O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners' stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor You; cities of ruthless nations will revere You. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. (Isaiah:25-18)

 

     If you were here last week you'll remember that I spoke with great affection about Sandbridge Beach – the beach our family spent most of its beach-time on while we were in Virginia on vacation. A beautiful beach it was – uncrowded, with great waves and beautiful white sand. We did, however, make one mistake. The first time we went there, it was about 1:00 in the afternoon, and it was a very hot, very humid and very sunny day, and since it was early afternoon, the sun was directly overhead. We realized our mistake the first time we left the changerooms, crossed the street and stepped on the the sand to walk to the water. The sand was hot – it was very hot! In just a few seconds it was becoming unbearable. I had to pick Hannah up and carry her because her feet couldn't take it and even my own feet - protected  (I thought) by sandals – were barely able to tolerate the heat of the sand. Then, even with sunblock, sunburn was a very real issue that day. We learned our lesson. From that day on we went to the Beach later in the afternoon and early evening, which had two advantages -  the parking lot booths closed at 5:00 meaning we could save the $5 parking fee, and the sun wasn't directly overhead, which meant that neither our feet nor our skin burnt. It was sweet relief!

 

     As Canadians we have this unusual relationship with heat. We spend all winter yearning for it and then all summer cursing it! As Christians we  also have an unusual relationship with heat. On the one hand a lot of the biblical imagery about heat isn't very pleasant. I saw a church not too long ago that chose to play up this negative image of heat with the following sign in front of the building: “Exposure To The Son” (spelled S-O-N) “ will prevent burning!” That's not really the imagery I would use to promote the Christian faith, but I have to confess that I noticed the sign and remember the church it was in front of, so if the old saying “any publicity is good publicity” is true then I suppose the sign served its purpose. Still, I wouldn't want that sign in front of Central United Church. You see I like to think of heat and its effects in a more positive way – you might say that I like to have “heartwarming” thoughts about heat – and, yes, I apologize for the pun! But I would rather focus perhaps on the experience of someone like John Wesley who – at the time of his conversion experience – spoke simply of his heart being “strangely warmed” - touched by God with a love that would transform him completely. You see, heat can burn, but heat can also comfort. We'll all understand that better and in a far more personal way about 6 months from now in the middle of February.

 

     The prophet Isaiah saw “heat” in both the positive and negative ways. He understood that the heat of the desert would represent something bad. The desert has little shade, little water and very hot sand – probably hotter than the sand we walked on in Virginia. The desert was a foreboding place – a place of mystery and demons; a few centuries later Jesus went to the desert to be tempted by Satan. It's no wonder that “heat” has become the characteristic of the place no one wants to go! But still Isaiah saw good news in that. If heat represented the troubles and fears of God's people, then God's word through the prophet affirmed that God would be with His people in their troubles. The troubles might be savage, the heat might be scorching – but God offers a refuge, a shelter, and a welcome shade. The “heat” spoken of by the prophet is an oppressive and killing heat – but still something whose unpleasantness can be overcome by God. That is good news – but there's even better news. We don't need to see it that way. I get the message of Isaiah; I get message of the church sign I  mentioned, but the church – the community called into existence to proclaim good news – surely needs to focus on a much more positive message. Heat is actually quite a wonderful thing as long as there's shade to shield you from the worst effects of it, and as I said Isaiah tells us that God is “a shade from the heat.” The heat doesn't go away; God just turns it into something to be enjoyed and even cherished. I mentioned John Wesley's experience of a heart that was “strangely warmed” by an encounter with Jesus during a religious meeting in Aldersgate Street in London on May 24, 1738.

 

     Such heartwarming events are the things that we cherish in life. They are the experiences that cause us to understand so clearly that we are loved and cherished and precious to someone else. The experience of Wesley was the moment in his life when he suddenly understood that he was – more importantly than anything else in his life – a beloved child of God. This shouldn't have been new to Wesley. He was a Christian; he had been ordained as a priest 6 years earlier; he had travelled to America on missionary work, sharing the good news. But it wasn't until that touch from God – that experience of a heart “strangely warmed” - that he became convinced of his own salvation and convinced that God had empowered him and would empower others to live a holy life; one that reflected and celebrated God's presence.

 

     I prefer to think of heat in that way – as the overpowering experience of love that should come from entering into a relationship with God through Christ. How many of us have felt our hearts “strangely warmed” by God; touched by God in ways we can feel but can't quite fully understand? And if we haven't - why haven't we? Do we sometimes choose to block ourselves from the experience of divine love? Do we erect barriers against God, perhaps because we sometimes fear that what we're going to hear isn't going to be the sound of love but rather the sound of judgment? But God is love, Scripture tells us, and love is more powerful than anything else. 

 

     Politics and ideology aside, I've been impressed and even made somewhat hopeful about our country by the outpouring of emotion we've seen in the last few days after the death of Jack Layton. What often can only be described as the cynicism and mean-spiritedness and pettiness of politics seems to have been transcended by the passing of someone whose more positive approach to the issues of the day (regardless of what you may have thought of the solutions he proposed) seems also to have touched people's hearts. In the midst of it all, Jack Layton's last letter was released, and I thought the last few words contained some helpful (if perhaps unintentional) theological reflection: “ love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

 

     That is actually not a bad summary of the gospel. The warmth of God's love revealed to us when we open our hearts and our lives to God should fill us with love, hope and optimism for the future, although I might choose the word faith rather than optimism. Optimism is just the belief that things will work out with no reason to believe that they will; faith is the belief that things will work out because God wills it to be so. That's what warms our hearts. We had an outside facing door at our hotel in Virginia Beach. Our room, of course, was air conditioned, and every morning when I opened it I'd be blasted by the feeling of the heat on the other side. That's what God should do for us, too – move us out of our current lives and into the overwhelming experience of a heart strangely warmed and a life radically changed. The gospel and the people it's touched have already changed the world. Let it change us, too, and let it be so now!