I Corinthians 12:1-13, Acts 2:1-21
There is something about open flame in church that makes me a little nervous. On Christmas Eve, when we burn hand held candles together and sing Silent Night my pulse quickens. Yes, it is a beautiful but there is something more to it than that. I feel, in that moment, so aware of the sacred wildness of the flame.
Clark and I were married in 1992 in my home church, which had a little white sanctuary with big open windows. The wedding too place in mid-October when the leaves on the trees were fiery red and bold yellow. I remember looking at the sky and thinking that the sky had never been bluer.
My family has always teased me a bit on my ability to over plan. I’ve been that way all my life. It was a skill that came into good use as I prepared for the wedding. The joke of that day was that I had planned so thoroughly that even God had received the memo in time to send the good weather! (which is really horrible theology, if you think about it!)
On my wedding day I really tried to set all that aside and live in the moment. The planning was over, and the time to celebrate had begun. To signal the beginning of the ceremony, I arranged for a string quartet of my high school friends to play Vivaldi’s “Spring” as first Clark’s mother then my mother lit a taper candle on the communion table.
The plan was that from these two taper candles, Clark and I would light one large candle in the center in a Unity Candle ceremony. This moment would symbolize the coming together of our families. But there was a problem when my mother tried to light her candle. The fancy lighter we had purchased for just this occasion would not work. She tried and tried to light that candle, to no avail. My dad, standing in the back of the church with me, whispered in my ear “Why did we think your mom would be able to work a lighter?” and we laughed.
My soon-to-be mother in law was kind enough to jump out of her seat and give her a hand. Now, that would have been a funny, sweet moment to capture on film, if only my uncle had remembered his video camera like he was supposed to. We carried on with the service, said our vows, lit our unity candle, and exchanged the rings.
At the end of the service, we bowed our heads and prayed with Pastor Jim as he said the benediction. Suddenly, one of our groomsmen Kevin rushed towards us, screamed “Excuse me, Father!” dropped our minister to the floor and quickly removed his preaching robe. The acrid smell of burnt polyester filled the room. My heart was struck with terror as I turned around and clutched my best friend’s hand in a tight grip. “What do I do?” I asked her. “Just breathe!” she said.
I don’t believe that any amount of preparation and planning for the day could have prepared me for my minister catching on fire at my wedding. Fortunately, the quick thinking and vigilance of our friend Kevin (who was also a volunteer fireman) saved Pastor Jim from serious injury. Polyester preaching robes are pretty flammable, but they are also replaceable. I have learned to be very cautious around Unity candles when I am involved in a wedding ceremony. And to keep a bucket of water handy!
On a day like Pentecost, when we are celebrating the birthday of the church in the upper room and imagining tongues of flames over all of the disciples heads I remember that moment in the little white church. While fire, as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, can be sacred and meaningful it can also be somewhat dangerous.
Earlier in this service we welcomed seven new people into our congregation as members. All of them were baptized at some moment in their lives in the name of the Trinity, God in three persons. A great metaphor for thinking about the Trinity is considering the three states of water. Water can be solid (as ice). It can be liquid, and it can be a vapor. Just as we have three ways of knowing water, we have three ways of knowing God: there is the one who created us, whom Jesus called Father. There is the God known to us as Jesus Christ, our teacher and redeemer. And there’s the God we know as Holy Spirit.
Or do we? Ask the average churchgoer (who isn’t Pentecostal) to talk about God and you might hear a lot about the Creator and Jesus, but probably not as much about the Holy Spirit. I think a lot of Christians are really not Trinitarian, but effectively Dualitarians: we’re good with God and Jesus but we’re not really sure about the Holy Spirit. Well, friends, today is all about the Holy Spirit, both because it is Pentecost and because we are celebrating new members. So I want to offer you another image for us to work with to try to better understand the Holy Spirit. The image is Fire Water.
Paul talks about us all drinking of one Spirit, a Spirit which refreshes us like water on a hot day. This Spirit gives us the energy and compassion to bring refreshment to others. When someone says to me that in the midst of a trauma or difficulty that they had a strong sense that God was with them, then they have known the Holy Spirit and been strengthened by living waters. When we are thirsty in life, thirsty for love or hope or joy or reconciliation or peace or justice, we cry out to the Spirit, trusting that a drop of water will fall into our dryness and bring us life.
But that’s not the only way to describe the Holy Spirit; the Pentecost story brings us another image: Fire. As in getting “all fired up” like the disciples did that day. They got fired up to tell the good news of Jesus’ message of love and forgiveness. They got fired up and insisted that God intended to shake the world up a bit. They got so fired up they left the room in which they had been safe and secure and went out to the streets to make some holy trouble.
The Spirit’s presence in our lives can make us feel “all fired up”. We are called out of comfortable ruts and pushed and prodded into speaking or acting as God’s servants when things are not right around us. The Spirit forces our eyes and ears open to see the pain of those who suffer or are persecuted or face injustice. The Spirit gives us words of truth to speak to the powerful. The Spirit moves our voices to sing, our feet to dance, and even pushes our lives in directions we don’t think we wanted to go.
When fire existed all on its own on my wedding day it was a little destructive. But the fire and water of the Holy Spirit has a different end effect. Their purpose is to construct the world as God has dreamt it, as God created it to be: just, loving, whole.
Sometimes in a construction project there is some demolition that needs to happen. Sometimes in our lives and in our world change comes painfully, even change with love at its base. The Spirit is involved in that, like when someone struggles to cast out an addiction that controls their lives. Ultimately, the Spirit is in the business of building up people and communities. Soothing waters and powerful fire come together in miraculous ways, and we are the vessels for that melding of elements. That’s what the Holy Spirit is all about.
So today, to remind us that the Spirit is not just about cleansing, refreshing water, or uncontrollable, dangerous fire I’m going to put some fire in the baptismal font. For our new members, and for all of us as we remember our baptism, this is the day to claim the Spirit not just as a character in a story from the Bible, but as a presence in our lives. This is a day to remember that there is Spirit for All. Amen.
