Fire from Heaven! Pentecost 2016 Acts 2:1-21/Romans 8

Church historian and former member, Emory McCleary describes the mood of the church this way in her book about this historic church subtitled: “Well into Its 2nd Century”. “1889 marked a new epoch in the history of the church which saw the new brick building, 3rd home of the Central Avenue congregation (finally) completed. The anticipated joy in the new church turned to bitter disappointment in the new structure. Many were displeased and discontented. (It seems) the church’s finance committee, in seeking a revenue to apply on the debt, designed the lower rooms of the church as stores (which) later might be transformed into Sunday School rooms and church parlors. (But the church sanctuary) was on the second floor of the structure, reached from the (street) entrance by a narrow spiral staircase, under the belfry. (Up in the sanctuary) the ventilation was poor and the acoustics bad. The Ladies Aid Society met at the church to sew, and whenever the “thorn in the flesh” (complaining about the horrid structure) began to prick too sharply; Mr. Godden would counsel them to sing “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Then, in 1905, the fire came. Cecil Ledgerwood, writing in a 1984 edition of the church’s Lenten Devotional Guide offers this testimony: “I was only 7 years old at the time, but I remember when the church on the corner of Chapel Street and Central Avenue on the second floor over Lockwood’s Men’s Store burned up completely during the 1905 fire which burned a large portion of the (entire) town. All my family members and all the other families who were members were determined to rebuild their church as soon as possible. Everyone pitched in, and soon the new Methodist church was completed. Then, in 1913 it happened again… (Fire, again) burned up the new church, the Moody Hotel, the Court House, the new high school and many homes and businesses, including our new home, built in 1906. But once again, all families banded together and built the present Methodist Church on Central and Orange. (It) was an enormous task because the church members were also building their own homes and businesses again, but with the help of God all things were accomplished.

That’s how the fires first started here at Hot Springs Methodist church over 100 years ago. So we gather today, more than 100 years after that fiery tragedy to celebrate and remember that first fiery ordeal that forged the birth of the Church—that living, breathing, speaking, listening, arguing, and reconciling organism made up of people just like you and me who are marked by the name of Jesus, who by God’s grace and mystery become Christ’s body in the world. And here’s how that fire started more than two millennia ago…

About 120 followers of Jesus huddled together in a rented upper room in Jerusalem gathering for the annual Pentecost festival. That Jewish festival of Pentecost was one of the three most important religious festivals. Also known as the “festival of weeks,” it was celebrated seven weeks after Passover, literally on the fiftieth day (that’s what Pente-cost means) after the Sabbath on which Passover began.

I say all that not so you’ll see that I read Bible commentaries from time to time, but to illustrate that the wind and fire which came into that gathering there in Jerusalem was not something expected! That’s probably the reason why Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, was so descriptive about this very strange “interruption” to what could have been just an otherwise typical religious/agriculture holiday.

As you read in Acts, you see that it isn’t just the wind and fire that the people remember—the phenomenon of wind and fire is followed by a response amongst the believers that forever shapes the focus of what becomes the Church. People start talking; start communicating with one another—in all languages! So, it’s not long before some others out on the streets of

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Jerusalem, who’ve made a pilgrimage to the Holy City from all parts of the world, hear proclamations about God in their own native tongue—and the fact that they hear this in their own language astounds them.

Luke takes great detail (though it might give a 21st century liturgist fits in knowing exactly how to pronounce these names!) in cataloging all the so-called “foreigners” who were there who heard this upper room crowd speaking in their language. The point however, is that representatives from every known point on earth (at that time) heard and understood this band of 120 disciples making proclamations! What were they saying?

Well, what they were saying was open to speculation, supposedly. Rumors spread quickly. “They are drunken fools,” some said. “How disgusting,” others said. Ah, but remember, the very one whom these believers followed was himself birthed into existence midst rumors and scandal there in Bethlehem. Here on another “birthday” of sorts, when the Church of Jesus Christ was born, the rumors and scandal continue.

Finally, one Galilean fisherman stands near his eleven close friends and speaks to these rumors and speculations… “… These are not drunk as you have supposed…” and thus begins the very first sermon in Peter’s life. Simon Peter, so colorful a character in the gospels, so on again—off again. So quick (when Jesus walked with him in Galilee) to stick his foot in his mouth, yet so quiet at the end of the Rabbi’s life—there Peter stands in Jerusalem to give his inaugural sermon.

