He said: Why not become fire?

A story from the desert fathers: Abba Lot came to Abba Joseph and said: Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and, according as I am able, I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should I do? The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not become fire?

It has been said by preacher types that preaching needs to be more "practical" and action oriented. Preachers are supposed to give people something to do when they leave the place of worship so they can put their "faith in action".

The intent behind this advice is well intended, we want to give people something to do in order to keep from people a people focused on personal holiness to the detriment of social holiness. However, there are a couple of unintended consequences that may come with giving people something to "do". 

First, it implies that the "doing" is the "real point" of the sermon. Put another way, it implies that "doing" is more important than "being". It is like when people tell a story and you check out while listening only to check back in when they tell you the moral of the story. It is the moral of the story that really matters, because it tells us what to do.

Secondly, and more of my concern, is that it diminishes the imagination of the gathered community. If the preacher is the one that comes up with the things to do that put your faith in action, then there is little reason for you to imagine what you could do to put your faith in action. It lessens the chance that someone in the community will come up with something new because they are focused on doing what the preacher said to do. Trust me when I say, preachers are not always the most imaginative people.

Preachers can teach you how to do your little fast, prayer, meditation and other "action" items, but worship may be one of the few places where we are "set on fire". The inspiration of the Spirit is what sets us on fire. People come to worship and are trying to do all that we can to grow closer to God, and perhaps what we need is less "here is what you can do" sermons and more "here is how you become fire" sermons. 

Pentecost, (The UMC splitting?) and the Holy Spirit

Pentecost Sunday, June 8th, was a time when Christians celebrate the birth of the Church by the receiving of the Holy Spirit. In many churches around the globe, the story was read about how the Holy Spirit came and rested like tongues of fire on those in the upper room. While reading this story and as a liturgical act, there may have been different people speaking different langues during worship. I have been in worship settings where French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, English, and Russian were spoken while the story was read or even during the saying of the Lord's Prayer. 

The church that I serve we decided to have a sermon that attempted to embody this "multi-language" expression of the Spirit by having two voices to deliver the sermon (beginning at minute mark 5:30 you might think you are hearing a little commentary on the UMC's conversation about splitting and I can neither confirm nor deny this to be the case.). 

I share this sermon as a way to submit some thoughts with anyone who might wonder more about the Holy Spirit. What it is, what it looks like, and why do you think there are so many images of the Holy Spirit? Why is the Holy Spirit spoken about like fire, water, dove/pigeon, wind, comforter and wild goose. 

Are we distracted from God because we are making disciples?

The mission statement of the UMC is to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." This is the standard by which we measure all our local churches and ministries and leaders and clergy. If these things produce disciples then it is valued. There is a lot of discussion about how to define what a disciple looks like. But the overarching (and often unspoken) definition is that to make disciples means, at the very least, to make more disciples. The emphasis is really place on the quantity and not so much the quality of the disciple. 

This is not only a theological conviction but, like most theology, there are real world forces that influence our theology. And the real world force influencing this theological stance may be rooted not only in imperialism but in the face that we are a dwindling Church. We fear losing what we have, we know the Baby Boomers are beginning to die and Gen X is not large enough to replenish the numbers. We also are told that the generation that is large enough to bolster the ranks is assumed to not be interested in Church. So, the push to "make (more) disciples" is a logical position for an organization to take. 

However, the concern might be that when we are focused on making others into disciples we neglect our own discipleship. I see this a lot when there is a death in a family. Everyone is so focused on the health and wellbeing of the other family members that self-care takes a back seat if ever take up at all. Or even when there is a party, like a wedding, and the bride and groom can be so focused on making sure everyone else is taken care of that they forget to eat and enjoy their wedding day.

The point being that when we define making disciples as making others into disciples of Christ we relegate our own discipleship to the back seat. God is working in your life and desires for you to die to self and live into your true self and embrace the shadows as well as the light, but it is tricky to find time to sit in silence when you are always teaching others in Bible study. It is hard to practice Sabbath when you are always leading the worship. It is impossible to go on a pilgrimage if you are the leader.

For all the good that comes with making new disciples it can come at the cost of being distracted from what God may desire to do in our very own hearts.