Making Sense of Being On-Fire: I Believe!  I Do Believe!”

 John 15: 26-27, 16: 4b-15; Acts 2: 1-21 Pentecost

On fire! We’re on fire!  Be on fire…but don’t burn others….perhaps that could be one of Pentecost’s messages combining grace with passion!! ~Have you ever visited a congregation that was on fire with the spirit?  ~Did they seem different?  ~Were they acting differently or doing things out of the ordinary?  ~Did it make sense to you?  Once a few years back….I visited such a community.  On fire!  You could feel as they worshipped…and then, all of a sudden, at a particular point in the service, without any advance warning, all of a sudden…like a violent wind!,  the regulars bent over where they sat and picked up potted flowering plants and held them over their heads, as the words of the service continued.   

It was quite a sight as you can imagine…a sea of floating flowers.  A visitor might have wondered what was going on, what it meant, but one thing was very clear to anyone present then, this ritual had powerful significance to those who were present beyond that moment in the worship.  It was clear it had meaning to them! That community?  Well, it was us!! 

 Were you here that Sunday nearly 6 years ago now? We’re still on fire!  And, I still ask myself as I prepare for each Sunday let alone Pentecost Sunday, “What is it we think we are doing…as we sit worshipping here together?” “Does what we’re doing have meaning far beyond itself that impacts the rest of our lives in some mystical way ….flower pots are not!?” And I ask you, “What is it you think you are doing as you sit here this morning? “Does it have meaning for you far beyond the words and music and movements…whether or not anyone else sees or understands?  And what do they see you doing and being and becoming…what are you willing to see in yourself and others?” Today, are you open to the “spirit of truth” (as Jesus calls it) in ways that allow what happens here in our faith community to touch you personally and powerfully beyond your time here this morning? Is there a symbol you take with you from your worship that holds power for you as you live into the rest of your life? …the sound of wind or the choir…a tongue as of flames…a child’s words...a feeling amidst us…a color…a word…a flower pot? Will you allow this symbol of yours, allow the spirit, to transform what you’re saying, affect what you’re dreaming, change what you’re envisioning? What is it you would prophesy for this church, this world?   Heavens...what do you prophesy for yourself if you/as you let the “spirit of truth” land upon you as a tongue of fire…or a red germanium?   Truth brings freedom.  Today is the official birth-day of the church. Freedom Day!

 Today marks the time 2009 years ago when those who believed were transformed in ways that brought them out of the shadows in which they had been hiding (for really good reasons)

 ....out of hiding and into the light, no longer hiding but now drawing attention to their message, assured of its power.   This powerful new church was not bound by the way it had been, by “we’ve always done it that way or we tried that once before and it didn’t work”

 …not bound by worldly expectations or fear of failure. 

 This new church wasn’t “good, decent, and in order”, wasn’t organized with a business plan to be successful.   Their success (and they were so successful we’re still talking about them 2009 years later), their success lie in their spontaneity, the spirit, the truth, the message lived inwardly and lived outward.  Success came from living the faith, choosing to walk the talk…trusting Jesus was still with them every step of the way…now as the Advocate, Holy Spirit, Comforter, Holy Consciousness.   Their biggest challenge was not being ridiculed about the flames on their heads and their speaking in new ways, being called drunks…their biggest challenge was staying focused on the truth, keeping the flame lit, and the message going…keeping on keeping on…taking the long view of things.  The real risk to them came if they were not risking looking foolish in the eyes of the culture! The risk to us? The risk to you in your life if you don’t keep the flame on your head lit?  Isn’t what you risk, freedom?  When you worry about appearances and ridicule and acceptance more than truth…cling to the way it was vs the way it can be….if you don’t admit your inner truth about yourself to yourself and the outer truth about the situations you live in – naming this for yourself and others…. If you don’t risk doing this….you risk your own inner, deep freedom.  Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth, the Advocate. An advocate speaks OUT on your behalf. But I think just as importantly, this advocate speaks IN you on God’s behalf… advocating for you to look within first and discover the truth and use it powerfully, GRACIOUSLY,  to begin to transform your own life and ways first…as you go out with the message of God’s good news for everybody….

 as you become a missionary, visionary working for peace and justice at home, at work, in this city….in your own life. The church is not about education, property, finance, even worship.

 God’s church is about hearing, understanding, wisdom, visions, dreams made real as we are woven together living out into the world….our one mission:   

to integrate such into ourselves moment to moment and live it out into the world daily.   We are on fire with this mission.  The church is mission.  Me, you, and all God’s people missionaries together. God is saving you.  Bringing you truth. Receive it and right now begin to save yourself friends. God says we will be saved.  How?  When?  Hopefully we won’t wait to turn to God till the worst things happen, when we are devastated…when the sun turns to darkness and the moon to blood.  You see, there are portents (gateways) in the heavens and signs on earth below calling us to act now and save ourselves a bunch of grief.  So often we wait till a catastrophe happens and we are in over our head before we’re willing to look for the truth and let the spirit empower us to make a change in our lives!  God doesn’t want disaster for us…not for you.  That’s why the portents and sign, wind and flames! So….flower pots up.  Look around.  What do you see?  Flowers?  Flames?  Hear that wind a blowing?  See truth?

If you are here at Tippe worshipping, YOU ARE A RISK TAKER!  RISK….INNER TRUTH TELLING.  FIND….FREEDOM. unto our own demise.