WHERE’S THE FIRE?

Lectionary Text: Acts 2:3 -  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.

Where’s the fire?  Where’s the power?  Where’s the vital fire                              
       that caused the apostolic Church to win Rome’s great empire?
Where’s the flame that burned within the Christian martyr’s heart,
even as the body burned and limbs were torn apart?
Where’s the ardor with which Christians sang their way to death
in the Roman Colosseum with their dying breath?
Where’s the passion with which they proclaimed the word of Christ,
even though for doing so they would be sacrificed?
Where’s the faith that shook the world and turned it upside down,
without the force of arms, or wealth, or people of renown?
Where’s the fire, the Spirit’s flame, within the Church today?
Where’s the fire the world should see in people of the Way,
a world that needs to be redeemed and the good news to hear,
a world aflame with hate not hope, and not with faith but fear,
a world in which so many people seek not righteousness
but put first their own int’rests, out of greed and selfishness?
What impact has the Church today on people such as these,
and on a world in which there are such inequalities? ---
of plenty in the midst of want, of wealth and poverty,
of crime, corruption, violence, and immorality?
This is the world in which we live. If it’s the Church’s aim
to make it better, she will need a Pentecostal flame.
So fill us your Spirit, Lord. Make that our heart’s desire,
so that the world will never have to ask us,
       “Where’s the fire?”