Sunday, June 12, 2011

Pentecost A

On the Wings of a Bright White Dove

Introduction

There is an old, old story that says once upon a time your great great great great 100 times removed grandparents decided to build a tower. They kept getting it higher and higher and hoped to touch the sky…

Now the thing is, it was easy to work together because everyone was basically the same; an hey all spoke the same language.

But their pride and self-worth was a little overbearing… so God decided to make it so that everyone spoke different languages – then the work would become harder, and well, they would not be so arrogant.

It’s a story – a myth that was written to explain why we all speak different languages… but the deeper meaning, that we are arrogant and that differences make it difficult to work together… that is totally true.

Today is Pentecost and sometimes we call it the birthday of the church. The reason is that what we are celebrating is the day when we overcame our differences and decided to work together. No small task… and I am hoping to tell you some things about the Holy Spirit today that you might never have thought about.

Time with the Children – Let’s Go Fly a Kite

How many of you like to fly kites? It is great fun to watch a kite soaring high into the sky. What is it that keeps the kite up there? It is the wind, isn't it? How many of you have ever seen the wind? That was a trick question! No one has seen the wind. We can't see the wind because it is invisible. Well, if we can't see the wind, how do we know that it is there?

One way we can know the wind is there is that we can hear it. When I wake up in the morning, I sometimes turn on the TV to see what the weather is doing. There are some mornings that I don't even have to look at the TV to know that the wind is blowing because I can hear it! I can hear it whistling through the trees, down the chimney, and around the windows and doors. We can't see the wind, but we know it is there because we can hear it.

Another way we can know that the wind is there is that we can see it moving things. (Take some bits of paper in your hand and blow them into the air.) We can see it moving the leaves on the trees and blowing bits of paper around. We can't see the wind, but we know it is there because we can see what the wind is doing.

Still another way we can know that the wind is there is that we can feel it. Blow onto the back of your hand. Did you see anything? No, but you could feel something, couldn't you? We can't see the wind, but we can feel it blowing against our faces and blowing through our hair.

Today, many churches celebrate a special day called Pentecost. It was on the day of Pentecost that God sent his Holy Spirit to the church. The Bible tells us that the apostles were all gathered together when suddenly there was a sound like a mighty, rushing wind. Then, it says, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit is like the wind, we can't see him, but we can know that he is there, just like we can know that the wind is there.

We can know that the Holy Spirit is there because we can hear him. The Bible says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him." (Revelation 3:20) We can't see the Holy Spirit, but we know he is there because he speaks to our hearts.

Another way we can know that the Holy Spirit is there is that we can see him moving people to do God's will. The Bible says that the Spirit of God moves his people to speak and to do things for him. (2 Peter 1:21) We can't see God, but we can see people doing things that God's Holy Spirit has moved them to do.

We can know that the Holy Spirit is there because we can feel his presence. The Bible says, "I will fear no evil for Thou art with me." (Psalm 23:4) The Bible also says that "if we love one another, God lives in us." We can't see the Holy Spirit, but we know he is there because we can feel his presence in our life.

God, thank you for sending your Holy Spirit. Even though we can't see him, we are thankful that we can hear him speak to our hearts, feel his presence in our daily lives, and see him moving us to do your will. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Hurricanes

Anyone ever been out in a hurricane? Or a violent rain storm? Mary apparently was outside on the porch during that storm the other night. She just felt like that and so stood there watching as the rain poured down.

I have been in a few real storms. They are violent; they are frightening; they are terrible.

Here is an often overlooked fact about Pentecost; in Acts 2:2 while setting the story up we read: “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…” Ever thought about that? God’s spirit doesn’t just bubble up in these people like a warm glow – it sweeps through their lives like a violent wind and changes everything.

But no…

I blame hymn writers in particular for distorting this message. Think about all of the hymns we sing about Pentecost or about the Holy Spirit; they all focus on one side, the gentle, loving, gracious spirit of God…

Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness…. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me…. These are lullabies… they are like rocking a newborn to sleep and feeling that gentle breath of love on our shoulder…

Which is not to say that is not part of it – but that is not the part we are talking about at Pentecost. We are not focused on God’s love and grace. We are talking about God’s power and action. That is where the church began.

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This is what Pentecost celebrates. Not a gentle breeze but a strong force that spins people around and changes everything.

Perhaps a little history… The disciples were not in Jerusalem for Pentecost, they were in Jerusalem for Shavuot – the Jewish festival commemorating both the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai, and the first harvest of wheat from the fields. It was a pretty major festival as it marked the time when first fruits of the garden could be brought to the Temple for Sacrifice. Everyone would have been in town for the big festival, the party like atmosphere, the crowds… think Mardis Gras in New Orleans.

But then, think about this a little deeper. This is the festival where we celebrate the giving of the Ten Commandments; which was not just a list of rules; it was the backbone of a nation. On that day these wandering Aramaens became the nation of Israel…. They were given the equivalent of their declaration of Independence, or their Bill of Rights…. And they rallied around it and decided to keep up the good fight that would see this journey through and find a homeland…

Now, here are the rag tag Christians who have lost their leader hanging out at the Festival when all of a sudden… the Holy Spirit breaks violently upon them; knitting them together as one people giving them identity and purpose, empowering them to… well, I am skipping ahead.

Here is the interesting thing… the people had to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be empowered. It was only when they accepted that something powerful and active was in their midst, in their souls, that they could harness that power like a tongue of flame and preach, heal, teach, inspire…

This is not a wishy washy story…

Being the church is not a passive thing.

So here is the question: how do we, here, now, embrace the Spirit? How do we let its full power move us where it will like a rushing wind instead of only as a gentle breeze?

To Be A Kite
by Londis Carpenter

I would like to be a kite on a string
and soar up over the trees.
I would like to try to reach the sky
With butterflies and bees.
I'd love to fly past billowy clouds,
With my tail of red and white,
And climb so high the things below
would disappear from sight.
If I could fly above the clouds
would I ever, ever return?
And think, if I could fly so high,
Just how much I would learn.

We are like kites soaring in the wind but when we are afraid of the wind, we stay on the ground, inactive. There is power in God’s spirit… we just have to embrace it.

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