Standing Firm amid the Shaking

There is a passage near the end of the book called Hebrews in the New Testament that talks about a "whole lot of shaking going on." It celebrates the shaking. It tells those who hear the letter to remember what the shaking means. "Yet once again I will shake not the earth alone, but the heavens also. These words "once again --and only once -- imply that the shaking of these created things means their removal, and then what is not shaken will remain. The kingdom we are given is unshakable. Let us therefore give thanks to God.... for God is a devouring fire."

These are comforting works to me. They encourage me not to worry too much about all the turmoil and the agitation that always seems to be going on. It means that I try not to "preserve and protect too much" The whole talk about "passing on things to future generations" and "maintaining things" of value sounds like a lot of frightened talk and a whole lot of lack of faith in the God of the Future. I would think that we might be a little more interested in the shaking so that we, in fact, might discover what will be left standing. It does not sound like it is my job to protect or hold on to those things that are unshakable. It is merely to let go of the things that are shaking and watch what falls.

The image of "God is a devouring fire" with visions of those forest fires in Southern California is not an image that would fit the modern talk about God. There is lots of talk about God refining us and purifying us. There is the laundry image of God washing us and making us clean. There is a judge that pronounces us innocence, a miscarriage of justice if there ever was one. There are other images but the image of God as a raging fire burning all that is around it is not a very loving and comforting image. We want the teddy bear God and the "best friend" God.

Both of these images forces us to acknowledge that there is a massive amount of stuff that is going to have to be cleared away and destroyed before we find ourselves in the presence of the Holy One.