St Clement's, Leigh on Sea
Ash Wednesday 21st February 1996
The Lighter Side of Lent
Ash Wednesday would seem to be as appropriate an occasion as any other to talk
about burning.
Jesus spoke about "letting our light shine before men" and not
"hiding our light under a bran tub". It's probable that he had some
kind of oil-lamp in mind when he said this.
I haven't got an oil lamp with me today, but I have got something which will do
as well - an ordinary cigarette lighter.
This lighter has three parts - the fuel, the wick and the flint.
All three of them are necessary to the burning, flame-producing process; and yet
each one is quite different and works in a different way from the other two.
Let's take the fuel first.
Petrol, propane, butane or whatever it is. You certainly won't get a flame if
you don't have that. But all these inflammable liquids or gases need careful
controlling. Just setting fire to a quantity of petrol will produce a
spectacular result for sure, but not the result we want. Well get the burning
all right, but the destructive sort of burning that we insure ourselves against
and pay the fire brigade to put out.
Next think of the wick By itself it will hardly burn at all; it will just
produce an unpleasant smell before going out in a puff of smoke. But soak it in
the fuel and it will draw it up by capillary attraction, in a steady controlled
flow and produce a well regulated flame.
But without the flint, neither wick nor fuel will light at all.
The job of the flint is to produce a shower of short-lived sparks, hot enough to
ignite the wick and the fuel, but not long enough lasting to be a danger.
These three elements of the lighter, the fuel, the wick, and the flint have very
different natures from each other. In this they correspond to three very
differently natured people that you meet in any church in the course of our
Christian discipleship.
Lent is the time to ask ourselves two questions. Am I fuel, flint or wick by
nature?; and am I using that nature to its fullest possible extent in the
service of Jesus Christ? The Fuel-christian is the enthusiastic, quick-tempered,
flamboyant, let's-get-a-move-on person, very active, and creative, but perhaps
rather impatient with those who are not like him. To the Fuel-christians here
tonight I would say this: Give thanks to God for your nature; be as keen as you
will for the things of God. But take care. Do not think that God can only work
your way. Speed, decisiveness and accuracy are all good thins - but they are not
necessarily as essential to God as they seem to you to be. So be tolerant of
the slow, the hesitant, the disorganized, or those who, like the wick, proceed
at a more measured pace than you would choose. Remember that, without the wick
your fuel would burn uncontrollably and do harm rather than good.
Wick-christians are those who steadily and gradually soak up the goodness of God
and transport the fuel from the reservoir enabling it to burn in a controlled
manner. To the Wick-christians I would say this: Give thanks to God for your
nature. But be careful of this. Don't suppose that you can burn without the
Fuel-christians. They are as necessary to you as you are to them. So be tolerant
of those who are always wanting to "get things done"; beware of becoming so set in your slow-burning ways that you accumulate a whole lot of lampblack
which reduces your efficiency. By all means be a creature of habit; but
remember, that is what God has made you, just as he made the Fuel-christians
more inflammable. Don't suppose that what comes to you easily by nature is of
the same value as a virtue you have acquired by grace and self-discipline. It is
those who repent and change that rejoice the angels of God, not those who remain
what they are by nature, however attractive that may be. From time to time God
may make demands upon you which run clean contrary to the nature you were born
with.
Flint-christians are those bright sparks whose ideas get the flame burning in
the first place. A flash of genius and the fuel on the wick is alight.
If you're a Flint-christian, an ideas person then thank God for your nature. But
be careful. Ideas need putting into practice, and ideas-people are notorious for
expecting others to do the hard graft and getting very shirty when they don't.
Remember, ther e are good ideas, bad ideas, and ideas "whose hour has not
yet come". Don't go off in a huff if the wick fails to ignite first time
you offer it a bright-spark idea. Wait a little and try again. Be patient but
persevering. Don't get discouraged just because your ideas don't catch on.
And to all three types, Flint-, Wick- and Fuel-christians I would say this.
Remember you are all part of one and the same lighter or oil lamp.
Without that framework within which you are contained you wouldn't be able to
work at all. Even so Christians are all part of one body, the Church the body of
Christ in this place and that place, the local lighter, the local oil-lamp in
Leigh on Sea, Lewisham or wherever it may be.
Suppose the flint were to say to the fuel "I have no need of your".
It would be mistaken. A flint can't work without something to ignite; or imagine
the wick saying to the flint "I have no need of you". It is wrong. It
can't light itself however hard it tries. Of if the fuel says to the wick
"I can burn without you, thank you". It can indeed, but only by
becoming a dangerous fireball in the process.
Or if any of the three says to the lighter or oil-lamp "We don't need
you" they would be wrong. The body of the lighter is necessary to keep the
three elements in the right relationship with each other in order for them to do
their respective jobs properly. It's like the people who say "I don't need
the Church in order to do God's will".
Without the Church our usefulness will be that of a wick without fuel or a flint
without a wick.