We’ve made it past the half-way point in our Final Instructions series from Hebrews. (You can view the August 10 and August 17 worship services to hear the previous sermons in this series.) Over these weeks we’ve been reminded that feeling like a stranger in a strange land isn’t an indication of faithlessness or failure in our journey with Jesus, it’s part of our inheritance. And we’ve been reminded of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and cheer us on as we seek to faithfully discern what it means to follow Jesus in a world that continually reminds us that it does not reflect the goodness of God’s creation.

This is all good news and it’s a place worth lingering in as long as possible, because what comes next in Hebrews is a lot harder to digest. The final words in Hebrews 12:18-29 – our God is a consuming fire – can stir dread. Such words have been used over the centuries to provoke fear in believers. Beware! Don’t be burned!

Except there’s something about fire. (Watch Sunday’s sermon to hear about Pastor Amy’s experience encountering the aftermath of a wildfire as a young person.) Fires can and do consume land, but what is not shaken in such a moment is God’s good creation itself. Even after fire, land returns to growth. Something new sprouts from the burned embers of what had been.

It is impossible to live this life and not at some point experience a shaking of our foundations. It happens whenever the thing we thought we could count on – in our lives, our families, our communities, our government – are shaken and we’re left wondering what can we depend upon. If God were really at work in this world, wouldn’t things be more stable, less shaky, more secure?

What if the final insturctions from Hebrews 12:18-29 is given as a reminder that while our worldly foundations may crumble and be consumied, we have been claimed in baptism for an eternal kingdom, not just after this life, but we are claimed for the blessed kingdom even now in this world. We are the firstborn! The inheritance is already ours. Might this give us the confidence and courage to trust in the face of destruction, that God’s new life WILL emerge. Indeed, maybe the new growth has already begun1

May this hope be ours!