Pentecost
John 20:19-23; Acts 2:1-21; Numbers 11:24-30
Some stories about fire.
I still remember the day. It was a hot summer day. That Minnesota summer had been very dry. We thought we were driving out from town to help mow the large lawn around my grandparent’s farm house. But while we were yet miles away we could see what appeared to be a dark cloud rising into the clear summer sky from the direction of the farm. At first we thought it might be a great dust cloud from some type of field work but as we drew closer we could clearly see it billowing like smoke from a fire. Making the final turn out of the small town three miles from the farm it became clear that one of the fields had caught fire and the winds were blowing a wall of flames steadily across the field toward the wooded windbreak that surrounded the farm house and barn. As we got closer still I could see two tractors pulling drags and a third with a plow working to create a strip of dirt between the burning field and the trees. My father accelerated the car up the half mile long drive way to the farm house. My brothers and I jumped from the car and ran to get shovels and other equipment. My father yelled for my mother to help my grandmother who was hurrying across the yard with arm loads of rags, old sheets and burlap seed bags. One brother grabbed a hose from the pump and began soaking the piles of cloth. A wagon was pulled up and the wet fabric was thrown in. We headed out to the burning field where we grabbed the wet seed bags and began to beat the hot sparks and flames that were jumping the dirt barrier. As we worked to contain the flames and slow their progress more and more neighbors arrived, drawn by the smoke rising from the field. More tractors arrived too and soon the whole field was being outlined and then dissected by machinery slowing the fire. I remember the heat of the day, the heat of the wind, the heat of the fire. I remember my grandfather and one of the neighbors running their tractors almost side by side as they plowed along the front edge of the fire turning the burning field into a strip of black earth. I remember my father jumping on the front of one of the tractors with a soaking wet sheet and draping it over the tractor’s fuel tank to try to cool it so it did not ignite. Eventually the fire was contained and burned itself out. By that time it seemed like most of the township had arrived to see what type of assistance was needed.
The fire had brought the community together with clear purpose and goals. The fire had moved people to rise to the occasion with the resources they had to share. Maybe that is why each time I encounter the Pentecost lesson for today, I find myself remembering that day. Today is the third most important day of the Christian calendar. Christmas and Easter top the list but number three is the birthday of the Christian Church celebrated 50 days after Easter with the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The story is at least passingly familiar to most of us who have been around the church. It begins with the disciples gathered ten days after they had said goodbye to Jesus when he ascended into heaven. The images that are described are those of wind and fire. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit game them ability.
In this moment the gathered group of followers became what we now call the church. What began as a small group became a community of believers stepping out into the world. What began as a quiet self reflective gathering became an empowered, proclaiming and visioning mission.
When the fire was sweeping across the field on my grandfather’s farm, there was no one who asked, “what should we do?” Once we recognized the nature of the fire, we knew what we had to do. Similarly, once the disciples were touched by the burning Spirit of God they knew what to do. Their zeal and proclamation was so great that others gathered and responded to the same Spirit that burned within them.
The image of fire is very rich in the tradition of our faith. It is fire that consumes and destroys but it is also fire that produces the promise of new life. In the last two week we have had a fire sweep through the forest preserve just to the south of the church. This was a controlled burn intended to clear out the underbrush and allow the great trees new nutrients and space to continue to grow. At one point our parking lot had a number of forest personnel gathered to watch the fire creep toward the church property. They were there to control and limit the fire. The fire in this case provides the promise of new plant growth and healthier conditions for the forest. Every few years it is good to have the forest be visited again by fire.
This is also true of our Spirit Renewed Building Appeal. We have found that by committing ourselves a new every three years to meeting our building debt and facility needs we also make clear our priorities for the operation of our ministries and the benevolences we support. Every three years we are asked to once again embrace anew our commitment to the health and growth of our congregation. The image of the fire of faith burning into our lives is a bit frightening since we can never be certain what will be consumed and what will survive. But that is the nature of faith. Belief beyond reason, trust in the midst of doubt. The story of Pentecost is not the story of faith beginning, but it is the story of faith directed. Everybody believes in something. That is how we live our lives. I believe in electricity, if I didn’t I wouldn’t flip the light switch on. I believe people will stop for the red traffic light which is why I proceed into a busy intersection when the light turns green. But the various beliefs that inform my daily behavior are not the stuff of real faith. I don’t preach the good news of stoplights or even electricity (although how we use such beliefs may be very important to our survival.) True faith is that which directs every decision we make. Like a fire through the forest, this spirit driven faith engulfs everything in its path but does so to nourish that which stands tall and strong.
This past week the 8th grade confirmation students had their final interviews with members of the church council. Once again we discovered how seriously our young people take their faith and how they struggle to give it direction and focus. There are more than 100 questions that can be asked during these student interviews, which are designed to encourage our young people to not only demonstrate their basic understanding of the Bible and its core stories but also to be able to talk about their faith. On the first Pentecost of the Christian church the people were amazed to find that the first Christians spoke the language of faith in the language of the people. It is important to have a faith vocabulary. To know what it means to live by faith. To be able to recognize a grace moment. To point to an example of how the gospel is lived out in daily life. What we remind our young people is that the questions of faith do not end with their confirmation. On the first birthday of the church, some of the people were so amazed and confused that the only explanation they could think of for such behavior was that the disciples were drunk. The world is not always ready or sure of what to do with people who live and speak their faith. Pentecost is a day of peculiar words and amazing images. The language of faith is intended to take us beyond the ordinary and familiar. This morning there are changes in how the sanctuary looks to remind us that the day of Pentecost is intended to change us. The familiar is touched by God’s Spirit.
Our modern world has a tendency to make most festivals of the Christian calendar into moments of remembrance and celebrations of a past event. Clearly the marketing of Christmas has taken the birthday celebration to the extreme at least in so far as the gifts are concerned. Certainly for too many, the meaning of Easter is that of an ancient event remembered now as a vague marker for the beginning of Spring. But faith is not something from the past. Faith is the very real and present movement of the Spirit in and around our lives.
One more fire story. When I was growing up I lived at the other end of the block from a great cathedral Lutheran church that was built on the highest point in my home town. The church occupied a little more than half of the city block. Its great bell tower and steeple could be seen for miles around. I had a clear view from my bedroom window. One of my more dramatic memories is lying in bed at night during a thunderstorm and watching the lighting strike the cross at the top of the steeple. The tower would literally glow as the power of the lightening strike was transmitted by great metal cables running down the four sides of the tower into the ground. But one summer something went wrong and the power of the lightening strike jumped from the exterior cables to the internal wiring of the church. The electrical charge surged through the building and exploded in the electric organ in the church balcony setting the balcony and wooden sanctuary roof on fire. For the next year the congregation of over 3,000 people worshipped in the elementary school gymnasium across the street from the damaged church while it was being repaired. Those who went through the year of dislocation and rebuilding remember that year as one of the most energized and dynamic in the history of the congregation.
In part it was because every moment of ministry had to be re-thought and intentionally embraced. The fire of destruction brought with it new life, new commitment and new opportunities. The church rebuilt. A new pipe organ was installed in the balcony and the congregation grew in stewardship and mission. That is the promise of each Pentecost.
We gather this morning because God’s Spirit is speaking to and through us. We are drawn to the visible signs of the Gospel’s presence in forms of music, education, service and fellowship. Like those who came running to help extinguish the prairie fire, there is no question of what we are needed to do. Our morning is filled with layers of meaning. Today is Appeal Commitment Sunday. Today is Mother’s Day. Today is Pentecost. The rich layers of our lives are opened by the Spirit so that we might see the many ways in which God would enter our lives. We are brought to this place to make our commitment to the Sprit Renewed Appeal. We pause to give thanks for the faith and life giving witness of mothers both biological and spiritual. And we celebrate the birthday of the church with Pentecost promise.
One more thing I remember about that prairie fire on the farm. The field destroyed by the flames produced a rich harvest the next year. It produced a rich harvest because my grandfather did not see the fire as an end but a new beginning. He planted that field because he believed that God would provide sun and rain and life once more. That is faith born of fire. That is Pentecost.
Amen