Unless the eye catch fire,
The God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire
The God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catch fire
The God will not be named.
Unless the heart catch fire,
The God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catch fire,
The God will not be known.William Blake (1757-1827) from Pentecost
Thoughts from 'The Church Times'In
his poetry and art, William Blake was a Pentecost kind of person: all
earth, wind, and fire. His radical Christianity combined the
incarnational and the mystical, and challenged the orthodoxy of his
day. Passionate and charismatic, his writing is full of verve, vision,
and energy: you only have to sing “Jerusalem”, with its burning bows and
chariots of fire, to know that.
In this prayer, Blake is
incendiary, sparking us into some kind of Spirit-fuelled action. The
word “unless”, which begins each petition, invokes an urgent response.
Unless you do something, nothing will happen. Lukewarm is not good
enough.
For us to be Pentecost people, we need to be consensually
sizzling, aflame with the Holy Spirit and raring to go.
Unless
the eye of Moses had “caught fire”, he would not have seen the burning
bush. He turned aside, and, behold! he found God. On the day of
Pentecost, we might pray for vision and insight to see the world as it
really is, and see God at work in and around us. We might also pray for
the gift of prophecy to see the world as God meant it to be.
When
Jesus describes the Kingdom of God in his parables, not everyone is
able to see or hear his meaning: “seeing they do not perceive,” he
says; “hearing they do not listen.”
Through the
invocation of the Holy Spirit, we might plead to perceive what God is
doing, and hear what God is saying to the Churches today. And, unless
the tongues of the apostles had been set ablaze by that same Spirit,
there would be no Church. If they had not been crowned with fire, they
would not have been able to proclaim salvation for all.
On
the day of Pentecost, we might pray for the burning away of all our
inhibitions, and the courage to name the God we believe in. May our
Spirit-inspired words be made plain in everyday language, and our
preaching come direct from the heart, without need for translation.
And
unless — said the firebrand preacher, just a generation before Blake — a
flame of sacred love is kindled on the mean altar of our heart, we
cannot love God as we ought, and we cannot witness to the love of God
for the world. Fire does not last long if starved of oxygen, or if there
is nothing to burn.
Our own personal love of God is to
be the kindling of our mission. Mission begins with a single, burning
heart. The disciples did not develop a strategy, but they were first set
ablaze with the power of the Holy Spirit. Their minds were refashioned
and renewed to wonder, think, and question. New ideas were forged in
the furnace of faith, which purged away the chaff of prejudice and
judgement, to make a way for justice and peace.
On this
day of Pentecost, may the fire of God’s love help us proclaim: blaze,
Spirit, blaze! Set our eyes, ears, tongues, hearts, and minds on fire,
on this the birthday of the Church.
(Article by The Revd Dr Victoria Johnson, Priest-in-Charge of St Michael’s, Flixton, in the diocese of Manchester. Fiery Dance painting by Vladimir Kush)
Discovering this painting and the thoughts on Pentecost by Victoria Johnson thrilled and challenged me this Pentecost Sunday. I am using her words to pray for the Church, Come Holy Spirit. Fill us fresh and full. Make us "consensually
sizzling," incandescent with the love of Christ and ready to run with Promise. - kl
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