I wonder if you have ever sat watching a fire. Maybe a hearth fire at home, round a fire pit, or at a bonfire. There’s something mesmerising about the movement of the flame, lifelike but not, random patterns, but within boundaries of expectation, the energy, the flow. It’s so fascinating that some people have video of a fire running on their TVs when they’re not watching a programme. They find it restful and calming, reassuring.
Sitting by a river or a lake can have a similar effect. The sound of water babbling, flowing past or silent and still as the proverbial mill pond. Patterns emerging and dying away, life and energy. Fire and water. Life and power. Energy and restfulness. Somehow.
Fire and water are two things that occur in our physical world that are used in the Bible and throughout the history of the followers of Jesus as representations of the Holy Spirit. Over the last couple of years here at All Saints we’ve explored both of them. The idea of the water bubbling up here and flowing out, down the aisle, out into the community, bringing life and refreshment.
The idea of the fire energising our life with Jesus, of God’s fire burning away sin and shame, and of our fire being fanned into flame.
But, in all those explorations I’m not sure we’ve touched much on the restfulness aspect of water and fire.
Earlier this week I was reading one of the accounts of Jesus’ early life. A little while after he was born, he was taken by Mary and Joseph to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated to God. Whilst they were there a man called Simeon came to pray over Jesus, and share the prophetic vision that he had of Jesus being God’s chosen one, who was to be a light to the Gentiles.
What caught my attention as I was reading was the description of Simeon we are given before he started talking. It says, “the Holy Spirit rested on him.” When I read that, it reminded me of what it says at the beginning of Acts 2, just before the section we heard read this morning. It describes Jesus’ friends and followers gathered together in Jerusalem following his return to heaven, waiting like he told them to, but not really sure what they’re waiting for or how long they’re meant to wait. All of a sudden there is the sound like a violent wind, and:
“they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”
“came to rest”
As I was reflecting on this it occurred to me that when we talk about the Holy Spirit, perhaps especially at Pentecost, we focus on the loud wind and the appearance of fire and the speaking in other languages, all the big, exciting stuff, and I wonder if perhaps miss the “came to rest”.
As I was thinking about this I remembered these. These are shawls that are knitted by members of the church, who pray as they knit. Then they are available to be given to people who might be going through a difficult time by the pastoral team as a physical representation of the comfort of God, of the embrace of the church family, of the prayers of those who made them. They are prayer shawls, but not in the sense that you wear one to pray in, but that they surround the person wearing it in prayer.
They rest on the person and bring comfort and reassurance.
I wonder if some of us need the Holy Spirit to rest on us like this today. To surround us with comfort and reassurance. To rest on us and bring us peace.
What happens when the Holy Spirit rests on us?
For Jesus at his baptism it was accompanied by a voice from heaven “You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.” A reassurance, a comfort, an encouragement. Shortly afterwards he was sent out to face temptation and the challenges of ministry, but in that moment there was a rest and peace that sustained him through all the rest.
At Pentecost the disciples were given a gift of peace that calmed their anxieties and fears. They then went out to tell everybody how good God is, but that initial moment there was a rest and peace that sustained them through all the challenges of the life of the early church.
In Peter’s appeal to the crowds, that we heard read from Acts, he describes other things that will happen as the Holy Spirit rests on people, things that the people of God had been told about previously by the prophet Joel. “Sons and daughters will prophesy. Young men will see visions, old men will dream dreams.” Just like Simeon, someone who spent years with the Spirit resting on him, waiting for what God had promised him, moved when the Spirit prompted him, and then spoke out to the crowds in the temple about who Jesus was and what he had been born for.
This is the restful aspect of the gift of prophecy, the waiting, the listening, the readiness to move when told, not impatient, but attentive and obedient.
In our gospel reading we listened in an a conversation between Jesus and a woman, coming to the well for water to drink. Jesus was resting when she met him, waiting for her. There’s so much in this passage that I could pick up on, but just a couple of things for this morning.
Firstly, the woman has come for physical water. Jesus offers her living water, water that will mean she will never thirst again. Could this be another aspect of the rest that the water of the Holy Spirit brings. A cooling, restoring, refreshing, restful quenching of the longing and yearning thirst we have for peace.
Secondly, Jesus tells her that “God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship in Spirit and truth.”
This summer we are exploring and celebrating many different aspects of who God is. It is fitting that on this feast of Pentecost we are focussing on the fact that God is Spirit, the Holy Spirit is God. Not part of God, or a messenger of God, or an optional extra, but completely and totally God. As the Holy Spirit rests on us, God rests on us, this is the truth, and it draws us to worship, to open our hearts and give God glory and praise, honour and adoration.
As the Spirit rests on us, we all experience different things. We are individuals, with our own stories, and so our reactions to the resting of the Holy Spirit on us will be different. Some people don’t feel very much, to be honest, I rarely do. Some people will feel a sense of peace or warmth. Sometimes emotions will be released and people might laugh or cry. For some, the resting of the Spirit on them will cause them to rest themselves, lying or sitting down. For some, as on Pentecost, there will be a desire to praise and worship, to tell everyone how good God is, perhaps in their own language, perhaps in another language. These are all normal reactions to the presence of the Holy Spirit resting on people. As is not feeling very much at all. As I said, that’s my usual experience. Doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit isn’t doing anything, or isn’t resting on us. The truth and reality of the Holy Spirit’s presence is not defined or limited by our felt experience of it.
On that first Pentecost the disciples waited and the Holy Spirit came and rested on them. So that is what we are going to do. We’re going to spend some time waiting for the Holy Spirit, resting in God’s presence, and leaving some time and space for God to minister to us. It might help you to imagine staring into a fire, or sitting by a river. Feel free to sit or stand. Come and take a prayer shawl, for yourself or someone else.
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