Pentecost
I get the same disturbing thought
every year. Maybe it’s a crisis you can
relate to, maybe not. It gets to be
close to Pentecost and I have this thought: how am I going to preach about
Pentecost in a way that’s different from what I said last year… and the year
before that, and the year before that.
It’s a similar existential crisis to the ones I get before Christmas and
Easter, but worse. At Christmas and
Easter, there are at least other versions of those stories to choose from. We have four gospels to choose from when we
want to retell the Easter story; when it comes to Pentecost, Acts chapter two
is all we’ve got.
Within certain boundaries,
sermon-writing is a creative process.
When you’re involved in creating something—especially if it’s for
someone else—you want it to be new, you want it to be continually
creative. You might make a great potato
salad, but you’ll want to change it up from time to time, know what I
mean? I want to create something from
this story that’s new, but this is the Pentecost story. We know this story. What could I possibly tell you about this
story that I haven’t already told you over the past nine years? We know about the sound of wind. We know about sight of flame. We know about the voices raised in unknown
languages, giving praise to the power of God.
And we know about the scoffers who thought they were just drunk. What could I possibly find in this story that
we don’t already know?
And then I remember: this is a story
about the Holy Spirit. Surprises is what
the Holy Spirit is all about! This story
is all about God’s Spirit breaking out into our world in surprising ways! Do you think I’m going to find something
surprising in this well-worn story? Of
course I am! Buckle up, folks; we’re
talking about the Holy Spirit today!
There is never a dull moment when it comes to the Spirit.
The thing that surprises me most
about this story (at least this time through, anyways), is the scoffers; those
who sneered and said, “They’re drunk with new wine.” First, I’m surprised by how they see all this
and still don’t believe. That in itself
is surprising, but what surprises me more is that it’s never surprised me
before. Over the decades of reading and
studying and preaching this story, how is it that I’ve never noticed how weird
it is that they just assume that this is just drunken behavior?
I will say, in all fairness, that
this is Pentecost. Before it was the
celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost was a Jewish
celebration. And as Jewish celebrations
go, it was a party. It was scheduled to
follow fifty days after (hence the name) the more-somber celebration of
Passover. Whereas Passover celebrated
the mighty and violent deliverance of the people out of the land of Egypt,
Pentecost celebrated the providence of God through the fruit of the land. So although it was clearly frowned upon to be
drunk at nine in the morning (or maybe it’s “still drunk at nine in the
morning”), it may not have been terribly unusual.
Still, how do you witness all of the
things that Luke describes—with the wind and the flames—and not see God’s hand
in it? Well, what I surprisingly
realized was that they probably didn’t.
What probably happened was that they came in late to this party. They didn’t hear the sudden sound like the
rush of a violent wind. They didn’t see
divided tongues, as of fire, come and rest on the gathered disciples. All they witnessed was talk; and as we know,
talk is cheap.
There are layers of irony that
follow: they scoff because, to them, these are just strange words spoken by
strange Galileans; but then Peter, one of those strange Galileans, gets up to
convince them otherwise by speaking to them.
Even more ironic: his proof is that these babbling Galileans are
actually the embodiment of something the prophet Joel… said. So what they witnessed wasn’t just words, but
they never would have known that unless someone spoke that Truth to them. Speaking words, as it turns out, is sometimes
the action that is necessary.
I got into an argument with a guy
the other day over a quote; and yes, it did get a little heated. He was attributing the saying “Preach Jesus,
and if necessary, use words” to Francis of Assisi. I pointed out that the saying is not found in
anything that Francis wrote and he did not appreciate being interrupted. The truth is, Francis did say a couple of
things like it and I probably should have just minded my own business; but the
truth also is that I like what he did say better. What Francis did say was: "Yes, the true
servant unceasingly rebukes the wicked, but he does it most of all by his
conduct." Yes, the Spirit empowers
us to speak the Word of God, but that Word has weight because the Spirit also
empowers us to live out the Word of God.
We proclaim the Promises of God, while at the same time, by the power of
the Spirit, we are the fulfillment of the Promises of God.
I was visiting with a saint of God that
I hadn’t seen for a while the other day.
She’s been a bit homebound recently, so we needed to catch up for a
while. I really enjoyed our time
together and it was good to see that she’s doing better. She remains the gracious and brilliant woman
I know her to be.
We talked a bit about getting older
and about all of the things she has survived (her word) over the past few
years. She said, “Well I guess God is
keeping me around for something.” And the
thing is, when you talk to her, it’s obvious.
She was telling me about the relationships she has with the people there
and the care she shows them intentionally and in Jesus’ name. I told her, “You find a ministry everywhere
you go.” She may not be as active as she
used to be, but she is aware of God’s working through her—in word and in
deed—in every circumstance she finds herself.
And although I find her to be inspirational, I also know that this is
how God works in all of us.
In the Pentecost story, as the
Spirit of God is poured out into the followers of Jesus, notice what happens:
they speak the one message of God’s power, but they say it in different
voices. Notice that, like light through
a stained glass window, the same light comes through differently through
different panes of glass. Of course the
Spirit is going to inspire different ministries in each of us, we’re different
people; but we recognize that it is the same Spirit.
I’m starting a new tradition
today. I’ve put new Time and Talent
Surveys in the boxes. Historically,
we’ve put them out toward the fall, at the same time we ask for financial
pledges; but we decided to ask those questions separately and I decided that
the question about time and talent really ought to be asked on Pentecost. My thinking is: we’re not asking you to take
a job and fill a need, we’re asking you to hear a calling. The surveys are simply our list of needs as
they apply to the operation of the church.
Because that’s how life in the Spirit works: you see a need, you know
your ability to meet that need, and then the Spirit calls you to meet that
need. Peter sees a need: he sees
confusion in the crowd; he probably knows better than anyone that he has never
been shy to speak right up, and he knows the answer to their confusion; and so
he meets that need as he stands up, by the power of the Spirit to speak. The Spirit works something different in each
one of us, but that’s how the Spirit works; both in us individually and through
all of us as a church. We see the needs
around us in this world, we assess our abilities to meet those needs, and then
we find our calling to speak and to do.
I saw a need just out in front of
this church the other day that just broke my heart. I was running the bouncy house at the block
party on Thursday. By the way, that is
another talent I didn’t know I had. I’m
really good at it. If you need someone
to run the bouncy house at your birthday or whatever, give me a call. What broke my heart came toward the end of
the event when we were starting to clean up.
One of the kids, about nine or ten, that I had been talking to at the
bouncy house was standing about ten feet away from me with his mother and
another woman. The other woman
discreetly slipped something into the hand of my new friend’s mom and I heard
him say, “Mom, that’s illegal!”
I don’t know exactly what transpired
there, but I know it shouldn’t have. She
should not have been given whatever she was given and it certainly shouldn’t
have happened in front of a son who somehow knew better than his mother. My heart broke for this boy and I’ve been
praying for him and his family ever since.
I pray for whatever demons plague that poor woman and I pray for
wholeness and healing for them all. But
I do have hope: you see, I know that kid got invited to vacation Bible
school. Carolyn on Thursday was
proclaiming the love of Jesus in a language that children can understand: she
was handing out free toys. I know that
kid got one of those toys and I know he got the flier that went with it.
I pray I see that boy here every day
of VBS and then on after. I pray he
hears words about the unfailing love of God through the stories we tell him and
the songs we sing. But more than that, I
pray he sees it when we’re out back playing tag. I pray he sees those words proven true
through a church that doesn’t just talk.
The world around us is right to doubt the words we speak; but the love
we show will prove those words true. Let
us speak the Truth, but then let us act.
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