Sermon
5/27/12
Acts
2:1-21
Changed
from Glory into Glory: Windy
Yesterday afternoon I
had the joy of attending my nephew Sam’s Fifth Birthday Party. He is getting to
be quite grown up. Children’s birthday parties are an interesting mixture of
planned and unplanned happenings. For example, my brother and sister-in-law had
almost everything set up out on their back deck, expecting to sit and eat with
adults while the kids played in the yard and on the swing set. But slowly,
person by person, people seemed to decide that sitting inside, in air
conditioning, near fans, was preferable to being outside on a beautiful but
very hot day. Jim and Jen ordered more than twice as much pizza as the guests
ate, although we went through drinks like crazy. The plastic lightsabers that
were set out never got played with – kids opted instead for playing with Batman’s
batcave, which was just sitting in its usual spot in the living room. And Sam
never reacts quite how you think he will to presents you get for him. His
parents told him on his birthday that they were going to take him to the store
to buy him a “big boy bike.” Sam responded, “No thank you.” He’s since had a
change of heart, but his original response was a little disheartening to his
parents who had planned for quite a while!
Today we celebrate a birthday
here, too, and this one is for all of us. Like Sam’s birthday, it was both
planned and unplanned, the way things unfolded. In the Christian Church we
celebrate Pentecost Day as the birthday of the church universal. Pentecost is
the biggest birthday celebration I can think of, next to that birthday we
celebrate on December 25th. Today is the birthday of the Church. Today, we read
about the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit. Today we read about that strange
experience where the sound of a mighty rushing wind broke into the house where
the followers of Jesus were celebrating Pentecost. Today, we read about the
beginnings of Church as we know it – where Peter steps up and finally does what
Jesus had been preparing him and the others to do all along: he shares the
gospel – tells the Good News about God’s grace to anyone and everyone he can
get to listen. Today is meant to be a day of celebration, this day of
Pentecost.
Our text from Acts opens with the disciples
already gathered together. They are gathered together for the celebration of
Pentecost, a Jewish festival set out in the Torah, the law books for the Jews,
which make the first five books of our Bible today. Pentecost was a celebration
taking place fifty days after Passover, and was called also “the feast of
weeks” or Shavuot. The festival celebrated the “first fruits” of the early
harvest in spring. So the disciples were gathered together for this traditional
celebration – this is what was planned. Everyone was gathered for a purpose,
and had an idea what to expect. But suddenly, the unexpected started happening.
We read that a sound like the rush of a violent wind came, and filled the
gathering place, and the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, which
seemed to them like divided tongues of fire. And they began to speak the gospel
message to all who were gathered in such a way that everyone in the city could
understand them. Many people from many places were gathered in Jerusalem for
the Feast of Weeks, and it seemed that everyone could understand the disciples.
Some were amazed at this, but others were a bit cynical, and accused the
disciples of being drunk. Peter stands and raises his voice to the crowds:
We’re not drunk – we are speaking as the prophets spoke – and he goes on to
speak to them of visions and power that will come to all – young and old, men
and women, slaves and free.
Today, when we celebrate Pentecost, our
focus is on not on the feast originally celebrated, the planned part, but on
the out-of-control wind that swept through and stirred up the celebration – the
giving of the Holy Spirit. This is the gift that Jesus has promised the
disciples they would receive, the thing that would be their Advocate, their
Comforter, helping them to make the transition from followers of Jesus to those
who would be leading and guiding and sharing with others. The Holy Spirit is
the gift that helps them with all their other gifts, in a way. It’s the
foundation for their work, the source of their confidence in their abilities.
After all, being filled with the Holy Spirit is being filled up with God’s own
self, right inside of you. God dwelling in you certainly should inspire you
with confidence! On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is the gift that is available to
each one of us.
Personally, though, I have always found this
Spirit thing a bit hard to explain and understand. It all sounds so ambiguous,
doesn’t it? How do we connect to an event that had a violent rushing wind,
tongues of fire, and people speaking in other languages? Maybe we get that
something special happened on that day, but how can we relate to it? What does
the Holy Spirit mean to us?
