Community Church Sermons

Year C

May 19, 2013

Pentecost Sunday

Too Much Wine

Acts 2:1-13

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

It’s one of those wonderful moments in the Bible when a heavenly experience runs head-on into an earthly expectation. The Spirit has come. The followers of Jesus are infused with amazing power. Miraculous signs appear among them.

And all the crowd can say is, “They’ve had too much wine!”

Now, to all those who – like my late, dear, sainted mother – insist that Jesus and the disciples drank only non-alcoholic wine – this verse alone should be enough to dispel that thought. In fact when Peter gets up to defend himself and the others, he doesn’t say they don’t drink wine but rather that it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning – as if to say, “Come back at 5 this afternoon and it might be a different story!

“They’ve had too much wine!”

This special moment that we call “the Day of Pentecost” is a true turning point in the life of the Church, and it can be a turning point for you and me, too. Think about the disciples – ordinary, everyday people - just like us. They’ve been taught by Jesus and witnessed his life – just like us. They’ve come to believe – in God, and salvation, and in the hope of the Gospel to redeem creation – just like us! And just like us, they’ve accepted the challenge of loving the world like Jesus loved them.

And yet, there they are, locked behind the closed doors of that room in Jerusalem where they are hiding out from the rest of the world.

You might say they’ve been indoctrinated into the principles of this new Christian religion.

But not the power of the Holy Spirit.

The power to courageously unlock the locks, and open the doors, and step out into the big scary world out there to proclaim the Gospel and change that world in Jesus’ name.

Oh, they’ve got the religion.

But not the power to do anything worthwhile with it.

They look to me a lot like many churches in our world today where the only thing going on is INSIDE the church – behind closed doors, so to speak. People go to church to BE fed rather than to GO and feed. The members measure success by how many people they take IN, not how many people they send OUT. Success is measured in terms of beautiful buildings, enjoyable music, inspiring sermons, sweet fellowship, and balanced budgets.

A lot of churches today are like that little band of disciples hiding out there in that locked upper room in Jerusalem where everything seems safe and secure.

But the Day of Pentecost was dawning, and that’s when it happened.

The Holy Spirit came.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever met the Holy Spirit – or studied about the Spirit in the Bible – or experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

If you haven’t, boy do you have a fantastic surprise waiting for you!

The very first mention of the Spirit is in the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible – Genesis 1. There, we are told that in the Beginning the earth was formless and void – sort of like a great big cloud of water vapor. And the Holy Spirit was hovering over it. Then God spoke. “Let there be light – let there be sky – let there be dry land” – let there be all the things that came to be and that we know as the creation. And whenever God spoke, the Holy Spirit made it happen!

POW!

The Spirit is the POWER of CREATION!

And when the Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus holed up in that locked upper room in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, it blew the roof off that little church and set those Christians on fire for God in a way they never dreamed possible. They were no longer “insiders” just taking care of their own religious business, but they were driven OUT of the locked room and into the world beyond where they REACHED OUT with the power and love of Jesus Christ.

And when we read the story we learn they were given the languages of love so everyone could hear about God’s amazing grace in their own tongue.

And they were given the touch of healing so that bodies and spirits and minds and relationships could be made whole.

And they were given the power of unity in diversity – the power to reach beyond the dividing lines of culture, race, religion, class, ethnicity, age, gender and all the other things that put people at odds with each other. And bound together by the love of God for ALL his children, they were given the power to create unity among each other and with those all around.

And what did the people of Jerusalem say when they saw all these things that day?

“They’ve had too much wine!”

Why do you suppose they said that?

When I came home from college one weekend and told my best boyhood friend Dennis Astrella that I had experienced God’s touch on my life and felt a call to ministry, he looked at me with disbelief and said, “Butch (my nickname), what have you been smoking?” That’s sort of a 1960’s-70’s way of saying. “He’s had too much wine!”

You see, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, many people don’t think it’s normal for people to get excited about God – to talk openly about faith – to pray for healing and to hope for miracles – to give our lives and our resources away - and most especially to get along with each other!

But underlying all that is something deeper.

