How We Almost Burned Down the Sanctuary

A confession: we almost burned down the sanctuary on December 26, 2020.

Okay, maybe the sanctuary wasn’t completely at risk, but there was a small accidental fire caused by a certain someone (let’s call him…Jim Toosma).

As we were lighting the Advent candles and got to the Christ candle our lighter ran out of butane. And we were in a hurry. It was one minute before our Tap Nights livestream service started. That’s a combustible combo trying to light something on fire in desperation and hurry.

After failed attempts of using another candle to light the Christ Candle, Jim had the illuminating idea of lighting a lysol wipe on fire and using that to ignite the Christ Candle. Let me repeat myself, he used a lysol wipe.

You can guess what happened.

Fire consumed the wipe. The flames shot up and almost singed Jim’s hand. He dragged this burnt offering away from the Advent table while flames cascaded down on the table cloth burning a slight hole in it (sorry Kathy!) and also a slight burn on the carpet (sorry Mae!). Others around Jim quickly stamped and tamped down the flames. And the lysol wipe burned itself up in a blaze of sanitized glory.

Not all was lost. Jim’s fiancé (let’s call her…Erika) kept her cool amidst the flames. She ran off, found some lighters, and lit the Christ Candle.

And then we began our worship service. Sweating a little in the aftermath.

This really gave new meaning to the song “Set a Fire”––which we didn’t sing, but imagined if that was part of the worship set?

It also made me think of that story about Aaron’s sons who offered the “unauthorized fire” (Leviticus 10) during worship and were consumed. I wonder if they used lysol.

This whole incident sparked a thought in me: how worship is risky.

Every time we approach the Living God in worship, personally or communally, the whole thing could catch fire. We are invited to “worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12:28-29).

Like fire––our God is alive, dynamic, has a “life of its own” and changes what it touches. Worship should come with a warning label.

I think more often than not we play it safe. That’s why the risk surprises us or scares us. It sure scares me. Especially as a worship leader who oversees the service, I want to worship God in a contained, controlled, certain way. I want to choose the words, the songs, the images, the meaning, the timing of encountering God. All of it––according to my will.

And I do that not just in our communal worship. Because worship involves the totality of my life (we can be worshipping God 24/7), I try to contain that Divine Flame all the time. I don’t often worship or pray or live as if the whole thing could catch fire with God’s love, presence, and transforming power: the sanctuary, my morning devotions, my heart, my family, my neighbourhood.

But I wonder if I, if we, could risk it all more. Be open to how God wants to work in unauthorized, uncontrolled, and surprising ways.

Invitation to Prayer and Practice:

Pause: Light a candle during your prayer time this week. Pause and consider the flame. Imagine that fire leaping out and slowly consuming your room, your heart, your whole life.

Rejoice: Thank God that God is so alive, dynamic, and consuming like a fire. Listen to and worship God through “Set a Fire” by Will Reagan & United Pursuit.

Ask: Ask God to make you expectant when you worship God (whether by yourself or in community during our services). Invite God to work in ways beyond your control and containment.

Yield: Confess any sins, surrender them and your heart to the flame of God’s love, so the sins can be burned away and your heart can be refined.

Enfold these lyrics (from “Set a Fire)” into your prayer life for this next while:

"Set a fire down in my soul
That I can't contain and I can't control
I want more of You God,

I want more of You God.”