Fire In The Hole (Exo 19: 16-19, Matt 3: 10-12, Acts 2: 1-4, 42-47) Pentecost

Fire in the hole!  It is a phrase used to indicate that an explosive detonation in a confined space is imminent. The Army and Marines use it to give notice that a grenade has been tossed into a bunker or other enclosure. Fire in the hole! Look out! Something is about to explode!

In an upper room in Jerusalem, there were twelve disciples plus a few more loyals gathered and waiting. It was some fifty days after the Passover Feast in the year that our Savior went to the cross for us. They were waiting for the Comforter. They were waiting because He had told them to. They were scared for their lives, and they had gone underground, out of sight, but they were waiting.  They didn’t know what the Comforter was. They didn’t realize the power with which they were about to be vested. They didn’t see the fire coming, but they waited anyway.

They had seen Him. Several times. They had received the Great Commission from Him. In John’s gospel, Jesus asked Peter three different times if he loved Him. Peter said Yes every time, and Jesus had answered him with “feed my sheep” those three times. Peter was waiting. He had blown it once --and Jesus still loved him—still trusted him. He would not blow it again.  Besides, he and the others had seen the Ascension. They had experienced his ministry, survived his crucifixion, witnessed his resurrected presence. They had good news to tell. So they waited…for what they were not sure, but he had said to wait.

According to Luke, our faithful doctor/reporter/historian, as he records in the book of Acts, Jesus had appeared to this group prior to his Ascension and had given “many convincing proofs that he was alive.” He had done this over a period of forty days, so if we take Luke literally, and there is no reason not to here, then Jesus had made his Ascension about ten days before. One time when they were eating, Jesus gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about… in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” They asked him if then would be the time that he would restore the kingdom of Israel. He said God’s timing is not for you to know.  “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Then he was gone. Luke says that he was “taken up before their very eyes…”

Soon after, two angels of God appear to the Eleven. Remember, Judas is dead. They say “why do you stand here looking into the sky?” Compare this to the words of two angels to the women at the tomb in Luke’s gospel: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” First to the women at the empty tomb, later to the Eleven. Each time, it is a wakeup call that Jesus is still alive and busy elsewhere.

And then it came! But before we go there, let’s back up a millennium or two. Let’s go back…way back…to Mount Sinai. The children of Israel are about 50 days after the Passover that ignited the Exodus. They are camped out at the base of Sinai in the Desert of Sin. Mt. Sinai, the mountain where God lived! Moses went there to meet God. He stood on holy ground and looked into a burning bush that would not be consumed by its flames. The Bible says that Moses’ encounter with God that day forever changed his countenance.

And here were the people of Israel, led by Moses, at the base of the same mountain. They had grumbled their way from Egypt across the desert, but here they were. The Bible says that Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire…the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace; the whole mountain trembled violently. The Bible says that when the people saw the thunder and lightning…and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They told Moses to do the talking. They said…”do not have God speak to us or we will die.” This was the God of Sinai.

Now fast forward now to a tranquil afternoon on the banks of the Jordan River many generations later. Matthew says it is three pairs of 14 generations, or six sets of 7 generations, from Adam to Jesus. Seven means perfect, mature. So this is really, really the perfect time. The scene is still a little wild because of the preacher. He is a strange looking fellow. His clothes are made of camel’s hair. He wears a leather belt to bind up his loose clothing, all very reminiscent of the prophet Elijah. He lives in the desert and his diet includes bugs. This is not your conventional Sunday morning experience, and that’s just the way he wants it.  His name is John and he baptizes. He says this is nothing but the opening act; that while he baptizes with water, he who follows will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Now John had the right idea, but the wrong time period. He was right about the fire, just a little premature about its application.

Fifty days. That’s what the word “Pentecost” means. Fifty days from Egypt to Sinai. Fifty days from Calvary to the upper room. In both cases, fifty days after the Passover. The Eleven were there, plus Mathias, who had been elected to take the place of Judas. Mary the mother of Jesus was there, as were the four half-brothers of Jesus. This would include James, leader of the church in Jerusalem and the author of the New Testament book by the same name. Luke tells us that the “women” were also there. He doesn’t further identify them. They might have been the wives of the disciples. They might also have been the close followers of Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene. We don’t know, but women were also present.   

At first they might have thought it to be a spring storm coming up. But the wind! Such a wind! It filled the whole house and shook it! And then it came! Fire in the hole! The Bible says that “tongues of fire separated and came to rest on each of them! All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit!” Can you imagine? Maybe it was seen from the outside. Passersby might have seen this strange, powerful spectacle from below as it entered the room. Did it come through a window? Did it look like lightning? From the inside of the room, it must have been incredible! Luke seems to say that the tongues of fire came to rest on the disciples, but again, it is hard to tell for sure. Perhaps it extended to every person in the room. At any rate, it was powerful to behold, and much, much more powerful in the effect! It was an explosion of the Holy Spirit into the minds and souls of those men and women!  

The rest is history. That day, Peter, the man who denied Jesus three times the morning after Jesus’ arrest, gave a sermon.  He gave a very public sermon in the town square, and 3,000 men were converted! Not only that, it was the Feast of Weeks, and people were there from all over. It was called the Feast of Weeks because it had been a week of weeks since Passover. It was in late May or June, so the weather was good. It was a holiday. It was at least as crowded as Passover would have been. The Bible says that people representing at least fifteen different languages were present.  And Luke says that they all heard the disciples and Peter in their native tongues! The people marveled that the disciples could communicate in such varied ways. Peter stood up and said, “We’re not drunk. It’s nine o’clock in the morning! This is the real thing.” And then he preached. He told the people about Jesus. He told them about the Holy Spirit. He quoted the prophet Joel about the coming of the Day of the Lord. He said that he and the others witnessed it all, and were there to call for repentance, for baptism in the name of Jesus and for the forgiveness of their sins.

Luke tells us that Peter said many other things that day, and that 3,000 men were added to the number of believers. Don’t you know that there was the fire of the Holy Spirit in the eyes and words of Peter! And on that day, the world began to change. On that day, twelve disciples, a number of women and the half brothers of Jesus began a witness that has changed the world. Many have called it the birth of the church. Today, about a third of the world’s population, or two billion people, identifies itself as Christian, and the church can trace its roots to that upper room so long ago and yet like yesterday.

What changed? It was the same Jerusalem. Many of the visitors there for the feast had also been there just seven weeks ago. It was the same Roman government. It was the same church leadership.  Except for Mathias, it was the same group of disciples that only fifty days before had hidden and run away…and even denied they knew Christ. What changed in these men that they now had courage to speak out regardless of the consequences. What changed?

The men and women in that upper room had a visit from the Holy Spirit, and it would change their lives. Luke goes on to tell us that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Look closely: Luke is not talking here about the people in that upper room. He’s talking about the fellowship of the believers. He is talking about you and me. Luke says they ate together in each other’s homes with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. They had the fire that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t think that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the first time. Far from it. It was the first time that the disciples had personally experienced the life changing power of the Holy Spirit, but the Bible is full of references to people being filled with the Spirit of God, from Noah forward. But things did change at Pentecost. William Barclay, the great Scottish theologian reminds us that “From that moment the Holy Spirit became the dominant reality in the life of the early church.” He cites three ways. First, the Holy Spirit was the source of all guidance. Second, all the leaders of the Church were men of the Spirit. Thirdly, the Spirit was the source of day to day courage and power.

The early church was a spirit-filled church.  That was the source of its power. There are more than forty references to the Holy Spirit in the first thirteen chapters of Acts. There was fire in the lives of the leaders of the early church, and because of that there was a fire in the corporate life of the church itself.

Can you imagine the effect if the Holy Spirit were the dominant reality of this church? Can you imagine if the Holy Spirit were the source of all guidance? If all the leaders of this church were filled with the Holy Spirit? If the Holy Spirit were the source of our day to day courage and power? Can you imagine if your first thought of each day was to devote yourself to God’s teaching, to fellowship with other believers, to the breaking of bread with them and to prayer? Can you even imagine?

Let me close by sharing a story about a doctor in a small French village who was about to retire. He had cared for the villagers day and night for many years, despite their inability to pay him much. In appreciation, it was proposed that each family bring a pitcher of wine from their own cellars to pour into a large barrel in the village square. All day long, people poured their offerings into the barrel. In the evening, the barrel of wine was taken to the doctor’s residence. Then, the doctor was left alone with the memory of their love. Drawing a cup of wine, he sat by the fire to enjoy it. The first sip was a shock. It tasted like water. Thinking there must be a mistake, he sampled more. The barrel was filled with water. Everyone in the village reasoned, ‘My little pitcher of wine won’t be missed. I have so little for myself. The others will take care of it. The little water I substitute won’t be noticed.”

God save us from ourselves. Others won’t take care of it. It is up to us. Our participation in the life of God’s church is paramount. Our worship is the heart of the church’s life. When you are not here, when you do not participate, when you do not worship and pray and break bread with the fellowship of believers, you will be missed. Pentecost is history, but the Holy Spirit is here and now.  You can be blessed by the same fire that came to the disciples, but you have to be receptive. Open your hearts and experience that fire that comes from the Spirit…and cling to it as if your very life depended on it…because it does!                                     

