The Cross and Flame of the United Methodist Church

Redford Aldersgate
United Methodist Church

Sermon

Today is an extra, extra, extra special day.
First of all it is Mother’s Day. That is a very important day. Mothers play a unique and influential role in our lives. It is a very good thing to take time to honor them because very often we take them for granted. So I hope that you take the time to appreciate your mother on this day. If possible, tell her that you appreciate her. If that’s not possible because she is no longer alive, why not do something special in her memory... or tell someone else who has been important to you how much you appreciate them. Honoring is a good thing. So Mother’s Day makes this day very special.
But it is also Pentecost Sunday as well. This is a high holy day for the church. It’s the day we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit, as we recounted in our Call to Worship. It is such an important day that we call it the “Birthday of the Church.”

Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were basically a bunch of incompetent wimps who were afraid to stand up for Jesus and who often didn’t understand all the things Jesus was trying to teach them. But after this experience with the wind and the tongues of fire, they were set on fire! They were bold and spoke out for Jesus. They did amazing things. From that day on, the teachings of Jesus and the love of Jesus spread like wildfire throughout the world. It was the beginning of the church. So we want to remember that day and be open to the way that same fire of the Holy Spirit hovers above us and is waiting to descend upon us and fill us with that same enthusiasm and energy and joy. So Pentecost makes this day very special.
Having them both on the same day doesn’t happen very often. Usually Pentecost is after Mother’s Day. Last year it was on Memorial Day Weekend, the last Sunday in May. And sometimes it is even in June. But this year, because Easter was so early and it is tied to the Easter celebration, it happens to be the same day as Mother’s Day. According to some research Don Archambeau did for me, the last time Mothers Day and Pentecost Sunday fell on the same day was in 1989 and it won’t happen again until 2035. So the rarity of this day, makes it even more special.
In addition to these two very important celebrations, today in this church, it is also baptism day for these 4 young people: Leah, Austin, Dylan and Kayla. Baptism is the celebration of the inclusion of these 4 young people into the family of God. So that makes it an extra, extra, extra special day. It’s a great thing to have so many things to celebrate on one day, but it is also a challenge for me as a preacher to tie it all together As I was struggling with all this ... wanting to make each occasion very special ... debating on what scripture to preach on, I looked at the second scripture that is recommend for today.

The first one is the story of Pentecost from Acts that we did for our Call to Worship. But the second one was John 7:37-39. There was a neat sentence in this passage that just tied it all together for me. So, I’d like us to look at John 7:37-39. It’s just two short verses that takes place during the Jewish Festival of Booths in Jerusalem. Jesus has gone to the festival, even though he told his brothers that he didn’t want to go. He went and kept a low profile until the last day of the festival and then this is what happened.
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.
As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now he said this about the spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So Jesus is giving them a little preview of what will happen when the Holy Spirit will come upon believers ... there will flow from the heart of the believer, a river of living water! I really liked that.

The image of living water flowing from our heart reminds me of mothers. As mothers we give our children life-giving nourishment ... from the milk that we give them as infants to all the many things we give them throughout their lives. And if we are believers in Jesus, the love and advice and direction we give our children is even more life-giving. From a heart of a mother flows a river of living water which nourishes and strengthens and refreshes her children. So the image of a river of living water is very meaningful for mothers day.
It is also a meaningful symbol for baptism. Certainly the water of baptism is life-giving, living water. Baptism is a recognition of the inclusion into the family of God, but it doesn’t mean that the person who is baptized has reached perfection. Baptism is a beginning of a life of growing into the person that God created them to be. For the younger children, it’s the parents who are making the promise to resist evil and declaring their faith in God. For as the child grows, the parents will need to resist evil and be open to all the help that God will give them in order to guide and direct those children as they grow. And for Austin who is old enough to take the vows for himself, he is saying that he is giving his heart to Jesus. He is one of those who Jesus was talking about when he said, “Let the one who believes in me drink.” Austin who is publicly saying, “I believe in Jesus,” can now go to Jesus to drink that living water. The living water that will quench his thirst for those things that the world admires but which are so destructive to our soul. So when someone comes up and offers Austin some drugs to give him an artificial high, he’ll be able to say, “No. I don’t need that kind of high.” He will know that he can go to Jesus and take a drink of living water that will bring joy much greater than any drug. When he is tempted to get caught up in the rat race of this materialistic world, he will be able to go to that river of living water and get his priorities straight. And the more that he drinks of that living water, the more a river of living water will flow from his heart to nourish and strengthen and encourage others. That same thing is true for his parents and the other parents who are answering those baptismal vows today. The same thing is true for each of us in this room today. The more we drink of the living water, the more a river of living water will flow from our hearts. We will all have the opportunity to renew our baptismal vows ... for we are all in the process of growing into believers. So a river of living water is an appropriate symbol for baptism.
But what about Pentecost? Fire is the symbol of Pentecost. And fire and water are usually seen as opposites. Water puts out fire.

But Jesus used water as a symbol for the coming of the Holy Spirit ... and besides, this is not ordinary fire and ordinary water ...

this is living water and holy fire... it’s the water and fire of the Holy Spirit. In some mysterious way, the Holy Spirit brings these two together to bless us in an extra special way. So, my prayer for today is that we be open to the blessings of fire and water ... the fire and water of the Holy Spirit.

