Church on Fire!
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Church on Fire! 12 June 2011 The Revd Jenny Wilkens
- Psalm 104:25-36
- Acts 2:1-21
- John 20:19-23
http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons
Church on fire! For us in Wellington at the moment, that headline is a bad news story, another sorry tale of an arson attempt on a church. We think immediately of our neighbours at St Peter's on Willis, or at Plimmerton, Wainuiomata or Pauatahanui. This speaks to us of the destructive power of fire, of danger and risk to property and to people.
But 'Church on fire!' in the Jerusalem Post on that first day of Pentecost was a good news story, or at least a story which grabbed the headlines and put the newborn church on the map, on the front page. What a transformation for that small bunch of disciples, meeting behind locked doors in fear, but now launched forth, propelled out into the streets - by what? By the power of the Holy Spirit, who arrives with a bang, and Luke piles up images, pictures to describe this amazing event.
As one commentator puts it, Luke pulls out all the stops on the organ to tell us about it: a heavenly sound like a rushing wind (a bit like what happened to our organ a while ago!), descending fire, speech transformed into a multi language fiesta, telling the praises of God, all that God did in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not even the most lavish use of human language is capable of capturing the experience of that day. Don't you wish you'd been there?
But these same images and pictures can still speak to us today, and remind us of all that God the Holy Spirit is to us, the Church, as we celebrate the Day of Pentecost nearly two thousand years on.
So, Fire, tongues of fire, encapsulated for us today in the flame colours we are wearing, in the phoenix of the altar cloth, in the lit flames of our candles. Fire attracts us and draws us to its warmth in the cold of winter. Fire fascinates us, but also must be treated with respect. Fire is used too for processes of refining, for purifying, for judgement.
The picture of the tongues of fire in Acts reminds us that one flame can become many, one candle flame can light many other candles, and bring light to darkness. God's Spirit is given to us not to hug to ourselves, but to share with others the warmth and the light of God's love that we have ourselves experienced.
At my last parish we used to sing a song called "There's a burning in my heart" - we used to call it the Heartburn song, it reminded me of an ad for Gaviscon! But perhaps we do need to think what it means when we pray, Set our hearts on fire with love for you…Fire us with your love (NZPB p. 470) …Living flame, burn into us (p.168) …there may be a cost to our prayer.
Wind, we Wellingtonians think we know about wind. So when we hear 'Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house…' (Acts 2: 2) we can think we know what we're dealing with, and we mentally cross it off our list, no big deal. But perhaps we need to think more of the sudden speedy arrival of the tornadoes we've heard about of late, or the sudden increasing rumble of yet another aftershock for Cantabrians, to feel the awesome power, the dynamic energy of this. Perhaps it's more like the description of a southerly blast on our south coast here: 'no matter how much merino I layer-up, the wind still slides its ice fingers underneath, squeezing the breath from my lungs.'
We can so easily domesticate God's Spirit into an innocuous zephyr or breeze, rather than the jet-propulsion system who drives us out of bed in the morning and out into a wintry world! Some of us need one of those…
When we're feeling that we're in the middle of a wind storm in our lives, we need to discern whether it is because we are receiving a battering from all this world sends in our faces, or whether it is in fact God's Spirit seeking to propel us in a new direction, energising us with that exhilarating if slightly scary feeling we get from what we might call a 'bracing' walk on the beach!
Wind, Spirit, Breath - in Hebrew and so in the Old Testament Scriptures, the word 'ruach' means all three: Wind, Spirit, breath. I have a friend who struggles with asthma and who has found the image of the Spirit as breath a hugely helpful one in coping with breathing difficulties. Many people find it helpful to ease into prayer by consciously breathing out all that is not of God, and breathing in the life of God, the Spirit of God. "Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew…" (CP 174)
In Maori culture, at the part of the ritual of welcome called the hongi, not only are noses pressed, foreheads touch, but also breath is shared - it is a profound act of connection, of sharing breath which is the essence of life, mauri ora.
I always think of this when I hear in today's Gospel (John 20) of the risen Jesus' welcome to his fear-filled disciples, saying twice 'Peace be with you', and then he breathed on them, saying 'Receive the Holy Spirit'. Just as God breathed the breath of life into Adam in the beautiful creation story of Genesis 2 (v7), so here the risen Jesus breathes the very life of God, the Holy Spirit of God into the disciples. This is an act of new creation, which animates them into beings capable of being sent out to carry on Jesus' mission of bringing salvation and forgiveness in his name.
I love that expansive picture of God's breath sustaining all creation that we heard in Psalm 104 (v 30, 31) "when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust they came from. When you send out your Spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth." The Spirit's work in renewing creation must be a picture we treasure anew in this environmentally aware age, and in particular the stewardship and partnership we are called to exercise responsibly alongside.
'Being alongside' is another attribute of God's Spirit, indeed it's the literal meaning of the title Paraklete, given to the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel. It's often translated as Advocate, the one called alongside us to speak in our defence, or to stand up for us. And of course we in turn may be called to speak up and stand up for others, in the power of God's Spirit.
Other translations of the word Paraklete are Counsellor, Helper, Comforter, Consoler. Sometimes when we speak of the Holy Spirit as our Comforter, it sounds more like a hot water bottle or duvet, when in fact our Comforter is more literally our Strengthener, the one who toughens us up. But sometimes we do need to know the more gentle ministry of God's Spirit and to extend that gentleness to others in their time of need. Perhaps the picture of the Holy Spirit as the Dove is helpful to us here as we think of the gentleness and peacefulness of the dove.
While we're thinking of the 'dove' image of the Holy Spirit, some people pronounce Paraklete as Paraklete and I always have the image of a flock of rainbow parakeets, which may be a particularly Australian image of the Holy Spirit! But on reflection I think that is a rather wonderful image of the Spirit poured out on all the rainbow people of God, giving an abundance of gifts and growing a great harvest of fruit.
Well, what image of the Spirit resonates with you today? Fire, Wind, Breath, Advocate, Comforter, Dove, Rainbow Parakeet, …? Take that image with you into this week and pray for God's Spirit to reveal more to you as you walk with the Spirit in daily life. I find it helpful in prayer to use those different names and images of the Spirit and sometimes to remind myself that the Holy Spirit is God's Spirit, and the Spirit of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not some vague 'may the force be with you' sort of spirit, but the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within us now, Christ with us and in us to the end of the age.
And let us remember that the Spirit came not just to individuals on the day of Pentecost, but rather to the Church gathered - 'they were all together in one place.' (Acts 2:1) And the Spirit came to a very diverse bunch of people and then united them to be sent out in Christ' name. So there was no place for competition, for one-upmanship, for jealousy as we heard about in our reading from Numbers 11, rather God the Spirit comes to each one and to all. And the Spirit of God will come to us afresh today as we pray, Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
May we listen out too for the words of our Great Thanksgiving prayer: "Send your Holy Spirit that these gifts of bread and wine which we receive may be to us the body and blood of Christ, and that we, filled with the Spirit's grace and power, may be renewed for the service of your kingdom" (ANZPB p. 423)
Notice that it is 'renewed for the service of your kingdom' not just your church - we are sent out from this place into God's world in the power of the Spirit together. We are the community of the Holy Spirit, dispersed as flames of God's light and love out and about through the week in our city, blown by the wind of the Spirit.
And as we go, may the wildness and the warmth of God be among us and between us now and always. Amen. (ANZPB p. 186)