Opening Your Mind (Luke 14; 44-53) 5/20/12

          I remember the look my mother gave me before her earthly body breathed its last. It is drilled into my memory in a way that is indelible, permanent. Do you have a moment like that with someone in your life? It could be a happy moment just as easily as a moment of loss. I have a few of both that stay with me.  Whatever it is, it changes us. Somehow, we are never exactly the same.

I think it must have been like that the day of the Ascension. Of course, the disciples didn’t know he was going to bodily ascend into heaven right in front of their eyes. According to the gospel of Luke, that is precisely what took place. Mark’s gospel is similar in its report. It was his last communication here on earth from the risen Son of God still in the flesh. It was instructive. Jesus was telling his disciples the “whys” that he had come and giving them their marching orders.

They had seen him a number of times since the resurrection. Over a period of about fifty days, the New Testament records eight different appearances, several of which were with the disciples. They were his favorites. He had hand-picked them over three years before and they had come to love him even though they did not fully understand what it was that they were to do. So Jesus instructed them for the last time. He told them he had fulfilled all the prophecies and all the law. Luke says he opened their minds. “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” He talked to them about the necessity for his suffering, the reason for his resurrection. He explained to them the need to proclaim the opportunity for sin to be forgiven, the sin of men and women and the sin of nations. He told them to start in Jerusalem and to be witnesses to these things. He said he was sending the promise of the Father upon them. Then they walked with him to Bethany, a couple miles outside Jerusalem. He blessed them. Luke says that while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. The word “while” is one of those compromises we make in English to try to convey what is happening in Greek. Greek has more tenses than English. Here the aorist tense is used to transmit a sense of some continuing action that happened in the past. It might be translated more literally that as Jesus was parting, he blessed and blessed and blessed them until he was out of sight. I like that because I think that’s what he is still doing. He never stopped. He’s still blessing you and me and people of faith today. The only condition Jesus gave to the disciples was to stay in town until they were clothed with power. But he opened their minds. He sent them a promise from the Father.

Can you imagine?  By now the disciples knew they were in the presence of the divine. He had died and was resurrected. They had seen him, touched him, eaten with him several times. Others had seen him as well. They were properly awestruck. He had defeated death, but that was only the beginning. Nothing could really have prepared them for what happened next. My family and I recently went to a movie; something we rarely do these days. We saw The Avengers, the tale about comic book super heroes saving the planet from evil aliens. It was great watching HULK, Ironman, the Black Widow, Captain America and Thor in action as a team. Great sci-fi action! But it struck me that even if all this were true, the exploits of the super heroes would pale in comparison to what the disciples witnessed that day in Bethany.  They watched their Lord and Savior as he bodily ascended into heaven, blessing them as they went. Death was no longer master. Jesus rose from the dead for himself and for us.

And the disciples went home and blessed him back! Luke tells us that they worshipped him with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Yes, the Ascension was a life changing event for the disciples. They were never the same. They waited until Pentecost, received the power to which Jesus had alluded, and they scattered over much of the known world bringing their witness of those things, and what those things meant to everyone who heard and believed that good news.

But, you say, we don’t have the Ascension to motivate us. Luke says that Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to the Scriptures. They understood! They got it! We can too. Today, we have not only the Scriptures that were available to the disciples, but also the four gospels and Acts and the letters of Paul, John, Peter and others to reinforce our faith and guide our actions.

But, you say, we don’t have the power of Pentecost to harness us and make us charismatic. Actually, that is exactly what we have. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. It is promised to every Christian. It is the only way we can hear and see the Gospel living and breathing. It is no different from that which was received by the disciples. The difference is that their hearts were wide open and they received the Holy Spirit in all its magnificent power.

That is our challenge today…to open our minds. It is only then that we can really understand. That is part of what we do when we come before the throne of grace and become baptized. We ask God to open our minds and let Him come in.

Only God can open our minds. What we can do is to be receptive. We can invite him. We can let him in. When we do, we too can understand the Scriptures. We too can receive the Father’s promise. We too can witness these things, these life-changing things. Remember your baptism. Remember why. Remember he was and is and always will be there…for you and for your joy and for your salvation.

