June 3, 2001
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Pentecost
Sunday In our first reading, the Holy Spirit comes to us like a gentle, guiding
parent. This is God’s Spirit as the mother and father who loves
unconditionally and who wants us to know that while expectations are high, we
are loved unconditionally. Even when we mess up, we cannot ever be disinherited.
In the reading from Acts, the Holy Spirit is described as a loud, burning
spirit. It is the breath of God, but it is felt more like what a friend calls a
rough and cleansing wind. In our church, in our communities, wherever we are,
the living breathing Spirit of God moving in us calls us to let go of what holds
us back, of what stifles and chokes us, so that we an take on the life giving
breath of God’s Holy Spirit. Every year, we put on red and read the story of Pentecost, but what does
it mean? It is not the first Pentecost celebration, but it is the one that the
church remembers because of its impact on believers and the world. One writer
describes the Pentecost of Acts 2 this way: “It is not accidental, of course,
that the birth of the church, this great “harvest” of souls, should occur on
this important festival. The Feast of Pentecost, or Weeks, as is known in the
Old Testament, marked the end of the celebration of the spring harvest, a
liturgical cycle that began at Passover and during which devout Israelite
families praised God for God’s grace and bounty. It also was the beginning of
a period, lasting until the autumn Festival of Booths, in which the first fruits
of the field were sacrificed to Yahweh. And among at least some Jews the Feast
of Weeks was a time of covenant renewal." (Texts For Preaching, volume 3., p
342). There in that upper room in Jerusalem and on the
street below, the church was born. How can that be? It was the moment that a
small group of Jesus followers began to influence people from other parts of the
world as those who were witnesses to it went home and told the story of how they
let go of some things, and of how they began to take on some others. It happened like this. In his final word of instruction to the disciples,
Jesus advised them to wait in Jerusalem. Before too long, they would receive
power, the ability to do, to accomplish, to influence, from God. “When that
happens”, he says, “you will be ready to move from Jerusalem, Samaria, and
all over the world. It happened at the festival of Pentecost. While the
disciples were waiting, while people from all over the Greco-Roman world were in
Jerusalem celebrating a historic festival. They had come form all of those
cities Jewish people had escaped to in order to be free of persecution, and to
be able to worship in peace. They too had let go of some things in order to take
on something better. They had to let go of what they thought Pentecost was all about in order
to make room for the new thing God was by the Holy Spirit going to do. Even a
few Romans were there; they had to let go of their idea that in the end, they
really were in control. They help us to understand what Pentecost really is. It
was a harvest festival occurring fifty days following Passover, six weeks after
Easter, to be sure, first of food, then of the souls of God. There they were in Jerusalem, waiting for the Spirit to come, while in
the street below, others were celebrating God’s harvest of the earth. The
Spirit is on the way, and when it comes it will help them to let go of all that
keeps them from feeling the Spirit’s power. There is a hymn I hope we learn to sing, if not this summer, then when
the choir returns after Labor Day. We sang it at General Board, and I knew when
I heard it that I would share it would you today. It is called, “O Breath of
God” and the first verse says, “O
Breath of Life, come sweeping through us, revive your church with life and
power. O Breath of Life, come cleanse, renew us, and fit your church to meet
this hour.”
(Words by Bessie Porter Head, 1920). Let the Spirit let it go. Let go of what? First, let go of thinking that we need no one but ourselves, that me and
God, or we and God are all that we need and that is OK. Never mind anyone else.
Remember; understand the Holy Spirit is a gift of God given not only to
individuals, but also to the church. We know people through whom God’s spirit moves gently and quietly. We
see them as they humbly but surely engage in acts of compassion. They call and
send cards to the homebound; they speak words of comfort and assurance to those
in whom they sense some great need. They perform acts of incredible kindness and
they tell no one, they just do it. We also know people through whom God’s spirit burns bright and moves
loudly. They use their charisma to draw crowds of committed people and increase
the ministry they are able to do. There are people working on systemic issues of
homelessness, and equitable education, addiction, mental and physical illness,
employment that will support individuals and families. They proclaim the love of
Christ all the while to all the world’s people so that people have the
opportunity not only to feel better for a day, but to fare better for a
lifetime. However it comes, the Holy Spirit does come to individuals. But on this Pentecost day, it comes to the gathered body. The disciples are in the upper room in Jerusalem, waiting and praying.
The key verse all together in one place. They had been scattered by fear by the
death of Jesus; now by the Spirit of God they are together waiting to see what
God will do. When the Spirit came, suddenly, without warning, they were ready.
They had been prepared by prayer, a sense of unity, and by Jesus himself. We sometimes say we are waiting on the Spirit of God. But then when the
winds begin to blow – a breeze of something new and different comes; a whiff
of what can be is in the air, we get nervous and want to close the windows
against the new wind. We do that because we are not ready. On the other hand, even when we don’t know exactly how or when, if we
are ready, the Spirit gets in and soon enough by the Spirit, things are
different. We begin by the burning presence of the Holy Spirit to get a vision
of what could be. Robert F. Kennedy said, “some people see things as they are
and ask why? I see things as they never were and ask, why not?” Are we ready
to let go of what holds us back and to take on what propels us forward? I am and
I believe you are too. Let the Spirit come and burn us with a desire to do all
that we can to grow and be even better than we are. A few kids and adults on a summer night, becomes a
thriving, exciting Vacation Bible School, and who knows what else is possible?
