Point of Ignition

Acts 2:1-12

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

__________

Introduction

Jetlagged and running on fumes, I make my way to grab a cup of coffee at the Starbucks stall in Glasgow Central Station. Finding a place to sit, I look out to see waves of people coming and going. Some folks are in a great hurry (some even running). Others walk purposefully and know where they are going and what they will do when they get there (they walk with their head down and plow through). And a select few meander; they walk with no sense of urgency or purpose (talking with friends or family or a loved one). 

There is something at play. Something is dictating the movement of all these people (something that gets them going in the morning), and the reasons are innumerable. As we so easily allow these forces of schedules and obligations to push and pull us, will we let the Spirit guide us with the same ease? Will we let the Holy Spirit of God be the point of ignition, the ignition starter, that breathes life into what we do and gives us purpose? 

The Spirit’s Spark

The Spirit of God sets things into motion (sparks the beginning of the new plans of God), for it was God's Spirit, Ruah, that hovered over the formless creation in Genesis and created the new world and heaven. God's Spirit blew back the waters of the seas to let God's people go free from Egypt. And it was God's Spirit that descended on the disciples at Pentecost, granting them a new vision of life together. All of this was God's doing, and God's Spirit continues to set a spark that ignites our passion for God. The Spirit of God at Pentecost reminds us of the power of God's love and care and what they desire for us as we embark on the lifelong journey of discipleship. 

God didn’t call the disciples to go places they thought comfortable or amicable. God didn’t call the disciples to only care for those like them. No, God called them to go to places where God’s own heart hurts the most. God called them to go and to be with the widows and the orphans, to go and welcome the stranger who came from a foreign land, and to go and to be in the places where there is so much hurt and pain that those who live there are either forgotten about or pushed far off into the extreme margins of our society. Perhaps even more intimidating than all that, God called them to go to the places in their lives (our lives) that needed healing to move us to where God is calling us.

With that in mind, we certainly require the Spirit's spark of life to lend us encouragement and strength along the way. 

Discerning What Gives Us Life

In the reading from the Book of Acts, we hear how the Spirit descended upon the disciples and granted them the gift of tongues. Of course, this was not the first gift the Spirit of God gave them. The Spirit instilled in them from the beginning various skills and talents that shaped their identity and sense of mission. What would it look like to lean hard into a time of discernment and trust? What would it look like for us to discern what gifts the Spirit of God put on our hearts? Because when we can filter or shift through the mounds of everything else we think is urgent, we'll discover or re-discover the Spirit's life-giving power. 

So where is God’s heart hurting the most today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow? Where is God’s heart hurting in your own life and the lives of those around us? And how is God calling you to be a part of the healing balm that brings relief? Our discernment leads to creative ways to answer these questions. The practice of listening and discerning the Spirits moving in our living faith is a lifelong pursuit that leads to cultivating the spiritual tools God has given us. And we will answer these questions as we dive into our understanding of Christian elements such as baptism, offering, and community. Each of us has an innate ability to tap into co-labor with God. 

Trusting The Spirits Call

I don't know about you, but the thought of discipleship can sometimes feel overwhelming. We hear these stories of the women and men God called, and as we read them in our modern context, perhaps we're asking ourselves, "Well, what could I really do?" However, the disciples were ordinary people; we hear those in the crowd even ask, "Are not all these who are speaking Galilean?" There's a poem by Richard Wilbur that I believe will help us to understand the role of the Spirit as it explores the intersection of the spiritual and the mundane, emphasizing the presence of the divine in our ordinary lives:

The eyes open to a cry of pulleys,
And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul   
Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple   
As false dawn.
                     Outside the open window   
The morning air is all awash with angels.
   Some are in bed-sheets, some are in blouses,   
Some are in smocks: but truly there they are.   
Now they are rising together in calm swells   
Of halcyon feeling, filling whatever they wear   
With the deep joy of their impersonal breathing;
   Now they are flying in place, conveying
The terrible speed of their omnipresence, moving   
And staying like white water; and now of a sudden   
They swoon down into so rapt a quiet
That nobody seems to be there.
                                             The soul shrinks
   From all that it is about to remember,
From the punctual [shock] of every blessèd day,
And cries,
               “Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry,   
Nothing but rosy hands in the rising steam
And clear dances done in the sight of heaven.”
   Yet, as the sun acknowledges
With a warm look the world’s hunks and colors,   
The soul descends once more in bitter love   
To accept the waking body, saying now
In a changed voice as the man yawns and rises,   
   “Bring them down from their ruddy gallows;
Let there be clean linen for the backs of thieves;   
Let lovers go fresh and sweet to be undone,   
And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating   
Of dark habits,
                     keeping their difficult balance.”
(“Love Calls Us to the Things of This World,” by Richard Wilbur)

No one and nothing is mundane when it comes to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the point of ignition where the mundane, where the ordinary, is transformed into something glorious. If we open our hearts to the Spirit, then even a task as routine as folding laundry will seem like an opportunity to pour out the gifts of the Spirit. Wilbur's poem captures so wonderfully that our call, our discernment of discipleship, requires not just souls willing to follow God's call but bodies as well, ready and eager to live into that calling (and through that lens nothing will appear to be the same). And that is something for you to ponder as we explore the idea and practice of discipleship. 

Conclusion

At the end of our passage from the Book of Acts, we find that those who bore witness to the disciples speaking in different tongues were left in a state of amazement and that they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Looking back, we can say that this was when the Holy Spirit ignited the fires of a movement that would bring the word of God to Europe, Asia, and Africa. As we spend the next few weeks looking at what it means to discern our call to be disciples, I invite you to notice how the Holy Spirit is moving in your life. And I invite you to remember that with the Spirit of God, nothing is entirely out of reach and that we are filled with the life-giving breath of God that fills us with a sense of identity, purpose, and love.