Pentecost: God's Firestorm

Pentecost:  God’s Firestorm

A firestorm is an apocalyptic fire that feeds off of and sustains itself while creating the conditions for fire to spread – amplifying itself into a feedback loop – a phenomenon of extreme burning characteristics.  Heat generates wind, which makes the fire burn hotter, generating more wind until it becomes a convection cell of smoke and gas that can override the local wind patterns.
In 1910, a firestorm overtook a group of forty-five fire fighters who were trying to escape an Idaho fire.  The leader led them into an abandoned mine shaft and kept them there at gun-point because they were so terrified.  Five died, but the other emerged several hours later, burned and dazed, but alive.  They had survived a firestorm of such ferocity that entire hillsides of timber had been flattened by convection winds and fire.  In 1967, a running crown fire crossed the Idaho panhandle on a four-mile front that incinerated 16 miles of timber in 9 hours.  The Sundance fire, as it is called, was calculated to have burned at rates of up to 22,000 British thermal units (BTU) per square foot per second.  By comparison, 500 BTU is the outer limit or what humans can control, 1,000 BTU describes potential firestorm conditions.  The Sundance fire released a staggering amount of energy estimated as the equivalent of a 20 kiloton Hiroshima type bomb exploding every 10 minutes.
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses says our Lord God is a consuming fire – a fire of love that burns with infinite power – able to consume beyond all measure – a fire that burns with such vehemence as to transform whatever it touches into itself.  The infinite fire of God’s love can burn our souls with such heat that we believe we are being burned by a heat greater than any other in the world.  Think about that – a fire that generates heat greater than any other in the world – even the ones described above.  That is God’s firestorm – and the Holy Spirit is the consuming fire – a consuming fire that we seek – the consuming fire that gives life and vitality to our churches and ministries.  Just like the Ponderosa pines need fire to open their cones to release their seedlings for new growth – so too, the Holy Spirit sweeps through our parishes bringing growth and new seeds of life to our church families.

When the Holy Spirit settled on the Apostles, it enkindled them burning through the chaff and impurities of their souls, bringing enlightenment and strength – not consuming, but glorifying them for the work they were being sent forth to do.  When the Spirit settles on us, it can come as a raging fire – but more likely, it will come gently and burn quietly if we are ready to receive it.  However, if we are still a bit “green” then the heat will make us “sweat and hiss”, “twist and pop” until we become the dry kindling that the fire needs.  Then the fire of God will envelop us, set us alight with his will – and set us on the path to be consumed in the living flames of his love – the great firestorm of divine love.  May we all say, “God, let the living flames of your love consume me; I resign myself to your will - let it be done with mercy.”    JoAnn