Premium Ice Cream

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.” Is there any food more
universally loved than ice cream? Perhaps bacon. But ice cream is cool and sweet.
You can have ice cream with chunks of fruit or pieces of chocolate brownie in it;
or you can have it perfectly smooth and creamy. With ice cream there’s really
something for everyone. You can find just about any flavour you like (probably
even bacon). Most comfort foods are warm and cozy, but ice cream is the ultimate
“cool” comfort food.
Before the convenience of refrigeration, it used to be that “ice cream” was a
major production, and something that only rich people could enjoy. All the
ingredients — eggs, sugar, vanilla, cream — went into a container with a crank-
handle and a lid. It took a lot of elbow grease! The container was set on ice, and
the mixture was stirred and stirred and stirred until it finally began to freeze up.
You can still buy machines like that…has anyone here ever used an ice cream
maker like that?
Have you read the ingredient list for ice cream these days? All of the mass-
produced, popular brands come in a wide variety of flavours, but with an equally
wide variety of ingredients: whey, guar gum, tapioca starch, mono and di-
glycerides, polysorbates, artificial flavors, artificial colors, carrageenan.
Whatever happened to “cream, eggs, vanilla, and sugar?” Nowadays, the
shorter the ingredient list, the more expensive the brand; the larger the list of
ingredients, the cheaper the brand. Premium ice cream is made of a minimum of
ingredients — cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla; and is often slow-churned, not mass-
produced. The bare minimum – just the basics.
Author Leonard Sweet writes that when God brought forth the church, the
most basic of basics came forward in the church with power and presence. God’s
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, was poured out on the disciples and this transformed their
lives. There were no “extra ingredients” added. The disciples were not empowered
to zap aliens, turn invisible, or overstretch their limbs. They did not ingest nuclear-
generated abilities to climb buildings or shoot webs out of their wrists. The
singular gift the disciples and the church received was the gift of the ongoing
presence of the Spirit of Jesus in their lives. That’s it. The church came with one
primary ingredient: The Holy Spirit.
The first gift of that Spirit, according to Leonard Sweet – and as we read in
the passage from Acts – was the gift of communication. The disciples were given

the Holy Spirit who chose to be manifested in human language; A lot of languages,
in fact, so that the whole world could hear the gospel. I have long wondered if
maybe it is the use of language – the ability to take thoughts, feelings, and
experiences and form them into ideas and words that can be shared with another
person – that differentiates humans from the rest of the created order and is what
makes us “created in the image of God.” That’s just my own personal speculation,
I’m sure there are other aspects to our imago dei as well.
The first Christians were “witnesses” of the ministry and message of Jesus—
He was the one who sent this Spirit to them. The first ones to be given the Spirit
had seen for themselves the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of
Jesus, and were given the gift of communication that they might share what they
had seen with the whole world.
They had personally been promised this “gift” of the Spirit by Jesus (in the
book of John); and upon receiving it they now had the mission to continue Jesus’
ministry on earth and to communicate to the rest of the world about the gift that is
for everyone, anywhere, anytime, and to demonstrate to the world the power and
presence of God that is available to all people who accept that gift.
The early church had only the basic ingredients, according to Sweet: the
power of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the personal witness of
disciples. There were no “artificial” ingredients. There were no church hierarchies;
there was no Constitution to outline policies and procedures; there were no
denominational high jumps hoops through which to jump; there was no paperwork;
and probably a lot fewer committee meetings!
All they had was the sudden whoosh of the Holy Spirit – long promised, and
yet still somehow unexpected and surprising when He finally arrived. In fact, the
multitude of languages the Spirit chose for His first message meant that any pre-
conceived “plan” that they might have manufactured was now going to be tossed
out. This was not a message just in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Spirit came as He
always comes, as it still comes today: at the perfect yet unexpected moment; and in
a way that nobody could have planned or anticipated.
So why have we Christians, who were born out of this amazing moment, out
of Spirit-breathed inspiration, become enslaved to so many “extra ingredients”
instead of celebrating and taking advantage of the “power” of this basic gift. Why
has our mantra become “Trust the process” rather than “Trust the Spirit?” Why has

our mantra become “Trust the plan” or “Trust the program” or “Trust what’s
always been done” or “trust myself,” rather than “Trust the Spirit?”
It’s not the extras that make us powerful as Christians. It’s the basics. It’s the
Spirit that makes us able to do things for God that are beyond our own limitations.
Most ice cream nowadays is not ice cream at all, its ice guar gum, ice carrageenan,
ice artificial flavour, ice fake. And when the extras push out the basics, what we
have is not a Christianity of Jesus Christ, but a cheap-brand Christianity, a deep
discount Christianity, a no-name Christianity, and not a premium ice cream
Christianity.
What brought the gospel into the world as a living, breathing, loving, life-
giving faith is the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a power that cannot and will not be
contained or limited or directed by our extra ingredients or by any human powers.
It is God’s presence; and it’s not revealed not in mission statements and blueprints;
it’s revealed to us in faith and in prayer and in relationship and creativity and love
and joy.
Premium ice cream really requires only three things — richness, sweetness,
and the right temperature, all combined together under the right conditions. It’s a
very simple recipe. Those three simple factors create a decadent treat. Combined in
human life, those three contributions of richness, sweetness and the right
atmosphere can transform a broken spirit and a sinful life into an inspired delight
— rich in flavor and satisfying to the very centre of the soul. No “artificial”
ingredients required.
Before we call down the Spirit from heaven, like the prophet Elijah once did,
we had better understand what we are asking for. We are asking that all the extras,
all the trappings, all the artificial ingredients be burned away until that all that
remains are the basics: the Holy Spirit, who brings Jesus to life in his body, the
church, and in each of our lives. When the fire of God begins to lick at our lives, it
is because we are being refined and turned into something much more useful and
precious. That refinement burns out things like hypocrisy, mediocrity, apathy,
pride, and all those little extras that infect all of our lives.
In the Old Testament, Moses had heard about God, read about God, and
recounted the exploits done under the anointing of God for 80 years. But it was not
until Moses drew near to the burning bush, and stood before the holy fire of God –
that consuming fire which did not consume – that Moses began to hear God speak.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus was the burning bush. He burned but was not

consumed until he arrived at Calvary, where suddenly Jesus was consumed by his
baptism of fire.
Today the authentic Body of Christ on earth – we Christians – are the
burning bush. We burn with the fire of the Holy spirit but are not destroyed. And
God, the very being of God, speaks through the flame. And each of us has to
decide for our own life: are we going to smother those flames, or are we going to
fuel them? Amen.