Keep It Alive

October 27, 2024 homily on Romans 12:1-12 by Pastor Galen

“Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord. When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful.”  

– Romans 12:11-12, NIRV

This past Friday evening, the youth leaders from City Harbor Church and I took the youth from our two churches, along with two of my daughter’s school friends, to the corn maze and “extreme hayride” at Beachmont Christian Ministries in Kingsville, Maryland, in northern Baltimore County. Beachmont is home to Maryland’s largest corn maze, a two-mile-long path cut through a cornfield where participants gather clues to find their way out. Both the corn maze and the “extreme hayride”—a thrilling, rollercoaster-like wagon ride pulled by a tractor—make for great youth activities.

This year, however, I decided to sit the corn maze out, and instead I sat by the large campfire with Steve, the husband of one of City Harbor’s youth leaders. We chatted off and on during the two hours that it took the youth to complete the maze. I was especially grateful for the warmth of the fire as the sun slipped down below the horizon and it grew quite chilly.

As we sat enjoying the warmth of the campfire, eventually the flames started to fade. But before the fire died out, someone came by and added a few more logs, bringing the fire roaring back to life. After a while the fire started to die down again, and someone else came by and added some more logs to keep the fire going. At one point, a volunteer who was walking past stopped and used the cowboy hat he had been wearing to fan the flames back to life. And this cycle took place throughout the evening, such that the fire never went out during the whole time we were there.

What struck me was that there didn’t seem to be one person charged with keeping the fire going. Rather, all of the volunteers there seemed to see it as their responsibility to keep the fire going, and if and when the fire started to go out, they stepped in to bring it back to life — whether by adding logs or twigs, or fanning it back into flame.

And this, I believe, is in many ways what the Apostle Paul was describing when he said in Romans 12 to “Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive.” 

Don’t Let the Fire Go Out

You see, often we hear verses such as this, and we read them as commands to us individually. “I” am not supposed to let the fire in “my” heart go out. 

But we have to remember that most of the books of the New Testament were written to congregations and communities of Christians. The book of Romans in particular was written to a community of Christians in Rome. In fact, in the first few verses of this chapter, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that he’s talking to a community of people when he starts out by saying “brothers and sisters” (Romans 12:1). He goes on to discuss the importance of the various members of the body of Christ, and how every Christian has been given a spiritual gift, as our Sister Camille reminded us last week. According to Paul, some Christians are gifted in prophecy (or proclaiming the word of God), while others are gifted in ministry, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, and still others have been given the gift of compassion. 

And then, after discussing these various gifts given to different members of the Church, Paul says, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit.” (Romans 12:9-11 NRSV). This word “ardent” can also be translated as “fervent.” Or, in the translation we’ve been using, “Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive” (Romans 12:11 NIRV).

It’s obvious, given those preceding verses, that Paul is writing to a community of Christians, not just individuals, reminding them of their collective responsibility to keep the fire burning. None of them were meant to sit off to the side shivering in the cold, complaining about the fire going out. Rather, Paul was calling each of the believers to use the various gifts and resources they had been given to fan the fire back — to help encourage one another to remain fervent and to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love their neighbors as themselves. Everyone was charged with keeping the fire burning.

Tending to the Fire

In many ways this is what we do when we come together for worship on Sunday mornings. We come to add more kindling to the fire, and to fan the fire back into flame. It’s easy in the midst of a busy week to lose sight of what’s important. We get distracted or discouraged. We lose hope. We need each other to help each other remember what’s important. We come together and sing songs that fill us with hope, and encourage us. We greet each other and share about our week. We hear a Sunday school lesson and a sermon that helps “stoke the fire.” And in these ways we add more logs to the fire, to help the fire continue to burn bright. 

It’s also why we gather throughout the week to grow together in our love for God. It’s why we’ve added a devotional element to our Men’s Fellowship time on Thursday mornings, and why we’re looking to start a Women’s Book Club via Zoom, so that some of the women of our church who can’t come out in person can join in by Zoom and be encouraged in the middle of the week. And it’s why Lee Layman faithfully mails out the bulletins and sermons and Upper Room devotionals to those who cannot make it out to church each week — these are all ways that we seek to encourage one another in the Lord, to add some more “kindling” to the fire, and to fan the fire back into flame. It’s also why we’ve encouraged our youth to join in with City Harbor Church’s youth group, and why we’re working to ensure that people of every age group in our church have places where they can grow and be encouraged in the Lord. 

It’s also why every year we gather together for our annual Church Conference (which we’ll have right after our service today), where we’ll celebrate the ministries and partnerships we’ve developed over the past year, and where we’ll do important work of electing our officers and planning for the upcoming year. We want to ensure that the ministry of our church continues on for future generations, and that we are correctly allocating the resources of our church so that the fire continues to burn bright.

Prayers, Presence, Gifts, Service and Witness

And so what are some things that we can each do to ensure that the fire does not go out but continues to burn bright? Well of course there are things that we can all individually do to ensure that our passion for God does not wane, such as setting aside a few minutes each day to study Scripture and talk with God. Perhaps it’s while you’re driving, or waiting for the bus. Maybe it’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, or the last thing you do before you go to bed. Whenever or wherever you do it, it’s important to set aside time individually to talk with God and and listen for what God might want to say to you.

But there are also ways that we can each contribute to the ongoing ministry and mission of our church, and ensure that the fire continues to burn bright for future generations. 

In the United Methodist Church, when someone becomes a member of the church, they profess their faith in God and their desire to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, they commit to join with their church community in keeping the vows of our Baptismal Covenant. One of those vows is to faithfully participate in the life and ministries of our local congregation through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness. 

The beautiful thing is that these are things that we can all do. You don’t have to be a multimillionaire or a superstar to support the church with your gifts. We’re all called to contribute as we can. 10% of our income is a good starting point, based on the biblical “tithe” that was expected of every member of the Israelite nation. Some are able to give more, and I would encourage you to do so as God leads, but if you’re not currently in the habit of giving, 10% is a great goal to shoot for.

Prayer is something we can all certainly do as well, no matter how young or old we are. And this is why we print the names of people who have requested prayer every week in the insert of our bulletin and send it out by email — so that we remember to pray for one another and the needs of our church. 

Faithfully participating with our presence is certainly vital as well — particularly in this day and age when fewer people overall are attending church. It’s difficult to keep the fire burning if no one “shows up” for church!

And then of course there is service and witness. And this is where, in the previous verses, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we each have different gifts and graces for ministry, and we all have different roles to play in serving in the Church.

Different Gifts, Same Ministry

At the risk of extending the campfire metaphor too far, the other evening as I was watching the campfire, I was struck not only by the various volunteers who came by to stoke the fire and add more kindling, but I was also struck by the fact that someone had gone to the effort to chop up all of that wood in the first place. Someone else, perhaps, had identified the best place to hold the bonfire, and someone else had actually started the fire. The whole campfire took planning, forethought, and effort. It required with people vision, gifts for administration, and skills to chop up the wood. Not only that, but someone had to teach the person how to start the fire, and how to keep it going.

In the same way, in the church, Paul says that “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the encourager, in encouragement; the giver, in sincerity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness” (Romans 12:6-8). We all have a role to play in ensuring that the fire in our hearts does not go out.

Keep the Fire Alive

And so this morning, may we recommit ourselves to never let the fire go out. May we keep it alive, and may it keep burning bright! May we work together to add more kindling, and fan it back into flame. And as we serve the Lord, may we have hope and be joyful. Even in the midst of suffering, may we be patient. And may we be faithful in prayer. 

Amen!