Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here.

Today, We read how their hearts burned when Jesus opened the scriptures to them. Fire is a common thing in scripture; sometimes, it is seen as bad (James and the tongue), but it is often seen as a purification tool. We need to stoke the fire of God’s love and God’s spirit in our lives. Stoke it daily. Feed it. Our faith should be the fire that consumes all things in our lives. It should be the foundation of all things upon which all our life is based. We cannot seek to contain the fire of faith in our lives; we must let it burn.

Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God’s Word.

If you’d like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up.

Click on the image above or this link to watch today’s video.

You can read today’s passage here.

You can podcast this reflection here. You can subscribe through Spotify or Apple Podcasts as well.

Or, if you’d like to read the transcript of the video, keep reading!

Good morning. It’s great to be with you on this Wednesday morning as we continue our journey through the Advent season, drawing closer to Christmas. We’re just one day closer to Christmas Eve. It’s almost here, just a few more days of our Advent reflections. We’ll likely have a Christmas morning reflection, and then there might be a break next week as I’ll be out of town with family. If we do have reflections next week, they’ll probably be a “best of” compilation for the rest of the year, and we’ll resume in the new year.

Today, we’ll be reading from Luke 24. One aspect I appreciate about the Common Rule, the tool I’m using this year, is that it introduces readings that may not be in my usual repertoire. It encourages us to explore scripture beyond our comfort zones. Today’s passage is from the walk to Emmaus, specifically Luke 24:28-32. The passage recounts the moment when Jesus, unrecognized at first, joins two disciples on the road.

“As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead of them as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us because it’s almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?'”

The emphasis on “Were not our hearts burning within us” resonates with the Wesleyan concept of a heart strangely warmed, as experienced by John Wesley at Aldersgate Street when he grasped the sufficiency of God’s grace.

Fire holds significant symbolism in scripture, representing purification and divine presence. While James warns of the dangers of the tongue as a raging fire, the Bible often portrays fire positively, signifying purification and the transformative power of God. The encounter on the road to Emmaus, where hearts burn with recognition, echoes the theme of purification and the explosive nature of faith.

The reflection draws a parallel between the fire in the story and the concept of faith in our lives. It urges us not to treat our faith as a controlled campfire but as an uncontrollable wildfire that consumes all. The analogy is drawn from personal experiences with a backyard fire that became uncontrollable, jumping fences and requiring the intervention of the fire department. The point is that faith, like fire, should be hard to contain.

With Christmas just a couple of days away, the reflection emphasizes the mind-blowing nature of the gospel. It calls for a shift in perspective, challenging us to view Christianity not as something shoehorned into our lives but as the overarching bedrock and foundation of all things. Christianity should be an uncontrollable fire, either defining everything if true or being irrelevant if false.

A quote by C.S. Lewis is referenced, highlighting the importance of Christianity: “If Christianity is false, it is of no importance. If it is true, it is of primary importance. The one thing Christianity cannot be is somewhat important.” The reflection concludes with a call to stoke the fire of faith in our lives, allowing it to burn away falsehoods and become an uncontrollable force.

As we approach Christmas, the hope is that our hearts burn with the reality of God’s amazing grace, just as Wesley felt his heart strangely warmed. The prayer is for the fire of faith to burn brightly, consuming all that is false. The reflection encourages us to stoke that fire in our lives and experience its transformative power.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and we’ll reconnect for another Advent reading tomorrow. Thank you for joining us.