God’s Creative Fire (Pentecost)

John 14: 16-17 & Acts 2: 1-21

Roger Lynn

June 9, 2019

Pentecost Sunday

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God’s Spirit is an amazingly powerful and creative force to be reckoned with. Science, scripture, and personal experience all point to this truth – each in their own ways. The book of Genesis and John’s Gospel both affirm that it is the Spirit of God which stands behind all of creation. Contemporary hymn-writer John Bell speaks of the Holy Spirit this way in his hymn “She Is The Spirit”:

She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters.

Hov’ring on the chaos of the world’s first day;

She sighs and she sings, mothering creation,

Waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.

Science, of course, speaks of such things with different images, but the sense of power remains. “The Big Bang” is how science talks about the beginning of all things – when the whole universe was flung outward from a single, infinitely dense point in one enormous explosion.

Turning back to scripture, we find other references to God’s Spirit which seem to pick up this same explosive nature. Wind and fire are images which occur again and again, from the Hebrew people’s experience of God in the wilderness, to the Pentecost encounter in Jerusalem. The ongoing creation in which the Spirit continues to be engaged is powerful and world-changing. Science tells us about the powerful reaction which occurs when oxygen comes into contact with fire. Scripture tells us that when the breath of God (Ruach) is added to the smoldering flames of our own spirits, there can be no containing the explosively powerful results. Nothing can ever be the same again.

The promise which Jesus made to his disciples in the Gospel of John – “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor/Helper/Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth...” (John 14:16-17) – comes to pass in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The new life which is first glimpsed at Easter through the resurrection of Jesus now explodes into the world at large. The Church is born. It is the good news of the gospel poured out for any and all who will receive it. No one is excluded from this amazing display of God’s grace. The sound of the rushing wind is heard by all. The tongues of fire come to rest on the heads of each. The message is heard by everyone present in their own language. The creative fire of God’s Spirit which brought the world into being continues to create something new. The Spirit comes among us in ways which shatter old expectations. If the celebration of Pentecost means anything, it calls the church to a universal witness, sharing the hope of God’s love with everyone everywhere, even as it has been shared with us. This is the new shape of the world.

So today we gather here to celebrate the ongoing gift of God’s Spirit among us. We sing songs about the wind of God blowing through our world, shaping and transforming us. We pray for God’s Spirit to move among us, binding us together into a force for change in our world. We ask God to fill us with wind and fire so that we might make a difference in the lives of the people around us and throughout the world. It is good that we do these things. But we would do well to remember that the Spirit of God is not to be taken lightly. Wind and fire are powerful forces and we cannot control them. We can, however, allow ourselves to become channels through which God’s creative forces can work. It means taking the risk that we will be changed. It means taking the risk that we will find ourselves in situations which can seem overwhelming and even frightening. It means taking the risk of letting go of old ways of viewing the world. But it also means experiencing an intimate and ongoing connection with God which will sustain us and empower us through all of the risks. 

For those who gathered in Jerusalem on that Pentecost 2,000 years ago, God’s creative fire meant the beginning of a whole new way of life. How will that same Spirit transform us?