Pentecost 2017
This week, I attended
the 30th annual Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly along with
delegates from our church. In addition to the plenary sessions where between
two and three hundred of our sisters and brothers in Christ from throughout the
synod met, where we shared in bible study and heard from dynamic speakers and where
the business of the church was conducted, we also gathered at least once each
day for worship in the auditorium of the Convention Center in Ocean City.
As you can imagine in a facility like that,
an effort was taken to set up a space conducive for worship. So, at the front
of the auditorium, upon the large stage that took up most of the width of the
room, a large altar was created from several tables drawn together. This altar
was then covered with white tablecloths and bunting. Next to the altar stood a
large banner with a matching, smaller piece of fabric draped over the white
clothes covering the constructed altar, serving as the frontal, much like these
red paraments here do today.
When we see these colors in use in the
church, we are in fact celebrating the fire of the Holy Spirit of God alive and
work in the church. Here in the Lutheran church the standard occasions when we
pull out and put our red tend to be Pentecost Sunday, Reformation Sunday, and
for ordinations and consecrations in the church. That’s pretty much it. Really?
Really!
And yet, it is our understanding, as a
church, that the Holy Spirit gives life to the church, inspires, blesses, and
makes holy the work of the church. The Holy Spirit is responsible for giving us
faith; grants a variety of gifts for the good of the church, like the ones
listed in the passage from Corinthians today – gifts like wisdom, and
knowledge, and healing, and prophecy, and discernment, and so on. Like I said,
the Holy Spirit, in fact, gives LIFE to the church. And fortunately, God is
color-blind, because God sends the Holy Spirit to abide with us constantly, and
not just when we are wearing our red.
But as I sat in the final worship service of
the synod assembly yesterday, it was these pieces of fabric that caught my
attention and my imagination; Because, in keeping with the theme that underlies
any such gathering of the church, and in light of the upcoming Pentecost
Sunday, the silk-screened pieces of cloth that made up the banner and frontal
were covered with images of huge flames – the interplay of large tongues of
bright yellow, and shades of orange and red blended together conjuring a fiery
scene.
As I gazed at these images of fire and flame,
I thought about our relationship with fire, and how the image of flame is used
to evoke our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Just look at our own paraments
and banners and at the images upon the stole I wear today. What do you see? The
red of fire, the shape of flame.
How many of us have ever been mesmerized,
staring into the flames of a fire? Perhaps you’ve found yourself staring in a hypnotic
trance at the flames in a fireplace, fire pit or even a bonfire. Flames draw us
in – hopefully not too close, or your hypnotic trance may be rudely interrupted
by the odor of singed hair or burning clothing.
Fire, of course, has been an essential
element in the lives of human beings from the dawn of time. Once, in the
history of the human race, we discovered how to make fire, the flames of fire
were harnessed to provide light and heat, to cook food, to create tools, to
clear land, to shape communications, and for so many other essential uses.
Place a flame under a pot of water and before
long that water is moving, then bubbling, then boiling over. Flames under the
frypan will have your meat or vegetables soon popping and sizzling nicely. Build
a big fire in a cold room and before long, you’ll find yourself cozy and warm.
Fire contains what is a sometimes
overwhelming power. It inspires both fear and awe. If you’ve ever experienced
the uncontrollable, unquenchable hunger of a house, grass or forest fire, or
suffered even a minor burn, you probably understand the fear part.
What does it mean, then, that a major symbol
for the Holy Spirit is the image of flame and fire? What message does the text
from the Acts of the Apostles today tell us about our relationship with this
advocate, the Holy Spirit, who was promised by Jesus and who powerfully enters
the place where the apostles were gathered on that Pentecost day? Why does
Luke, the author of this text, include in the telling of this story of the
early church the detail about tongues of fire not consuming, but dancing over
the heads of the apostles, and finally, resting on them?
The story we have in our first reading today
occurs on the fiftieth day of Easter – the fiftieth day after Jesus rose from
the grave. In the intervening forty-nine days, Jesus has met many times with
his fearful, hesitant, doubting disciples.
When they weren’t doubting Jesus, these
vulnerable, very human disciples often doubted themselves – doubted that they
were good enough – doubted that they had the right words or that people would
listen to them if they told them about Jesus. They perhaps doubted that they
could ever go out and do the ministry Jesus was sending them out to do. Perhaps
they doubted they could withstand the danger.
