Tongues of Fire Aren't Warm Fuzzies

This month we celebrate a day which took the world by storm, or so Luke reports when he tells us of the Holy Spirit’s coming upon those first disciples of the risen Jesus on Pentecost, as tongues of fire.

Since then, the storms that seem to have taken over the world, crusades, earthquakes, floods, genocide, hurricanes, plagues, tornadoes, tsunamis, terrorism and wars, are too numerous to mention. And their combined toll on the human spirit is unimaginable.

We live in an age when “spirituality” is all the rage. Everybody, it seems, has one, even if they also have no church home, no religious affiliation, nor belief in the God of the Bible. More than that, followers of these assorted spiritual paths are eager to have us salute their practices because, as they say, “We’re all on the same journey, we just walk along different paths and call our ‘higher power’ by different names.”

Those are “nice” sentiments; seemingly “harmless” beliefs; and, even make the politically correct among us feel all warm and fuzzy because we’re all so darned tolerant.

Inside the story of the Bible’s God, where the coming of Emmanuel is announced, where the Messiah’s breaking open and pouring out is declared; where the raising from the dead of Jesus the Christ is affirmed, warm fuzzies are not sufficient for the spiritual life prompted by the outpouring and indwelling of this Holy Spirit.

As Luke writes, Peter’s announcement about the Holy Spirit’s arrival onto and into the borning community of Christian believers offered simply stunning consequences. Quoting the prophet Joel, Peter testifies to the reality that now, life in the Spirit offers God’s dynamic embrace to the lowest of the low. No longer are the roles of speaking in God’s behalf, visioning God’s alternative reality, and imagining God’s otherwise restricted to a few chosen agents. Henceforth, all people are brought inside the margins of God’s boundless love. From now on, all people are gathered into God’s unearned “for-us.”

In God’s Jesus, the final judgment has been rendered. The judgment brought an unexpected mercy, an unanticipated righting of the wrong, an unmerited belonging, and, an unwarranted opportunity to share a common life as God’s holy and whole people.

Peter’s encouraging refrain, offered to all those who would hear, was, “Repent!” In other words, “Turn around! You’ve been looking and seeing this all wrong.” Simply admit the world’s nice, neat, orderliness is a cruel hoax that’s kept us bound to the ravages of nature, tied in knots by greed, and separated from God by our selfishness and pride.

In that Spirit, we repent and are reborn at worship each Sunday. On occasion, it feels nice!