“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire” a Pentecost sermon on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39

Acts 2:1-21
John 7:37-39
“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 24, 2026 (Pentecost) 

Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit - a fitting day and time to do so, as we observe the day of Pentecost in the church where we remember and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit - to the disciples on the day of Pentecost and to all of us through the ages.

The Holy Spirit is God. God who gave us God’s self in Jesus, also gave us God’s self in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the remaining presence of God within and around us, at work in our lives and in the world.

A note about my use of pronouns for God’s Spirit. The Greek word sophia and the Hebrew word ruach used for the Holy Spirit in the Bible are feminine words. We know that God does not have a gender as we talk about and understand gender and sex today. Jesus came in the form of a man - yes. And God and the Spirit both encompass all gender expressions and transcend above and beyond them. And yet we often use “he” or “him” to talk about the Godhead, especially as God as Father is a metaphor for God that Jesus used and finds great resonance with many followers of Christ. And yet, that can often contribute to the idea that God is male and can separate women from connecting to the Divine or seeing the Divine in themselves. All that being said, I will use the pronouns she/her when talking about the Holy Spirit in my sermon today.

And so let’s talk about the metaphors used to try and understand the Holy Spirit:

We’ll start with fire, as that is where the day of Pentecost normally takes us - the color red and tongues of flame. So let’s talk about fire.

Fire brings warmth, heat, and light.
Fire cooks food.
Fire can also be dangerous. While we have found ways to try and control fire we also know how it can readily get out of control - from a leaping spark, fires started among dry brush, and small flames turned into raging blazes.
Fires can be destructive forces - all of us know someone or know of someone who has lost their home due to a fire. All of us have watched forest fires on the news, praying for those in harm's way and those courageous people who fight them. We should pray specifically as states move into wildfire season this summer with drastic cuts to the forest service who fight those fires. We should also always pray for our local firefighters who respond and help many in our community.
Fires can also be beneficial to the environment - sometimes forests need controlled or small fires to clear out underbrush and even are a part of many native species' necessary life cycle. Sometimes we even do controlled burns for the health of a forest.
A fire can also be cleansing in order to start anew.
In a metaphorical sense, fire is our passion. It spurs us on. It motivates us.

The Holy Spirit is like fire.

Our Acts passage also describes the Holy Spirit coming like a great gust of wind. And in the beginning, in Genesis, we first encounter the Holy Spirit as ruach, this word that means wind, air, breath. So let’s talk about breath and wind.

Breath keeps us alive. We breathe without consciously thinking of it. In, and out, in and out.

Clean air is so important - for our health and the health of our planet.
We can focus on our breathing to regulate our nervous systems, calm our hearts and minds. Our breath is connected to so much more than just our lungs.
The wind offers a cooling breeze, it moves weather patterns, disperses seeds, carries birds through the air.
The wind can also come as a gale, a storm, a tornado - destructive and strong, uprooting trees and causing immense damage.
Wind, breath, air - unseen and yet so necessary and powerful.
Metaphorically wind is the unseen, powerful force that affects our lives.

The Holy Spirit is like breath and wind.

Another metaphor for the Holy Spirit that comes to us from John this morning is water. So let’s talk about water.

Water is necessary for life - our own personal lives and the life of our planet.
Our bodies are about 60% water and our planet is about 70%.
Water teems with life, water is where life started - in the evolution of life on our planet and in the water of a womb.
Water cleans, water renews, water causes growth.
Water is worth protecting and has often been in the news when drinking water is unsafe, Native lands are threatened, and new technology raises concerns of drying up reservoirs.
Water can also be a powerful force - dams generate massive amounts of energy. Water made the Grand Canyon through the natural process of erosion. Water shapes the very world we live in.
So too, floods and hurricanes are a concern - we pray for all those who have experienced loss due to their destructive forces.
Water can be the rain that waters the plants or the flood that wipes away homes and lives.
In a metaphorical sense, water is the very essence of life, it renews and restores, it parches our thirst - literal and spiritual.

The Holy Spirit is like water.

There are many, many other metaphors used to describe the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. Today, we are focusing on these three - and what do they have in common? They are all necessary for life and also impossible to pin down and control. While we may have “tamed” aspects of wind, fire, and water - humans will never control them entirely, we will never fully pin them down. They will do what they will.

These metaphors are so apt for understanding the Spirit of God - for she is impossible to pin down. We will never fully understand her. We will never “tame” her so that the Spirit of God does just what we please, when we please, as we please. No, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is always trailblazing, expanding, and even destroying our notions of who God is and who God includes.

Both of our Scriptures we read today highlight that.

