Pentecost Sunday
June 4, 2017
Acts 2:1-21
The
Holy Spirit is probably the side of God that we talk the least about. We talk a
lot about Jesus. We talk a fair amount about God the Father, and pray “Our
Father, who art in heaven…” Yet the third person of the Trinity, the Holy
Spirit often gets neglected in the Methodist Church. This is partly because the
movement within Methodism that focused more on the Spirit branched off and
became the Pentecostal church. Did anyone know that? They’re closely related to
us Methodists. Today we’re going to embrace more of that part of our heritage
and talk about the Holy Spirit.
There
are lots of metaphors and images for the Holy Spirit – a dove, a mighty rushing
wind, the breath of God, the comforter, the companion, the advocate, and today’s
form, fire. Before ascending back into heaven, Jesus told the disciples to wait
for the Holy Spirit to come. And they did, they waited. And on the day of
Pentecost, today, the Holy Spirit came. And what it looked like was a flame of
fire resting on top of each disciple’s head. What it sounded like was
everyone’s native language, which is why we read the Acts passage in 5
different languages this morning. So it sounded like a cacophony, although at
least one in which you could pick out your own tongue, and it looked like a
tongue of fire.
(Picture from The Spark Story Bible, p. 400-401)
Yet
this isn’t a normal fire. This is not fire that consumes. Each person was NOT
burnt up or burnt out. Instead, this is
fire that purifies, that tempers, that refines. Y’all know that the church
I’m moving to has had some trials and tribulations of its own in the past few
years. I asked my new SPRC chair if folks were feeling burnt out from all
that’s been going on, because it’s good to know the state of the congregation
and how they’re feeling. Well, he said no, they’re
not burnt out, they’re tempered. Tempering is the process by which steel is
made. To temper steel is to “impart strength or toughness to [the
metal] by heating and cooling it.”[1]
When you make steel, “impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon are removed from the raw
iron, and
alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium, and vanadium are
added to produce different grades of steel.”[2] You need fire to make
steel, and yet the fire does not burn up the steel; it purifies it to make it
stronger. It’s like the saying “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” If you can withstand the heat, then the dross will be
burnt up, but you will not and you will be stronger for having gone through the
fire.
I
know the hymn we just sang isn’t traditionally a Pentecost song, yet it has that
wonderful verse about “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My
grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee; I
only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”[3] That’s
the Holy Spirit at work there, keeping the flames from hurting you and refining
your gold, refining all that is good in you, purifying you, not burning you.
Almost
every time Scripture mentions fire, “it is a fire that purifies rather than
burns up, a fire that frees up life rather than destroys it.”[4]
This is the Holy Spirit at work in your life freeing you from whatever is
holding you back, freeing you from whatever has you in chains, whatever is
keeping you from fully following Jesus. This is also the Holy Spirit keeping
you safe during the trials that come in life, allowing those fiery trials to
refine you and not burn you up.
Now,
probably the most well-known example of this kind of fire that does not burn
you up is Moses and the burning bush. Moses was out minding his own business,
keeping his flock, and he noticed that there was a bush that was on fire. This
could have caused harm to his sheep, and so of course he turned aside to take a
closer look at it. He took a closer look because the bush was on fire and yet
was not burning up. He paid closer attention, and he heard God speak. God said,
“Moses, take off your shoes, because where you’re standing is holy ground.”[5]
Holy ground. The place where you go
through those fiery trials is holy ground. It is the place where God is at
work, and so it is holy. God’s work is holy and the place where God works is
holy. When you go through fire, when you feel like the water is up to your neck,
you are on holy ground. Remember that. Your place of testing and trial is holy
ground. The place where the disciples received the Holy Spirit is holy ground. Whatever
fire and trials you’re going through, the place is holy because God is there,
also. Now, the trial itself might not be holy. In fact, it might be hell. “Yea,
even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no
evil. For thou art with me.”[6] The
process of purification and refinement is holy. What’s happening in you is
holy, because it is God at work.
What
fire are you going through now in your life? Mine has a floor covered in
Cheerios and legos; for those of you without little kids, yours probably looks a
little different. Or perhaps you’re in a calm place right now, in which case
give thanks and pray for those who are still in the fire. This transition we’re
going through is also holy ground. We are on holy ground during these weeks as
we transition from my pastoral care and I commend you to Pastor Christine’s
care. A doctor’s office can be holy, not for the diagnosis but for God at work
through medicine, through care, through you as you learn to adapt to a new
limit of your body. The place of the fire that refines and tempers you but does
not consume you is holy. It does not mean you have to go looking for it, it
does not mean you should want it. I don’t want to glorify suffering. I’m saying
God is there in the suffering, and if you let God, God will use the time to
temper you. God can use all things for good for those who love him.[7]
One
more thing about fire – “Fire holds no single shape, no single form. It can
roar through a forest or fulminate in a cannon. It can glow in hot coals or
flit about in embers.”[8] Someone
else’s form is not going to look like yours and that’s okay. Maybe this
transition isn’t holy ground for you, maybe it’s mundane and ordinary. That’s
okay. Just please have patience and compassion and pray for those of us for
whom this is a holy time.
So,
to avoid burning up or burning out, rely on God. Lean on the everlasting
arms. If you do things in your power, then you will burn out. If you do
things in the power of Holy Spirit, it may be harder, it may be not how you
would have done things, yet then also will
you become tempered, and refined, and purified. Yes, fire is hot. You might
get singed. Stepping barefoot on legos also hurts, and so does a doctor’s
diagnosis, so does saying
goodbye. None of them are things that are easy. But anything that’s worthwhile,
isn’t going to be easy. It takes time to build relationships, yet it’s worth
it. It takes time to lose weight. It takes time to fully adopt a new habit, a
new way of doing things. So don’t rely on your own power and energy and
strength. It’s going to fail you at some point. There are limits to what our
bodies can do. Yet there is no limit to what God can do. God can do more than
we can even dream or imagine.[9]
Hold on while in the furnace, because God has
promised that you will not be consumed. God has promised us the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
working through us is not always pleasant, it may mean we go places we don’t
want to go, talk with people we wouldn’t normally associate with, it may mean
something different for you than for your closest friend. In addition, as the
fire works you might feel sadness. Losing some of that dross and slag and
impurities may involve grief, because it
is loss. We like our impurities. We like our favorite sins. We like seeing
what we can get away with. Through it all, God’s refining us, God’s tempering
us, to make us more like Jesus, to make us more into the person God created
each one of us to become.
You
may know, the fire has to be the right temperature to make steel. If it’s too
hot, it will burn up the metal. If it’s too cool, it won’t burn up the
impurities. What’s fire for you may not be fire for someone else. Each person
present in Jerusalem that Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came each heard the
Gospel in their own language. Presumably, they heard the other languages, too,
but didn’t understand them, or at least not all of them, and that was okay. The
way the Holy Spirit works in your life may not be the same as it works in
someone else’s life. Your fiery trials are not going to be the same as someone
else’s. Yet when you go through those fiery trials, you can be assured that God
goes with you and that the body of Christ, we the church, are praying for you
and walking with you. Finally, you can be assured that the fire of the Spirit
will work through whatever fire you find yourself in so that it does not
consume you, but tempers you. You may get hot and sweaty; it is fire. Fire’s
hot. Yet you are also being refined, becoming more and more like Jesus, as God
melts off those rough edges, as God melts away those things that are impure.
You become more and more the person God created you to become as we move onward
to Christian perfection. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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