Pentecost Power

You and I are 2,000 years and many thousands of miles removed from the room where the disciples met that first Pentecost,
but this violent wind,
this Spirit of the Living God,
has blown its way from that room into our lives.
That is the best evidence we have that God was there.

The wind continues to blow.
The spirit continues to empower and lead.


So far this year there have been 1,458 tornadoes reported in this country!
They have been exceptionally destructive and deadly this year.
Apparently, the unusualness of this year’s tornadoes is that they have been more larger ones than ever before, and they are striking nearer to places where people live.

Most tornadoes – even most of the 1,458 this year – occur in areas were very few or no people live and so few people actually experience one as a general rule.

But this year has been different.
Many tornadoes struck heavily populated areas where more damage was done, and more people experienced the tremendous power of the event – up close and personal.
And many took pictures.
We have all seen more than one video and audio recordings that came out from one or more of the recent tornadoes in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania.

Hearing about the force of the wind of a tornado – even seeing pictures of the damage it leaves behind – doesn’t really to justice to the force and sheer power of the wind storm as reported by the tornado survivors.

I thought of the images of the pictures, videos and stories I saw and heard in the past few weeks as I read the first few verses of today’s lesson:

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
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 . . .”

A violent wind . . .
The kind of wind that uproots trees,
The kind of wind that turns over mobile homes.
The kind of wind that destroys schools and hospitals,
homes and businesses,
yes, churches and even street markers.
The kind of wind that fills men and women with awe and wonder.

It may be that the writer of Acts is speaking metaphorically here.
After all, the word “spirit” is the same word as the word “wind.”
He may have been saying that the spirit was present in a powerful way.

But I like to visualize the special effects.
I like to think of the wind shaking paintings on the wall, perhaps slinging them to the floor.
I like to think of the Apostle John’s hair being blown and Simon Peter trying to keep his napkin on the table.
(Of course, John may have been bald.
And Simon Peter may have wiped his mouth on his sleeve, since we view him as such a crude man. Nobody knows.)
All we know is there was a violent wind . . .

But wait there’s more: “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them . . .”

Well, for sure, this is no run-of-the-mill worship service, is it?
Can you imagine what would happen if a violent wind whipped through this room while we were here together
and if tongues of fire rested on our heads?
It sounds more like a scene from a movie like Lord of the Rings than it does any worship service I’ve ever been a part of.
(Maybe that’s why people fill movie houses on Saturday night and sleep late on Sunday morning.)

“Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them . . .”

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability . . .”

This is exciting stuff.
The disciples began to speak in other languages.
“Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each . . .”

This is much more significant than the violent wind or the tongues of fire.
Hollywood can produce special effects.
Spectacular visual displays – no matter how much we may enjoy them as part of the narrative – are not evidence of God’s presence.

Some people do seem to want to have their religion that way, don’t they?
It has to be big.
It has to challenge the senses and defy logic.

But when ordinary people can transcend the dividing lines of language and race and even religion,
when ordinary people can look at one another as children of the Most High without regard to how they look,
or how much education they have,
or how they talk –
that’s when you know that God is surely involved.

It doesn’t sell a lot of tickets, but it’s real.
It’s life-changing.
More importantly, it honors God.

You see, it was this experience of God in this way, that really brought those first Christians to life.
It was this that gave them the strength to know Love as they had never known it before.

This experience was the most important thing in their lives,
and it is the most important thing in our lives, as well.
That’s why I give so much attention to it each year.

When the New Testament writers talk about God, they are expressing the Love of God as they have experienced it:
in the beauty of the sky, and the sea, and the mountains,
and the sun, and the rocks,
and bread, and water,
and human beings –
all the incredible things that make up the Creator's world.
They had a deep sense of God's Presence at the center of all these things.
Even things that didn't seem to be alive,
were alive with God's Presence.

That great cellist, Pablo Cassals, wrote:
"Every human being is a miracle of the Creator. The world is a miracle that only God could make.

"Think of how no two grains of sand are alike. Think of how there is not one nose [like another],
[not] one voice like another.
Think of how, among billions and billions of living and non-living things in the Universe,
no two are exactly alike.

"Who but God could do that.
God is present all the time.
Nothing can take that from us."

These are the words of one of history's most sensitive artists talking about his experience of God the Creator of all that is.

All around us everything is vibrant and alive with the Creator's Presence.
This is what the New Testament writers are saying. But that is only the beginning.

