Unbidden Fire
I have a theory that God can use anybody, “in a pinch.”
I cite an example from my time of teaching in a certain seminary. It concerns two very frivolous seminarians, who made a game, of sorts, in their preaching.
These two fellows were assigned to do a service each Sunday afternoon at a nursing home. You may know the sort of service; it involved very old, frail people in wheelchairs, gathered in the common room, singing “Rock of Ages,” “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” and the like, the high point of the service being the sermon.
Well, here’s the story, if you can believe it. These two meatheads took turns, Sunday by Sunday, doing the preaching. The problem was that they were preaching only for their own entertainment. They crafted their sermons as a kind of entre nous joke.
On this particular Sunday, it was the intent of the preacher to mention as many “animals” as possible in his sermon, to see if he could outnumber the “plants” that the other guy mentioned in his sermon on the previous Sunday.
Well, here’s what happened. About halfway through the sermon, one of the old men in a wheelchair suddenly flung himself onto his knees, raised his arms to heaven, and gave his life to God, repenting of his sins and making a full confession of faith.
The game was over! The two seminarians suddenly realized they had been playing with fire.
I love Annie Dillard’s assessment of what we should be doing on Sunday mornings: “we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
more on Christianity from the online archives
27.5—Sept/Oct 2014
on Growing Vegetables as a Primer in Moral Philosophy by Rachel Lu
22.6—July/August 2009
on the Integration of Anger into the Virtuous Life by Leon J. Podles
30.3—May/June 2017
Insider Attempts to Disorient the Orthodox by Alexander F. C. Webster
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
• Not a subscriber or wish to renew your subscription? Subscribe to Touchstone today for full online access. Over 30 years of publishing!
personal subscriptions
Purchase Print &
Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives including pdf downloads for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
gift subscriptions
GIVE Print &
Online Subscription
Give six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for the reduced rate of $29.95. That's only $2.50 per month!
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
kindle subscription
OR get a subscription to Touchstone to read on your Kindle for only $1.99 per month! (This option is KINDLE ONLY and does not include either print or online.)
Your subscription goes a long way to ensure that Touchstone is able to continue its mission of publishing quality Christian articles and commentary.
more from the online archives
18.2—March 2005
On Conservatism as Vexation, Vanity & Near Impossibility by Graeme Hunter
21.10—December 2008
Early Christian Teaching on the Incarnation & Redemption by Patrick Henry Reardon
32.2—March/April 2019
Finding Him Again Through the Patriarchal Group by Anthony Esolen
