"A Church on Fire" - Acts 2:1-21 - June 4, 2006

When you listen to military experts about the war in Iraq they say that one of their biggest problems is language. There are simply not enough interpreters to communicate with the citizens and military in Iraq. If coalition forces could speak the native languages of Iraq they could be far more effective and have a better relationship with the different ethnic groups within the country.

Language is a problem at the United Nations. People don’t trust each other because they don’t understand what each other is saying. Language is a problem even in the United States since their are so many colloquialisms spoken in different parts of the country. Language is a problem between the sexes since males and females don’t always communicate in the same way. For example, a woman asks you to do a favor but you have forgot. So she says, "That’s okay, never mind." But what she really means is, "Listen buster, you had better do it or else."

The Church is no different. Younger generations aren’t familiar with liturgical terms. Words like "repentance," are totally foreign. I doubt seriously if many people know what the word "liturgical" means. Consequently when people can’t understand one another there is confusion, mistrust and even chaos, or in the case of worship, people just stay away. But translation is only part of the problem. What really matters is what a word, phrase, or story actually means.

At Pentecost there was a breakthrough in language. Different groups within the Church spoke different languages; i.e., Aramaic or Greek. But, the language of the faith was Hebrew. What made Pentecost so unique was the fact that the Holy Spirit enabled the people of the Church to understand each other since their native dialect was spoken. Furthermore, Peter interpreted the message which enabled people to fully understand its meaning. When that happened it created an excitement and passion like never before. Thus, you had a Church on fire.

Have you ever had an experience when you didn’t understand something and then later it was explained to you in words you understood? In my first parish I had a bible study that was made up of mostly senior citizens. One dear lady, who was 85 years old, was very faithful and attended church all her life. I was interpreting the good shepherd story in the bible from the gospel of John. She sat quietly and never spoke. Then suddenly she broke her silence and said, "I can’t believe it. After all these years I thought the bible was just prose. For the first time in my life I realize it is a series of stories that actually mean something." It was a huge revelation for her because it totally changed her paradigm about the bible.

When something finally makes sense you generally respond by saying, "Now I get it." Well, at Pentecost the Church finally got it. "Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force, and no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then like wildflower the Holy Spirit spread through the ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them." (The Message)

Many have no idea what the word Pentecost means. Pentecost was a Jewish celebration of the Feast of Weeks. At that time they offered their "first fruits" as an offering to God. It was an occasion not unlike our Thanksgiving. The word Pentecost means fifty. So think of it like the first golden anniversary of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving in our family is complex. There never seems to be a time when everyone can get together. Can you imagine a time when your entire family, including extended family, has the opportunity to all be together? At Pentecost everyone in the Church was together. No one was missing. No one had something else to do. Imagine having all your relatives together in one place and everyone communicating freely and understanding one another. Seems hard to imagine doesn’t it? Perhaps you can see why Pentecost was so powerful. Everyone was there. It was a "golden" celebration and there were no communication barriers.

Thus the Church was on fire. There was a power present unlike they had ever experienced before. It was such a moving experience that it energized the believers to build Christ’s Church. "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need, day by day. As they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved." (Acts 2:44-47)

The Church was on fire because everyone understood everyone else. No one was outside the communication loop. But, they were also on fire because they had the momentum and freedom to move forward. In Homiletics (June 2003), what happened at Pentecost is interpreted as "Friendly Fire." Forest fires are usually seen as a bad thing, but they can also be seen as a good thing. In fact, it is stated that fighting forest fires actually impedes the growth of our forests. What makes a forest thrive is the removal of dead wood, leaves, bushes and other vegetation that prevents new trees from sprouting. The journal went on to say that "inasmuch as forest fires burn away the undergrowth and debris in the forests, the Holy Spirit can burn away the undergrowth and debris of our lives, and allow new life to appear."

One of the reasons the Church has lost much of its fire power is because her people have filled their lives with too many other things. Young parents have become professional chauffeurs as they shuffle their children from one activity to another. Television is dominating much of our leisure time. Affluence has enabled folks to make frequent trips to the malls, places of interest and restaurants. People’s lives are filled with all kinds of extracurricular activities. Instead of downsizing, people are adding on. There’s no room in people’s lives for activity in the Church.

What we need is a forest fire in our lives, one that will rid us of all the unessential undergrowth. To do that we have to embrace a new language of "letting go" or "saying no." We need the Holy Spirit to cleanse us of the nonessential stuff in our lives.

We also need to trust the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost the Spirit came upon them like rush of wind. They couldn’t explain it or see it, but it was something they could feel. They could have resisted and ran but instead they remained and the spirit filled them with new energy.

On Memorial Day my son was putting his wave runner in the water for the first time this season. Before he puts it in the water he always makes sure that it will start. A funny thing happened this year. It started right up. Usually he has to spend hundreds of dollars in repair bills to get it to work. He said, "This is scary, I wonder if something is wrong, it actually started." He was taken aback by the good news of a running engine. He wasn’t prepared for the fact that something would work right.

Perhaps we don’t trust the Spirit of God enough and believe that things can really happen. Are we willing to go with the flow and take some risks? Are we willing to let the Spirit of God move us and give us direction?

I believe we have become a people who are obsessive-compulsive, at least about some things. Some are obsessed about house cleaning. Others of us are obsessed with sports. Everyone has something they do to excess, like watching television, exercising or collecting things. Perhaps instead of being so neat and tidy we need to be more "carefree spirits."

Alexander Fleming may an important discovery that has saved millions of lives. As one of Fleming's biographers (W. Howard Hughes) put it, "Tidiness was not one of Fleming's strong points." Fleming always meant to put his used culture plates in antiseptic, but often he would let a huge pile grow, so that those on top were completely out of the antiseptic. A colleague dropped by to visit one day and Fleming, pointing out the pile of uncovered culture dishes, lamented: "As soon as you uncover a culture dish, something tiresome is sure to happen. Things fall out of the air." Perhaps you have made the same complaint, in stronger language, about the dishes left standing long in your sink. Fleming, looking at his pile of messy dishes, suddenly noticed that one of them had green mold on it, around which the staphylococcus colonies had disappeared. And so, because he was not tidy and had put off doing the dishes, Fleming discovered penicillin.

In the 1840s, Christian Schonbein, was messing around in his wife's kitchen and spilled some acid. He mopped up the mess with a handy cotton apron, then realized he should dry the apron. When he held the wet apron over the stove, it disappeared in a smokeless explosion. Thus he had discovered how to produce nitrocellulose ('guncotton'), which led to the development of plastic. (From John Boe, "Messiness Is Next to Goddessness," Psychological Perspectives 27, Fall 1992)

Perhaps the Church has lost its fire because we are too tidy. Maybe we have paid so much attention to the details we have overlooked the mold, growing in the church kitchen.

To be a Church on fire we have to speak a language that people can understand. I heard a story recently about someone’s grandson who attended church with his grandparents several weeks ago. After church he was drawing a picture with a big "L" in it. His grandmother asked him what it meant. He told her that in Children’s Church they talked about love, the love of God and love for others. The little boy had understood the message.

That incident reminds me that the Church must keep things simple and speak in a language people can understand. That will make us a Church on fire. We will also be a Church on fire when we remove the clutter from our lives and get rid of the undergrowth. Just as young trees need space where they can fit in and grow, so do people. We never know where, when, or how the Spirit of God will come from, but when it does, God wants us to trust the Spirit and yield to its awesome power.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio