Epiphany 5

We all know how the stories of Knights and Dragons go – the Knight rescues the beautiful maiden from the jaws of the fire-breathing dragon, and all is well! Even the age-old tales of St. Brendan and St. George have feasts set and conversions accomplished by the slaying of these terrifying beasts.

And yet, the scriptures give us a mysteriously mixed review of dragons. Yes, dragons. In the Bible too, there be dragons!

In the scriptures, we refer to them most often as “seraphim” – those strange, winged dragon-like creatures that circle the altar of God. Creatures of bright light and fire, they serve at the Lord’s pleasure.

In fact, even the “serpent” of the garden of Eden is named as a “seraph” by most scholars. For the word “seraph” or “saraph” in Hebrew meant “burning,” “fiery,” “poison,” “serpent,” or “poisonous serpent.” The “burn” of the serpent, of course, is in its sting or poison. But it can hurt or heal.

In Numbers and Deuteronomy both, we have numerous usages of the term, some meaning seraph, as in the heavenly being, others meaning scorpions, snakes, serpents, and even the “bronze serpent” of Moses! Copper in color, the seraph was the servant of God, who could either harm or heal with its fiery presence. They were the guardian griffins of the sacrificial altar, the mighty and heavenly altar of God, and by their description in the Book of Enoch, they were, in fact, dragons!

Seraphs were creatures of heavenly fire, those who stoked the fires of the altar in the Name of the Lord. As would be their purpose, one of these dragon-like seraphs would pluck a live burning stone (some translations say coal but the original is a heated red-hot stone –the fiery Word of God) from the fire of the altar of God and would touch it to Isaiah’s lips, purifying his speech, his lips, his tongue, and preparing him for his call as the “spokesman” of the Lord!

In that act, Isaiah was purged of his sin. In that act, Isaiah became a sacramental and living “voice” of God for His people. From unclean to pristine, Isaiah’s “lava-lips” became a symbol of his flaming passion for God’s Word, God’s covenant, God’s presence. For Isaiah could not be a knight of God’s kingdom without first encountering and being anointed by the “dragon-breath” of God’s mighty passionate and burning love.

Many Jewish sins were sins of the “tongue.” That’s why this purging of the lips for Isaiah was a sure sign of the living power of God to create memorable prophecy from mortality, and new life from the ashes of sin.

Yes, there be dragons in heaven! Yes, there are! There, their passions of praise burn and kindle worship for the Lord! All the while they swoop and swerve around the altar. They proclaim God as mighty, glorious, and wonderful! They are truly the Lord’s fiery and fierce proclaimers!

When they come in contact with human lips, those lips are transformed into incendiary incandescence for transcendence!

In Isaiah’s fiery anointing, he became impassioned to declare “Here I am!” And in a sense, he is acknowledging not only his passion for God, but God’s very fiery presence within Him, which cannot be contained. For in his anointing, Isaiah became embodied, emboldened, and embroiled in the meta-story of God’s saving grace, and a servant-knight in God’s impassioned army of prophets and kings.

He’s all fired up to serve and prophesy! And he won’t take “no” for an answer – even to the point of sacrifice. For the Lord’s powerful love is burning within him, and his lips cannot contain the Lord’s Spiritual voice!

That kind of passion can happen for all of us, especially when we are confronted with tragedy, devastation, and desperate human need.

Sometimes, we may be aware of our encounters with these messengers of God. Many times, God emboldens us with a fiery love that seems to come out of nowhere. A fire surges through us and sends us out into peril and flood, saying “Here I am.” “Send me!” Without thought, without reason, without plan, without hesitation, we do not stop to think, but burn with the desire for service, sacrifice, and a saving power greater than our own. This is the Lord at work, powerful in the heavens above. For around His fiery chariot there be dragons!

These past few months have been one of terrible tragedy in our country. From the hurricanes and floods here in Florida and North Carolina, to the fires in California, and the numerous tornadoes in between, many have lost loved ones, and many have lost everything. Yet that same devastation awakened in many the fiery passion of sacrificial love – that kind of charcoal touch that sets the heart ablaze and sets people in motion to help and assist the lives of others. It seemed to come out of nowhere.

We saw people wade into chest deep water to rescue people and pets.

We saw people race into burning buildings to search for people in ash, smoke, and fire.

We saw people drive into the midst of storms to help people board up buildings and transport them to safe places.

We saw people choke themselves on smoke and dust to save others.

We saw sizzle in the hearts of the benign and resigned.

We saw eyes burning with the desire to save, the desire to help, the desire to serve. If you want to see sacrifice, look to those whose fiery commitment rescues those in the midst of death and drowning.

In the midst of it all, God stood above in the heavens casting down anointings as the seraphs swirled and danced.

For there be dragons.

When God sees human need, God’s love and compassion are stoked for His beloved humankind. The altars of fire are smoking, the passion of God arising. The seraphim are flying.

And there be dragons . . . alight in heaven.

Not the dragons of fairytales, nor the dragons of hell. Not the dragons that poison nor the dragons that fight.

But the dragon-like Seraphim of the Almighty God – sent in all their various forms, anointed and appointed to those like Isaiah, know it or not, ascribe to it or not – they are the purified of heart, and the passionate of soul, who say in the midst of the most troubled times and places, “Here I am. Send me!” Send me!

Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, anywhere evil is rampant, from the midst of devastation rises up the fiery passion of God to save, to rescue, to make life spring forth from ashes, to make beauty from brutality.

We humans may have fallen from grace, but we still have the hearts of dragons when it comes to love and sacrifice. And it’s never more evident than in the midst of trouble.

When in the secret places of our hearts arises that mysterious and sudden passion, there be God.

Isaiah came to prophesy to a people who had wandered from God. But like Moses, his message was two-fold. Your passions can kill you. But your passions can also save you.

Be not the evil of the fire that destroys, God declared. Be the fire that purges, the fire that heals, the fire that lights, the fire that loves, the fire that saves. For there is no love without passion, no sacrifice without fire.

We are in a time of anointing. In the heavens, there be a Fire of the Spirit. In the hearts of humankind, in the face of all that is terrible and troubled – there be dragons. There be God.

Beautiful, seraphim, angels in disguise, human beings in their most exquisite fiery form of heart – all saying, “Glory be to God! Here I am!”

Wherever there is trouble –Lord, send me!

For here be dragons. Here be God.