The readings
Acts
2:1-21
1
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 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. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire,
appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the
Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under
heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was
bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of
each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are
speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native
language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of
Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11
Cretans and Arabs -- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's
deeds of power." 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,
"What does this mean?" 13 But others sneered and said, "They are
filled with new wine." 14 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. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk,
as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what
was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 "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. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those
days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show
portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and
smoky mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
Philippians
4:4-7
Rejoice
in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known
to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Merry
Pentecost to you and your loved ones. I expect that you are not planning to do
something to celebrate, after all this day does not have the same traditions or
appeal outside of our Christian faith. There is no Pentecost Tree, beloved
Pentecost carols or a Pentecost bunny.
There are no bumper stickers or car magnets that read “keep Christ in
Pentecost”. Pentecost is an ancient
holiday, it literally means the 50th day and is celebrated 7 Sundays
after Easter (I know that’s 49 days, we cheat a little). In the centuries before Jesus death and
resurrection, the day of Pentecost was already significant in the Jewish
calendar. It was a festival called Shavuot or the Festival of weeks that was
set aside to celebrate the harvest and receiving of the law.
For
us, it is the day when the promised Holy Spirit comes to the disciples. At the
Ascension, 10 days ago, Jesus, our crucified, died and risen Lord, is taken up
into heaven. As he departs the earth,
Jesus blesses his followers and tells them to wait for “power from on high”,
the coming of the Holy Spirit before doing anything. This timing reminds us that we are a Holy
Spirit Church, that we are God’s Church.
Our reading from Acts today is disruptive to
the order of our carefully planned out church year. Disruptive is a word I’m
going to use a lot this morning so I want to clarify what I mean: a change in
the ordinary, expected or comfortable.
Today’s
reading takes us back in time (it’s one of the very few times in our list of
readings that we leave the time based order).
Over the past few weeks we have looked at the conversion of Saul the
persecutor to Paul the saint and missionary, we have looked at the work of the
Peter, James and other disciples and the letter Paul writes to the woman led,
thriving and faithful church in Philippi. Today, although, we have already
heard some of the things that happened in the early church, we sit with a
reading that I consider to be the birthday of the church and its first acts in
faith.
The
Holy Spirit is disruptive; it came like a violent wind. Parts of our region just experienced a
violent wind on Tuesday nights storm, 4 people lost their lives, trees fell,
trains were shut down, roofs blown off,
flooding was anticipated, power was lost.
The disciples gathered to celebrate Pentecost and like we do on most
holidays, hoped for a quiet day, no interruptions, disputes, unannounced
visitors, Instead, they find themselves
being hit by tongues of fire, speaking other languages, drawing huge crowds of
people from all over the world and then presiding over the first Christian
worship service.
This
is when public preaching begins in earnest.
The message of the first Christian sermon, delivered by an unprepared
Peter, is clear: Jesus fulfills scripture, the great prophesies and visions
that brought anxious people hope and strength centuries ago, have come through.
Peter goes on to talk about people killing Jesus and God raising him from the
dead, the resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and defeat of
death.
If
we skip ahead a few verses, we see that “When the people heard this, they were
changed, disrupted, cut to the heart. They said to Peter and the other
apostles, “Brothers, what shall we
do? Peter replied, “Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and
for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. After this 1000’s of people are baptized. The entire city of Jerusalem is disrupted and
all of those towns, cities and countries the newly baptized return to will also
be disrupted.
Our
familiar reading today is paired with the end of Paul’s letter to the
Phillipains, he insists, he exhorts, he
demands this good and faithful community
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice”. It feels odd to say demand, insist and exhort
that people rejoice, I mean who needs to be told to be happy, to rejoice. Then again, we can think about all the people
who spend their vacation on the phone, just taking care of one more thing,
people who sit at the beach worried about the office, go to church and worry
about budgets, home and business or sit in the pews worried about who is not
there instead of welcoming and caring for who is. When people feel responsible for everything,
like they are working alone, it’s hard to ever rejoice.
The
very act of rejoicing is disruptive, we know something greater than wealth or
resources, fame and fortune, we can sing how great thou art at funerals and
memorial services. That’s why Paul’s
demand that people rejoice is tied to our Pentecost reading. The gift of
Pentecost, the visible, experienced sign that God is in the world reminds us
that this God’s church and God’s world, That
simple idea, it is not all about us, its not only about this place, is what allows us to not worry about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God, the assurance that the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.
The
first thing Peter does with the gift of the Holy Spirit is speak God’s word.
Peter recognizes that the Holy Spirit is not some limited commodity to be
hoarded and distributed based on worth or deserving. It is free and for all and
then gives it away. The work of the church
is beyond us. From the first day, the
first public acts, the church is the work of a community, the crowd goes up to
Peter and the others, this work of teaching, baptizing and welcoming is shared. The very act of working together as a
community is disruptive.
I
am not the best at learning or speaking foreign languages This does not stop me
from trying to communicate in other places, to varying degrees of embarrassment
or failure. Whenever I am at events with
the church of grace to the fujianse or Indonesain Baptist, I am often invited
to share a prayer at some point in the service or event. Before going up, I will always ask the
person next to me “how to say Merry Christmas in Fujianese” or “Happy Annivesary
in Indonesian”. Each time, I will
forget what they said before getting to the stage or altar. It does not matter, with no idea what I am
saying, the people know I showed up, I am praying with them, for them, for the
day, Thankfully, Pentecost is not about learning language, It is about having
the resources needed for clear communication of the Gospel and it is about
trusting the Spirit that came to the disciples and soon after, the crowd, is
still here with us, still speaking, still correcting, still calling. It is about disrupting things, asking for
help, rejoicing when others would worry, rejoicing when others would cry,
rejoicing when others would fear.
Today’s
church service was disruptive, awkward and confusing (for those reading at
home, we changed the order of our service, putting each part of our normal Sunday
service in another place, starting with communion at the beginning, prayers and
sermon at the end, groups of hymns together) I would think it was uncomfortable.
I am not eager to ask people what they thought of church today. It was disruptive. It is an experience as well. A reminder that we are asked to disrupt other
things, cycles of poverty, generations of exclusion and a society dedicated to
making meaningless things profitable.
Once again, Happy Pentecost to you and your loved ones
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