Pentecost 2022: Running Toward the Flames

I remember the first time I heard it: Our greatest fear is not the God does not exits; what scares us most, is that God does. At the time, I thought it was a clever twist, but now, particularly on the day of Pentecost, I can see that it is not only clever, but true.

As I sat in church this morning, listening to the story of the disciples huddled together, waiting, and suddenly experiencing God’s presence in a new way, like flames or a chorus of unrecognizable voices, I thought it must have been so strange, even frightening. Onlookers thought the early followers were drunk. So it is when God shows up. So it is when people choose to follow.

A man I know was walking through a door from one thing to another, a life transition like so many others he’d been through. To help him navigate the uncertainty, he bought a journal and a pen and began writing his way to the other side. Through his writing, he felt a voice was calling him to “walk beside others who were trying to live authentic lives.” Unsure what that meant or looked like, he carried on, open to whatever that voice continued to say. He attended his morning 12-step recovery group that was struggling for participation. COVID and Zoom meetings had done a number on his group. In a spontaneous moment, he offered to show up and lead the meeting every morning for the next three months to see if people would return to in-person meetings. Much to his amazement, the next morning every seat in the room was filled. It was exciting and scary at the same time. He wanted to lift his hands in celebration, but someone might think he was drunk.

Flames can be frightening in whatever form they come. God’s presence and actions can be so startling one wants to run in the opposite direction – back to the predictable world he or she has known. But today, of all days, we are told to run toward the flames, embrace the unpredictability, the strange voices, and the cup filled with new wine.

It will not be a world, or a life, like any we have known, but maybe that’s the point.