"The Fire in You"
Acts 2:1-8
Yonce Shelton, Westmoreland UCC
June 8, 2025
Over a decade ago, I was trained in spiritual direction by a Benedictine monastery in California. I spent a total of four weeks with thirty or so people in the program. I felt led to that program, instead of many others, even though I knew nothing about its focus on Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Some of you just squirmed. I could actually feel the pews move.
At the opening worship service, I didn’t know what was happening when many of the group began to softly mumble. It took me a few minutes to realize: they were speaking in tongues. All I knew about tongues was loud, erratic, screaming and jumping around. But this was different. Beautiful. Deeply authentic.
The collective speaking in tongues was like a small, gentle fire. Or even just simmering coals. Not a wildfire that scares and spreads indiscriminately causing chaos.
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Fire. We can be drawn to fire. And be afraid of it. It is life giving. Inviting. Captivating. And dangerous. And never the same.
You, confirmands, are like fire. You take a step today that is uniquely of you – and for you. You have journeyed, learned, grown in faith. Only you may truly understand your relationship with God. Your relationship with God is unique – like the tongues in today’s reading. But even the gathered – your community – can understand something about your journey. They have burned at different times along their own journeys: sometimes sparking; sometimes raging; sometimes simmering. Now, you deepen your awareness of becoming fire and speaking with your own voice as you walk with God. And as you sit at the campfire with God. Others around the campfire welcome you.
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Faith won’t make perfect sense just because you are confirmed. Welcome the questions and confusion - just as those early Christians in today’s reading welcomed different tongues. Confirmation won’t clarify everything, but it does give you a power: a power to honor your fire within; to claim that you are authentically God’s; and to trust the big and broad community of faith - even it takes a while to adjust, learn, and understand what the heck is going on half the time.
Everyone here is cheering for you as you share your statements of faith. We get to hear your voice. We get to feel your fire. We promise to receive that as authentically as you offer it. Authenticity is not just about being your truest self. It's also about better connection with others.
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Each of you has been baptized with water. May you go forth ready for a faith journey that will also baptize and empower you with mysterious fire. Embrace the truest YOU that God created and empowers as you speak in your voice – your tongues – that are gifts to the universal church. Give us fire!
Amen.
