John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-21
“Water & Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 28, 2023
This morning I want to tell you three stories.
The first story goes back to the very beginning, Genesis 1:1-2: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was in complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
That wind from God that hovered over the deep at the beginning of creation was God’s ruach. A Hebrew word meaning breath and wind. The breath of God that hovered over the deep at the beginning of our creation story, is the Holy Spirit, one of the three persons in our Triune God. And the world ruach, that first reference to the Holy Spirit, right at the beginning of our Scriptures, is a feminine word, as are other words used to refer to the Holy Spirit in our Scripture, such as the Greek sophia for wisdom. So as I am telling you stories this morning and talking about the Holy Spirit, you’ll hear me use she to refer to the Holy Spirit. So as the Holy Spirit hovered over the deep, the chaos, the primordial waters of creation, she had a direct role in the creation of the universe, and it’s the start of a long-standing connection between the Holy Spirit and the gift of water.
She was present in the waters of creation. She was present as the flood waters receded and a rainbow, a sign or promise and covenant, appeared in the sky to Noah and his family. She was present in the parting of the Red Sea, when God led the Hebrew people out of slavery, out of Egypt. She was present as the next generations crossed the Jordan River and into the promised land.
And then, she was present with Jesus in the water of the womb, for when one member of the Trinity is found, they all are. She was present in Jesus’s baptisms, in both the water of the Jordan and the dove descending. She was present in the water that gushed from Jesus’s side during his crucifixion and then subsequent resurrection.
The story of our faith, from the beginning of creation to the wider story of Jesus - to today, can be traced through water and traced through the Holy Spirit.
And if that story that I just told you sounds slightly familiar - it’s because you just heard that story retold in our Baptismal covenant as we baptized two young children of God. We trace the Holy Spirit’s presence above the water of creation to her presence in the water here today that we baptize with. Because when we baptize children of God, of any age, we are placing ourselves in the story of the Holy Spirit, in the story of our Triune God, in the story of creation, in the story of God’s salvific acts, in the story of our faith. When we baptize with water, we don’t just baptize with water, we baptize with water and the Spirit. What we are saying is that story that we just told, the story of the Holy Spirit’s presence in all of history, that is our story too. That God, through water and the Spirit, has incorporated us into the story, grafted us in, adopted us into the family as children of God. Thanks be to God for that!
The second story I want to tell you today is the story of Pentecost. In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter, following Jesus’s resurrection and his ascension to heaven. So, today! Pentecost was a Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Here this Scripture from Acts 2:
“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 nation 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?’”
The Scripture continues that the disciples, empowered and overcome by the Holy Spirit, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they tell of how God became human among us in Jesus, how he died and yet rose again, and how eternal life through Jesus is promised to us as well. And each person there understood them, heard them speaking in their native tongue, the language that they were born with, the language of their home countries and mothers, the language of their minds and hearts… And so on that day, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which is present in water and breath and wind, and on the day of Pentecost, fire, on that day, 3,000 people from every corner of their known world converted and were baptized in the name of The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Incorporated into the story of our faith, adopted as God’s children.
Many people call that first Christian Pentecost “the birthday of the Church.” Because on that day, God through the Spirit, through fire and water, gave birth to the Church, empowering new disciples of Christ, adopting so many into the family of God - and then those disciples, having been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, would then go out and continue to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and baptizing children of God.
And from that first Christian Pentecost on, which not only birthed the Church but immediately pushed that Church out, to reach new people, different people, reaching across borders and ethnicities and languages, reaching across any line of divisions…from that first Christian Pentecost on, the Holy Spirit continues to work within, through, and despite that Church. Within, through, and despite US, to birth new things, to ever reach outward, to expand to new people, to cross any line of division, to bring the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to ALL people. Thanks be to God for that!
And so now let me tell you a third story… But it’s a story that I can’t fully tell. Because it’s not just one story but all of your stories. The stories that belong to each and every one of you. The story of how that same Holy Spirit that was present at creation, that was there in the waters of your baptism, how that same Holy Spirit adopted you as a child of God. The story of how that same Holy Spirit that came down as tongues of flames at Pentecost and birthed the Church and crossed lines of divisions and empowered the disciples to spread the Gospel - the story of how that same Holy Spirit fills YOU and empowers you to spread the Gospel. The story of how YOU, yes, each and every one of you, is a beloved Child of God, claimed in baptism, and filled by the Holy Spirit to spread the love of God to all peoples.
Tell yourself your story now. Think about how the Spirit of Water and the Spirit of Fire is the Spirit that lives in you. How has God’s loving, empowering, and transforming Spirit been active in your life? Always, since the moment you came into being.
As Methodist we talk about how the Spirit is active in our lives as grace. That the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, is always being offered to us, always being given to us, even when we don’t realize it. That the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, transforms our lives and our hearts to be more like God’s. That God’s Grace, the Holy Spirit, redeems us by Love, for Love. And how God’s grace, the Holy Spirit, never gives up on us, that continues to work within and around us to sanctify us, to make us more like God, to make our Love more like God’s love, to always push and empower us to better love God and love neighbor.
As Christians, as baptized Christians, baptized by water and fire, baptized by the Holy Spirit in the name of Triune God, that is all of our stories. The details are different. The road to get there is different. And still, it is all our stories. Thanks be to God for that!
These stories are all connected. The story of our baptisms, the story of Pentecost, the story of our lives. I pray that in our being reminded of our stories today, we would remember that we are beloved children of God, remember that we are empowered to share the Gospel of Love with all people, and remember that the Holy Spirit is always active and present in our lives.
Thanks be to God for that! Amen.
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