Blown Out of Lockdown

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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

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.’

To the people from all over the world who had gathered for the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, the disciples didn’t look at all like stoic Lutherans and they didn’t look anything like prudent Episcopalians.  Instead, they looked DRUNK… and not just “drunk” but drunk on “new” wine drunk… the cheap stuff!  

Up until that moment the disciples had been hiding in fear, expecting that what had happened to Jesus would certainly happen to them.  Even when Jesus appeared and promised them the Advocate… the Holy Spirit, Jesus left again and the disciples stayed locked down.  Not even the slightest, lightest, faintest, breeze to give them even a hint of when it might come to an end.    

We know a little something about living in that sort of heavy, breezeless sort of waiting.  A year and a half locked away in a pandemic has given us all that new perspective.  When the disciples came out of lockdown we know what they looked like.  So, when the restrictions end, what will the world see when the people of Christ Trinity Church finally emerge from our lockdown?

I suspect that they will see a whole bunch of disciples pouring out of this church looking like we're all drunk on new wine!  That's how it was before our lock down.  Happily tagging along with the Holy Spirit lighting fires of kindness on the Appalachian Trail and out in our Rainbow Chairs.  Stoking the fires for Sheffield Pride and singing hymns and drinking beer down at Big Elm Brewery.  Frankly I expect that we'll look crazy, joyful, drunk on new wine to the outside world after the pandemic mostly because that's how we've looked for years now!  

I think that's how we'll look after the pandemic but the Holy Spirit hasn't just been sleeping for the last year and a half while we've been locked down.  The Spirit's been blowing through Christ Trinity as much as (or even MORE than) it ever has before!  Now that same Holy Spirit is getting ready to once again blow this group of Lutherpalians right out of lockdown and back out into the world once again!  Now to you and me, the way we do church doesn't feel strange or look drunk.  But keep in mind, the disciples back then didn’t think their speaking in Phrygian, Pamphylian or Meedish was strange or looked drunk either!  It’s always the people on the outside looking in who assume “new wine” is involved when church people bring joyful kindness into the world instead of the sourpuss judgement that they expect.    

And since the Holy Spirit has been working overtime through us in this time and because the care and kindness we've done has made a HUGE difference in our community and beyond, the people out there… the people from Great Barrington and Lenox, Otisites and Monteray-vians,  Mount Washingtonians and people from as far away as New Jersey have all been taking notice and when we finally come out they too will likely think we've been into the new wine!  

  

The take home message for this Pentecost is that not even a year and a half of lockdown could stop that Spirit.  Even locked down, the Holy Spirit found ways to light fires and blow like the wind in spite of every hardship and challenge and fear that got in our way.  That same Holy Spirit is now on the cusp of once again lighting some new fires, whipping up some big winds and filling us again full of energy, plans, hopes and dreams to blow us all out of lockdown, and back out into the world to keep on caring for one another and our neighbors out there in the world!  

What an amazing gift it is, that this church looks to the world like we were continually drunk on new wine!  What they see is that we live joyfully.  We laugh often and loudly.  We hug each other, cry with each other, care for each other, and spread all of that wherever we go!  Not a lot of churches have that sort of reputation.  Not a lot of churches look like it live drunk on new wine!  Not every church makes the world sit up and wonder what the BLEEP is going on over there?  But that IS who we are and who we have been and who we will be for years and years to come… because the Holy Spirit has always been, is now and will be again, blowing through this place like a hurricane making us all look beautifully and wonderfully different to the world!  

Our job this Pentecost is simply once again to hoist the sail and catch that Holy Spirit wind and let God lead us from joy to joy and opportunity to opportunity, loving God and loving neighbor all along the way and to do it all with the sort of joy and love and laughter the world will once again mistake as drunken delight!  We’ve done it before!  Let's ride that Holy wind again!  Amen.