Let us receive the blessing of fire that will energize us and change us from wimpy disciples who are afraid to stand up for Jesus into strong, courageous members of the church who do amazing things. Let us receive the blessing of water – living water – that will nourish us and refresh us ... that will cleanse us and renew us. These two kinds of gifts from the Holy Spirit work together to make us into the person God created us to be.
It’s like the new little chorus that we sang: Water, River, Spirit, Grace, sweep over me, seep into me. Re-carve the depths your fingers traced in sculpting me, in sculpting me. As the living water and the holy fire sweep over us and seep into our hearts then God is able to continue that creating process of sculpting us into the person that we were created to be.

Let us receive the blessings of the Spirit’s fire and water and then let us give the blessings of the Spirit’s fire and water. For in both of these scripture lessons, there is a spirit of giving to others. In the Acts story, the disciples are gathered together in an Upper Room, but when the tongues of fire come, it is as if the walls melt away because suddenly there are people from all over the world hearing them speak. All those people could not fit into that small upper room. They were out in the streets. The fire of the Holy Spirit couldn’t be contained. It was shared with all who could hear the sound of their voices. In the John verse, Jesus talks about a river of living water that comes from the heart of the believer. All that living water doesn’t stay inside the person, it becomes a river gushing forth from the believer. That’s the way it is with our faith. Growing, vital faith is not just a “Me and Jesus” thing. When we make that step to become a believer in Jesus, there is a river of living water that starts coming forth from us which gives life and encouragement to others. Just like when a woman becomes a mother, she no longer thinks only of herself. There is another person for whom she has tremendous responsibility. That’s what makes us mothers. We give, we give and we give some more. The more we give, the more we have to give ... that is, if we are connected to that source of living water.
So on this Pentecost-Baptism-Mother’s Day let us be open to receiving the blessings of fire and water and pledge ourselves to giving the blessings as well. Whether we are mothers, or fathers, grandmothers or grandfathers, aunts or uncles, or friends or acquaintances there are many opportunities for us to bless those around us and help them to grow.

In a wonderful book called “My Grandfather’s Blessing’s,” Dr. Rachel Remen tells about many blessings she has received and given throughout her life. It’s a delightful book and I recommend it highly. She begins by telling about having tea at her grandfather’s house each Friday. They would have tea and visit about the week. Then her Grandfather would light a candle and pray silently. When his silent prayers were over, he would ask her to come and stand by him while he placed his hand lightly on her head. This is her description of what happened next: He would begin by thanking God for me and for making him my grandpa. He would specifically mention my struggles during that week and tell God something about me that was true. Each week I would wait to find out what that was. If I had made mistakes during the week, he would mention my honesty in telling the truth. If I had failed, he would appreciate how hard I had tried. If I had taken even a short nap without my nightlight, he would celebrate my bravery in sleeping in the dark. Then he would give me his blessing. How important those blessings were to Rachel. She had great parents too, but they often expected more of her and criticized her. If she got a 98 on a test, they asked about the 2 points she missed. You know how we parents can sometime be. When her grandfather died she said, “At first I was afraid that without him to see me and tell God who I was, I might disappear. But slowly over time, I came to understand that in some mysterious way, I had learned to see myself through his eyes. And that once blessed, we are blessed forever.” She closes this chapter by telling about her mother when her mother got to be an old woman. She began to light candles like her father had. When Dr. Remen saw her mother doing that, she told her mother about those Fridays with her grandfather and what they had meant to her. Then her mother smiled sadly and said, ‘I have blessed you every day of your life, Rachel. I just never had the wisdom to do it out loud.” (p. 23-24) I’m sure her mother blessed her in many other ways. But on this Pentecost-Baptism-Mother’s Day, let’s all pledge ourselves to giving some blessings out loud. It’s especially important for Mothers to do ... but it’s for all of us.

I was blessed to have a wonderful mother, who gave me many blessings, but I was also blessed by some of her friends. I remember Hazel Danniker in particular. She was an author and a great story teller. She would come to my birthday parties and tell stories which all the kids loved. But what I remember most about her is that we would take her to church every Sunday. When we got back to her house each Sunday she would say to my parents, “Thank you, Floyd and Sarah for the ride.” And then she would look at me and say, “And bless you my sweet little Diana.” Or maybe it was “cute little Diana” or “energetic little Diana” or “creative little Diana” ... whatever seemed appropriate after our conversation in the back seat. I remember loving that moment. She had a way of making me feel great. Probably because she was an author and storyteller, she could make ordinary words sound great. Those blessings came back to inspire me many years later. When we lived in Monroe there was a particularly difficult week for me. In addition to some things that weren’t going quite right for me as a mother, I had some extra responsibilities as a “minister’s wife.” I had to do some devotions for a meeting and I didn’t want to do them. So grudgingly, I went to the Monroe County Library to look up some things. And wouldn’t you know it, way back in some out of the way stacks, I found a little devotional book ... and guess who was the author? Hazel Danniker from New Castle, Indiana. I couldn’t believe it. It was a holy moment when I found that little book. I could just hear Hazel blessing “her” wonderful little Diana.
From the heart of the believer flows a river of living water that flows and flows and flows and knows no boundaries. From a little town in Indiana to a little town in Michigan in a big library a little book came out of the past to bless me and remind me of the many blessings I had received. Once blessed, we are blessed forever.
On this extra, extra, extra special Pentecost-Baptism-Mother’s Day may we remember the many blessings we have received over the years and pledge ourselves to pass them on to others.