In the story of Pentecost, the Spirit comes like wind and fire and immediately expands the Gospel message to people of many different nations, ethnicities, languages, cultures. It is an explosion of inclusion. Much of the rest of the book of Acts and many of Paul’s letters deal with the cultural differences and misunderstandings that this act caused as Christians of Jewish and Gentile descents (and Gentile here is a very broad term for anyone who wasn’t Jewish - 14 different countries/areas were mentioned in Acts). This was unheard of, unthought of - and yet like a wind that knocks down barriers and a fire that cannot be controlled, the Spirit breaks down walls and sparks a fire that makes the followers of the Jesus movement so much more diverse, and beautiful.

In the Gospel of John today, it’s important to look at what Jesus was saying right before the verses we read. He is verbally sparring with the Pharisees and they ask, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?”

“The Greeks” here is used like Gentiles - anyone who wasn’t Jewish, anyone who wasn’t “like them.”

And then Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

So basically Jesus is saying - it doesn’t matter who you are - Jew or Greek or Gentile - an us or a them - if you are thirsty, come to me and drink.

He doesn’t end there - Jesus says come to me and drink - AND the Spirit will cause water to flow out from YOUR hearts, out of the hearts of the followers of Jesus, a living stream, that will provide water for all who are thirsty.

This is the Holy Spirit working within our hearts and flowing out of our hearts. There are so, so many thirsty people in this world. People who are longing for community, for belonging, for acceptance, for peace, for love. The Holy Spirit, which is the very breath within us, can light a fire within our hearts, and flow out of us like a river, giving living water to those who are thirsty. Through us - through you - each and every one of you - you can be a river of living water to quench the thirst of those who are longing to know God. To know they are beloved children. To know they can have a community. To know that they are cared for by God and can walk through this world surrounded by people who share that unconditional, generous love of God with one another.

My prayer is that not only that the river of living water would flow out of each of our hearts, but that it would be a powerful river, a surge of power forming new paths, a wave that overcomes any barriers we have put up - that it would honor the wall-breaking Spirit of Pentecost and the every expanding energy of the Holy Spirit - that through us and the Spirit’s presence within us - everyone, and I mean, everyone would come to drink deeply of living water. Barriers of language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, and more would cease to exist - would burn away, would be blown away, would be washed away - that through the Spirit, all, truly all, would drink deeply.

How can we do this?

It’s as simple and as difficult as this:

1. Love God. Worship, pray, spend time in the Word.

2. Pray for God to offer opportunities for you to love your neighbor. Pray that God gives you eyes to view all people through the eyes of God, to see people as God sees them. You can practice this too. You can meditate on a stranger at the coffee shop, a figure on the news, someone you know who you have a strained relationship with, or even a person you harbor ill will against or an enemy. Meditate on them being a beloved child of God, ask God to help you see them as God sees them.

3. Listen to and learn from people who are different from you - in any category. Read books, listen to podcasts, have conversations - whatever it may be - with people who come from a different background or school of thought - all those barriers I mentioned before: language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, etc. This will help each of us better show love when we encounter one another. For there is no us or them, there are only people created and loved by God.

As simple and difficult as this.

Take heart - the Spirit of God is fire, wind, and water. She moves through us, within us and - this is Good News - despite us. The Spirit of God will continue to move, continue to expand, continue to share the Gospel with more and more people - whether we get on board or not. And, God desires us to not only drink deeply of the living water, but allow the living water, allow the Spirit, to flow out of us.

This Pentecost, let us - as individuals, as a community, as a church - be a part of God’s expanding, uncontrollable, powerful, wonderful, beautiful work in this world.

May it be so. Amen.

A Wesleyan/United Methodist Affirmation of Faith

Today we affirm and celebrate the Wesleyan aspects of our faith. Join me in this United Methodist affirmation:

We are a people of Grace - we believe that every action of God in this world is steeped in grace,
The grace that comes before we even know there is grace to be had, present from the very moment of our birth,
The grace that weds us to Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
The grace that molds us towards perfect love of God and neighbor.

We are a people of holiness - we believe that there is no holiness apart from social holiness.
How we love God is reflected in loving our neighbor.
How we love our neighbor is reflected in loving God.

We are a people of an Open Table -
All we called, all are invited, all are welcome.

We are a people who hear God speaking in many and nuanced ways -
God speaks through holy Scripture.
God speaks through the voice of reason and the voices of our tradition.
God speaks to us through our lived experiences - and even the experiences of our neighbors, the other, the friend, and the enemy.

We are a people with a method of faith - our hearts are strangely warmed and our hands and feet are carrying out the work of faith.
We are a people called United Methodists - and for that and all it means - we say,
Thanks be to God.

