We become consumed.
Because we can’t control it.
And because it has the power to completely consume us.
There is only time for finding new life. Finding a new way to live out this calling.
4. What do we do with the ashes?
In this story, no one is permitted by God or Moses to react to the deaths.
None of the usual signs of grief and mourning for the dead are permitted on penalty of more death. These priests are called upon to keep going…without even thinking about it because their ordination means that service to God takes precedence over everything else. EVERYTHING. They aren’t permitted to grieve, they have to just go on.
In ancient mythology, there is the story of the Phoneix.
It is said that as early as 500 B.C., people believed in the phoenix, a legendary bird that would live for 500 years. Near the end of its life, the phoenix would build a funeral pyre for itself. As it began to die, it would lay down on the wood; the wood would burst into flames consuming the phoenix after the bird died. The phoenix would emerge anew from the ashes of the funeral pyre stronger and more beautiful than before living on for another 500 years.
Thus, the phoenix, the ancient mythical creature that is consumed by flames, only to be reborn anew, is another symbol of transformation and a representation of the grief response. The transformation phase is similar to that of the mythical creature the phoenix, which after burning on a pyre, rises gloriously and triumphantly from the ashes to live again. This mythical bird is especially representative for those who feel entirely consumed by the deep emotional response to grief before re-emerging, in a sense, being reborn by the experience
There is no more time for grief.
Finding a new way to live out this calling.
Reborn
From these ashes.
Strange Fire: The Indigo Girls
i come to you with strange fire
i make an offering of love
the incense of my soul is burned
by the fire in my blood
i come with a softer answer
to the questions that lie in your path
i want to harbor you from the anger
find a refuge from the wrath
this is a message
a message of love
love that moves from the inside out
love that never grows tired
i come to you with strange fire
fire
mercenaries of the shrine
now who are you to speak for god
with haughty eyes and lying tongues
and hands that shed innocent blood
now who delivered you the power
to interpret calvary
you gamble away our freedom
to gain your own authority
find another state of mind
you know it's time we all learned
to grab hold
strange fire burns
with the motion of love
fire
fire
when you learn to love yourself
you will dissolve all the stones that are cast
now you will learn to burn the icing sky
to melt the waxen mask
i said to have the gift of true release
this is a peace that will take you higher
oh i come to you with my offering
i bring you strange fire
this is a message
a message of love
love that moves from the inside out
love that never grows tired
i come to you with strange fire
fire
fire
i come to you with strange fire