University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

In John's Gospel Jesus is trying to leave his disciples with as much assurance and support as he can before he goes to his death. 

He says I've told you what you need to know and you can still ask me for what you need.

 Jesus tells the disciples about the added insurance policy that God will provide them with-- the Holy Spirit, an advocate, and a constant presence that will help them when they can't think of what to say or what to do. 

Even with all of these assurances, there is still something about Jesus that keeps stumping people in John's Gospel.    It's been stumping people like Nicodemus and other people who were outside of Jesus' inner circle.

Here we see that the same thing that has been stumping the outsiders is stumping the insiders, too.  How can Jesus really be God in the flesh?  Philip needs to ask again-now when is it we are going to see the Father, if you'll just show us, Jesus, then we'll be satisfied. 

Jesus says, Philip do we really need to go through this again.  If you don't get it because I've said so, can you get it because of the things I have been able to do?

And what it comes down to for the disciples, and for us, is pure and simple-what do we believe? 

Jesus explains in John over and over again that believing is the most important decision we can make in our lives--Jesus wants us to get close enough to him to believe.  It's a matter of life and death.  Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms in John that believing in Him is a choice to embrace Life itself. 

Maybe this is where you and I get tripped up, too, though.  Believing is not such an easy thing to do-especially in this day and age. 

In fact, I think one of the toughest parts of being a Christian today is knowing how to say to the world: 

"I BELIEVE!" 

This testimony is especially hard for us moderate, mainline Christians.  So much of the "belief talk" out there in the world makes us uncomfortable and we'd rather not be associated with it.   

And some of that talk that offends us mainliners comes straight out of how people have appropriated John's gospel.   Indeed, this claim of Jesus' in John has fueled the fires of exclusion, judgment, violence, hatred, and misunderstanding.   

 Saying "I believe" can sound more like "you better believe in Jesus, or else!"  ...or else you are going to hell... or else you will be cast out...or else you are on the side of wrong... 

These ultimatums are enough to make us shy away from any such fervor.

But what happens when Jesus' own followers aren't sure how to tell people the truth about who we are and what we believe?    What happens when the religious fervor of our time in the name of the religion that is yours and mine isn't the kind of fire we want to fuel?

A few years ago at the General Assembly in Denver, a former professor of mine and I were talking outside the building where the Assembly was convening.  While we were standing there we were handed some flyers by a group working the crowd.  These flyers communicated a simple message with a variety of different inflammatory images-the message was this, you and this denomination are going to hell-you are going to hell if you don't condemn homosexuality, if you don't say condemn all forms of abortion no matter the circumstances.  There were other issues they used, but you get the picture.  My former professor said something to me that made an impression on me. He said, "They have something to motivate and galvanize people that moderate and progressive Christians don't have-they have the fires of hell.  How can we compete with that?" 

Yes, when the fires of hell hang over people's heads, we have fear to compete with.  And what better motivator is there than fear? 

The fires of hell are a great motivator. 

But playing with fire can be dangerous.  It just might get out of control-and start to destroy things you didn't intend it to destroy. 

In their book Unchristian:  What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity and Why it Matters, David Kinneman and Gabe Lyons interview people between their late teens and early thirties about what they think about Christians.[1]  Startlingly high percentages (over 90% of those questioned) describe Christians as:  judgmental, antihomosexual, hypocritical, too political and sheltered.[2] 

Similar insights come to us from Marcus Borg in his book The Heart of Christianity.[3]  He asked students in a class to write essays about their views of Christianity.  They describe Christianity as "literalistic, anti-intellectual, self-righteous, judgmental, and bigoted." 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do we recognize ourselves in these descriptions?   Probably not.  And we might want to blame those "other kinds of Christians" for these skewed perceptions. 

But the hard truth is that you and I have not done our jobs very well if this is what people think about us.  We've let the fiery rhetoric of hate and exclusion define us. 

How tragic that Jesus' own followers are turning people away from Jesus.

And this problem of hate and fear, well it's heating up even more these days.  The number of hate groups overall in this country has more than doubled in the last ten years.  One of the most alarming statistics is the explosion of armed anti-government militia groups in our country.  In 2009 alone the number of these groups increased by a staggering 244%. 

And Christian rhetoric is often used to help define and ignite these groups the same way Islam has been appropriated by violent hate movements.  As we fight the war on terror abroad, the bonfire of hate and violence and mistrust are being kindled right here on American soil.  The Southern Poverty Law Center locates 29 hate groups in NC alone-some in Raleigh, Durham, Wilmington, and Charlotte.[4]

What is a Jesus follower to do in such a hostile world?  What can we do when our savior is being used to justify such brutality?

Jesus told his disciples-when they were getting nervous about him leaving, about him not being close by, he told them "just ask and I will get you what you need.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not let them be afraid." 

And that is what the disciples were doing that day in Jerusalem, when the fires of the first Christian Pentecost ignited.  They were praying for what they needed. 