We don’t want to have to leave our comfort zones – the little boxes where we feel safe and in control – those locked rooms in our own personal downtown Jerusalems where we can hide and be safe from danger – and differences – and people with whom we disagree – and most especially - the need to CHANGE!

But along comes Pentecost and the message is an invitation to come and see – to give the Holy Spirit a chance to show you how much bigger and more beautiful God’s world – and God’s way - really is.

In E.M. Forster's wonderful short story, "The Other Side of the Hedge", a young man has been running along the same hot and dusty road nearly every day for the past 25 years. The road is very narrow and bordered on either side by a brown crackling hedge. It is thick and impenetrable, blocking out any sight or sound of what lies on the other side.

But, one day, the man stops and sits down to catch his breath. Suddenly, a cool puff of fresh air touches his cheek. It seems to come from a place in the hedge where the branches have thinned out. He moves closer to the hedge, and sensing an opening, the young man pushes through the branches and thorns. And then, in a miraculous moment, the young man emerges into a new world. He sees a land of exquisite beauty with blue sky, brilliant sunshine and cool waters. The earth rises grandly into the hills, and beech trees line the meadows, and everywhere there are flowers! The air is filled with songbirds, and the young man who, for twenty-five years, has run the same dreary path nearly every day, discovers a brand new world - on the other side of the hedge.

The Christian Faith tells us that life is full of new worlds to discover! And following Jesus is a process of pushing through the hedges that have formed around our lives.

What do you suppose lies on the other side of the hedge – or maybe better said, “outside the box” – of your faith, of our church?

Do you think God has called us together just to bless ourselves - those of us who have already been blessed beyond measure? Or might it be that God has called us together and made us who and what we are to bless those around us who need blessing?

Have we been created simply to meet the needs of those of us who already have more than we need? Or has God made us to meet the needs of those who ARE in need?

Has our church been brought to life for those of us who already have a church home, or have we been assembled to welcome those who haven’t yet found a loving Christian family?

Are we here to receive? Or are we here to give?

The wonderful stories of our faith all come out of the lives of people who – despite the critics – dared to step out of the locked rooms of conventional wisdom in order to bring God’s love to others.

The next time you pass by a Salvation Army kettle on your way into Wal-Mart think about William Booth who saw hope and potential in the lives of street beggars and prostitutes and alcoholics in the bowels of London. Most people just passed by on their way to work or home, but Booth and his wife Catherine planted themselves among the poor bringing them food, relief and the hope of the Gospel.

The established churches laughed at them, as did most of “respectable” society. Some no doubt thought, “They’ve had too much wine!”

David Wilkerson saw a newspaper article about violent gangs in New York and was inspired to go there. He met gang members, learned about them, experienced the violence, and saw many lives destroyed by heroin and other drugs. People told him he was crazy to even care about these losers, but the Holy Spirit gave him a better vision and so Teen Challenge was born and still works to set kids free from drugs in many of our cities. But many thought, “They’ve had too much wine!”

And down in Americus, Georgia, Clarence Jordan dreamed a dream about forming an integrated community of people to live together practicing the Gospel through racial reconciliation and justice. Koinonia Farms was started and one of the people inspired by it was Millard Fuller who was led by the Spirit to begin an organization called Habitat for Humanity – that we actively support these many years later. Too much wine?

And right here in Tellico Village a couple of ministers and a handful of families caught a vision to form an interdenominational church where Christ came first, denomination became secondary, and serving others became the overarching principle of its ministry. Even today, people wonder how we bring all these different people and diverse traditions together without killing each other. Lots of folks think we’ve been into the wine, too!

But…it’s the Holy Spirit who motivates and inspires all this. And just like the Spirit was hovering over the face of the deep at creation, the Holy Spirit is hovering over you – and over our church.

Can you dare peek outside the box – to the beauty of what Jesus wants to show you is possible through your life and through our church, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit!

“They’ve had too much wine!” some of the people said.

We can understand that.

But we know a deeper and greater truth.

The Holy Spirit has come.

Let’s unlock the door, and step outside…!