The fire started with a bath.
A number of years back, around this
time of year, I took a bath in our large garden tub. It was nice.
I let out the water. Little did I
know, our septic tank was full of water from the spring rains.
Why is that important to know? Because, adding a garden tub full of water to
a full septic tank means that you get a flooded basement.
I ran outside and grabbed the bucket
that we keep outside by the fire pit to put out our campfires. I used it to scoop up the water.
After an entire day’s worth of work,
we cleaned up the basement, which included emptying all of the soaked cardboard
boxes that contained our store items and moving the items into newly purchased
totes. I took the boxes out to the fire
pit and doused them in lighter fluid.
There were many boxes. I lit the
boxes on fire.
The fire was huge! The heat from the fire created a mini
whirlwind of flames. The flaming mini
whirlwind sent small pieces of flaming boxes high into the air. Those faming pieces came down and rested on
newly, wind dried leaves on the ground.
A fire started.
No problem; that is why I keep a
bucket outside by the fire pit.
Wait? Where’s the bucket? What happened to the bucket? Well, needless to say, that is how you start
a property fire with a bath.
That fire spread faster than I could
have ever imagined. I have always been
careful to contain my fires, but some fires just cannot be contained. Some fires spread to places that you would
have never imagined, or have even wanted it to spread. Some fires are more than we asked for, but
they burn none-the-less.
God’s fires are no different. Some of us try to contain God’s fire, but God
has a way of refusing to be contained.
It is as if Jesus does not want to be contained in a grave. It is as if the heart of Jesus desires to
burn anywhere and in anyone it chooses.
I once read about a small
congregation that served God, mostly in a poor neighborhood in the middle of a
city. The people were poor, but they loved
each other and helped each other spiritually and monetarily as they were
able.
The pastor preached as Jesus did in
the gospel of Luke, sharing good news for the poor…but that inherently means
that there is also doom and gloom preached toward the rich. It is easy to preach the doom and gloom when
the rich are not present.
Well, one day a couple of
middle-aged men in business suits showed up to church. The pastor looked out at the crowd before
worship and spotted the men immediately because their nice clothing stood out
in their poor neighborhood the same way that ratty clothing stand out on Wall
Street.
The pastor said to the worship
assistant, “I don’t think they are going to like my sermon.”
The worship assistant said, “If it
is in the Bible, it is the truth. You
preach it.”
Preach it she did. After the worship service one of the sharp
dressed men walked up to the pastor and said to her, “Sometimes, guys like me
need to hear to truth also. Thank you.” The two continued to come and participate in
the mission of that poor little church.
You see what I mean? The Spirit of God, the fire of God, the truth
of Jesus Christ will burn wherever it wants, and it will not be contained. But, not only that, the Spirit burns in order
to bring people together.
The first time we see that fire
creep outside the fire pit in the Christian Scriptures is on Pentecost, the day
we celebrate today. On that day, just
short of 2,000 years ago, a group of Jesus’ followers were gathered in the upper
room of a house, kind of like when we are gathered in church. They were keeping to themselves, causing no
trouble at all, and having a nice little gathering of friends, when, suddenly,
the Spirit of the Lord rained down on them a heavenly fire. It was a fire caused by a bath. It was a baptism of fire that did not stay in
its fire pit, and it burned fast and furious.
You see, that fire lit a spark in
the people of God that they did not even know they had. They started speaking all sorts of different
languages.
Now, I have to tell you, the Holy
Spirit was working overtime that day, because at the same time, it blew
thousands of people gathered from all over the known world to celebrate the
harvest festival over to that little house, and they all peered up at the upper
room and listened in.
Now, as a preacher, I get nervous
when I see a crowd of strangers. I
wonder, like that preacher from the poor neighborhood, if they will like what I
have to say. And, I venture to guess
that it is the same for you; that you get nervous when asked to pray in public,
horrified that you might sound stupid.
But, the Holy Spirit does not care
about any of those trivial attempts to contain a fire. The Spirit burns as it wishes.
And, burn it did among the
disciples! People heard about Jesus’
amazing wonders in their own languages.
In their own languages! The
message of Jesus Christ drew these different people together.
You can hear the Spirit’s gathering
powers at work when a humble fisherman, Peter, stands up and gives a expert
sermon to the people; starting by calling his hearers “Israelites,” then
“fellow Israelites,” and finally towards the end of his long sermon, “brothers.”
You see! The Spirit will burn where it will and it
will unite brothers and sisters created by God even as the world tries to
divide.
The Spirit will give everyone the
truth to share in their own language.
And, the Spirit will spread like a bath fire, and burn everywhere we
think it should not. It will burn
through the Greeks, Arabs, Romans, Africans, and Asians, no matter what we
think of them. It will unite the world
under the one name under heaven by which the world is saved; Jesus Christ.
And, our world could use a little
uniting right now. Am I right? You might say, the world needs a little less
fire pastor, our cities are burning up, but I say that the world needs more
fire…the right kind of fire. It needs
the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Because, just as God, through the
work of the Holy Spirit, transformed one man’s death (Jesus’ death) into
something that drew thousands people back together just days afterward…even some
of his enemies…so too the Spirit is able to do the same today. Just keep reading Acts, you will see it
happen.
The Spirit is able to draw us
together under Jesus so that we can live in a world filled with an eternal sort
of love. Young men and woman shall prophesy
and see visions and dream dreams, and they will dream of a future where
division is not what unites small pockets of people who sit at tables glaring
at other tables with small pockets of people, but the love of Jesus Christ will
draw all people together to sit his table of compassion and mercy.
It will bring a couple of rich,
completely out of place, businessmen into a struggling, but loving
community. It will unite enemies under
one holy cause. And, the Spirit will
burn with God’s grace, touching places we would have never imagined possible.
The
Spirit burns even in you…even in you. Go
and burn beyond the fire pit.
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