That's The Spirit!

(Scriptures: Genesis 11:1-9 Acts 2:1-21
Romans 8:14-17 John 14:8-17, 25-27)

Last week was Ascension Sunday, when we remember the disciples standing on the Mount of Olives, watching as Jesus was lifted up from their presence into heaven. Jesus had told them that he would be sending the Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter – but they couldn’t have had much idea what Jesus meant. So they continued to gather, and awaited developments.

And what developments! Today we celebrate Pentecost, the great day of the Spirit’s coming, which has often been called the birthday of the church. The name of Pentecost did not originate with Christians – Pentecost was and is a Jewish festival, also called the feast of weeks, described in Deuteronomy 16: 9-12. It is celebrated 50 days after Passover – that’s where the “Pente” in Pentecost comes from, and seven weeks after the sickle is first put to the standing grain – when an offering of the first fruits of the harvest is made to God, in accordance to Leviticus 23:16. At one time, according to Deuteronomy 26, the feast of weeks was associated with God's gift to the children of Israel of the promised land. Later Jewish tradition associated Pentecost with the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai to Moses. Jews celebrate the festival to this day under the name of Shavuos or Shavuot.

So Acts tells us that “when the day of Pentecost had come, they – the disciples – were all together in one place.” Luke’s account of the coming of the Spirit is filled with vivid images: “Suddenly, from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 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.” There were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem – and they all gathered, and heard the disciples speaking in the native language of each.”

Violent wind! Fire! And the good news of Jesus proclaimed in every known language! Just as the Jewish festival of Pentecost celebrated the offering of the first-fruits of the grain harvest, so our celebration of Pentecost celebrates the coming of the first-fruits of the Spirit. As the Jewish festival commemorated God’s gift of the law, we celebrate the gift of the Spirit. In our Genesis reading this morning, we heard the story of human desire to build the Tower of Babel to peer up into heaven, when God confused the languages. Pentecost is a reversal of this image – at Pentecost, God’s Holy Spirit came down to humanity, and everyone heard the gospel in their own language.

The images of Pentecost are ambiguous – fire can warm, but it can also burn. A breeze can refresh, but a tornado can destroy. Both are unpredictable. And the presence of the Spirit in the church is just as unpredictable – there’s nothing the least bit neat or tidy about the work of the Spirit. The Spirit will warm our gathering with the love of God, but it will also work to burn off anything that stands in the way of witnessing to God’s love. The Spirit will refresh us, energize us, but will also blow away those things in our lives, as individuals and as a congregation, that keep us stuck, that are not life-giving. And the image of devout Jews from all over the known world, all hearing the saving gospel in their many different tongues, may not seem as unpredictable as fire and wind – but don’t be too sure. The power of the Spirit in creating mutual understanding – where we understand not only each other’s words but each others’ hearts and minds – may be the most powerful and unpredictable of all the Spirit’s mighty works.

It’s important to remember that the Holy Spirit does not come among us just to spice up our worship or to provide miracles for the sake of entertainment. The work of the Spirit is to empower the church for ministry, and the Spirit always points the church and the world back to the saving work of Jesus. And so it was with Peter’s great sermon on Pentecost. The book of Acts tells us “that day about three thousand people were added.”

We may read these accounts and wonder what they have to do with us, with our daily lives, with our little congregation, Emanuel, tenaciously holding our ground on Fillmore Street and trying to reach out to our neighbors. There are many answers to that question, but this morning I’ll venture just one – only this, that it was the mighty work of the Holy Spirit that turned the followers of Jesus from a frightened few huddling behind closed doors, for fear of the religious authorities, to bold proclaimer of God’s saving grace that turned the world upside down – or rather right-side up. And it was only a few – the band of disciples that gathered on Pentecost was no megachurch, but just a small group. And a mighty wind came, and fire came down, and the Spirit moved, and neither the disciples nor the world around them was ever the same again.

When I was a little kid, I used to ask my grandparents, the Langes, who were very devout, why miracles in the Bible such as what happened on Pentecost don’t happen today. I was told that things like that happened way back in Bible times, but they don’t happen any more today. Forty years later, I’m here to tell you that, as much as I cherish their memory, I disagree with my grandparents’ answer to my question, that instead I believe with all my heart and soul that the power of the Spirit is as available to us today as it was to Peter and the other disciples on the day of Pentecost. On hearing Peter’s sermon, three thousand people turned to Jesus – not because Peter was a great guy or a great speaker, but that Peter was an ordinary guy willing to put his ordinary speaking ability in the hands of an awesome God.

And here we are, ordinary people with a wide and growing range of ordinary talents. Are we willing to put our ordinary talents and our ordinary lives and the great love that’s here at Emanuel in the hands of our awesome God? Will I preach a sermon some day and watch three thousand souls turn to Christ? Perhaps not, though I always tell myself “never say never.” Until then, I’ll preach to the best of my ability to whoever is willing to hear me out, and leave the results in God’s hands. But will we here at Emanuel someday help to turn our neighborhood of Bridesburg upside-down – or rather right-side up – with the saving message of Jesus’ love? That – exactly that – is my fervent hope and prayer for this congregation. We may remember earlier days when the pews and the offering plates were full, and despair that our best days are behind us. I don’t believe that for one second. I believe God is working among us, right here, right now, preparing our individual hands and hearts and minds and preparing our congregation for the Spirit’s mighty movement in our midst.

I don’t know of any invisible force field around Bridesburg that will keep the power of the Spirit out of the neighborhood. Especially here at Emanuel, whose name means God With Us, let us open our hands and hearts and minds to the Spirit’s power, our ears to the Spirit’s call, our feet to the Spirit’s guidance. May it be said of us, as it was said of the early church, "These are the people who have turned the world upside down with their teaching, and they’ve come here, to Bridesburg." Amen.