“The Story Isn’t Over Yet” a sermon on Acts 1:1-11 & Luke 24:44-53

Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
“The Story Isn’t Over Yet”
Preached Sunday, May 17, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church

I am a reader and I am primarily an audiobook listener. I put one earbud in and I can listen to my book while doing dishes, “watching” TV with my kid, or doing any fairly mindless activity. Sometimes, as I’m listening to the book, I think “wow. It sounds like the story is wrapping up. I must be near the end” - and then I look at my phone and I’m only like 60% through. And I go, “Oh no! What horrible thing is going to happen to the characters to keep that plot going that much longer?” I know I need to buckle in, because the story isn’t over yet.

It made me think, if we were listening to the story of Jesus on audiobook, paying no attention to the percentages - when would we think the story was going to end?

Perhaps we’d think the story would end at the Crucifixion. Many of the disciples certainly thought this was the end of the Jesus story. A heartbreaking, horrible ending. Nothing like they had hoped. Empire and Death had won, their hopes dashed. Time to pack up the bags and go home.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Perhaps, if we were listening to the Jesus story, we’d think the Resurrection would be a good place for the story to end. End on a triumphant note! A happy ending! A miracle! That which was dead has come back to life! The story can end now.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Perhaps the story would end with the Scriptures we heard today - the Ascension. In a plot structure this would be a good place to end a story - you’ve had the tension of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, resolved in the climax of the Resurrection, and the nice wrap-up of the post-Resurrection appearances and the Ascension - Jesus has said goodbye and left the scene and the story can end. Many thought this was the end of the story.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Thankfully, the story of Jesus and the story of God’s involvement in this world does not wrap up like a nice novel with a beginning, middle, and end. The story continues.

The Ascension, that is the Scriptures we read today of Jesus ascending into heaven following his Resurrection, is not the end of the story - in fact, it ushers the story into an in-between time, a liminal space. The time between the Ascension and Pentecost. The time between Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit (that’s next week’s story - spoiler alert!) and the time between Jesus and the rest of the story…

Because with God’s story, there is no end to the story.

Even the book of Revelation which comes at the end of the Bible is not the end to God’s story and those who read it as the end of all things are missing the point. Revelation 21 paints a picture of a new heaven and a new earth, when all things are re-made, made whole, made right. The end of the Bible is not an end at all, it is a beginning.

In fact, we are missing a whole lot of the story of God if we think the story of God is only what is contained within the pages of Scripture. Just because the Bible has been canonized does not mean that it is the full and complete picture of God. Our siblings in the Jewish faith understand this much better than us, having a rich history of what they call midrash. This is using study and Biblical imaginations to “fill in the gaps” of the Biblical narrative, imagining and uncovering the ways God has been and is at work in the world, even if it’s not written down.

We can learn this from our siblings in another Christian denomination as well. The United Church of Church (The UCC) has a denomination tagline “God is still speaking,” - and there is purposefully not a period at the end of that statement. It is not “God is still speaking PERIOD” - it is, “God is still speaking COMMA” - it leaves room for us to listen to the still-speaking God.

The UCC website says this about their belief that God is still speaking:

“If you think God’s not finished with you yet, guess what? God’s not even finished with God yet. God isn’t finished with you, or finished with the church or our world, or even letting us know more about God’s own compassion, justice, hope, and truth. If you are open, if you listen carefully, you’ll discover what God is saying to this generation at this time in history. There’s more good news to be heard!

This understanding of God’s ‘revelation’ is a central aspect of United Church of Christ faith. We believe that God was revealed in the past, but also in the present and the future. In the Bible, God was known through covenants with people and nations, through prophets and teachers, through conflicts and commandments, in visions and songs, and through the followers of Jesus and the church. God acted profoundly in the life and ministry, even in the death, of Christ. On Easter, God declared in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ‘I’ll never, never stop speaking. Alleluia!’ Throughout history, in moments of compassion, justice, and peace, in our worship, sacraments, prayer, seeking, action, and silence, God continues to speak.”

End quote.

God is still speaking. God is still at work. The story of God continues.

We would be remiss if we thought God paused the story at the end of Scripture until God’s return.
We would be remiss if we didn’t see the ways God is still working in this world
We would be remiss if we don’t see see ourselves as active participants and tellers of God’s continuing story in this world.
We are called to continue the story and be storytellers - we call this being disciples and being witnesses.

