Fire and Water

A Sermon for Pentecost (RCL A) 6-12-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry (annual outdoor liturgy)

Texts:              Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-35, 37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 7:37-39

Title:               Fire and Water

Fire! And water! Today, of course, we remember and celebrate the greatest gift that God have ever given to humanity: that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit which descended upon the disciples as tongues of flame.

Fire and water. These are the elements that the Church has always used to speak of the Holy Spirit.

I want us to think about this together a bit this morning. Here we are, gathered by a major body of water, and there is fire burning right back there in those grills!

These two elements – fire and water – are crucial and necessary for human life.

We cannot live without water. As you know, up to 60% of our bodies are water.

We also cannot live without fire. Fire is the source of our heat and our light; it is also how we cook our food, like we hope those guys are doing over there!  

There are other things that we need to survive: food and shelter, of course. But the Bible and the Church have been clear in pointing to fire and water as symbols of the Holy Spirit.

Why do you think that is?

First, I think it is because they are elements essential for life. We call the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of life”.

This is what the Psalm said today: “You send forth your Spirit and they are created, and so you renew the face of the earth.”

But I also think we speak about the Holy Spirit as fire and water because these things are so notoriously difficult to control! We human beings have never been very good at controlling water and fire!

Just look at the news right now: a massive wildfire is raging out of control in Arizona. Devastating floods continue to affect large areas along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, as well as up in Vermont.  

Fire and water are crucial and vital for us only when we have them in small quantities that we can control. But when the quantity becomes too much, we lose all control and those forces act as if they have a mind of their own.

This is how it works with the Holy Spirit as well. We really like it when there’s a bit of the Spirit moving in our midst. That means that things are growing perhaps. There is some energy in our community, some new people are joining us. There’s a feeling of joy and excitement among us.

This is all wonderful, but only so long as there’s not too much of the Holy Spirit. We don’t want things to become out of control, do we?

We don’t want the fire to burn out of control! We don’t want the water to flood our community!

We want the Spirit to stay controlled, where we can manage it.

But the Spirit always has a mind of its own, and whenever possible, the Spirit is always pushing the edges of our control.

What did St. Paul say of the Holy Spirit in our reading from his first letter to the Church in Corinth?

All kinds of different gifts handed out by God to those in the community “just as the Spirit chooses.”

And what happened after all on that day of Pentecost among the disciples there in Jerusalem? Tongues of fire came upon them and took control of them in a very real way.

Why did the bystanders think that they were drunk? Because it appeared that they were acting out of control? And why is that? Because the fire of the Holy Spirit had come among them!

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher, as well as a disciple of the Lord, who died in 1662. A few years before his death he had a profound experience of God coming into his life, like an uncontrollable power bursting upon his consciousness.

The experience was so profound that he wrote it down immediately in these words raw with passion, almost chaotic in ecstasy:

“The year of the Lord 1654. Monday, 23 Novemeber, from about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve at night: Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not the God of philosophers and scholars. Certainty, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. He is only found along the ways that are taught in the Gospel. Tears of joy. I had parted from him. I fled from him, denied him, crucified him. Let me never be separated from him. Surrender to Jesus Christ.”

Fire. For two hours, the Holy Spirit touched Blaise Paschal in a direct and powerful way.

And what was the first word that he could use to describe that experience? Fire.

There’s one more thing that is special about fire and water and that points to the purposes of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Both fire and water are used to clean. We wash with water; we sterilize with fire.

Even in nature, the waters from floods are used to cleanse the land and to bring new and fresh soil into the river bottoms.

And after forest fires, new seedlings are enabled to sprout as the old dead wood is cleansed away.

In the Bible, think of the flood in the days of Noah sent to cleanse the earth of evil, and the promise of fire in the last days for the same purpose.   

The Lord Jesus spoke of rivers of living water that would flow out of our hearts when we drank in all of the truth and goodness that we experience in him. That river cannot flow if it is blocked by the cares of the world, by the desires for things of this world. The Spirit wants to cleanse us so that this living water might flow unhindered for the blessing of all those around us: our families, our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers.

 Are you ready to lose some control? Are you ready for the power of the Holy Spirit?

So welcome the Holy Spirit into your lives, my friends. Let the Spirit cleanse you. Do not be afraid to let the Spirit be in control. And do not be afraid when the Spirit brings new life and new possibilities into your life. Amen.  

Prove the World Wrong!

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost (RCL – B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Church of the Holy Spirit, Bellmawr

Texts: Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-37; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27 & 16:4b-15

“And when he comes, the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong.” Amen.

My dear friends: we are all gathered together here this morning as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, as a community in which the Holy Spirit is moving and working.

Today, by the grace of God, we bring into this community a new member: Royal Tomeo. Of course, I will have the privilege and grace of pouring the water on his head, but remember this: it is all of us together who are baptizing Royal this day. We are baptizing Royal into the fellowship of the Church.

But remember this as well: Royal is NOT baptized today as an Episcopalian. No one ever is baptized as a Catholic, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian or anything else! Royal will be baptized today in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So in another sense, it is not us at all who are doing the baptizing. It is in fact the Holy Spirit who will baptize Royal, who will immerse him into the new life we have in God.

