Acts 2:1-21
[Flips coin] Heads or tails? [Calls out the correct answer] If you got that right then let’s just say that you won the toss. I only have one coin, and I don’t really have anything else to give you. Fortunately, I am not the only giver of gifts, because today is a day to recognize the one who is.Today is Pentecost, and if you talk to anyone who is not involved in a Christian tradition, and also many who are, they would have no idea what that means. In fact, I was just talking with my stylist the other day – yes, I said “stylist” – and I realized that it was about like it would be if I tried to describe one of my roleplaying game campaigns to the majority of you.
Yes, I said “roleplaying campaigns.” Even though I grew up in the era of Dungeons and Dragons, I have always looked down my nose at those that play these pretend games that change at the whim of a roll of the dice. Somehow, during this year of strange and strained relationships, I’ve now ended up in two different clergy groups that play these types of games, and I’ve come to realize that they offer some incredible opportunities to “workshop” moral choices and other character traits that I don’t normally think about.
The other thing that is interesting is the way that those that play these games form community and encourage involvement. Even before the events of the last year, my youngest began getting into D&D, and when we were in a store just looking at D&D books, random strangers would stop and offer encouragement.
Now, before you think I’ve gone too far afield here, I want you to know that everything I’ve just described is who and what we are called to be as the church. We form a community around sacred stories. We create space to work out our ethics and our moral character, and we create ways to engage and encourage others to join in and get involved in what we are doing.
Of course, there is something fundamentally different about what it means to be a church and being a part of a role-playing game. In the church, we celebrate the very real presence of the very real God, and the way we know this unknowable other that we call God is through God’s providence. You see, it’s not good enough to say that we know the one true God because we know the one true God.
That is why, even before the gift of the Holy Spirit, there was a festival of Pentecost. That’s right, even though most of us who know about Pentecost often think of it like that one time in history when all these crazy things happened, they happened on a day already called, “Pentecost.” In fact, I started describing Pentecost as that one day to my stylist the other day, and I have to admit that I felt a little silly for it.
For someone outside of the faith, even those that believe in God, if we hang the reality of Pentecost on this one event it sounds a little odd. For those of us who know the story, I think that awkwardness should serve as a reminder that there is a lot more to the story than we think there is.
So, what is Pentecost? Pentecost was a festival celebrating the spring harvest and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The law of Moses, particularly the 10 Commandments, formed the Israelites as a people, and the harvest was the result of God’s care for them. What better time could God pick to reveal God’s presence than Pentecost?
So, what did happen? All we know is what the scriptures tell us about this supernatural event where the disciples were gathered in fear of being crucified like Jesus was. They had been visited by Jesus after his death and many saw him ascend to the heavens, so there was a sense that they were waiting to see what might happen next. On Pentecost, when devout Jews from foreign lands made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the Spirit of God was revealed in ways that can only be described but not really understood.
There was a sound “like” the rush of the wind. Divided tongues “as of” fire danced over their heads, and they spoke in ways that everyone could hear and understand. Of course, they all wanted to know what was happening and why. Some assumed they were a little tipsy.
Then Peter broke through all of that with a Prophecy from Joel that not only described what was going on but left them wondering what could be next. This was, after all, an end of days kind of prophecy.
"In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
We can talk about this last day's thing if you want, but most scholars agree this was more of an end of an aged idea than the end of all things. That may or may not have been what Peter had in mind, but at this point, it’s pretty safe to say that’s what God had in mind.
It’s also interesting to think about what is being said here. Sons and daughters will speak and tell universal truths on behalf of God equally and together. The young will become the visionaries – not just of what can be, but of what will be. The old will be the ones to describe impossible possibilities, not the ones who say, “We’ve never done it like that!”
Wouldn’t that be nice? Of course, the prophecy of Joel gets a little darker after that, and Peter reminds them of the promise of salvation through Jesus that is even affirmed by the words of David (which he totally takes out of context, but it seems to work out ok).
Then comes the best part. Everybody gets baptized and they sell all of their stuff and share everything and live happily ever after, until Chapter 3 where it all starts to unravel. The good news here is that the Spirit did not just show up on the day of Pentecost any more than the providence of God had never happened before that day.
The good news is that the providence of God is always with us, even when things seem to unravel – and maybe especially then! The good news is that the active presence of God has been and always will be intertwined with God’s good creation, even as broken and flawed as we may be.
In fact, the activity of God’s Spirit can be seen all around us all the time! The story of the “giving of the Holy Spirit” in the Book of Acts is there to remind us that even though God is active and present in all things at all times (yes, even that one), there are times when the presence of the indescribable One is simply undeniable! That doesn’t mean that we don’t have the capacity to deny it, nor does it mean that we have the capacity to conjure God up like a genie in a bottle.
What it does mean is that the Holy Spirit of God – the active presence of God – can and does show up in a couple of ways. I’m sure it can show up in more, but here are the two that I find significant in this reading. The first is in the courage to stand up and to speak out about the hope we have in Christ. The second is in the conviction that we feel when we realize how far we have strayed from participating in the love of God in the world.
Heads or tails. Are we following God’s lead in such a way that people think we must be crazy or drunk to challenge the Empire and the status quo or are we convicted like a person with a fire lit below them? You know, that phrase, “like someone lit a fire under you,” actually came from a practice of lighting fires under a chimney sweep to make them work harder and go all the way up.
Let me be clear to say that God would never be so cruel, but what if we had the same conviction of those that heard the first invitation to be baptized and follow in the way of Jesus? What if we made such a ruckus that people came from all over to hear about the love of God and how to live into it? What if we could see that the church is not limited by these four walls, but is, instead, waiting to be formed with people out there who do not speak our language, follow our customs, or agree with our politics?
We’ve certainly had amply opportunity over the last year as the church was forced into new spaces online, but what did we do with that? Well, I’ll tell you. We developed a consistent public witness that kept our concern for the vulnerable as the main idea. We created – rather imperfectly, but always faithfully – opportunities to engage online. We’ve remained engaged as a faith community, giving generously of our time, talents, and resources, and we’ve even added members – though some have also moved on.
As I’ve said before, this last year and a half have been the hardest thing this faith community has ever endured. We have not done it perfectly, but we’ve done it faithfully. What matters now is whether or not we are able to see how God has been active and present – providing for us along the way. What matters now is whether we’ll be bold like Peter or convicted like the crowd.
I imagine that we’ll be a bit of both, but I imagine that God will still provide and God will still push us out into the world where the gospel must still be proclaimed. At least I pray it will be so with me, and I pray it may be so with you, and all to God’s glory. Amen!
Comments