Refiner's Fire

Genesis 11:1-9 & Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost Sunday May 28th, 2023

Rev. Rhonda Blevins, pastor

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

______

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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.

Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
        and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
    and signs on the earth below,
        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

______

Today in my children’s moment, I had a little fun with the kids as I described the ways God showed up to the people on Pentecost. Throughout the scriptures we see God showing up in theophanies of wind and fire. Weren’t their reactions priceless when we brought out the leaf blower? Fire was a little more challenging to let them experience first-hand, and I’m not sure the Fire Marshall (or their parents for that matter) would have approved of some of the ideas we tossed around! So thank God for flameless candles! It’s a good alternative to having small children play with fire.

For a moment, let’s consider these two classic theophanies (literally: “God appearance”), ways God shows up throughout scripture, from a practical standpoint.

Let’s start with wind. Here in Florida, we know the destructive power of wind, don’t we? We have an entire six-month season in which we’re on high alert for hurricanes. We have tax-free days (which started yesterday, by the way) in which we can buy hurricane supplies with no tax added. We have our own proverbs here in Florida, like this one: “Hide from wind, run from water.” We have special insurance policies to protect us from air moving faster than we’re accustomed to (ie. “wind”). We have special “hurricane glass” on our windows (like the glass covering the stained-glass windows in our sanctuary.) Here in Florida, we know about the destructive power of wind.

Now for fire. I bet we all have a story or two about fire. For me, my “fire” stories both involve me setting boxes on stove tops (apparently I’m a slow learner). I nearly burned down my childhood home when I set down my big box of girl scout cookies on a hot burner. (The real tragedy was watching all those thin mints and samoas going up in flames.) Years later, I nearly burned down a church when I set a box on a stovetop. (Thankfully, the only thing with lasting damage was the box and my pride!) Ask my husband about the grease fire he was in, and if you’re “lucky,” he might even show you the skin grafts he got from the burns he sustained. He knows, we all know, about the destructive power of fire.

On Pentecost Sunday, we remember the day when God showed up in both wind and fire, but not a destructive wind or a destructive fire, rather the SOUND of a rushing wind and the SIGHT of tongues of fire.

This fire that burned but did not consume, tongues of fire alighting on each person there, you might be reminded of the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses saw a bush that was burning but not consumed. God spoke to Moses from this fiery theophany, telling Moses to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. This theophany would set in motion a series of events that would change the course of human history as Moses followed God’s call from the burning bush.

In today’s text from the book of Acts, we read about another fiery theophany that changes the course of human history, because this event in Acts, Pentecost, is known as the birthday of the Christian church. Happy birthday, church!

It must have been exciting, to have been in that room when God showed up in wind and fire. But even more than that, how cool would it be to suddenly become fluent in some other language? That’s what happened! All of a sudden, the disciples gathered began speaking other languages! From the common Aramaic likely spoken, suddenly they could speak fluent French and Spanish and Arabic and Mandarin and Swahili and Greek and Latin. Amazed and bewildered and suddenly foreign-language fluent, they must have spilled out onto the streets, causing a stir in Jerusalem. People gathered around them asking, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” This was their first question.

Let’s stop there and consider the sudden ability of the disciples to speak all these different languages. Why didn’t God give the crowd, with its many diverse languages, the ability to understand the Aramaic spoken by Jesus’ followers? Cuban-American theologian, Justo Gonzalez, has an idea about that. He says that the Holy Spirit had a choice: 1) to make the crowd understand Aramaic, or 2) to make the disciples speak in multiple languages.[1] Significantly, the Holy Spirit chose the second option. Gonzalez says that Christian Pentecost is a resounding “No!” to any idea that the Christ movement would be an Aramaic-only effort. Christian Pentecost is a resounding “No!” to any demands for theological or doctrinal uniformity or conformity. Christian Pentecost is a resounding “No!” to any attempt within the Church that tries to squeeze followers into thinking alike, speaking alike, or behaving alike. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit created unity, but not uniformity.