Dont Let Religion Get in the Way of Your Faith (Luke 13: 10-17) 5/6/12

 If I do this a thousand more times, it will never get old for me, because every time I bring a message, there is a point when I become a listener, an observer, right in the middle of delivering the message.  As my heart opens, I can see it happening to others. There is a point where it does not belong to me. In every worship service in every church gathering, hearts open to God’s message. Lives change as the Gospel finds its way into our consciousness and miracles become a way of life. That is God in action.

 Look with me at a portion of chapter 13 of Luke’s gospel.  Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. By now he is being watched very closely by Jewish authorities. They are looking for an excuse to arrest him, for he is a major threat to their way of life. This man is preaching revolution, and the status quo is severely threatened.

Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath. A woman is there, and one would have to be blind not to notice her. One translation describes her as crippled and bent over. Another describes her as so twisted and bent that she couldn’t even look up. Luke tells us that she had been this way for 18 years. Jesus calls her over, and says: “Woman, you’re free! He lays hands on her, and suddenly she is standing straight for the first time in 18 years. Luke says she praised God. That has to be the understatement of the day. I bet she praised God, probably at the top of her lungs. Meanwhile, the synagogue president is indignant, furious, because Jesus has broken God’s law. Jesus is working on the Sabbath, therefore breaking the Fourth Commandment. You know, the one about remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy.  The Jewish leader says to come and be healed on the other six days, but not on the Sabbath. He does not confront Jesus directly, but rather quotes the law to the congregation. The Message says that Jesus “shot back” his answer. I get the impression that it was not done tactfully, but with force and even indignation. Jesus calls this man and his cronies “frauds.” He says essentially that if you can water an animal on the Sabbath, but you can’t help a person in distress, then the law values animals over people and any law that comes to such a perverted conclusion is just plain stupid. Jesus refers to the woman as a “daughter of Abraham,” meaning she is Jewish. Even so, his message is lost on the Jewish leader. He has a program to keep, a system to uphold. “come and be healed on the other six days,  but not on my Sabbath.”

Like most exaggerated claims, there is a grain of truth in the Jewish leader’s argument. In this case, Jewish tradition held that only life-threatening diseases could be treated on the Sabbath. Since the woman had had this condition for many years, the Jewish leader deemed it not life-threatening. It didn’t seem to matter that someone had been healed. A rule had been broken and that must be sin.

I’m thinking that the real law that was broken was the law of “Don’t Rock the Boat.” It comes in different versions, but the bottom line is always the same. “We’ve always done it this way” or “We might lose some financial support” or “How would that look?” are some of the most familiar.  

 Fast forward to present day. In session meeting after session meeting the worry is church growth. “We have to have more members in order to meet the budget.” Discussion turns to ways to attract people. Use door hangers. “Too impersonal.” Advertise. “Not enough money budgeted for that.” Go door to door. “People will slam the door in your face.” Invite people. “Everybody I know goes to church” and, of course, “We’ve never done it that way before.”

In a Sunday school class I once attended, there was an ongoing debate about whether it was appropriate to go to a bar with a friend to talk with him about Christianity. By bar, I mean a pub where you can buy beer, but not a meal. There was concern that the presence of a Christian in a bar would be sending the wrong message to those who saw him there. The class could never decide that it was okay. It was concerned with appearances. “How would that look?”

In another church, a Sunday school class adopted a family at Christmas. The class was generous and opened its pocketbooks to fill the family’s stockings with food, clothing and gifts for the children. The family attended the church Christmas service. Their children were loud and unruly. They talked during the service and moved around noisily. It was hard for the people around them to hear. Finally, a couple members whose grunts and groans had failed to illicit the “proper” response, turned around and asked the parents to get better control of their children or take them out. They did, and they never came back. “They’re not our kind of people. They wouldn’t be comfortable here.” Can you imagine making those arguments at the feet of Jesus? Those pious church members were so intent on the ritual that they couldn’t apply the message.

 Jesus faced this kind of misplaced piety. Remember Jesus eating at the house of Matthew the tax collector; overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple in Jerusalem? And Jesus healed on the Sabbath more than once.  Jesus was not a person to stand on ceremony. Jesus ministered. He ministered to the outcasts, the strangers, the invisible among us. He had no temple; he had no home church; he had no central organization; no network; no website.  He went to town and found the tax collectors, the beggars, the paralytics, the lepers. He went down to the shore and found the fishermen and the net repairmen. He went for walks and talked to people he met. He went to where the people were. He didn’t wait for them to come to him.