Today we are welcoming a new member to our church. In the membership vows we promise to participate faithfully in the ministries of the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Whenever a new member joins, all of us renew this covenant together. Now, the thing is - your hymnals do not have the word “witness” in them - that word was added in 2008 and the printed hymnal is older than that. I am going to ask you today to try and remember that word in our vows - to say it even if it’s not written there. Witness implies both sharing the story of God with our words and with our whole lives - witness means all we do and say points back to the story of Jesus AND thus, continues the story of God in our world.

At Jesus’s ascension, he tells his disciples that they have been witnesses to his story - how God has been at work in the world. The telling from Luke says: “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

And then in Acts, Jesus tells them that they will be - future tense - witnesses. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This is what it means for us today to be witnesses. It wasn’t just the disciples gathered on that hilltop some 2,000 years ago. It is for us to be witness too. To tell the story, to point to the story - and to be active participants in the ongoing story of God’s work in this world. A story that has no end. This is what we are called to be - storytellers, witnesses, disciples.

The story of God continues in this world - thanks be to God.

Amen.

“Faith & Falling in Love” a sermon on John 14:15-21

John 14:15-21
“Faith & Falling in Love”
Preached Sunday, May 10, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church

At the risk of sounding sappy this morning, I am going to start my sermon with these queries:

What is it like to fall in love? Throughout your life, how have you fallen in love? What events, what encounters, what experiences have led you to falling in love?

As preparation for this week’s sermon, I asked my husband how he realized he had fallen in love with me. I asked myself the same question of me falling in love with him: and I realized that falling in love comes from a series of encounters. From meeting someone, laughing with them, getting to know them, confiding in them, crying with them, trusting them...It was all these experiences that led me to falling in love.

And, of course, not all love is romantic love. As children we often come to love our parents because of the love shown to us, the care we receive, the safety we feel -- and then as adult children of adult parents, we can come to love them all over again in old and new ways. I know when I became a mother, I got to experience falling in love with my child. From just the thought of this tiny human in my womb, giving to her of my body, holding and caring for the most precious thing as a newborn - and then the joy of loving them as their personality develops. And the deep deep humbling love that comes from knowing you are this person’s safe place. As an aside, I know Mother’s Day is a day of joy for many - and also a very complicated day for many more. My prayer for each person here today is that they may experience love as a safe place - whether that is the love between a mother and a child, a spouse, a friend, and/or the ultimate love of God as a safe place.

Friendships are formed in love - through many of the same encounters that form romantic love - through sharing, laughing, crying, and trusting. Community is formed in love. When I became a pastor, I was told my main job when I was sent to a congregation was to love the people - love the people and everything else would follow. Plus, as the Bible says, love covers a multitude of errors. Of course, from my first day here to almost three years, the love can change from an abstract love to a more concrete thing - falling in love not just you in the general sense but you in the specific - between hands held, tears cried, laughs, confidences, prayers, meals shared - these encounters with each other, person to person, these help shape our love for each other.

We can trace these moments, these shared experiences, these encounters with another human being when we truly see them for who they are and it in turn is reciprocated - and we can almost re-trace falling in love. I say almost, because we all know that love also has a mystical component to it, something that we can’t quite put our finger on, something that is just beyond our grasp. For me, I would label that part as the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Which also brings me to another love, that for many of us, we don’t talk about enough, love of God. Love for God. But how do you talk about falling in love with God without sounding a little bit like a crazy person? And the truth is, you probably can’t. Because loving God is a little crazy - and mystical and beautiful. And just like our love for other people is built on genuine encounters with the other, so too is our love of God built on encounters with the Divine, with the Holy Spirit.

Craig Koester, a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, says this about our Gospel reading today on love and the Holy Spirit:

“Coming to faith is analogous to falling in love. One cannot fall in love in the abstract. Love comes through an encounter with another person. The same is true of faith. If faith is a relationship with the living Christ and the living God who sent him, then faith can only come through an encounter with them. And the Spirit is the one who makes this presence known.”

Let’s take a closer look at this.

In this week’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus is introducing the disciples to the idea of the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth...you know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” Remember, this is a continuation of last week’s Gospel text that was part of what we call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse to his disciples. It is before his arrest and crucifixion and he is instructing his disciples one last time on this end of things.

This is a part of a longer passage in John 14 - today started at the 15th verse in the passage that’s really one speech. We have been off lectionary the last three weeks for our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing so we are kinda jumping back in halfway through this passage. It’s like, as a reader, when a sequel comes out and you haven’t read the first book in a couple years so you need to go read a re-cap. So here’s the re-cap of what came before today’s Gospel reading:

So in the verses before this, Jesus is telling his disciples to not be afraid and to trust in him. He says, paraphrased, “If you know me (and you do know me!) then you know God who is the Father. You know who I am through my teachings, my words, my actions. You know that I preach love, forgiveness, mercy, repentance. And you know I model these things too - so you know what I’m about and you know what God is about -- so now, if you know me, you will do likewise so that others may come to know me through you.”

