Set Our Hearts On Fire - 60th Anniversary
Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:14-17, John 14:13-17
Rick Riordin is the creator and author of the fantasy books series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Percy is the son of Sally Jackson, a mortal woman and Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. As you can imagine, Percy’s young life is (complicated) a blend of mundane human experiences and unbelievable mythological escapades.[1] His parentage is both a source of strength and conflict for him as he struggles to figure out in which world he really fits. If you want to know more than that, you’ll have to read the books or watch the series. As for us today, I simply wanted to point out as the author writes, “You don’t get to pick your parents. You’re born into a family and that’s your starting point.”[2]
In 1963, the mission church that would become Weatherly Heights Baptist Church, was conceptualized by the people of Whitesburg Baptist. (“You don’t get to pick your parents. You’re born into a family and that’s your starting point.”) They believed a mission church was needed in this area where Weatherly Heights Elementary school had just been built. So, with 17 families in attendance on October 6 of 1963, the mission got started in the home of Burt Carpenter. Gathered that day were the Adairs and the Adams, the Carpenters and the Coopers, the Davises and more Davises, the Dunlaps and DeFreezes, the Graves and Gilberts, the Johnstons, Klingers, a McKay and a Pipkin, the Redds, the Wests, and the Williams. These are our founding mothers and fathers who would soon be led to call their first pastor, Rev. Harold Shirley. This is our early church history.
The book of Acts is history, literature, and theology, to be sure, but Acts is also a call to us, today’s followers of Jesus Christ. So, when we encounter the story of Pentecost in Acts 2, we’ll be tempted to see it only as a reach back (R) into the history of the way God was speaking to the first Christians. The challenge is to allow the truth that originally animated the ancient text to become a “living word” for us today (Hebrews 4:12). A living word - in which a light shines on truth in a new way, a living word that sparks something within, that beckons us forward (L).
In so many words, Will Willimon encourages something similar in his commentary on Acts 2, We shall pass over questions that might interest us to “let the story have its way with us.” Like those present at Pentecost, we read this wild story and find ourselves bewildered, mystified. We are listening to the account of something very strange - beyond imagination. It would fit well in a fantasy book series!
A diverse group of pilgrims from across the diaspora of Judaism - from all over the Mediterranean basin – are gathered together for the ancient harvest festival fifty days after Passover (Pentecost). Luke (author of Acts) describes what must not be called a gentle in-breaking of the Holy Spirit[3]. On this day, the One that Jesus described as a comforter, advocate and sojourner erupts on the scene as a straight-line wind. You might say, All Heaven breaks loose![4] Can it be the same wind that swept across dark waters on that very first morning of all mornings, the wind of creation (Gen 1), is once again bringing something to life?[5]
Out of a small movement, pockets of believers, now a community is ready to be born - one large enough to reach the ends of the earth. Fiery tongues appear above each and every individual head. There are no distinctions made for whom the spirit has come (male, female, young, old). The Spirit lights up everybody. John the Baptist did say the Christ would “baptize you with the Holy spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16).[6] Tongues of fire set loose on everyone’s head then loosen everyone’s tongue, miraculously allowing the assembly to speak in various known languages of their homelands, lands that encircle Palestine in all directions (Acts 2:8, 11). There is cultural diversity even among the Jews gathered this day. The Spirit is received by everybody.
The wind of the Spirit is always blowing out not in. Repeatedly redrawing the size of our welcome to more nearly match the wide circle of the welcome of God.[7]
This is significant. This is different. This is the way Spirit is moving now, on this side of the threshold. BEFORE, Jesus’ in-breaking, Jesus’ incarnation, we saw the Spirit specifically available to certain people for specific events and times: Moses, David, the prophets. Around the birth of Jesus, the Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth, then Zechariah, comes upon Mary, will be upon John the Baptist as he prepares the way for Jesus. And at Jesus' baptism, the Holy Spirit, like a dove descends upon Jesus.
This is different! This is no dove! Spirit is no longer coming down out of heaven. The people of God must adjust their gaze! No longer is the Spirit intended for individual spiritual experiences. Spirit is moving, flowing, burning ALL around them! THIS fiery presence is a gift to the Church, to the greater community of believers, pulling a new community across the threshold, beckoning them forward.
The disciples had probably been tempted to look back and think that their best days were behind them… When they had Jesus in the flesh with them. But the expansion of the Kingdom was limited by Jesus’ physical presence. Now, the gift of the Holy Spirit to all God’s people means the good news can reach the ends of the earth! God’s hands are multiplied through their hands. Many voices now set free to proclaim the good news of God. Countless hearts burning with an uncontainable fire!
The disciples could look back with gratitude for all that had been, blessing the best of what was behind them while looking forward with all these new converts, this new growing movement and see Spirit leading them to whatever lies ahead.
Weatherly, we were born into a big Baptist family. We didn’t get to pick who our parents were…. Big Southern Baptist church and association gave us life.
You can’t change who your parents are…but you can decide what kind of person you want to be.
And Weatherly has done that. Weatherly has distinguished itself over the past 60 years while remaining faithful to this community and to our Baptist roots. You invited members and called ministers who broadened your ideas, who invited deeper examination of your thinking and beliefs.
Dr. Wilson, you probably know this, but Eugene Worley says you used to frustrate him when he would come to you with a Biblical or theological question and your response would almost always be: What do you think?
Twenty+ years of reflecting your parishioners’ questions back to them led to an independently thinking congregation that called Dr. David Freeman who embraced wholeheartedly (what he calls) their theological curiosity.
Church, You welcomed and called into your fellowship, leaders who invited you to soul-stretching truth and into a deeper life with God. Behold who you are! A Congregation of thinkers who are probing scripture + experience for truth, mining the word for meaning, open to new interpretations, searching the Spirit for wisdom. And who are Repeatedly redrawing the size of our welcome to more nearly match the wide circle of the welcome of God. The wind of the Spirit is always blowing out, not in.
We have come a long way from our beginnings. It’s been a circuitous journey, not without cost, pain, and heartache. That faithful journey has made us who we are, who I believe God called us to be for this community, right now.
At this threshold, not even one year into a new pastorate and on this anniversary Sunday, Let us reach back with one hand to bless the best of what has been. While we reach ahead of us with the other hand to allow the fire of the Holy Spirit to beckon us forward. With arms outstretched, looking back with gratitude and at the same time forward in faith… that’s not a bad posture for people following Christ.[8] Amen.
[1] https://magicalclan.com/percy-jackson/
[2] Riordin, Rick, The Lost Hero
[3]Aymer, Margaret Working Preacher commentary Acts 2:1-21
[4]Sermon Brainwave Podcast
[5] Willimon, Will Interpretation series Acts
[6] ibid.
[7] Poole, Chuck Sermon “Reaching” October 8, 2023 Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham
[8] Poole, Chuck