Community Church Sermons
May 11, 2008
Pentecost
Sunday
Acts 2:1-21
We wish you all a happy Mother’s Day – a day for remembering the miracle of birth, the miracle of love, and the miracle of mothers.
Some time ago, a friend of mine lost her cat – had to have her put to sleep at 16-years of age. And it was very hard, and very sad. You know how painful it is when you lose a beloved family pet.
But what made this all the more painful was that the cat had been her mother’s cat, and when her mother died a number of years ago, she and her family had taken the cat into their home. It was more than a pet to them, and especially to her. The cat was a part of her mother that she could continue to have – and touch – and hold. So when the cat had to be put to sleep, she was hit hard not only by the loss of a pet, but by the loss of the last living connection with her mom.
Mothers touch our lives in the deepest and most profound ways. Even those who never knew their mothers, or whose mothers were not very good moms, are still impacted by them. It must be something that God designed into us – a special connection to the one who brought us from heaven to earth, from love into life.
So our church thinks its important to celebrate mothers today.
And this year, Mother’s Day happens to fall on Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the birth of the Christian Church through the power of the Holy Spirit. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as our spiritual mother – nurturing us in her womb, nourishing us with her own life, forming us into people who are shaped by and who reflect her personality and character.
It was quite a scene there in the birthing room of the Christian Church. The Book of Acts tells us about 120 people were born that day through the Spirit’s power. Those who witnessed it said a wind started blowing inside the room, and tongues of flame appeared, and these newborn baby Christians began to scream all at once – except the screaming sounded more like foreign languages that babies – of course – would never have learned. People outside heard the noise and wondered how it was they could hear their own native languages being spoken by these Holy Spirit-born little ones. One of the new Christians – Peter by name – tried to explain that what was happening was just the way the Holy Spirit is and that when people are born of the Spirit they just can’t help being LIKE the Spirit! They were simply the children of a mother whose Spirit is loud and joyful and overflowing with love and goodwill toward everyone!
They were Spirit people! Just like I am Shirley’s son, and Rhonda is Sue’s daughter, and you are your mother’s child, they were Spirit children – born of the Holy Spirit.
And on that day long ago when the Christian Church was born, we got a pretty good look at what Spirit people are like and what the Christian Church is intended to be!
First of all, the Spirit-born Church is more like a tavern than a monastery!
I don’t intend any disrespect by saying that, but the truth is that the upper room in Jerusalem where the Spirit fell and the Church was born that day was so alive with life and laughter that people came running to see what was going on. And what they found was so loud and raucous that they thought these newborn Spirit people must be drunk!
Of course, they were NOT drunk. They were simply filled with the Spirit.
I grew up in a church where everything was done that could be done to keep the Spirit quiet! There would be no mistaking that church for the Christian Church! It was a church of “shut your mouth”, “be reverent”, and “don’t do anything that might make God want to strike you dead!” I remember as a child getting a little rambunctious and all it took to unrambunctious me was my mother pointing upward toward heaven as if to say, “Don’t get the Big Guy ticked off!”
Did you grow up in a church like that?
Well, try as we might, it is simply not possible to keep the Spirit from being the Spirit. That’s why things happen in church services that remind us about what the Christian Church is really like – like the misbehaving little boy who was carried out down the aisle in his father’s arms all the while shouting, “Pray for me! Pray for me!” That’s why the one choir member forgets there is a rest there just before the big finish, and ends up singing a one note solo, off-key! And that’s why the Spirit did what the Spirit did to liven things up one Easter at my boyhood church. For some strange reason – just at the most sacred, somber moment – something gave way and a whole pew collapsed, dropping thirty Congregationalists to the floor! CRASH!
And do you know what the people sitting in that pew did?
They just sat there!
Thank goodness the Holy Spirit tickled Rev. Seale and he started laughing, and the rest of the people did too. I imagine that people walking by outside wondered what in the world was going on inside that church that morning. “Oh, they’re probably just drunk!” someone might have said. But no, it was only 9 o’clock in the morning – and the Spirit was giving birth to Spirit people.
I don’t know if you would feel more comfortable in a monastery than in a tavern, but I know a lot more people go to taverns. Maybe there’s something in that to learn about the Church!
