Oh, God, take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, and take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.
Welcome to this glorious Day of Pentecost. Today is the celebration of the birth of the church, not the building, but the community who on this day was released from captivity to fear, emboldened and given gifts through the untamed force of the Holy Spirit that allowed them to speak out to the world about God’s deeds of power. These bewildered and broken men and women had wandered off not knowing how they were going to live without the presence of their teacher and savior Jesus. Pentecost was the day that they got their answer. With great joy and symbolic ferocity they are shown that they are God’s—every last one of them—and that God is love, not just in poetry, but in physical fact. The Spirit of God promised by Jesus arrives amidst wind and fire and Spirit and they find themselves somehow transported to the streets where they are able to speak and enable all to understand God’s great goodness.
This event happens during the Jewish festival of Shavuot or Pentecost that celebrates when God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Pentecost means 50, so fifty days after Passover, Devout Jews from all corners of the ancient world are present as well as Gentiles—Cretans and Arabs– who are “God fearers”—people who are not ethnically Jewish, but worship the One God.
All gathered in Jerusalem are awestruck when they hear the followers of Jesus speaking in each of their languages. The fact is that far from not understanding one another that day in Jerusalem, all present are “astonished and amazed” (Acts 2:7) because they do understand “the great deeds of God spoken in their own language.” They are “astonished and confused” (Acts 2:12) not because they cannot understand but because they can and they are hearing it from Galileans, those they looked down on as illiterate and ignorant people.
And what were these Galilean followers of Jesus speaking about—the great deeds of God. They seemed to be drunk, so filled with joy and exuberance. But Peter stops this speculation and says no, they are not drunk on wine—they are filled to overflowing with God’s Spirit. And now there is no way they can avoid speaking out—about God’s love that knows no end—that all will be saved through God’s power—and that none will be left to face this life alone. Just as Jesus promised, these frightened disciples have received an Advocate—the Spirit of God who will walk alongside them, guide them, push them into the world and give them the courage and the authority to speak the truth—to lift up—to offer life to all.
There are many miracles on this day of Pentecost, but two I would like to speak of today. One, like Lee Cheek said last week, that God’s love will not be stopped. These dispirited disciples who ran away from the trial and crucifixion of their Lord, these peasant Galileans—fishermen, tax-collectors, tradesmen—who denied their Master, are now heard proclaiming in all the languages of the world the story of God’s power through the life of God’s son, Jesus. This has taken place because the Holy Spirit has filled them and launched them into the world to carry the story of their Lord to everyone. And this work begins here on Pentecost. As Luke Timothy Johnson says, “The resurrection of Jesus has made possible the transformation of the disciples who in turn will make possible the transformation of the world.”
Peter goes on to quote the prophet Joel, that these Galileans will not be the only word from God. Indeed, God will pour out the Spirit on all flesh. Sons and daughters, young and old, slaves and free will see visions, dream dreams, and share God’s truth to all. (Acts 2: 17-18) He and the other disciples will not be the only ones equipped to make meaning. All who receive the Spirit, both then and now can be equipped to speak truth, to share God’s love with the world, to tell stories that open hearts and minds to the reality of God’s infinite love.
The second miracle of that day was the impact it had on those who heard of God’s love. The word spread far and wide, creating communities of care and compassion. You don’t get to the end of this chapter before you hear that those who heard and believed were selling their possessions and sharing with all in need. They were eating at a common table where they broke bread and ate with “glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.” (Acts 2:46-47) Clearly something was happening among them that could not be explained in any way other than that the desire of Moses and the prophets had come true. It is not a surprise that with lives like that, they had “the goodwill of all the people,” and that many sought to join them. (Acts 2: 47) The Spirit filled them with joy and possibility. Their eyes were opened to the presence of God’s Spirit in their midst and they began to live into the new creation promised by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus did not promise the gift of the Spirit only for these first and second century Christians. The reality of Pentecost is that our world is saturated in God. And we are called like those early followers to share God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s justice in a language that speaks to everyone.
We live in a time where language is being used to separate and divide. Language is being hurled that casts down, sets apart, blames and shames. We are caught in an anxious time where people feel trapped in a changing world where they fear they do not have a place. We are buffeted on every side by words that marginalize and damage. And as I once said to a group of my students in Chapel—the phrase “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”—is a lie. Words can do so much more damage than sticks and stones. Sticks and stones cause injuries that will eventually heal.
But words–words can infect the heart, poison the spirit, and create a gulf between people that can be almost impossible to bridge. Words can be violent and lead to violence both physically and spiritually. The words we are hearing today grind down the spirit. We have people living in fear because of reckless, demeaning, and threatening words.
As Christians, we have a powerful God who tells us through the beauty of creation, the undeserved love we receive from others, and through the greatest gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all that God created is beloved. Each of us made in the image of God is of immeasurable worth. Over and over God seeks out each of us and loves us, time and again reclaims us, welcoming us into God’s glorious deeds. Words that tell others that they are not loved, that they are not worthy, that they are not important or are expendable in the world are false words. They speak against God’s truth.
God’s truth is that each of us is of endless value–every person critical to God’s plan for our salvation. And we as Christians are called to speak loudly and passionately in the language that all will understand—that God is love. What is not love is not God. We are to love each other as God has loved us and God has sent us a Spirit that dwells in us and walks alongside us into the hope of freedom. God never leaves us alone. God’s very being is one of Hope. No one is ever excluded from this promise. We are witnesses to these things.
At Grace Church, we are given the opportunity to speak in the language of God’s love that all can understand. At the Lee Food Pantry and at the People’s Pantry, we are able to offer hungry people food, but even perhaps more important we are offering ourselves, our attentiveness, our connection with them. Last Saturday, a gentleman visiting the Lee Food Pantry said that he likes to come there, because people treat him with more kindness than anyplace else he goes. On Friday night and Saturday morning, we began welcoming our immigrant neighbors to our Grace Church Office, making it possible for them to learn about resources to help them move toward legal status so they can work and live with hope and security. Some of the people there spoke English. Some spoke Spanish. A few spoke both languages. But what was communicated was a language that all could understand. Generous food was present. People were greeted with smiles and welcome. Space was created for listening. Stories were greeted with care and compassion. This is the language that communicates to all that God has created us to love each other as God has loved us.
I do not know, where the movement of the Holy Spirit will guide us, energizing our lives, and utilizing our unique gifts. But I know that we are called as a community to be witnesses to God’s great glory and the common good of all of God’s creation. On this Day of Pentecost, let us celebrate that which was begun in that upper room. Let us pray that God’s Spirit will once again lead ordinary, sometimes timid, terrified men and women to proclaim in a language that all can understand the truth of the Gospel. Let us each pray that the what was given to those first disciples be given to us so that again and again God may bring to life that which is life giving and new. And let us speak out to the world in a language all can understand of God’s great deeds of power.