When I was in 8th grade, I accidentally
pinned my leg under our minivan. It’s a long story, and doesn’t make me look
very brilliant, but suffice it to say, I was laying on the ground outside a
small market in Rome in the parking lot, pinned underneath our Dodge Caravan.
My mother was in the store, and when my friend, who was with me, conveyed to
her what happened, and my mother came out and saw me under the van, she didn’t
look for help. What she did was push the van off me. Now, maybe she could have
done this on a normal day, but I suspect that the level of adrenaline coursing
through her body in an emergency situation made it suddenly easy for her to get
me, her child, out of such a dangerous situation.
I think the Holy Spirit
is a little like that – like adrenaline that suddenly shows up when you need
it. Did you ever sing the Sunday School song, Give Me Oil for My Lamp? Give Me
Oil for My Lamp, keep it burning, burning, burning, Give me oil for my lamp, I
pray! Give me oil for my lamp, keep it burning, burning, burning, keep it
burning til the break of day! The song continues in more verse, but some of my
favorites were: Give me wax for my board, kepe me surfing for the Lord, and
Give me gas for my Ford, keep me truckin’ for the Lord. I mention this song
because the verses all suggest that there is something we need, something God
can give us, that can inspire us, move us, help us to act with faith and
boldness. Give me oil for my lamp is not so different from saying: Come, Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit’s coming in Acts is
described as a violent rushing wind. Wind is powerful. It can set a boat to
sailing across the water, or it can destroy and damage, or it can be harnessed
for electricity. Sometimes we know when to expect a windy day, but often, the
wind catches us by surprise. We can’t see the wind, but we can see what it
does. Wind is a great image for how Spirit moves through us. But if the Spirit
is so unpredictable, can we do more than say, Come, Holy Spirit, and wait for
the Spirit to show up, if it will?
When I think about the
apostles receiving the Spirit, I remember that they were in Jerusalem, waiting
for the Spirit, because that is where Jesus told them to be. They made sure
they followed the instructions they had, so that they could be ready for the
unknown. Thinking about my nephew’s birthday party, I think: It would never
have done if my brother and sister-in-law refused to let the party take shape
as it did. They could have tried to force everyone to stay outside or play with
certain toys or eat certain things. But it wouldn’t have been much of a party
if they did that, if they tried to refuse to let the wind blow. At the same
time, if they hadn’t had all their
plans in place, if they didn’t have food ready and games ready and the yard
ready, well, that would have meant that they had no foundation ready for a good
party, and I can’t imagine people would have been able to have the fun they
had.
Last week, Rev. Lauren Swanson came and talked
to us about things we can do to help ourselves in the transition to a new
pastor, things we can do to help ourselves look forward, for the congregation
to move in the direction it hopes. It’s a way to prepare, to be ready, to
create a space in which the Spirit can move. For sure, we cannot map out what
will happen here in the next year, five years, ten years. Only God knows that.
But we can be ready, create a space, so that when the wind comes – and the wind
always comes eventually – we will be ready for the wind not to tear us down,
but to help us set sail.
Yesterday I happened to
see on facebook, that fount of wisdom, a post about 12 Signs of Spiritual
Awakening. On this Pentecost Sunday, I think they make a good to-do list:
12 Signs of Spiritual Awakening
1. An
increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
2. Frequent attacks of joy,
unexplained smiling and random bursts of laughter.
3. Feelings of being closely
connected with others and nature.
4. Frequent overwhelming, almost
dizzying, episodes of appreciation.
5. A tendency to think and act
spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience
6. An unmistakable ability to
enjoy each moment.
7. A loss of ability to worry.
8. A loss of desire
for conflict.
9. A loss of interest in taking things personally.
10. A loss of appetite for drama
and judgment.
11. A loss of interest in judging
yourself.
12. Prone to give love
without expecting anything in return.
If we prepare our
hearts, when the wind comes, when the Holy Spirit fills us, when the day of
Pentecost arrives, God will find us ready. Come, Holy Spirit Come. Amen.
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