DAY OF THE FIRST-FRUITS: THE RIPENING

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Amazed and perplexed, they asked
one another, ‘What does this mean?’
Acts 2:12 

I: The Recognition
Tongues of fire on their heads, 
glimmering banners of love—
tongues afire in their mouths,
burning through the babble of 
unknown languages: a harmonious 
riversong of unity redeeming the 
cacophony of Babel— 

they knew that fire. 

It had blazed boldly before 
Father Moses as he shucked off 
dusty sandals at Horeb. It stood 
a mighty pillar, guiding them through 
the thick, soulless darkness of the wilderness. 

Brother Elijah sang it down from 
the skies. It licked up the sacrifice, 
the wood, the stones, the soil, the water 
and lit their tongues to declare, 
The LORD—he is God!

And once, on a cloudless day, 
it set their hearts ablaze as he 
walked with them to Emmaus.

II: The Readying
The fuel: stale hay from a manger, 
a towel blackened with the filth 
of a dozen men’s feet. 
Two mammoth beams of flesh-flecked, sweat-soaked, blood-bathed wood 
where he         breathed his last. 
Grimy grave garments wadded 
on the floor of an empty tomb.

III: The Release
The spark? A kernel of wheat,
falling to ground, dying.

IV: The Reckoning
The light shines in the darkness
but the darkness has not understood it. 

V: The Requirement
The cost of Pentecost: a reckless 
flinging of the self into the other,
into the unknown, into the untamed 
flame that razes and grazes whenever 
and wherever it wants.

VI: The Risk
Ridicule. 

VII: The Reassurance
I will not leave you as orphans, 
I will come to you. 

VIII: The Reconciling
They will call on my name, 
and I will answer them. 
I will say, “They are my people.” 
And they will say, “The LORD is our God.”

IX: The Result
Refinement. 

 X: The Remembering
We are ashes.

 XI: The Reality
To ashes we shall return. 

XII: The Reclamation
And there will be no more night; 
they need no light of lamp or sun, 
or the Lord God will be their light.