Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church. The symbols of the Pentecost gift are wind and fire.

Every birthday is accompanied by a cake over which there is the ritual of wind and fire. But in the course of blowing out candles in your lifetime, have you ever missed one? Ever miscalculate the amount of wind needed to get it 100% right? [To make your sermon more EPIC, you might want to showcase a birthday cake, and blow out some candles. You could even have some fun and include some gag (magic re-lighting) candles that you can’t blow out.]

In 1972 veteran journalist Ross Gelbsan attended an environmental conference discussing “The Limits of Growth.” The entire conference had a “doom-and-gloom” feel to it, as the projections of scientists and economists foresaw the end of the world as w…