This sermon must set the record straight. It must tell the truth and address the rumors. It must proclaim the good news. So, he cites scripture from the tight-lipped prophet Joel to illustrate what’s going on. That longed-for day that Joel cites, when “young men shall see visions and old men dream dreams, when sons and daughters, menservants and maidservants will prophesy” (Joel 2:28-29) because they’ve been touched by the spirit—that day, Peter says has come now!

That day has come. The mighty wind has blown and the fire of the spirit has ushered in a new day, like never before. Like Jesus preached at his inaugural sermon in his hometown of Nazareth proclaiming, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Peter makes another bold proclamation when he says, “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!” What? Surely you’re kidding (this skeptical crowd might have thought)…You mean: Parthians? Medes? Elamites? Mesopatamians? “Those people” from Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phyrgia, Pamphillia, and Epypt? They shall be saved?

Yes!The United Methodist slogan wasn’t around back then, but surely fire-anointed believers

saw themselves as the church with open minds, open hearts, and open doors and later in the second chapter of Acts before the benediction was pronounced and after the offering was received, three thousand persons were added to the church rolls-increasing their number from 120 to 3120—maybe more!

Two thousand years later, upon hearing Peter’s sermon about this wide open-armed God who welcomes all who call upon his name…we might want to say, really now, everyone? Americans, Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans? Gays, Straights, Old People, Young People? Even high school seniors? Or their parents/grandparents who are close to their first “mid-life crisis?” People who literally and figuratively “don’t speak our language”… is that the “everyone” you mean? Is it still true? Is it still true that all those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved? If you listen to the spirit and the winds of change it brings and are warmed by the fires of Pentecost this day or any day, you’d surely have to say YES

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Or as Will Willimon says in his commentary on the book of Acts, “The story of Pentecost day began with the gift of the Spirit to the assembled apostles. Now, the day concludes with the gift of reconciliation for those who heretofore stood on the outside.” (Interpretation Commentaries, pg. 37). What began as a crowd of about 120 begins to include those on the outside and the number swelled beyond 3000 by the end of the day! That’s the Pentecost fire from heaven that ignited the church that day in Jerusalem and that same fire that burned within the hearts and minds of our ancestors here on Central Avenue, causing them to reflect more deeply and with greater faith. McCleary writes: “The great tidal wave of fire swept everything in its path with cyclonic fury for 42 blocks, destroying, in many instances, both homes and businesses of a great number of the members of the church was taken up by some like tangled threads of the church’s affairs to weave them into a smooth fabric, changing the discordant notes into a spiritual harmony.”

Who knows what re-kindling of faith and retuning of discordant notes can take place in our lives today as we gather to celebrate Pentecost and witness the confessions of faith of those who will come our way this year and the years to come. But this is not just their time to share their faith… it is your time… everyone’s time to allow the winds of the spirit to blow upon the burning embers of our own faith so that our witness burns boldly and brightly, until we can make Peter’s bold testimony our own! I can’t help but wonder how those 864 delegates to the 2016 General Conference and their 3000 more “visitors” are celebrating Pentecost in Portland. May fire from heaven fall on them and on us until we can pray this prayer:

I close with this prayer from Will Willimon:

“Blow upon us, Holy Spirit. Help us to hear, amid all the conflicting voices that speak to us, the risen Christ speaking to us. Your word is our life, but your word is not always easy for us to hear.

Blow upon us, Holy Spirit. Help us to speak, amid all the difficulty of finding the right words, to the God who has so graciously in Christ spoken to us. We need to talk to you, to tell you what’s on our minds and in our hearts. But we cannot speak unless you give us the power to speak. Speak to us that we might speak to you. Breathe upon us. Amen.” Let fire fall from heaven and renew us again. Amen. (Pulpit Resource, Vol. 33. No. 2 Year A, pg.29)

1730 words

Acts 2:1-2;37-424 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

5-11 There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?

Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;

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Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,    Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,    Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;Even Cretans and Arabs!

“They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!”

12 Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”

13 Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”

14-21 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,“I will pour out my Spirit    on every kind of people:Your sons will prophesy,    also your daughters;Your young men will see visions,    your old men dream dreams.When the time comes,    I’ll pour out my SpiritOn those who serve me, men and women both,    and they’ll prophesy.I’ll set wonders in the sky above    and signs on the earth below,Blood and fire and billowing smoke,    the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,Before the Day of the Lord arrives,    the Day tremendous and marvelous;And whoever calls out for help    to me, God, will be saved.

37 Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?”

38-39 Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God

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MSG —Amuzgo de Guerrero (AMU)—

invites.”

40 He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”

41-42 That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.

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