Before the mighty winds blow through we find the disciples in Jerusalem, like Jesus told them to be.

After the resurrection they asked him:  "is it time, Lord?"  The Risen Christ told them that's not for you to know... what is your business is to receive the HS and to witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and "to the ends of the earth." 

Then Jesus ascends into heaven.

Then the disciples went to their room and they got down on their knees and prayed-the people who loved Jesus were there, praying. Not just "the boys" but "certain women"-including Mary, Jesus' mother, and maybe Mary Magdalene and other folks who loved Jesus.  Their world had changed forever.  Even with all of Jesus' instructions, they were groping for what was next.

So, the disciples were open, in need, grieving, confused. 

But that time in Jerusalem was even more combustible because it was the Jewish feast of Pentecost, a Jewish Feast of Weeks they held 50 days after Passover.    This feast marked the end of the grain harvest.[5]

This meant that Jews from a far ranging geography were there in Jerusalem-indeed nations were gathered there.

The disciples were together in one place-and remember they are open, humbled, grieving, and confused.  Then a mighty wind blows through, and tongues of fire ignite languages from all over the region-foreign Jews who heard them were amazed to hear their own languages tell about God's mighty deeds

And after this, Peter preaches and 3000 are baptized.

Some scholars try to explain what happens here in this passage with prophecy, or narrative parallels to the Tower of Babel or Exodus 19 where God descends in fire. 

What I believe we see here is the disciples becoming the Body of Christ in the world.  

For the first time, they were embodying Jesus' cross-cultural proficiency-his capacity and ability to translate and be translated across cultural boundaries; his penchant for erasing, blurring boundaries.

For the first time, they were embodying Jesus' immediacy to Divine Mystery and power.

For the first time, they were embodying Jesus' full-bodied ministry.  They are not just thinkers or just doers, but those who's bodies were consumed by this new power.

The heritage of Pentecost, however,  is troubling to much of the ethos of mainline Protestantism mostly because of this strange spiritual gift that we don't know quite what to do with:  Glossolalia (speaking in tongues).  This spiritual gift is not something that we have a place for in our worship forms, our polity, and our spiritual experience.

Speaking in tongues, is prayerful, ecstatic speech that no one can really sharply define.  Are tongues known languages that the disciples mysterious became able to speak?  Or are these tongues some mysterious/mystical language that is not a known language at all?  Studies have been done of people who speak in tongues to track speech rhythms and learned aspects -to try and discern the authenticity of this practice.  Who knows the whence and why of these tongues? 

The more important question might be the question of why it bothers us so much.

Reformed Theology and practice are surrounded on all sides by charismatic movements-in the broader church history and in the American context.  Pentecostalism is an American example of course.  But there are also numerous Charismatic Renewal Movements that may surprise you. 

There are Presbyterian charismatics (oxymoron?).  In the 60s/70s and still today; 1966 Founding of the PCC (Presbyterian Charismatic Communion).   It may surprise you to know that a group of Presbyterians have the distinction of forming "the first national charismatic network associated with a mainline denomination." [6] This network is now known as the Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International  (PRMI) and headquartered in Black Mountain.  This charismatic movement has most often been tangled up with a particular political and moral perspective which has not commended it to mainline or progressive Christians. 

I wonder if there is a way to disentangle the kind of charismatic renewal that asks us to think beyond the boundaries of our normally accepted modes of spiritual experience from a particular moral/political agenda?  The very future of the Church may depend on us being able to do just that.

One thing is sure, the integrity of the church will not be refined by one political agenda being replaced by another that moderates find more palatable.  

The promise of charismatic renewal is in the open space it creates for God to work in and through us.

I don't think this comes with a particular brand of politics, but with a future open and we must be ever vigilant about the way we maintain the open spaces!

Even monasticism can be considered a charismatic renewal movement (saw things like celibacy as a spiritual gift-that might make speaking in tongues not look so bad after all!) We have seen a pronounced increase in attentiveness to spiritual/contemplative practice and the writings of the mystics in the last 20 or so years.  

In general mainline Presbyterians have not wanted to get burned by these Pentecost fires.  We have kept a safe distance-perhaps with noble intentions, but just as with any human intention, unbalanced and untroubled it can lead to a diminishment of what God hopes for us. 

Remember what Jesus told the disciples when they expressed their temerity-believe, believe, believe.  And ask for what you need.

In Fredrick Buechner's novel, The Final Beast, a woman goes searching for answers about unanswerable things.  She goes to see a woman with a reputation for healing named Lilian and she asks Lilian what to do if she's not sure what she believes.  

