The Flame That Does Not Consume

This Sunday is Pentecost.

And though many of us within the church are quite familiar, I ran into someone earlier this week who was not and in trying to explain they had quite the reaction. "Wait, did you just say that flames came down and fell on their heads?!?"

It's actually a bit of a startling story if you think about it.

God's Spirit, the one who has been moving, breathing life into everything since the very beginning of creation, comes swooshing in as the fire from the burning bush and lands upon all the believers gathered in Jerusalem. They are burned up but not consumed and set alight with new wisdom and an ability to set the world aflame.

Imagine what that might look like now.

Peter then goes on to preach and tells them that they are not drunk because it's only 9am (obviously he's never been to New Orleans). Instead, he points them towards the prophet Joel, who flips the way we think about God handing out wisdom on its head.

In another conversation this week, this time in a bible study with my colleagues, someone pointed out that, in Joel, it is the old who dream the way young people do

and it is the young who see things with new clarity and share the wisdom of God through prophecy. The little ones get to prophesy.

How appropriate then that our own younglings will be leading worship this weekend and sharing their own spin on life and God's continuing movements in this world. How God carries on creating in our midst. How God invites us to participate in the work.

Expect joy. Expect play. Expect wisdom that you never saw coming.

Blessings,

Rev. Janie