Readings for the day:
Dear friends in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Do you like campfires? I do. I like to feel the warmth of the fire on a cool summer evening. I enjoy the smell as the various types of wood burn. And of course there is the crackling of the fire and the interesting color and shapes the fire takes as it burns up the wood. I really like campfires. We have a campfire pit in our backyard and we are out there a lot.
Maybe you enjoy campfires for similar reasons. But regardless of your feeling of campfires, have you noticed how the coals glow and burn? The fire starts off being really strong and powerful. It is really exciting to sit around the fire pit and enjoy watching the strong flames flicker in the night. Eventually the fire maintains at a nice, comfortable level…putting off just the right amount of heat and smoke. But if more logs aren’t added to the fire, all that will soon remain are the bright orange colored coals. These coals serve a very important part of keeping the fire going. Adding a dry log to these coals will start the fire up again.
But have you ever noticed what happens when if you take one of the coals away from the rest? That bright orange glow begins to fade to black. The fire in that coal slowly loses strength and the coal starts to cool off.
This is exactly what happens with us. When we first start going to church, it’s exciting, the flames are high and church is something we want to be part of. Just like with any new thing, our excitement begins to fade and then we stick to maintaining at a “just right” kind of level. But if more logs aren’t added to the fire, eventually all what will remain are the coals. Those bright orange coals.
Have you ever noticed that if you haven’t been to church in a while, or haven’t received communion in a while, that your spiritual life begins to weaken? Maybe it starts with forgetting to read your daily devotional book, then forgetting to pray before meals, or just simply pray. What’s happening when your spiritual life begins to weaken is that you are one of those bright orange coals in the fire, but as you drift away from the church and your relationship with God, your coal stops glowing and begins to cool off. The further away from the fire the coal gets, the faster it cools. The further away we get from the church, the faster our spiritual life and relationship with God diminishes.
Now this happens to everyone from time to time. We all have drifted away from the fire at some point in our lives (some further than others). But how did you get back? Did you just wake up one morning and think, oh I should probably go back to church? For most of us, the answer is no. What does bring us to faith and back into a closer relationship with God, is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Today is Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. It is the birthday of the church; the day we celebrate the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to his disciples that the Advocate, their helper, their guide would be given to them. On that first day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity) rested upon the disciples, giving them the strength and guidance they needed to continue doing the work that Jesus called them to do.
The color today is red because red symbolizes joy in the coming of the Holy Spirit. The color also symbolizes the fire of the Holy Spirit. Understanding the work of the Holy Spirit was challenging for our confirmation students this year, but it’s equally as challenging for adults to understand the Holy Spirit. One explanation that may help in wrapping our heads around seeing the work of the Holy Spirit is fire, since fire of the Holy Spirit is used in the Bible to explain the Holy Spirit.
When you do drift away from the church, or your spiritual life weakens, how is it that you find yourself back in this place or that you remember to pray again? How is it that your cool, dark, coal begins to glow bright orange again as it nears the rest of the coals? It is the work of the Holy Spirit. You surely can’t do this work on your own, but the Holy Spirit is working through you and those around you (your family, your friends, your co-workers). We aren’t able to even believe in God or believe in the Resurrection without the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so we can’t bring ourselves back to a healthy relationship with God either. All of this is done through the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who gives you the drive and motivation to maintain your relationship with God and keep your coal burning bright orange. This is all possible because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was given to you when you were baptized.
So remember that whenever you begin to wonder, maybe like what your mind is doing right now, the Holy Spirit will guide you back. God seeks out the one sheep that wondered off to bring it back and this seeking is done through the work of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the Holy Spirit will bring you back to the fire, back to the church, back to a healthy relationship with God where you will have peace, joy and warmth. Amen.
© 2014 Anthony Christoffels. Used with permission.
The Rest for The Weary 