What happened to the New Testament Christians is that when Jesus came into their midst, they experienced God in a new, intense way that was so overwhelming, so healing, so fulfilling,
they couldn't contain it within themselves.
They had to get the Good News out to the whole world.
What they realized had happened is that God the Creator, who loved them so much, was present in their friend, Jesus,
and now, even though they saw him dead,
their friend was actually present in their midst,
as the perfect Model of what life is all about.

Then, remarkably, those New Testament Christians had still another overwhelming experience of God's Presence.
Something new had happened.
They said it was like the wind rushing through.
They said it was like fire, warm and alive, and penetrating.

They discovered that this "Pentecost" experience was an empowering experience.
They were able to stand up before kings and emperors, and speak as they had never spoken before.
The Spirit of God had penetrated their beings at a deeper level than ever before.

Pentecost is a unique celebration in this respect.
Even the resurrection was viewed only by people who already believed in Jesus.

But on the day of Pentecost “devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem” heard the disciples each in their own native language.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”

You see, this is the church at its best – cutting across the lines that separate people from one another.
This is what God intends the church to be –
a fellowship that reaches out to all.
The church was never intended to be a cloistered elite.
We are called to connect people – all people –
to God.

A rabbi tells an ancient story of a man who approached the high priest at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
This man begged to be allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, “the most sacred place in the entire Temple.”
This sacred space was said to be the place where the high priest went to meet God.
This simple man so desired to stand in the presence of God.
But long ago, God had decreed that only the high priest might enter the Holy of Holies.
So the high priest turned the man away.

The man continued to beg, so the high priest made a deal with him.
If the man would serve in the Temple for the next 20 years, then he would be allowed into the Holy of Holies.

Amazingly, the man agreed to the deal.
So the high priest assigned the man the most menial tasks, such as sweeping the floors and taking out the garbage.
He fully expected the man to give up and go home.

But the man continued faithfully in his work for 20 years.
Finally, the high priest had to admit the man to the Holy of Holies.
He took the man to the secret door in the Temple and announced,
“Open this door and walk through it.
When you walk through this door, you will enter into the Holy of Holies,
our most sacred space,
the place where God is present in the most real way,
the place where you will meet your God.”

The man turned the handle and stepped through the sacred door.

And there . . . . . he found himself outside,
on the dusty streets of Jerusalem.
Vendors were selling meats and carpets.
Children were chasing one another.
Mothers were gossiping and fathers were haggling.
– And it was as if the man were walking on holy ground.
For the first time in his life, he saw God in the midst of ordinary chaos.

You see, really, this is the church at its best.
We are not an otherworldly faith.
We don’t seclude ourselves in cloistered enclaves where we shut out the rest of the world while we prepare ourselves for a heavenly voyage.
Our calling is to reach out to the world.
When the disciples bore witness to their faith,
they spoke in languages that everyday passers-by could comprehend.

This is a sign to us – we are not the church turned inward on itself.
We are the church reaching out to the world.
Speaking languages everyday passers-by might understand – including those understood by the users of the internet.

One of the most remarkable stories in literature is the story of the love for one another that enveloped the church at Pentecost.
These early believers ate together,
they sang together,
they prayed together;
they looked after widows and orphans in their midst.
A major part of the strength of their witness was how they lived out their love for one another.

It’s good to remind ourselves each year at Pentecost of the ties that bind the body of Christ together.

“By this,” said our Lord, “shall the world know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” The early church reached outward to the world and inward to one another.

The Day of Pentecost was no mere sociological event.
Something mysterious happened that day.
The Spirit of the living God fell upon some ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things from that day forward.
They were people not much different from you and me.
They weren’t well educated in a worldly sense, but they had studied, nonetheless, under the greatest teacher of all.
And now that his physical presence was gone,
his spiritual presence led them to touch the lives of thousands of people.

I take great hope from that fact.
The church uses human efforts –
it did then, it does now.
For sure, our own church could not carry out its mission without the work of many of you who give sacrificially.
Still, it is comforting to know that the church is ultimately not dependent on human efforts.
The church is of God.
God created the church and God will sustain the church.

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
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 . . .”

A violent wind scatters things far and wide.
You and I are 2,000 years and many thousands of miles removed from the room where the disciples met that first Pentecost,
but this violent wind,
this Spirit of the Living God,
has blown its way from that room into our lives.
That is the best evidence we have that God was there.

The wind continues to blow.
The spirit continues to empower and lead.

Today, let each of us be reminded of the experience of those early disciples as God’s spirit blew into their midst and empowered them to do great things.

Let each of us come to see where the spirit still blows in our lives in these days in this place.

This sermon was a part of a worship service at Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 2011.