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.
This is
later in Luke’s telling of story. This
morning, we enter Luke’s Gospel at a point where Jesus is commiserating: I
came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
Six hundred
years before, in the days of Jeremiah, we find God commiserating: Is not my word like fire?
Not many of us
want to think about fire, with recent days of the city smelling like smoke, and
100s of hectares of Nova Scotia forest burning.
Perhaps the images of fire, close at hand, and very much alive in our
imaginations and given reality – can burn into our hearts and attitudes the
strength, power, and the uncontainable nature of the Word of God. The smoke
alone was inundating, unavoidable, persistent; as it hung in the air, it clung
in our nostrils; there was no escape.
When I hear
the words of Jeremiah the prophet, I hear a chillingly haunting voice that
continues to fog the ears, and dampen the spirit long after the words are
spoken. Not only does Jeremiah exude sadness, God’s commiserating (the words we
heard earlier) and God’s sarcasm are unbearable. How on earth are these words to be like fire,
when they are heavy like mud?
I like to
believe that God’s word, is Living Word.
I like to believe that what we gather in this place, changes us. I like to believe that we hear God’s word in
this space and then go and share it with others. I like to believe that what we do here makes
a difference for more than just ourselves.
I like to believe that our being Christians is more than being “good
people.” I would like to believe that we are like fire in the world, spreading
Good News. Somewhere in these beliefs, the reality is that there is more mud,
than, fire.
There are two
Swedes, (no this is not a set up for a Swedish joke); there are two Swedes, a
father and son team, Hans and Ola Rusling, who are on a mission to end
devastating fires --- not physical fires, but, rather, the fires that cause
misconception of basic global trends and macro-trends. The misinformation and faulty perceptions
that lead to wars, rumours of wars, racism, and so on. Their theory is that not understanding basic
global trends causes human beings to fritter around and paralyzes positive
forward movement. --To move to the
vision or goal ahead- say, the fullness of the kingdom of God- one has to know the
trend and be prepared to fan the flames of that which is good; to speak words
and set goals that adequately address the real, not the perceived, issues of
the world.
The two, with
others, have been working on the “Ignorance project.” The project asks specific questions to test
the global knowledge of people around the world. The multiple choice questions are simple
enough – an example: “globally women
aged 30 spent how many years in school: 3, 5, or 7?”
The answer is 7 (for boys it is 8 yrs). Another example: “in the last 20
years the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has: almost doubled, stayed
the same, almost halfed?” The answer is almost halfed.
To have a
baseline for scoring the answers, the team asked chimpanzees the same questions
– the answers of course produced random scores. When testing people, it was
found that for the most part people answered worse than random! The fires of misconception rage around the
world.
Upon
investigation the team determined that skewed information and intuition were
peoples’ weakness. Only preconceived ideas can have us preform worse than
random.
Skewed information comes from a number of
sources: 1) personal bias – that’s what we learn from our neighbourhoods and own
experiences; 2) outdated facts – that’s what we learn at school, the bias of
the textbooks, curriculum, and teachers.
The church community adds to both your personal bias, and without being
aware, the giving of outdated facts; and 3) news-media bias – which is often
exaggerated and reports items of swift change.
All of this
conditions us to be globally ignorant and to hold four misconceptions:
Generally we
believe that everything is getting worse.
Does this not sound like the prophet Jeremiah, or Jesus’ talking about divided
households? We hold the misconception that there is a growing gap between the
rich and the poor. People contend that one is first rich then social. And the fourth misconception, sharks are
dangerous.
From these the
team came up with four rules of thumb, so that our preconceived ideas will have
us performing better than random. I have
told this whole story because I believe the Ignorance Project has good rules of
thumb with which to approach the hearing of prophets, the reading of Scripture,
and the practicing of faith, and living the Word. The first rule to live by: Most
things improve; 2) most people are in the middle; 3) 1st social then
rich; 4) assume that fear is exaggerated.
When these
rules of thumb are applied, people answer the questions better than
random! When we are aware and understood
the real global context then we can begin to understand what is coming. This opens us to the possibility of being a
prophetic voice in the world. It gives
us the gifts we need to proclaim the Good News, to fan the flames of God’s Word
for this time. And instead of being
sticks in the mud, God’s powerful word works through us as wild fire.
My husband’s
grandmother grew up in Desboro, ON, a small rural village. The big old stone Lutheran Church had a large
pump organ. Grandma Maggie at the age of 9 started her organ career by pumping
the bellows. As the organist played, Grandma (either by hand or by foot, I’m
not sure which) would pump air into the organ, and push the sound out. By the
age of 14 Grandma was playing the organ and someone else was pumping the
bellows. It took two people to make the
instrument work. It took fanning the flame so to speak.
The other
night at the Olympics, the Brazilian’s fanned the flame – encouraging their
men’s breast stroke competitor – by shouting his name, in rhythm, each time his
head would come out of water; the chant was to carry him onward and upward to a
great finish.
Two of the
scriptures set images of fire – and one, Hebrews, draws our attention to the
clouds. It speaks of a
great cloud of
witnesses. It is this cloud that
protects the flame and fans the flame through the generations; through their
faithful living, faithfulness in death, and the stories they leave behind as
fuel for the living.
Flame fanners;
a cheering section; not passive observers (judges), but, cheerleaders.
Six hundred
years before Jesus, in the days of Jeremiah, we hear God commiserating: Is not my word like fire?
This morning,
we enter Luke’s Gospel at a point where Jesus is commiserating: I
came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
From the
continuation of Luke’s story in Acts we hear:
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them.
In these days,
do you hear the words of a lone prophet? Or of a commiserating God?
Rising from the ashes of once burning
missionary zeal and spreading of the Good News as a fire of hope, there rises a
chillingly haunting voice; a voice from the barren landscape that fogs the
ears, and dampens the spirit long after words are spoken. From the heavy mud
comes the Word on a wisp of smoke, “I
came to bring fire to the earth.“ In
fact, fire has come to earth – more than once - People you are the bellow workers, the
fanner of the flames. Let’s get to work.
I am sure that
when Grandma Magee would pump the organ, or when she was the one playing, that
there was a connection between the pumper and the player --- eye contact, a
signal of some sort, so the pumper would know when to stop and no extra squeaks
or squawks exited the organ pipes.
How will we
know when the fire’s flames are completely fanned? It will be when, God and the
prophets are no longer commiserating, when the Word is not stuck in the mud,
and God’s people are not sticks in the mud; it will mean that the prophetic
word of the past will be fulfilled - it
will be fruition of the Psalmist’s song:
“Give justice
to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” In this the
world will be aglow; all consumed by Living Word.
It is the end
of Lutheran Camp Mush-a-Mush’s program season. This had me recall a song that
might be the cheer, the fanning of the flame to give us just enough to keep
pumping the bellows until God’s kingdom is fulfilled. It has a beat, it rises
and swells, it is Word – in that the light, the fire is set in the gloaming
(that is in a time of twilight and what seems like growing darkness. As it is sung may the flame within you be set
afire, that your preconceived ideas fall away, and that the Word bursts into
faithful living and joy in the presence of the Lord.
Fire’s
burning, fire’s burning/draw nearer, draw nearer/In the gloaming, in the
gloaming/come sing and be merry. …join
me….