This new life that we share together in the Holy Spirit – it changes us! It changes the way we act, the way we treat others. By the power of Holy Spirit, we are able to respect the dignity of every human being, to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

Tony Campolo tells a wonderful story of a time when he was in Haiti a few years back. Tony’s ministry works to promote good education for poor children in places like Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as places here like Camden. But once when Tony was in Port-au-Prince for a visit to check-up on the work there, as he was walking into the Holiday Inn hotel, three young girls intercepted him. They were probably about 15 years old. The one in the middle said to him, “Mister, for ten dollars you can have me all night long.”

Tony was shocked. He was aware of the extreme poverty in Haiti and what desperation that kind of poverty leads people to, but he wasn’t expecting this from girls so young. So he looked at the other two girls and asked them, “Can I have you each for ten dollars too?” They nodded yes, trying to hide their disgust for the bald, middle-aged American man. Quickly hatching a plan, Tony said, “Fine! I’ve got thirty dollars right here. I’m in Room 210. You be up there in half an hour. I’ll pay you then and I want all three of you for the whole night.”

As soon as he got up to his room, he called down to the concierge: “Send up every Disney movie you’ve got. If it’s made by Disney, send it up.” This was before the days when you could order a movie right on the TV. And then Tony called the hotel restaurant: “Do you make banana splits? Good! I want extra full banana splits, with extra fudge and extra whipped cream. And … I want four of them! Right away.” Pretty soon, the movies and the ice cream and the girls all arrived. And Tony sat them down on the bed and let them pick out movies that they would like to see. And they all ate ice cream and watched movies until 1 o’clock in the morning or so, when the girls all fell asleep.

And as Tony fell asleep on the chair in the corner of the room, he thought with disgust about how dirty men could abuse young girls like this, and how in the morning they will go back to the street and once again do whatever they can to find some money for their families. But at least for this one night, Tony felt sure that the Holy Spirit was speaking to him and guiding him to give these girls at least a chance to be kids again, to just have some fun together. At least for this one night, Tony could be a conduit for some blessing to these poor girls.

You see, the Holy Spirit proves the world wrong. There is a different way to be. We can treat others with dignity. By the power of the Spirit, we can love others with the love of Christ. It is our calling, and it is our gift, to love others in this way.

The famous Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard (see his Works of Love) points out the distinction between celebrated love and commanded love. Celebrated love is the love about which people write poems, about which movies are made. Celebrated love is all about making a distinction: I love this one person more than any other. With this love, the lover makes a clear choice.

But commanded love, the love to which Christ calls us, the love which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts, - this love makes no distinctions. This is the beauty and majesty of it.

You see, God intends that I learn to see every single woman as my sister, and every single man as my brother. Every single one, without exception. This is the love that God calls us to in Christ. But it’s not the kind of love that we are accustomed to talking about in society. No one sings a song about this kind of love! But when it comes down to it, it is this Holy Spirit-empowered, commanded love which has the power to change the world.

Let’s practice it for just a moment: please take a moment and look at your neighbor on each side of you in the eye and say to them, as is appropriate, “You are my sister.” Or, “you are my brother.”

The Spirit leads us into all truth, and this is the truth about us.
It doesn’t matter what your neighbor looks like, what language they speak, who they live with, where they come from. It doesn’t even matter what they have done in their lives. This new community love in the Spirit has no boundaries. This is the way God intended it to be.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has always had the intention of creating a community that includes people of every language and race and color and gender and orientation.

This is the heart of what it means to be “church”. We don’t get to choose our family in the church. God brings all together and makes something new and different.

This agape love that we share in Christian community is demonstrated clearly every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. This is what St. John Chrysostom wrote:
“The whole ceremony [of the Lord’s table] is [also] a meal at which everyone has an equal place at the table. Thus we are celebrating our fellowship as brothers and sisters, with Christ as our unseen elder brother at one end of the table, and God our unseen father presiding at the other end” (On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom).

Our Lord speaks of the Spirit of Truth who comes to guide us into the truth about life, and who comes to prove the world wrong. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son into community gathered in the name of Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament do we see the Holy Spirit filling a lone individual; the coming of the Spirit always happens in the community of Christ’s body. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name…(Matthew 18:20).

I really love this image of the Spirit: “he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.” I love it, because every day I see a world that needs an awakening. Come on, Holy Spirit, let’s prove this crazy world wrong! Let’s prove this world wrong that “looking out for #1” is the only way to live, that “getting what is mine” is the way you have to be. Let’s prove the world wrong and show that there is an alternative, that Jesus creates a different kind of community where everyone is respected and honored and loved.

It is possible! We are the assembly of the Holy Spirit. When we gather together as God’s people, we create a free space where the words of Jesus, and the gifts of Jesus, are able to re-create the world, to make the world new again, to make us new again.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery that we enter into today as we celebrate the baptism of our newest brother into this community of love which is unlike any other.

As the great St. John Chrysostom preached: “Nothing can destroy love which is rooted and grounded in Christ.” So may the Holy Spirit always bring forth this love among us. Amen.