A second thing about these Spirit people and the Christian Church they became was that they were multi-lingual. This “speaking in tongues” phenomenon on Pentecost is quite significant. There were many foreigners in Jerusalem during those days for the feast of Pentecost. So when the Spirit gave birth to these Spirit people, they suddenly started praising God in the languages of those foreign pilgrims. “How is it that we hear them declaring God’s praise in our own tongues?” they asked.
I was talking a little while ago with a college-aged kid. I asked him about his church background and he told me he used to be a church-attender but was no longer. I asked him why he no longer attended church. He said, “Well, the church just doesn’t speak my language.”
Interesting. The Holy Spirit gave the Church the gift of multi-lingualism because God knows that people are diverse, and there is no one language that fits all. Dana Polacek – the young Wycliffe bible translator we help support – has been learning French in preparation for her work in the Congo, but that is only because the French language will give her entry into learning the many, many indigenous dialects of that country. All this, of course, to translate the bible into these strange tongues so that others may hear about the love of God.
The Christian Church must always be learning new languages – the language of kids, the language of the poor, the language of the rich, the language of race, the languages of people and their unique experiences of life. The language of parents who lose children, the language of those left behind after a suicide, the language of those suffering with mental illness, the language of those who’ve made huge mistakes with their lives.
I think one of the languages we need to become more fluent in here at our church is the language of the newcomer. It can be an imposing thing for a new person to walk into a crowd of people like this, and what a gift it is when someone reaches out a hand and says, “Hi. My name is Tom and I don’t think I know you!” Oh, the language of friendship is the language we all need to become more fluent in because the Christian Church was born by a Spirit that is effusive with the friendship of God for all people. Would you be willing to learn the language of welcome and friendliness?
And one more thing about the Christian Church and the Spirit people who comprise it. The Spirit gives us power to let go of our own personal agendas, and to rally ourselves around the purposes of God. Those 120 Spirit people born on the day of Pentecost had spent 50-days cowering in fear, worrying about what might happen to them if they stood up for God. What would be the cost to them if they were to truly follow Jesus?
The Spirit changed all that. 120 self-serving people started becoming 120 God-serving people. Had they remained what they were, the Church would have shriveled and died. But when they accepted the Spirit’s call to join God in God’s enterprise of reaching out to the whole world – offering the laughing, loving life of Christ, welcoming people in the language of Christ’s love, and calling people to the higher purpose of the Kingdom of God – the Christian Church exploded with growth and vitality.
I was hanging out in the Narthex following WednesdayChurch! this week. A ton of people were gathered around the beautiful model of our proposed expansion project. I overheard a lot of things people were saying, “I love the gathering space where we can enjoy fellowship after church!”; “I worry about how we can afford this!”; “I like the way the Columbarium is incorporated into the church grounds!”; “I love the chancel in the new sanctuary and how it will accommodate the full choir and bell choir and all that we do!” Many people had lots of very thoughtful things to say.
But the one comment I overheard that stuck with me was this one: “Can you imagine how many more people we’ll be able to reach?”
That’s a Spirit person kind of comment!
We exist to bring to God as many people as we possibly can – to care for them as beloved children of God – to nurture them in a thoughtful, inclusive, community-minded theology – to teach them about Jesus and his way – and then to send them out to serve.
When you go out to look at the model today, what do you say you leave behind for a while all the other questions – which, by the way, are important. And instead let yourself ask, “How many more people can we reach for Christ? How much wider can we spread the love of God? How can we strengthen this branch office of the Church that was born on Pentecost?” Look at that model not as a building project, but as an instrument of grace in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, we might ask the
question, “How can we become Spirit people? How can our church
become more like the Spirit-filled Christian Church that was born on Pentecost
Sunday long ago?
Well, simply by asking the Lord to send His Spirit. When Jesus left his followers and went home to God, he told them to do something important. “Wait until the power of the Spirit has come upon you.” Acts 2 tells us the followers of Jesus waited in prayer.
Pray for the Spirit to come upon you. Pray for the Spirit to infuse our church.
“Come, Holy Spirit, come!”