Community Church Sermons

Year B

May 27, 2012

Pentecost Sunday

The Wind Beneath Our Wings

Acts 2:1-21

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

LISTEN IN!

The rush of a mighty wind.

That’s how Luke describes the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

Earlier, Jesus had also described the Holy Spirit in meteorological terms.” He said, “The Spirit is like the wind. You don’t know where it comes from, and you don’t know where it’s going to. You just hear it and feel it blowing.”

And the reason the early Christians used the wind as a metaphor when they talked about the Holy Spirit is that their experience on Pentecost and all the days that followed was the experience of being set free – like the wind! As Paul puts it in Second Corinthians 3:17: “…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM”!

Now understand this: the followers of Jesus were Jewish, and they were bound to the laws of the Old Testament; and as the Christian movement spread, more and more people came into the faith who were not Jewish, but who were also bound by the religious or even secular laws of their own cultures. And among all those who became followers of Christ – whether Jewish or Gentile – many were in bondage to the slavery of poverty, oppression, injustice, sickness, and all the things that take life away from people.

And so at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus is the promise that he will send to us the Holy Spirit who will become the wind beneath our wings to set us free to live life as fully as God intends it to be.

The Holy Spirit brings us the power of freedom! Being a Christian is about becoming FREE and setting others FREE!!

Now today is Memorial Day weekend and we take time over these days to remember and honor those who have given their lives for freedom. As the little veterans’ slogan goes, “All gave some, some gave all.” How important it is to remember this, and to respect the sacrifices that have been made, and are being made right now by many, to defend and protect the freedom which we enjoy.

But sometimes we fail to appreciate freedom for what it really is. While we celebrate and honor those who defend freedom, it is possible to get hung up there – on flags and parades, and national pride - and forget the rest of the story – to lose sight of where our freedom comes from in the first place. While soldiers bravely defend freedom, soldiers did not invent freedom. Freedom is not a product made in America although America stands for freedom and protects it. Our Constitution did not create freedom, but provides guarantees of freedom’s rights to its citizens. In fact, long before our nation ever came to be, the wind of freedom was already blowing like a mighty wind. The history books tell us that western Europeans and others who first came to these shores came because they sought liberty from religious, economic and political oppression.

And the dream of freedom was the wind beneath their wings.

Freedom is the gift of God, and not the possession of any person or any nation.

It does not belong to us. We cannot dictate its course. We cannot contain it. We cannot control it.

Freedom is a wind that blows in the heart of every human being.

Freedom is the dream of Chen Guangcheng. He’s the blind Chinese dissident who works so hard for the civil rights of people living in the rural areas of China. For all his efforts defending women and others from government-sponsored violence and forced abortions, Chen was arrested by the government, served four years in prison followed by house arrest and frequent beatings. Fearing for his life, Chen escaped last month and fled to the American embassy. As you may know, after negotiations between our government and the Chinese, Chen was allowed to come to America to “study.” He, of course, fears for the safety of his wife and the others in his home province who also have the wind of freedom blowing in their hearts.

Freedom is a wind that blows in the heart of every human being.

Pam Ortega is a Californian whose life fell apart. Alcoholism and drug addiction destroyed two marriages. She lost her children who no longer wanted to live with her. But at one point, Pam hit rock bottom. She started going to AA and became sober. But just as life was getting better, Pam was involved in a car wreck. She found herself lying in a hospital bed unable to move. She was a quadriplegic. Depression set in, along with thoughts of suicide. But somehow, God came to Pam, and the Spirit started blowing in her heart. Pam dreamed a dream, a dream about reconciling with her daughters. And a dream about walking again.

So Pam started reaching out to her estranged kids, and they came. Together, they were set free from the chains of rejection and hurt. They became best friends. And Pam – who dreamed she would be able to walk again in five years – actually accomplished it in four years and ten months.

Sort of.

It might not be what you and I would call “walking.” She can’t walk to the store, or hike in the mountains. Pam’s walking is between two rails at the rehabilitation center where she is brought every day and she is only up to 18 steps – by thrusting her hips to swing her legs forward. It’s not much, but it’s more than it was and Pam is determined to do even more. Someday, she says, she’d like to work in hospitals with people just like herself.

Freedom. Freedom is a wind that blows in the heart of every human being.

You sense it in YOUR heart – there are things you want to do, problems you want to overcome, addictions you want to be set free from, fears you want to stop constraining you, broken relationships that you want to make whole. All of us have within us dreams of freedom.

And so do the people all around us.

I met a nurse at the hospital last week who was interested to know about our Community Church. I told him about us, and asked if he went to church. “Not anymore,” he said. “My church (he actually told me the denomination) just about destroyed me – destroyed my marriage – destroyed everything that was good and made me feel that everything about me was bad.”

People need to be set free from toxic religion. People need to be set free from experiences that have turned them away from God, so that they can find true freedom in Jesus Christ.

And that’s our job! That’s the role our church is to play in the world. We are to be a beacon for freedom. We are to help people find the power of God that sets people free to become the people God created us to be!

What’s YOUR dream?

You know, the prophet Joel said that one of the signs of the Holy Spirit at work is when people start dreaming dreams.

What’s YOUR dream?

Is it to be set free from doubt and find the God you’ve been looking for all your life?

Is it to become able to overcome your fear of accepting someone who is different, and be able to love them unconditionally?

Is it to come alongside and help a family member, or some people in society, who just can’t seem to catch a break?

Is it to break down an evil that exists in society, and that denies people the freedom to truly pursue life, liberty, and happiness?

If you have a freedom-dream in your heart, take it seriously. It just may be the Holy Spirit at work! Lift that dream up to God in prayer. And as the Lord inspires you, go and work hard to make it come true.

The Holy Spirit has come.

There is a wind beneath our wings.

So let us go and be free. Let us go and set others free. And let us honor all those who, in every time and place, defend, protect and promote freedom for all.

Amen.