Springwood Presbyterian Church: Whitsett, NC

When the people of the earth decided to build a huge tower so they could climb up to heaven, God scattered them across the whole earth, and gave them different languages to keep them from being able to work together.

Genesis 11: 1-9 (Message)

Pentecost, meaning “50 days”, is the Greek word for the festival of Shavuot in ancient Israel.  From the second day of the Passover until the day before Shavuot was seven weeks, or 49 days.  The festival was on the 50^th day.  Shavuot began as a harvest festival, but by Jesus’ time, it was also a celebration of God giving the Law at Mt. Sinai 50 days after the exodus from Egypt.  That day is observed by Jews as God’s creation of Judaism.  For Christians, Pentecost comes 50 days after Christ’s resurrection.  It’s the day we celebrate God’s Holy Spirit bringing together diverse peoples to create his church.  Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he instructed his disciples to stay together in the house they occupied in Jerusalem, and wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them.  They, both men and women, waited as they were told.

Acts 2: 1-21 (Message)                                                                                        5-23-10

Earth, Wind, and Fire

Once we were all one people—one family—descended from a common ancestor.  Then we were scattered to the four winds: living in all parts of the world, speaking diverse languages, wearing different colors of skin, standing on distinct and separate traditions, believing in our own ways.

Then came the Day of Pentecost--a great day in Jerusalem.  Pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean world filled the city for the festival, unlike the Passover 50 days earlier when the weather was usually too treacherous for sea travel, so the worshippers were mainly Palestinian Jews.  Pentecost was a bit like our Thanksgiving—a time set aside to thank God for the renewed fertility of the earth, the coming barley harvest, and the Law of Moses that unified Jews throughout the world.  Little did the pilgrims know that, while they were celebrating the earth’s harvest, God was preparing to harvest souls.

During that glad, but earth-bound festival, the Holy Spirit swept into their midst without warning: came like the wind—uncontrollable, mysterious, powerful, unseen, known only by its effects; came like a flame—cleansing and consuming, awesome and dangerous.

This wasn’t the first time God sent the Spirit into the world.  Indeed, the Spirit was in the world from the beginning, was with God at the creation of the world.  Throughout history, God sent the Spirit to anoint leaders and prophets: Saul, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah—Jesus, at his baptism.  By means of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived.

But this time was different.

          This time, rather than coming to one person who would lead others, the Spirit came upon all who were gathered that day, regardless of age or gender or status.

          This time, rather than coming for a moment—a day—a crisis, the Spirit came to live among the people, to be the bond of our fellowship, the source of our common life, the power for our mission to the world, the inspiration for our preaching.

          The Spirit became the dominant reality in the life of the early church, by wind and by fire.

The wind of the Spirit blew away the old realities and created a whole new world, just as it did with God in the beginning—an alternative world to the one we live in where secular powers rule; in the new world of the Spirit, God rules.  The wind of the Spirit created an alternative world to the one where there’s enmity between races and nations, men and women, rich and poor, old and young; in the new world of the Spirit, the artificial walls between us are blown down like the three little pigs’ house of straw.

Throughout the book of Acts, we note the disappearance of those walls that divide us: first the wall of self-concern, for we read that, after Pentecost, all who believed were together and had all things in common. (2:44); then, the wall of separation between God and the people was removed as people were healed by prayer and the laying on of hands (5:12ff); the wall of fear, as Christ’s followers preached his promises boldly, despite beatings and other persecutions (5:17ff); the wall of ethnic and religious division, as Gentile converts were accepted by Jewish Christians (11:1-18).  The spirit of love and unity was the foundation of the early church.

The flames of the Spirit are a purifying fire to cleanse our language of the hate-talk that seems to dominate our politics, sports, even religion.  Instead, the Spirit sets tongues into motion in helpful ways.  The book of Acts bears witness to the way the Spirit transformed that discouraged, scruffy bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, and ne’er-do-wells into a powerful band of preachers, teachers, and healers who, in their turn, became the means of transformation for others, drawing them into the faith communities that became the Christian church.  We see Peter, who just weeks before, was too afraid to   speak up for Jesus when he awaited trial: that same Peter now stands before a huge crowd of people and proclaims openly what he dared not say then, even to a serving woman at midnight.  Later the Spirit impelled him, who had avoided Gentiles his entire life, to welcome them, and to persuade others to accept them, too.  Set on fire by the Spirit, Peter and the other disciples went public with the good news that Christ is risen; the power of death is broken; and earthly powers are overcome by God’s power of love.

Of course, you and I see that hasn’t happened everywhere and at all times.  If we look for the Spirit today, it’s not in the hostility between Israelis and Palestinians; nor in the wars we are fighting in far-off lands.  It’s not in our national political arena where members of both parties pride themselves on refusing to work with members of the other party; nor in the despair and worthlessness so many people feel.  Neither is it in the internet bullying that has ruined many a reputation and even caused more than one person to commit suicide; nor in the gossip we hear every day; nor the crude language that seems almost normative.  

The Spirit hasn’t abandoned us, though.  The Spirit’s work only began on that day of Pentecost so long ago.  Each new generation of Christians must take it up anew and apply it where we are, to the situations we find.  The challenge is to remain challenged—to accept without despair that the work isn’t complete—and to let God’s Holy Spirit be free to move among us and work within us, rather than close it up in a box labeled, “Day of Pentecost, AD 33.”

On the Day of Pentecost AD 2010, let’s open ourselves to the wind that blows down walls of separation and scatters Christ’s good news to all parts of the earth.  Let’s open ourselves to be fired up by the Spirit, so we can light a fire of love and justice and mercy in others that will burn away hate and despair.

Come, Holy Spirit, come!