I am proud to serve a “Pentecost” church. At Chapel by the Sea, we don’t demand uniformity of beliefs or backgrounds. We have many faith traditions here . . . let’s see who we’ve got worshiping today. Raise your hand if you come from a Methodist background, Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Church of Christ, other? At the Chapel we bring those traditions, with their variations in practice and theology, and we find a way to do church together. We don’t eschew denominations; we think each tradition serves a valuable role within the kingdom of God. So we bring them together, put them into a pot, and meld the flavors into one delicious Holy stew.

Back to the story.

All of the disciples are speaking different languages, and the crowd is amazed and perplexed, so they ask their second question (the first was “How can this be?): “What does this mean?” Oh my. Don’t ever ask a preacher that question unless you’re ready for a sermon. Peter stands up and delivers the very first sermon recorded in the brand-new church. Peter interprets the Hebrew Scriptures for them, quoting from the book of Joel and the Psalms, making the scriptures relevant to their current situation. (What a good preacher tries to do every Sunday.) Peter’s sermon, especially in light of his friends suddenly becoming foreign language experts, is pretty convincing as he explains to the crowd that Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth, is more than a prophet. Peter tells them that Jesus is Lord and Messiah. So the crowd asks their third question: “What should we do?” Peter’s response this time is shorter: “Repent and be baptized.”

Let’s talk about the meaning of “repent” in this context. (The word is surely loaded for many of us who come from backgrounds in which that word brings up memories of judgment and condemnation.) “Repent” means, quite literally, to change the way you think. Don’t we all need to repent from time to time? New information? Change the way you think. New experience? Change the way you think.

What happened to these disciples on Pentecost, experiencing God through wind and fire, empowered to communicate in supra-natural ways—it undoubtedly changed the way they thought!

Pentecost is said to be the reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11. An origin story the ancients told to try to explain how and why there are so many different people in different places with different languages, they said that God confused one language because of human hubris, creating many languages, separating people.

Pentecost was the great reunification of people. But not in a way that made everyone speak the same language, but that Christ followers could share the good news of Christ beyond the limits of their understanding.

The fire of Pentecost served as a refiner’s fire—the fire used to purify silver or gold and other metals. The human division that happened at Babel was dross—the Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost, in part, to burn off the impurity of division—and the church was born. Not to become separated from the world, but to bring unity to it.

The refiner’s fire of Pentecost.

I wonder, on this Pentecost Sunday, is your life in need of the Refiner’s fire today? Are you living a divided life in some way? Is there something preventing you from becoming the man or woman that God created you to become? Is there something in the way of the life abundant that Jesus came to offer? I dare say, we could all use some refining fire in one way or another.

There’s a story of a young man happened upon a silversmith who refined silver and gold from raw materials. He was very curious about the process, so the silversmith invited him to observe. The young man saw the silversmith sitting in front of his fire. “Why do you heat the metal?” he asked?

The refiner answered, “In order to make precious silver I have to remove all the impurities that make it worth less than it really is.” The young man thought about his own life and how one time of fiery suffering or another was required to remove some of the “junk” in his own life.

“Why do you sit while you work?” inquired the visitor.

The silversmith replied, “I must watch the fire closely. Too little heat and the impurities will not be removed; too much heat and the precious metal will be destroyed and made worthless.”

The young man reflected how his life of comfort had brought a sense of complacency that led him to abandon his dreams, settling instead for a humdrum life. But he had also come through painful fiery times with character and strength that he would not have found elsewhere.

Then the young man asked the refiner, “How do you know when the silver is at the right temperature?”

The silversmith smiled and answered, “I know the purifying is complete when I can see my reflection in the silver.”

How do we know when our refining is complete? When the Refiner is completely reflected through us. Let it be, O God! Let it be.

[1] Justo L. Gonzalez, Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit, 2001.