In summary: If you know Jesus, then you know God. If you love Jesus, then you love the Father, and if you love Jesus (and the Father), you will do as Jesus does. Perhaps these verses are what “WWJD” are based on - what would Jesus do? The answer is always love.

So now, in today’s reading, Jesus expands on that idea of knowing Jesus, knowing God, and doing as Jesus does. The question that this week’s Scripture seeks to answer is: How will people know Jesus through which people know the Father, when Jesus is no longer here on Earth, God as living flesh walking among us? How are we to love God, to fall in love with God, when we have no God to physically encounter?

And here is where Jesus says, don’t worry - because the Father is sending another Advocate, as Jesus was an Advocate for encountering and falling in love with God. In just two weeks we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost - that same Spirit who is among us today. And whoever knows the Spirit, knows Jesus, and whoever knows Jesus, knows God. For this is the mystery of Trinity, that they are One, that our God is Triune. So just a caveat - even though the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples at Pentecost - the Holy Spirit was not created at Pentecost. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer - the three Persons of the Trinity have always been in existence with one another, from before there was a beginning, from before there was time, God, Jesus, and the Spirit have all been present. Just as, in time, Jesus was given to us as a gift to know God, so too, in the course of history, the Spirit has been gifted to us so that we may continue to know and fall in love with God.

So who or what is the Spirit? How do we encounter the Spirit in our lives?

The Holy Spirit, like God and Jesus, is both knowable and unknowable. The Spirit though, has always seemed illusive, hard to grasp for many Christians. The Spirit is described as the wind, that which we can feel but cannot see. The Spirit is like our breath, that which is never far from us, fills us with life, sustains us. The Spirit is the flame which ignites within us a desire to know God. The Spirit is that force that we can’t quite put our finger on that interacts in our lives, in our relationships, when we fall in love. Any way we see or feel or sense God moving - in our lives, in our relationships, in the world -- THAT is the work of the Holy Spirit.

And so we may think - have I ever encountered God? And yes, you have. Think about those moments when you have felt peace. When you have felt God comforting you as you cried. When you have felt a surge of joy or thanksgiving that bubbled over into laughter or praise. When you found strength or patience you didn’t know you had. When you’ve had a realization that only could have come from beyond you. Think of all those moments where something beyond you has taken place in your life - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Those are our encounters with the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit is in perfect union with the Creator and the Son - those are encounters with God and with Jesus, too. And it is through those experiences, through those encounters, when we realize that it is the Spirit we are encountering, that we fall in love with God.

And Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

And remember that Jesus summarized all the law and prophet in two commandments:

One, to love God.
Two, to love neighbor as self.

And we see here how these commandments are circular. When we fall in love with God, we keep God’s commandments - God’s commandments are to love God and to love neighbor. And when we know the Spirit, and thus know Jesus, and thus know God, we are called to do as Jesus did, to spread mercy and forgiveness and love to others through caring for them, siding with the outcast, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoner...basically, loving our neighbors. And it is through these acts of love that the Holy Spirit is at work, and thus we encounter God over and over again, and fall more deeply in love with God…

Yes, these commandments are circular! And at the center of that circle, what remains above all else: is love - and God wants us to encounter the Spirit, to know the Spirit, to know Jesus, to know the Father and fall more in love with God every day and then to live out that love through love of others.

So, at the risk of sounding sappy, I’d like to end my sermon by asking you to ask yourself this question:

How am I continuously falling in love with God?

May we all find ourselves with love at the center. Amen.

Call to Worship for Pentecost based on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39

Leader: As we begin worship today, we cry out:
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Within us, we ask the Spirit to touch us with holy fire.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: For those who are thirsty, in the pews and outside the walls, we pray:
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Holy Spirit, fill us with fire and make living water flow from our hearts.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
All: Amen.

Call to Worship based on "Blessed Assurance"

Leader: Our God is a God of Yesterdays, Today, and Tomorrow.
People: Blessed Assurance! Jesus is Mine!
L: In our past we sang:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Today we sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: Tomorrow we will sing:
P: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
L: In all times and places, the work of God continues and so we will never cease in our praise:
All: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Amen.

Call to Worship based on hymn, "I Love You, Lord"

Leader: We come together today to proclaim:
People: We love you, Lord!
L: We lift our voices in worship.
People: Rejoice, O My Soul!
L: King of all, take joy in our worship and praise.
P: May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
All: Amen.