Are We Crazy or Accusers of Crazy?

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”… All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. (Acts 2)

Often when Christians read this story we tend to put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, when we feel really zealous, we might even think that we are Peter making bold declarations for Jesus Christ. We preach that we are to go into the world and proclaim this Good News, decry injustice and wage peace and when we do so people will accuse you of being crazy, mad, or even drunk.

Are we upset that eggs are being broke or are we upset at those who are upset that eggs are being broke?

However, if the Bible teaches us anything it is that it gives voice to those who are marginalized and not in power. In the case of Pentecost, it might not be that we are the disciples but are the ones in the crowd making accusations of public drunkenness.

The past several Pentecost Sundays I am reminded of one of the great lines from St. Antony the Great: “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.”

If we look around and think things like, “All these people are going crazy. They are so mad and upset. They disturb the peace and are saying things in ways that I do not respect or understand.” Maybe it is not they who are the crazy ones. Maybe we have in fact become the ones who hear the Spirit filled people of God and think, “they must be drunk for behaving the way they are behaving.”

Are we crazy like we so often want to believe or are we the accusers of crazy and sneering at those who “must” be filled with new wine?

Failing to Acquire the Fire We Desire

A few times a year I hear some variation of being on fire. Someone might say, “I was on fire for God after that experience.” Or perhaps giving voice to an aspiration one might say, “I want to be on fire for God.” Of course there is the idea that the church is too lame/boring/irrelevant and if only it were “on fire” then all would be right with the church. We talk about being on fire in all sorts of ways with the understanding that there is something overwhelmingly positive and admirable about being on fire.

However much we might long to be on fire, it seems that too many of us are not. How is it that we can desire something so deeply, so often, and so intensely but rarely acquire this fire we desire?

Photo by Siim Lukka on Unsplash

Amma Syncletica is one of the few desert mothers that we have some writings of. She puts her finger on perhaps why we are not on fire as often as we might desire:

“In the beginning there are a great many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing towards God and afterwards, ineffable joy. It is like those who wish to life a fire; at first they are choked by the smoke and cry, and by this means obtain what they seek (as it is said, Our God is a consuming fire - Hebrews 12:24). So we also must kindle the divine fire in ourselves through tears and heard work.” - Becoming Fire, Edited by Tim Vivian.

This saying has multivariate meanings to be sure but one of those is the pain, tears and work that is required on our parts to help foster the ignition of fire. Some of the smoke of practicing the disciplines is that they do not “produce” anything or that we might even feel silly doing them. Praying to God does not seem to make anything happen and we might even feel like it is magic thinking to talk to an ineffable and immeasurable God. So just as we begin to step away from the work of kindling the fire.

in our efforts to fully immerse ourselves in the waters of life, we might overlook that if we want to be on fire for God, that it is very difficult (if not impossible) for water-soaked wood to catch fire. Jesus had to go to the desert. The disciplines are often practices that draw us into emptiness (fasting, sabbath, giving, serving, etc.). The spiritual life might be thought of trying to dry us out so to catch fire. No wonder we are unable to acquire the fire we desire. Immersed in waters of business and novelty we are unable to dry out and catch the flame.

Suffocating the Holy Spirit

Jesus was taking to Nicodemus when he said, "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ (John 3:8). 

It is not very scientific to talk about Spirits, I get that. However little you believe in actual ethereal Spirits in creation, I find the metaphor helpful. I find that I am often surrounded by a spirit of frustration or the spirit of discomfort. I have seen people ensnared by a spirit of anger while others the spirit of despair. Whatever you want to call it is fine with me, I am comfortable with Spirit language. 

In my life I have discovered that there are some Spirits that need you to hold onto them in order to live. For instance, the longer I hold onto my anger the angrier I become. The spirit of anger needs someone to hold it in order to live, because the spirit of anger is too weak to survive on it's own. To be frank, most spirits are too fragile and weak to live on their own, they require a host to live in so to survive (see Mark 5 for a time when spirits desired to live in pigs rather than be with a host).

It is this that makes the Holy Spirit "Holy". It is set apart in this way: the Holy Spirit can live without a host. The Holy Spirit can move and exist like the wind and can be autonomous. It is strong enough to live without and yet gentle enough to live within creation. It is a good thing we can't capture the Holy Spirit that would mean it is too weak to live on it's own.

Of course the irony is that if we attempt to hold on and capture the Holy Spirit, we suffocate it.

Is Focus Leading Us Astray?

Odeo was a tech company that created a platform for people to create podcasts quickly and easily. At the time, right in the middle of the "dot com" boom, tech companies were getting a lot of funding but not all tech companies were surviving. Odeo was floundering. 

The company's leadership decided to refund all the investors and shared that they were ditching their podcasting platform. Additionally, the leadership shared that the company was going to take a little side project one of their employees was working on and try to make that product work. Odeo changed it's name to Twitter and, well you know what might have happened next. 

In the part of the Church that I work in, there is a emphasis on being focused. My conference has a focus "empower and equip local congregations to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world". My denomination has four areas of focus. Local congregations are encouraged to have a mission and vision statement in order to bring focus to the missional goals of the local church. And while this emphasis on being focused may be a reaction to the multi-tasking and distracting world we live in, focus can lead us astray. 

Jesus said the Spirit blows like the wind. We neither know where it comes from or where it is going. The Spirit came down at Pentecost and opened mouths not so that one focused language could be heard but that every language was heard. The work of Paul was like that of Jesus; moving from community to community on a constant search for the next thing that the Spirit is doing. The Spirit moved in the hearts of reformers and the Church is now expressed in thousands of denominations around the world. The Spirit cannot be contained, it cannot be focused.

Might it be possible that with our efforts to try to be more focused we are missing what the Spirit is trying to do in our midst? 

If Odeo was focused on podcasting and their software, they would have missed out on the wild-eyed idea that one of their people had to create a micro-blogging website which others did not see the value of. Odeo chased down an unfocused idea in order to discover a new and wonderful tool of connection and sharing. 

It was not what they thought they were going to create, but it was where the spirit of inspiration took them. 

The question for the local church is are we so bound to being focused that we are unwilling (or unable) to go to a new place that the Spirit may be taking us?