In a few years we could see here a summer long children’s program. An unfamiliar hymn becomes a new favorite; outreach becomes not just
dollars given away, but lives shared and lives transformed. We become not only a
building for worshiping and meeting two or three day a week, instead we become a
place of ministry seven days a week. Second, we can let the Spirit of God help us hear in our own way the good
news of Jesus Christ and the church. I love all of those church words like
doxology, benediction, liturgy, CWF, Chi Rho, Basic Mission Finance, DOM, DHM,
Church Extension, and so on. But I know that to some, those words can sound like
an exclusive language whose purpose is to keep people confused and
excluded. But that is not our purpose. We want the language we speak to be as
clear as possible. The second verse of “O Breath of Life” says: “O Wind of God, come bend us, When the Spirit came, it contained so much power,
so many signs; it created so great a divine noise that the disciples could not
contain it. The fervor and praise it created spilled out of the window and into
the streets where the festival goers heard it. They found themselves stopped in
the street, looking up the way we look for a loud jet airplane overhead, asking
each other, “what is that?” “We
can tell by their accents that they are Galileans, and that is certainly not a
language we speak, but somehow we hear them telling the story of God’s amazing
work. Listen, how come that fellow from Cappadocia seems to understand what they
are saying, and look that woman from Phrygia is hanging on their every word. We
all hear it. They are talking about how God created the world out of chaos, how
through prophets and teachers God kept faith with the people. They are talking
about all of those ways in which God never gave up on the people, and about how
God sent a son, Jesus to redeem the world, and that one day in God’s own time,
he will return. This is incredible!” Now
of course, in every crowd there is someone in the crowd who is a naysayer, a
cynic, someone determined to try to ruin God’s good time. “You are imagining
things, all that’s happening is drunken babble. It’s just not a big deal.
They’ve just been drinking all night. The Pentecost party is still on.” How
do we hear each other? In his sermon during the Racial Unity Service, Richard
Dunbar urged us to think creatively about how we will hear and receive the
increasing numbers of immigrants into Columbus and Franklin County as brothers
and sisters in Christians and for those who are not Christians as neighbors and
partners in common cause. We will hear different languages, we will smell and
eat new foods, we will see different kinds of dress and hear different kinds of
music. At the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Friday morning, I sat a table with
several Christians, a Buddhist Lama, who is a former Catholic and a former
reporter in Newark, a Moslem, a rabbi, a Sikh, and a Christian Scientist. We
were all there because we have in common a desire to prayerfully support the
development of this city. We
say with Peter, who by the way, had to let go of his own guilt and shame after
denying Jesus. We say with him, there is no drunkenness here. It’s way too
early for that. This is God’s doing. There is prophesy and good news here. Then he quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel for whom the promise of the last days would bring death and destruction. And at first his talk of the moon and blood and smoke and fire seem kind of creepy. But Peter says “no” to any gloom. This is good news. There days are about life and birth. In these days God’s name is praised. Pentecost reminds us that when the Spirit comes, it helps us let go of negative attitudes and outlooks. We are no longer too small, too poor, too old, too young, too whatever it is that blocks us. They are all real things, but we need to let them go if they stop us from being people who bask in God’s Holy Spirit. Third, we can let the Spirit let go of
misunderstanding and of being comfortable with not getting it. We used to say
when something big happened, and people resisted, that they just don’t get it. Pentecost
is still a birthday party and a day of renewal. It is a day to celebrate
“new life for the church. New life for individuals in the church! New
life through the Spirit of God! New life, sudden unmerited, irresistible new
life!” (Texts
for Preaching, p. 343) Everybody
is part of the celebration. Men and women, sons and daughters, servants, young
and old people, speaking of dreams, sharing visions – those gaining
experiences learning from those with wisdom and experiences to share. The pace
may change, the energy may change, but there will be no retirement from being
touched by the Spirit; no being dismissed because of youth, we need to hear each
other, challenge each other, and respect each other as we tell our stories of
faith. We can talk about what keeps us hopeful, what leads us to struggle, where
we hurt, how we heal, what we believe, and on whom we put our trust. We
are people who live with a promise. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved. The
other day during our afternoon Bible study session, the doorbell rang. There was
a man at the door who said that he had heard that we were a declining
congregation and that the building was for sale. He probably confused us with a
church in Victorian Village that Wednesday’s paper said was for sale. I told
him that we are not for sale. I could have gone on to say that we are seeing
signs of renewal here, that there is much prayer, and hard work, and vision and
commitment here. We will be here, just like the church in Jerusalem, waiting for
a fresh, rough, cleansing wind to blow through us. You know the Peter’s sermon
continued and when he finished, 3000 people came to know Jesus Christ for
themselves. We are part of that stream of that legacy of
witness. I could have said, the spirit of my mother forgive me, we
ain’t going nowhere. Pentecost
was a time of letting go and of taking on new attitudes and new openness. My
prayer for each of us and for this congregation as we continue to celebrate
Pentecost in this place and indeed in the whole church of Jesus Christ is that
we find the salvation that saves us from some things and to some things. We can
let go of overwhelming fear and take on Spirit filled courage. We
can let go of guilt and take on forgiveness
of others and ourselves. We
can let go of failure and take on a new focus on what we can do and on what we
have done well. We
can let go of thinking we are nobody and have no place, and take on what Paul
talked about in Romans; we are sons and daughters of God, and heirs to an
immeasurable, unending legacy of grace and love. The
last verse of “O Breath of Love” says: “O Breath of Love, come breathe within us, renewing thought and will
and heart. Come love of Christ, afresh to win us, revive you church in every
part.” Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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