The Irresistible Flame
In 1926, a wealthy Toronto lawyer named Charles Vance Millar died, leaving behind him a will that was the talk of the town for more than a decade. Millar, a bachelor with a wicked sense of humor, stated clearly that he intended his last will and testament to be “an uncommon and capricious” document, because, as he said, “I have no dependents or near relations and no duty rests upon me to leave any property at my death and what I do leave is proof of my folly in gathering and retaining more than I required in my lifetime.” Because he had no close heirs to inherit his fortune, he divided his money and properties in a way that amused him… and aggravated his newly chosen heirs. Here are just a few examples of his strange bequests:
· He left his shares in the Ontario Jockey Club to two prominent men who were well known for their opposition to racetrack betting.
· He bequeathed his shares in the O’Keefe Brewery Company, a Catholic beer manufacturer, to every Protestant minister in Toronto.
· Three men who were known to despise each other were granted joint lifetime tenancy in Millar's vacation home in Jamaica.
But his most famous bequest was that he would leave the remainder of his fortune to the Toronto woman who gave birth to the most children in the ten years following his death. This last clause in his will… concerning the woman who produced the most children over a ten-year period…caught the attention of the general public. During this decade when the country entered the Great Depression and people struggled to meet their most basic economic needs, the prospect of such an enormous windfall was enticing. Reporters regularly scoured public records to find contenders for what became known as “The Great Stork Derby.”
Although the Government of Ontario attempted to invalidate the will, Millar had prepared it with care. The will survived ten years of litigation. In 1936, four mothers… the proud producers of nine children apiece in a ten-year time span… divided up the Millar fortune. They each received $125,000… a staggering sum in then and the equivalent of $1,859,000 in today’s dollars. This was Charles Vance Millar’s final legacy to humanity.
Let’s talk about legacies for a moment. Some are capricious and humorous… like Charles Millar’s legacy. Other legacies are priceless. This Memorial Day weekend, we remember those who died in our nation’s service. Regardless of how we might feel about war in general… or any war in particular… it is only right that we should pay homage to those who have laid down their lives for our country. More than 116,000 Americans died in World War I… more than 400,000 in World War II… more than 54,000 in the Korean War …more than 58,000 in Vietnam, and, to date, almost 3700 in Iraq. In this month alone, more than one hundred Americans have died in service to our country. And this is the legacy that they have bequeathed to us: a free and prosperous land. That is a priceless legacy. (P)
There is another priceless legacy that is ours as well. When Jesus of Nazareth left this earth, he bequeathed a legacy to all of his followers. He gave the Holy Spirit… to comfort… to guide… and to empower them…to be all that God had called them to be. Today, we celebrate this gift of the Holy Spirit to the church and marvel together at the way the gospel has spread across the globe. From the original one hundred and sixty persons who gathered together in Jerusalem to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit just fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, more than two billion people around the world claim Christianity as their faith in the twenty-first century.
This growth of the church has continued despite the persecution of millions of Christians throughout history. We tend to think of martyrdom as a Medieval phenomenon… something that happened in earlier centuries. Yet in the twentieth century… between 1900 and 2000… more than twenty-six million Christians were killed for their beliefs… in North Korea… in India… in China… in Indonesia… in Palestine… in Iran. Yet Christianity continues to spread and the church continues to grow… by as many as ten to fifteen thousand converts a day in China alone…all through the work of the Holy Spirit.
We usually think of the Holy Spirit as a gift of God who appeared after the resurrection of Jesus, but in reality, this person of God has been around since the beginning of time. From that moment before time began when the breath of God first blew across the primordial sea and the world was created, the Holy Spirit has been a part of the story of our faith. It was this Spirit that lived with Moses and was given to Joshua when Moses laid his hands upon him and commissioned him to lead God’s people. It was this Spirit that gave David the wisdom and might to unify the twelve tribes of Israel and mold them into a great kingdom. It was this Spirit that gave Zachariah the courage to prophesy the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel before he was stoned to death for his prophecy. And it was this same Spirit that came in wind and fire to the one hundred and sixty people gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and, in that Spirit, they reached out to all the Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem from all over the known world for the feast of Pentecost… a covenant renewal festival in the Jewish faith. On that day, the Apostle Peter preached his first sermon and three thousand people were baptized. It wasn’t what Peter said that was so important, it was the fact that the Holy Spirit was present and working in the hearts of those who were listening. It was that Spirit of Truth that changed their lives.
That same Spirit is present in the world today. This is the legacy that Jesus promised to his disciples and to all those whose lives would be touched by them. This is the Spirit of God… the Advocate… the Comforter… the Spirit of Truth. It is this Spirit that, according to Ezekiel, cleanses us from sin. It is this Spirit that, according to Joel, gives us visions from God and the gift of prophecy. It is this Spirit that, according to Ezra, instructs us. God told Moses that this Spirit helps us to bear our own burdens and the burdens of others. It is this Spirit that, according to Paul, gives us all manner of spiritual gifts. In our text today, Jesus tells us that it is this Spirit that will teach us and also remind us of all that Jesus has taught us. It is this Spirit who abides with us… and in us… who will be with us forever…through whom Jesus is revealed to us… and, in this way, we come to know God. What a priceless legacy this is… that we will never be alone… and that the one who abides in us forever is our comforter… our advocate… our teacher… and our guide.
Think for a moment of the properties of wind and of fire… the metaphors most frequently used for the presence of the Holy Spirit. The wind blows where it will. It cannot be seen, but its effects are visible to all. It is present in the very air that we breathe… the air that sustains our life. Fire gives light in our life… and even the smallest candle can chase away the darkness. Fire also provides an abundance of heat on the coldest of days… warming every surface that is close to its source. Both elements can be gentle… and yet, in other circumstances, both can demonstrate power that is almost beyond belief. Both can appear to be capricious… avoiding some areas and manifesting themselves in others. And yet, untamed as it is, the Holy Spirit is a gift to us… a gift of Christ Jesus himself to all of his disciples. And yet, we seldom pay attention to this third person of the Trinity… and even more rarely invite the Holy Spirit to live in us and change us. Why? Probably because the result, like the Spirit, would be unpredictable… and life-changing.
I invite all of us… on this special day of Pentecost… during our time of covenant renewal … as we come to the Table to break bread together… to open our hearts to this gift from God… to invite the wind and fire of God to come into our lives… and to change us... to comfort us… to give us courage… to teach us… and to be our advocate and friend. For it is through the work of this Spirit of God that what started with a small band of brothers in Jerusalem has become a mighty force for change in the world today. Come, stand in the wind and the fire of God. Come, breathe the irresistible flame. Amen.
John 14:8-27; Acts 2:1-21