Brush Fire
If you’ve never seen a brush fire up close, I can tell you, its really something to see. Two weeks ago we had a brush fire in the woods over at the parsonage. It started as a small little fire at the bottom of the driveway, so small I didn’t even know it until someone called me. It’s a call you never expect, “Pastor Keith, we just drove by your house and I think there’s a brush fire at the bottom of your driveway.” I had absolutely no idea, but when I looked out the front door there it was, flames a couple feet high, across the driveway, working their way up the hill, just about even with our front door. Someone had already called the fire department. At first there was just one fire truck and a couple fire men. But the conditions were just right for a fire - it was a dry and windy day - and the fire just kept going, working its way up the hill back into the woods. The further up the hill it went, the more the air caught it, the bigger the fire got. In the end there were four fire engines and a ladder and they had shut down Alfred Street. We watched all of this from our front door, with Ellie reminding us to “stop, drop, and roll,” as the white and gray smoke blew over the house and up the hill toward church, and the orange and yellow flames ate up leaves and branches on the forest floor, whipping up onto the trees, getting as high as ten feet tall, charring tree roots and turning several of our pine trees orange. We were not in serious danger, although eventually we did leave the house. But it was fascinating to watch up close. Two things stay with me: first, the sound of the fire as it ate up the ground cover. When you see wildfires on television, you don’t really hear the sound. It was louder than I imagined with this kind of crackling sound - and second, how quickly the fire can move and how much momentum it gains in a very short period of time. I’m still amazed at how far it got up the hill.
The saying, “spread like wild fire” has a whole new meaning for me now...and now so does the story of Pentecost.
Day of Pentecost
One translation of the reading from Acts describes the scene this way: “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.”
On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was like a wildfire, starting off as a little fire in the room where the disciples were gathered, pouring out into Jerusalem, and then to people from all over the known world: Iranians, Iraqis, Israelites, Jews, Arabs, Turks, Egyptians, Italians and Greeks. And that fire is still burning today, still spreading the Good News that Jesus has died and is risen and that we are invited into this new life.
This week, I looked into what we know about wildfires, and I found that to have a wildfire, or most any kind of fire, you need what’s called a Fire Triangle: heat, oxygen, and fuel or combustible material. Take one away and there’s no fire. When we read from Acts, we see that at Pentecost, the Spirit provided the oxygen - the rushing wind - and the heat, the fire, the tongues of fire. But the combustible material were the people - the disciples who spoke the Gospel in all those different languages and everyone that came to hear them. From that spark, the Church was born. From its inception the church was a diverse place with people from different countries, languages, cultures, traditions.
Peter quotes the prophet Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
Paul says there are a “variety of gifts...For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink the one Spirit.”
We are the combustible material that lets the Holy Spirit fire burn. We are not only different nationalities but different ages, male and female, young men and old men, young women and old women, people that are enslaved and people who are free, Jews and Gentile. Peter and Paul are saying that as the Spirit spreads, it makes us one. Unique individuals united for the sake of the Gospel.
Kristi and Kelsey
This morning we celebrate and confirm two unique individuals, Kelsey Coleman and Kristi MacDonald.
This morning, I want to tell you a story that captures how the Holy Spirit is at work in them. This past fall we went to a confirmation camp with another youth group up in New Hampshire. It was an adventure camp with lots of low-rope and high-rope courses. The first night, we had a bible study, which was my job to lead. I have to admit that doing Bible study with teenagers is a little nerve wracking. The very last thing in the world you want is to be boring. In those situations, silence is the enemy. You need someone to break the silence, to just take a stab at it, to get the conversation going, and that’s just what Kristi did. She jumped in and got us going. I cannot express just how relieved I was, and how grateful that is part of Kristi’s gift. She can put people at ease, friends and strangers, just by being herself. That’s the Holy Spirit. During the Bible study a member of the other youth group shared some hard things he had been going through. He cried and was very upset. We listened and then we prayed for him. Afterward, Kelsey talked with him, consoled him, and they talked most of the rest of the evening. Out of her own life experiences, she showed great compassion to this young man. She shared her experiences, and listened to his. The other pastor was hanging around, just to make sure he was doing okay. He said he hardly said a word because Kelsey was so great.
So, in those couple of hours, you helped one pastor get people talking about the Bible and you helped the other one console and comfort someone in need. That is truly what we mean when we talk about the priesthood of all believers, that everyone is a minister in their own right in daily life. That is truly the Holy Spirit.
You two are welcoming and compassionate. You are a great combination and I know your Confirmation teachers are going to miss having you in class, but the rest of us are excited and grateful because now we get to see you and hear you in the congregation. In the coming years, those gifts of the Holy Spirit will continue to grow. We will get to enjoy them and learn from them and nurture them. Because really, a congregation is like a class. We are all still learning what faith and Spirit and life are all about. We need people that can get us talking and people to share God’s love and compassion with us. Your gifts are a gift from God and are greatly valued and welcome and needed in the Church and in the world.
This morning we want to say that we are so proud of you both and that we can see in you that the fire is still burning. That brush fire that started at Pentecost nearly two-thousand years ago, in a place where neither of you has ever been, still burns. It burns in you and that gives us a tremendous sense of hope for the future.
We thank God for you. We ask God’s blessing to be upon you. And we continue to pray, as we did at your baptisms, “that your light [that fire] will so shine before others that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Amen.