Lilian tells her about retreats she's been leading  with groups of ministers-all kinds "old ones, young ones, fat ones and thin ones" as she puts it.[7]  She says:

I've lectured them on the laying on of hands.  On prayer.  It's enough to give you the jim-willies the way most of them pray.  I always picture Jesus standing there with his hands tied behind his back so he can't do anything.  You know why?  Because they will never ask him to do a thing-at least not a thing they really want.  Because in their hearts they refuse to believe that he really can do a thing... ‘Ask and it shall be given you'...but first ask...Keep on asking and believing the best you can and don't worry about the little voice inside that says, ‘I don't believe.'  Just pray it down.  The Lord will hear you above it.[8]

Lilian may be talking to us-to us believers who can be prone to apologize for this faith of ours.   To us believers who sometimes don't know just what to believe. 

Untying Jesus' hands might be the first step we need to take to say to the world "I believe." 

Can we come a little closer to the fire?  That fire that we're afraid may be out of control-raging from the flames of hate, from the tinderbox of fear. 

When a forest fire is burning out of control, fire fighters will fight fire with fire.  It's a practice that started on the American frontier when settlers were finding their way in the wilderness.    The idea is to strategically set a fire to take the fuel away from the unwanted fire.  The strategic fire would burn everything that the out of control fire could take hold of, thus stopping the unwanted fire in its tracks. 

Forest fires are a naturally occurring phenomenon-nature's way of clearing space for new life.   In fact some plants even need fire in order to grow-Sequoia seeds remain dormant until there is a fire to break down its outer coating.[9] 

That takes us back to the fires of Pentecost-when the early church sprang to life in the streets of Jerusalem with tongues of fire.  The disciples were molded, melded into Christ's body in the world-able to speak in a language all people could understand, close up to God's mysterious power to change us, and defiant of any boundary that might exclude humanity from knowing God's love.  What a sacred moment of surrender that was!

Certainly we, the "frozen chosen," are not privy to such explosive opportunities.  But listen, it was our theological father himself, John Calvin, who describes the Holy Spirit in remarkably dynamic terms.  For him, life in the church is the place the Holy Spirit kindles the life of the believer.  It is our life together as church, according to Calvin, that God uses to mold us, to meld us, to transform us into the Body of Christ loose in the world.

Calvin seems to suggest that church can and should be a weekly booster shot of that Pentecost kind of transforming moment in the life of the believer-where we are revitalized and wake up again to the change Christ makes in us.

The Pentecost fires are for us, too. 

If we stand too far away, we will be frozen.  What can happen if we move in a little closer and start to thaw. 

Could it be that we could warm up to this call in our lives to be the Body of Christ in this world where Jesus is being used to justify brutality and hate?

Hate is on the move-throwing gasoline on the fires of judgment, exclusion, fear, and violence.

 Friends, the very fires of hell are burning among us-hell is a place where there is no hope, where pain and brutality thrive, where you can trust no one and you expect the worst.  Hell is a place where the truth can't get any traction and where children of God cry out to a Savior they are told is gone forever. 

Hell fire rages in this broken world-where addictions rule, where violence is a way of life, where the lies we tell ourselves have become truth, where God's creation is fighting for its life. 

It's time for us to fight fire with fire.

Jesus didn't leave us behind to quietly go about our business of following him. 

Jesus didn't say, when I'm gone keep it down, chill out.

Jesus said, ask me for what you need, keep my commandments, tend my sheep, go forth and tell the nations-reach out into the corners of the world where there is no hope, cross social boundaries that everyone holds sacred. 

He says heal on the Sabbath, overturn the money changers in the temple, take water from a despised person, sit down and eat with the outcasts, and shout back at death-tell it "you don't have the last word in my life."

He says tell people that God is close by-even inside the hearts of those who keep my one simple commandment-to love one another as I have loved you. 

Yes, it's time for us to fight fire with fire-to have a revival of Christian love, to let the life that Jesus told us to believe in burn brighter than the death that surrounds us. 

It's time for us to fight fire with fire-to speak up where Jesus is used to divide-to tell our stories of redemption, to say what Jesus has done for us. 

We can create a firewall against hate, against the very fires of hell. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.  What would Jesus do?  I say he'd fight fire with fire.  How about you?

Thanks be to God.      

[1]David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters.  (Grand Rapids, MI:  Baker Books, 2007).

[2]This study was commissioned by the Barna group in Ventura, CA, which has done research and offered resources from an evangelical perspective.  This book asks Christians to take a long look in the mirror.

[3] Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith.  (New York:  Harper Collins, 2003). 

[4]These stats are from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a strong voice against hate since it was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph Levin.   The SPLC describes itself as "a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society."  For more information on hate groups and statistics go to www.splcenter.org.

[5] See the Anchor Bible Dictionary "Pentecost" entry for more information.

[6] Dart, Christian Century, "Charismatic and Mainline", March 7, 2006, p. 22-27. 

[7] Fredrick Buechner, The Final Beast. (New York:  Harper & Row, 1965), 54-55. 

[8] Ibid, 55.

[9] www.science.howstuffworks.com