Sermon notes
May 19 Pentecost Acts 2:1-21
and John 14: 15-17,25-27
Good morning. When I was a much younger man I was on a week-long
retreat at a center of the Church of the Brethren. After dinner one evening I
went out onto a hill overlooking a beautiful valley. It was autumn and the sky
was clear and the air was crisp. As I sat and meditated on that day spent in
prayer and fellowship I felt a cool breeze come over me. My arms began to
tingle with delight and I felt and heard the voice of God. The Holy Spirit,
God’s breath had visited me. I had spent much of the day in prayer alone and
with others. My heart and being was open to this calling, this gift showered
upon me. The presence of God through the Holy Spirit had broken into my life
and I was transformed.
In a similar way the disciples and others
gathered in a house in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of the
Pentecost, they experienced a rush of
wind from heaven, sounding like a roaring and mighty windstorm, and it filled
the house where they were. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit.
New and strange things happen. Flames
or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. The Holy spirit as promised by Christ
described from our reading from John’s gospel was present. God will send the Advocate, the HS to remind
the disciples of everything Jesus had said and done. The HS breaks into their
lives and they are never the same. They begin to proclaim the good news in all
the languages spoken by Jews who were scattered around the Mediterranean world.
They become passionate about their mission, about the risen Christ and what it
means to each other and to the world. From
that moment the life of the church, in all its goodness, diversity,
differences, and challenges begins to emerge and change the world. We are the inheritors of this movement. Do we
hear and sense the presence of the HS in our lives, here in this place? Are we called today to proclaim the good
news?
Are we called today to be in this community
as leaders of hope and goodwill? If churches do not produce people
characterized by communion with God, Christ like character and bear the fruits
of the Spirit people have every reason to ask why we stay in business.
The Holy Spirit appears to each of us in
different ways. For some, like the story in Acts the HS comes like a mighty
wind, with a roaring vibration and noise inside a house. For others, like me the HS comes in nature as
a gentle breeze on a cool autumn evening . Our
awareness of the HS can happen whenever we open our lives to God and God’s
path. The HS brings passion and purpose.
The passion of my faith and mission in life often
comes to me when I sing certain hymns and anthems, when I read scripture, as I
participate in communion, as I pray alone or with you, or as I participate in a
mission project.
The Holy Spirit shakes things up. We are so
used to the ways we have done things in the past. The past is familiar and
comfortable. Are we blocking our faith’s journey for the today and the days to
come? Are we letting the past get in our way of the church’s journey in this
community by clinging to the way it has always been done? The HS shakes things
up.
Church of 12, fed by the HS now feeds over
800 families a month. A Presbyterian church in Covesville, fed by HS now is
home to a day care center that services 30 families in the community.
When
the HS came upon these men and women in that house they did not know what the
future held, but they knew their lives had been changed with a purpose. So they
slowly, with bumps, valleys, sunshine and all set about to establish a
community, a church in which the ways of God are paramount. Where love and service to the world are
instilled in their hearts and actions.
They struggled as we do today to figure out
what all this means for their lives. One of the first things they did was elect
some to be deacons, to lead the effort to address the needs of the poor, the orphaned
and the widows. Those persons who were on the outskirts of society, were
hurting physically, emotionally and spiritually. Those persons who were
vulnerable to whims of the greater exterior world.
As time went on they tried to figure out how
to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to whom. Some wanted the movement
to remain Jewish while others wanted to open up the movement to non-Jews. This
was difficult for it upset their comfort zone. The Holy Spirit will upset our
comfort zone. The Holy Spirit breaks into our lives and sets things loose.
Let us open our hearts and selves to hear the
blowing of God’s breath, to feel the fire of the Spirit of God and make us move
to enrich our lives and make disciples of Jesus Christ by doing no harm, doing good and always staying in love with God.
In our story today God breathed life into a
community of once timid disciples and gave them fire of heart and mind to begin
creating a new world. Their former lives
ended and their new lives began.
Though we may or may not hear or feel the
rush of a mighty wind we are gathered here to worship as the worshippers in the
story of Acts were gathered, to worship and praise God.
The HS calls to us today to rekindle our
hearts and actions to make disciples, to bring a heaven on earth, God’s Kingdom
through acts of goodness and through acts of prayer and devotion. The Holy
Spirit dwells in us, when invited by us through prayer, worship, service and
other spiritual disciplines. We are the
hands and feet of Jesus in the world. But we can only be this body if we are a
Spirit-filled people. This is our new Pentecost.
We have an Administrative Council meeting
following this service. Let us bring the HS to our gathering. Let us turn our
church and community upside down, light a fire and move. Amen.
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