Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
John 20: 19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Three questions to start us out this morning. What is your favorite Christmas candy? What is your favorite Easter candy? Now the really hard one... what is your favorite Pentecost candy? Why is there no Pentecost candy? If there was a Pentecost candy what would it be?
Pentecost, believe it or not, is the second holiest day of the Christian calendar... second only to Easter and more important than Christmas and yet it doesn’t even have it’s own candy! My non-church going friends post pictures of their families opening Christmas presents and searching for Easter eggs but none of them post pictures of their Pentecost celebrations. It is the last holy day of Christianity that still runs free. The last Holy Day that has eluded capture by the market... the one Holy Day that the world hasn’t yet been able to tame. The Holy Spirit, it seems, refuses to be captured, domesticated or tamed and I think that is both frightening and incredibly exciting!
It's exciting because Pentecost is about the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes like the sound of a violent wind and divided tongues as of fire and right there we get the first indication of how wild this Holy Day really is. Even the words we use to describe it are elusive and not really clear. It’s like wind and like fire but it certainly isn’t like a quiet campfire or a cool evening breeze. Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit coming out of nowhere and overtaking our lives like a blazing, fully involved inferno fed by a violent wind and that's why it's a bit frightening too.
When the first Pentecost happened the disciples were living in fear. They were holed up inside a house and the doors were securely locked. They were focused completely on their own survival... they knew that what had happened to Jesus could very well happen to them. They were paralyzed with fear, remembering what used to be and wasn't any more but unable to even think of what might be. They were hanging on with white knuckles to the edge of a cliff... hanging on between life and death, unable to move and hardly able to breathe. Then, on Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into their lives! It blew in like the sound of a powerful wind! It blew so hard and so strong that it blew the disciples right out of that room with it’s four comfortable and familiar walls... it blew them out beyond their locked doors and blew them out into the world.
The text then says that divided tongues appeared on them like fire and when you look at the artwork out there about Pentecost it has little tongues of fire resting on their heads, but it seems to me that the Holy Spirit worked less like cute little flames hovering above their heads and more like fire lit under a different part of their anatomy! It MOVED them and it MOVED them with a purpose! It moved them OUTSIDE! OUTSIDE the building, OUTSIDE their traditions, OUTSIDE their culture, OUTSIDE of what was comfortable. With an urgency that comes only when your tuckus is set on fire, they moved and included people they had never known before. People who spoke in different ways, people who thought differently, people with different histories... people from “away” who had never been a part of their world before.
The Holy Spirit blew and with a fire lit under their backsides, the disciples were transformed from a group of fearful individuals into the Church! The Holy Spirit made them into a vibrant, living, growing, thriving church, NOT behind locked doors or inside comfortable walls or with just the people they knew... The Church was created OUT THERE on the streets, OUT THERE in the world, OUT THERE with different people from different places and different ways and different cultures! On that first Pentecost the disciples were transformed from FEAR to HOPE, from SCARCITY to ABUNDANCE and from DEATH to REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BEING ALIVE!
Today we’ve celebrated three wonderful Baptisms and by doing that at Pentecost we are reminded that these Baptisms... and our Baptisms too... aren’t meant to be fire insurance. We aren’t Baptized FROM fire... You and I and all of God’s children are Baptized INTO fire... INTO the fire of the Holy Spirit. We aren’t Baptized FROM something scary... We are Baptized FOR something amazing! In the waters of the Baptism, God first claims us with God’s infinite and unchangeable love for us AND THEN in those same Baptismal waters the Holy Spirit lights that fire under each one of us and sends us out to do nothing less than change the world.
As I look at our congregation and as I look at the possibilities in our community on this Pentecost Sunday I see the Holy Spirit active and alive among us! There are beginning to be visions of a new future being seen here and there are people daring to dream dreams! I see that untamed, wild and unpredictable Holy Spirit lighting a fire... getting us moving... and I see that Holy Spirit blowing through this place like a violent wind... blowing us OUTSIDE these walls and into world. Where will the violent wind of the Holy Spirit take us? Honestly? I have no idea! BUT, I guarantee that wherever it is, there will be more light and more life than there will ever be hiding behind locked doors, living in fear and worrying about survival. It's time to run wild with the Holy Spirit again. It's time to go outside. It's time to set aside fear and embrace hope. It's time to live! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment