Friday afternoon I sat in a barn at the Bishop Claggett Center. Claggett is changing: there were no cows in evidence. The barn held no hay. Instead I was surrounded by other members of Convention. We sat and listened to a wonderful series of musical presentation.

One was a banjo player who told us he knew 170 different old time tunes. He had gathered them like an archeologist gathers artifacts- There was a story connected to each one. We heard the stories and then we heard the strings echo with the sound of lives we can see no more. But we learned how to remember more than our own direct experience by being immersed in these tales told by five strings.

There is an old tune called "Fire on the Mountain". This song comes from the mountains of America, but as I sat in a barn with Scripture in my head and Pentecost on my mind, I could not help but think of Moses and the burning bush. I could not help but think of the times I have stood with others at Clagget by candlelight and sung the Praise Song: Holy Ground. Sinai and Claggett, banjos and burning bushes ­ "fire on the mountain: run, boy run."

Today at Saint James we will fill the font with water. We will Baptize ten people. We will commission your new vestry. We will place bread and wine upon the table. And we will ask the Spirit to come down.

And whether we see it or not, fire will come down from heaven and all will be changed. In one of those mystical paradoxes this morning we will seek to set hearts on fire using water as our fuel. And dry people will be kindled into Christians by the spark of the Spirit.

Well seasoned leaders with a heart for service will pile into the transept and we will ask God to build a fire in them. We want God to emblazon the hearts and souls and minds of our Vestry so that the light of Christ might be found, not just on the Paschal candle, but in the silence and the prayers and the actions of your Vestry as they gather in the Parish library on the second Tuesday night of each month.

Fire in the morning, Fire in the evening, run, boy, run.

On that first Pentecost when the Spirit came down, there was fire, and there was the melody of voices. Not the sound of one well tuned string, but of many, blending together to tell the story. Distinct sounds understood by each listener but also melding together in their common theme: God is present; God is active; gather the tinder of your dry life and run to this place of warmth and light.

Fire in the upper room, fire in the street: run, boy, run.

We are calling the fire of the Spirit to come down upon us this Sunday morning. But even a service with Baptisms and Commissioning eventually comes to an end. Sunday is only one day of the week. The day of Pentecost is celebrated but once a year.

Is the fire of the Spirit to be constrained to an hour or two and a few hundred square feet?

No.

Take the light of Christ into the world-into your place of business-into the shopping centers-into all those places where people wait.. hiding their tender hearts, hoarding the spiritual tinder they have painstakingly collected while they hope, one day, to find fire.

At the end of this service, go with God into your usual places and tell the story.

And there will accountants, brokers, and doctors.
Farmers and business people of all types.
Graduates of law school and those who chose to stay home to raise children.
Natives of Baltimore, and travelers from every state.
And they will say, "how is it that we hear, each in our own native language?"
"In our own native language, we hear them speaking about Godıs deeds of power."

Fire in the marketplace, Fire in the streets: run, boy, run.

Run: man, woman and child

Move like the wind and speak of the fire.
Tell your own story of encountering God,
because there are people out there who will only understand
when they hear the story in your own words.