To move through the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 is often to come away with an image of a small gathering blessed and charged to go and fulfill Christ’s great commission. The Spirit moves through the room like the sound of a rushing wind and suddenly, divided tongues “as of fire” sat upon each of them - the apostles can hear and be heard by all peoples of the world who had gathered in Jerusalem for this festival. There is proclamation and reception, repentance and baptism - 3,000 strong.
It’s often interpreted as a story of victory. The success of the Spirit to use the apostles to make more disciples. The Church is born and already growing. Happy Pentecost.
And while this is certainly a feature of the story in the understanding of the author(s) of Luke/Acts, there is perhaps another way to view this with the help of Peter Rollins’ “Pyrotheology.”
Rollins suggests that part of the work of God and the Spirit is to burn down the walls between us and God, us and others. He encourages the Church to honor and embrace our doubts, questions, and brokenness. He is generally suspicious of certainty and answers, and so he brings all of this to the concept of evangelism and conversion and suggests that at least part of the work of the Church is not to evangelize, but to be evangelized to - not to center our understanding of the gospel, tradition, and faith, but to be de-centered from it that we may open ourselves to God.
Divided Tongues as of flame
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
~ St. Francis of Assisi
Perhaps the divide tongue that enables each of the disciples to be heard is not necessarily to speak and provide the answers, but to speak and ask questions of others. Perhaps the gift of the divided tongue is not so much to be understood, but to understand. 3,000 came for Peter’s answers. How many more may have come to engage in sacred conversation?
What could it look like for the Church to use this gift of the Spirit not to bolster our certainty and proclaim ever more of what we believe, but to ask the questions of others and listen?
We have some stories of divine revelation - burning bush, pillar of fire, and now tongues of flame. But in no case is God ever fully revealed and understood entirely. Every flame is followed by questions, journeying, trust and doubt. The flame is then perhaps not to give us the answers, but to become something like a lamp - a spirit that invites others to it, a light that allows us to see others and the world more clearly. It is to lead us outward to gradually open and refine us, to be less of who we (or the world) are so certain we are and more faithfully become who God has created and called us to be; to depart from an idea of needing to convert and transform others to our image, and to orient our hearts to serving and loving the world as it is.
So perhaps this is the work of the Spirit - a slow burn throughout our lives.
May the Spirit’s flame within your heart open your life to the fullness of God, this world, and others. May it lead you to becoming more and more of who God has created you to be. And may the Spirit guide Christ’s Church into genuine service and relationship with the world.
Peace,
Rev. Chris McCreight
Manuscript and Video to the view the sermon, “A Slow Burn”
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