Dancing with Fire

Dancing With Fire

The way, the life, and a burning bush

1 Peter 4: 10-11 “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received…so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.”

The season of Pentecost began Sunday May 28. Pentecost is a very special time for we United Methodists - just take a look at our logo. Pentecost is the birth of the church, the event when the Holy Spirit descended as tongues of flame on the heads of Jesus' followers waiting to hear from their recently departed leader. That flame ignited the heart of the disciples, and continued that act of arson right down to John Wesley and his followers who started a movement that became one of the greatest Christian organizations in the world. Lately, however, it seems to me the flame has been burning a bit low. Let's see if we can fan the coals. 

Jesus told his followers, “I am the way,” and in the earliest church, Christian community was known as The Way.  The Bible is filled with the stories of people who lost their way, and the burning bushes God put in their paths to help them get back on track – starting with Moses. John Wesley gave The Way a different name, Means of Grace. Wesley says we experience grace through God’s activity all around us, finding evidence of what God is doing in whatever is life-giving, lifesaving, and life fulfilling. For Wesley, any activity could become means of grace, a way in which God works in and on our lives. In a Christian community, the things we do, but more importantly why we do them and how we do them, is The Way in which we experience and learn about God. Each of us is The Way for others. Our management of that Way in the modern church is called Stewardship. We are stewards of the kingdom of God. Stewardship, far from being limited to a financial campaign, is a way of life, flowing out from our hearts into daily action, our faithful behavior reinforcing our faith.

(Adapted from "Afire with God" by Betsy Schwarzentraub. Get it. Read it. )