If we’re not careful, we can be like the synagogue president; we can let ceremony dictate over circumstances; we can let religion get in the way of our faith. What is religion? Think about it. Religion is a diet, a steady stream of what you do regularly and to which you assign great priority. You’ve heard the saying: He or she does such and such religiously. Some people wash their hands religiously. Some people eat salad religiously. When we think about belief systems and religion, we think about what church we attend, what denomination we belong to. When we get involved with a particular church, we get involved with another system, a system of building maintenance, worship services, special events, budgets, grounds care and the list goes on. When we are elected to church office, we get responsibilities. We look at last year’s calendar to see how to build this year’s calendar. We go to committee meetings. We become managers.

What did I just describe? Was it your Personal Elder or the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce? If one were to hear only the job description, one might think it had nothing at all to do with the church.  In Gilbert Rendle’s book Leading Change in the Congregation, he says that “congregations that have active evangelism committees tend to grow…at a slower rate and with more difficulty than congregations that do not have such committees.” Wouldn’t you think just the opposite?  The research proves that with a committee, the responsibility for meeting strangers, for inviting new people, has shifted. Everyone else in the church has lost their motivation. We have shifted the burden to a committee. Our desire to organize can be our undoing.  It’s not a bad thing to be organized, but you have to be careful. Otherwise, organization can become your goal, and that misses the mark entirely.

 George Barna conducts many surveys on trends in Christianity. His studies show that in the workplace, the great majority of people cannot tell Christians from non-Christians. We get very busy with this business of religion. It’s easy to develop a severe case of tunnel vision. We can’t see the forest for the trees. Our religion, more specifically our religious system, has gotten in the way of our faith. Theologian William Barclay says that the worship of systems (and that is precisely the problem the synagogue president had that Sabbath day with Jesus), commonly invades the church.  Tragically, more trouble and strife arise in churches over legalistic details of procedure than over any other thing.

In the Presbyterian Book of Order, the very first chapter outlines the Great Ends of the Church. Number One on that short list is “the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind…” (F-1.0304). Even before that, the Church’s Calling is characterized by 4 tenets: to be a community of faith, hope, love and witness (F-1.0301). Membership is characterized as a commitment to participate in Christ’s mission (G-1.0304). The Book of Order is a couple hundred pages long and it has enough rules in it to choke a horse. But the major premises upon which it is built are the ones we just outlined. Don’t lose sight of the forest just because those trees are poking you in the ribs.

 Several years ago, one of our children, Emily, spent a year in Mombassa, Kenya as a missionary, where she established a youth center in an area where Christianity was in a heavy minority. Before she left for Kenya, she was advised to make her primary goal to “just be” a Christian. This advice seemed vague and without direction to our goal driven daughter. When she came home from that year and her story began to unfold, she realized it was the best advice she had received. She did make goals, and the people she served are the better for her having been there. But by her own admission, the programs she established there may not survive. PCUSA determined that the area had no support base and could not sustain a viable Christian mission presence, so she was not replaced. Were her efforts in vain? Hardly! Emily found out that she could “just be” a Christian and in doing so, her daily acts of Christianity had an effect on the lives of the youth she served. No hospitals were built, no schools were erected, no operations base may survive. But dozens, perhaps hundreds, of youngsters in Mombassa now look upon Christianity in a different light. For them, Christianity is the white American girl who just acted out her belief by giving them water, by administering first aid, by letting them talk, by hearing their voices and by not judging them.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus said he came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. His fulfillment came in the form of love and servant hood. Jesus summarized the law as loving God our Father with all our heart and soul and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.   Here’s the thing. Don’t hide behind the rules. Don’t distort that which we call religion, because religion is nothing more than the way that we practice our Christianity. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, called religion “…the best armor a man can have, but it is the worst cloak.” I think he was saying that we need to wear our Christian values like armor to fight off the sin in our lives, but not to provide us with warmth. That warmth comes from the spirit, not from the system.

I learned new terms this week for yesterday and tomorrow. For my three year old grandson, they are “last day” and “next day.” I like the way my grandson puts it. It makes sense to me. So the question today is the same question as “last day” and “next day” and next year. It is the same for you and me and for every church in God’s kingdom. What is the will of God for you? What is the will of God for this church? Each of you has to discern what your love act to God will be, what form it will take, the degree to which you will commit. That discernment must grow out of a continuous conversation with our Creator. It’s not about form or rules. It’s about substance, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, as the writer of Hebrews so eloquently teaches us.  Act on your faith.  Each of you has different talents, different levels of energy, different seasons of life. Each of you has a ministry to fulfill, not just for this church, but for Jesus Christ. Never, never be like the church leader that dayin the synagogue.  Be like Jesus. Come, heal and be healed seven days a week. Healing never takes a holiday. In my daughter’s words, “Just be a Christian.”