No wonder we hear the calming, comforting
words from a loving Jesus so many times during this final training period,
“Peace be with you.”
Then, at the right time, Jesus sends these
believers the Holy Spirit with flourish and pizzazz. Perhaps those licks of
fire mesmerized the apostles at first, but not for long. Infused by the Holy
Spirit, they are now sent out, burning with energy, desire, and a sudden new
ability to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Just like that, God gives the
Holy Spirit to the church on the occasion of her birth.
On that day, the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit was illustrated in part through the sudden ability of the disciples to
speak to people from many and different
places, in the languages that spoke most clearly to their hearts. By speaking
to so many people from so many places, the Holy Spirit invited diversity into
the church from its inception.
The thing about fire is that it never stops
moving. It can be neither contained, nor still. The other thing about fire as
any student of science will tell you, is that it changes the substance and
nature of the thing it affects: Water turns to steam, raw meat turns to edible
food, structures in fruits and vegetables are altered changing their
consistency and taste, in some cases making them more easily digestible. Wood
turns to ash. And the fire of the apostles’ speech witness to the power of God
to change the world through the diversity of the nations.
The thing about the this constantly stirring,
moving, dancing Holy Spirit is that it, too, changes everything it touches. Jesus
infuses the church by sending his Spirit to abide in, with and around his
disciples, changing them forever.
The Spirit sends us out into the world to
bring about the fiery change that Jesus calls us to in the ministry and mission
We are used to thinking about the Holy Spirit
as the one who inspires heals, unites and guides us. We often speak of the Holy
Spirit as the one who comforts. As your pastor I count on the Holy Spirit to
guide not only my actions, but my words – so, when my preaching seems “off” –
you can blame the Holy Spirit – maybe she was just too busy to inspire my
preaching, or your hearing that week.
The thing is, that the Spirit is given to the
church as this energizing, fiery, inspiring, constantly moving force for the
gospel of Jesus Christ. While each of us is blessed with and by the Holy Spirit
in our Baptism, this Holy Spirit is given not for our individual benefit, but
for the sake of the world – God’s world – the place where we are sent out, from
Baptismal font then nurtured and fed at the table, and sent out as the
Spirit-driven firy breath of God’s justice, hope, healing, compassion, care,
and love alive and active in the world; constantly moving, constantly
agitating, constantly alive in faith in Jesus Christ.
God’s Holy Spirit, never idle in our lives is
constantly moving us outward – like the disciples, no longer content to remain
within the four walls of the upper room, nor even within the gates of Jerusalem,
we shall not be content to remain within the four walls of this sanctuary.
Don’t get me wrong. This is a vital place for
us, for it is here that we hear God’s Word read and the gospel good news
proclaimed in community; it is here that we are reminded who God is and whose
we are. It is in this place as we gather together in the name of Jesus Christ
each week that we gather around the table, where we receive the body and blood
of Our Lord, and where, blessed by the Holy Spirit we receive grace upon grace
for our own dance of faith in mission and ministry for Jesus.
It is the Holy Spirit’s agitating that
inspires us to care for God’s good creation, an important ministry now, perhaps
more than ever before. It is the Holy Spirit’s bubbling energy that calls us to
gather food each month to be delivered to the local food banks, and that this
year alone has inspired us to give over $2400 dollars in coins, checks and cash
to ELCA World Hunger alone. Thanks be to God!
It is at the Holy Spirit’s sending that
members of Grace serve each month at the Talbot Interfaith Shelter, that
Thanksgiving meals and Christmas projects are provided for the good of our
neighbors right here in Easton; that several times each month lunches are
provided for the homeless and for low income seniors in our area. The Holy
Spirit inspires us and moves us to share this God-given building with two other
groups - an AA group and a newly formed
Hispanic congregation each week, so that every single day of the week, through
the blessings we have received, we are blessing others in the name of Christ.
On this Pentecost Sunday, as on every day as
we invoke the name of God’s Holy Spirit in our prayers and in our daily walk,
let’s remember the dancing, moving, invigorating nature of God’s Spirit. Let’s
remember how God reaches down into our world and into our lives and inspires
movement and dance, speech we never thought ourselves capable of, and grants us
gifts and abilities for the purpose of God’s mission and ministry lived out
each day for the sake of the God’s kingdom here on earth.
So inspired, let us join the dance of the
trinity, the movement to share God’s truth and love in the world.
Amen.
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