Pentecost Sunday
John 15,16 Acts 2
Change is almost always hard. We may choose to make a change, it may be a good thing but it is nevertheless hard.
I don't know how many people I talked to this week who brought in items for the rummage sale that bore testimony to that fact, The tiny clothes that signified a change from babyhood to childhood. The little girl furniture that was no longer suited to a mature young woman. The people cleaning out their basements in preparation for a move or the cherished items sluffed for down-sizing. Change is almost always hard. We get used to things as they are.
Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church. So it is well I think to talk about the church. Our lessons today point to three significant changes that took place in that early group of followers that would change them into the Christian church. These three changes tell us important things about what it is to be the church today.
Once again this week our gospel lesson is a continuation of Jesus' last address to his disciples before his death. Jesus acknowledges that the disciples will be sorrowful because of the changes to come. First of all, Jesus noted that he would no longer be with them to laugh and to talk, to travel the countryside and to teach them. There are few among us who have not experienced such loss. It is personally painful to reach for the phone to call a loved one and suddenly remember that they are not going to be there or to attend a gathering and not see the familiar face of a cherished friend in a familiar setting. The disciples would grieve despite the promise Jesus gave them of an Advocate to come.
Fast forward now, through the joy of the resurrection, through the amazement of the appearances and finally to the moment when Jesus takes them to that hillside that we remembered and celebrated ten days ago as the festival of the ascension, Jesus gives his disciples his final command to make disciples of all nations and then he disappears from their sight. We pick up the story given by Luke in Acts 2 "The disciples and some others were in Jerusalem, and they were all together "in one place." They found in each other a community in which to share their personal joys and sorrows. Now notice again the way the Spirit brought them into community and made a close group of them. What could have happened was that each of the disciples focused on their personal experiences of Jesus. They could have not worried about those around them but made Jesus their personal and private savior. They could have each gone his or her own way nursing their personal experience of Jesus. But in stead we are told "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers....And all who believed were together and had all things in common." They became a community of persons who studied together, worshipped together, socialized with each other, looked after each other, ate together.
The disciples found strength and comfort in each other. Together, as a group, they were more able to deal with change and with the challenges of life.
But the Spirit is not done with them yet. There is yet another change to come. With the sound of a mighty wind and the flash of flames they are thrust out of their comfortable companionship and into the streets. No one was more surprised than the believers themselves at the words that were coming out of their mouths. People from all over the known world heard them and understood. The good news was not to be kept under wraps. The good news was not meant exclusively for the comfort and consolation of the few. The Spirit was a powerful motivator.
Now it seems to me that this progression of events has something important and powerful to say to us about what it is to be the church.
We've all heard people say "I don't need the church, I believe in God, I have a personal relationship with Jesus, I don't need a bunch of other people." Well indeed the disciples did have a personal relationship with Jesus that they cherished but even for them it was not enough. The spirit that Jesus promised was the power that brought them together. It was the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of joy. Those are seldom virtues we practice alone.
It's been a long time since I took chemistry and used a centrifuge, you know that device that spins and spins till compounds are separated out. The Bible seems to be telling us that the Holy Spirit is more like a magnet than a centrifuge. The Holy Spirit is centripetal rather than centrifugal. The Spirit is that which draws us together. We do not spin wildly off into our own little worlds where it is just "you and me God"--we are drawn into relationship with the body of Christ. Just as the spirit allowed the disciples to share their sorrows and joys so the spirit calls us to be a people sharing our joys and sorrows.
But just as it wasn't good enough for the disciples and believers to be a warm fuzzy little inbred group it isn't good enough for us either. The Spirit that birthed the church is not a soft breeze but a mighty wind--the spirit is not a hot water bottle it's a spitting and flashing flame. The Spirit working propels us out into the streets where we speak the language of business, the language of education, the language of justice, the language of health and a hundred other languages that are all understood as the language of love. .
The philosopher-theologian Soren Kierkagard wrote a little parable about geese. The geese liked to sit on the fence posts or strut around the barnyard discoursing on the beauty of flying. The talked and talked about the beauty and wonder of flying. But when one of their number, seduced by all the talk about flying, actually flapped his wings and began to fly, the rest of the geese all roundly condemned him as a fool and a fanatic who should be shunned for his melodramatic antics. Flying, they were convinced, was to be talked about, not literally enacted.
There is a lot of talk in the church, lots of talk. But the church is not called to talk, it is called to fly. A church that flies, soars. A people that flies. The Spirit provided words in every language but that was only the beginning. The Gospel had wings. It lifted people. It took people to places they had never gone before. The community was no longer limited to earthly views. The church rose above the common and worldly. The community was lifted to heights of service and love.
We as the church, need to fly. We are meant for it , we are called to it.
Jesus' disciples had to go through many changes. They went from a personal relationship with Jesus to a small comfortable group of believers to proclaiming the message to the world. They went from individual belief to private faith to public proclamation. They went from being sorrowful to being quiet to being courageous. People of faith, people of the Spirit are people of change. Some changes are easy and expected, like the change in our worship schedule for a summer Sunday or a shift in our worship liturgy. Some changes challenge us to extend ourselves like volunteering time at the rummage sale or helping with Habitat construction. And some changes require real courage like confronting a known injustice or making a life changing decision to follow the calling of the Spirit. This is not just talk. The Spirit invites us to try our wings. There are those who will think we are crazy, fools. There are those who will think we are drunk or at least out of touch with reality. But then the Kingdom of God is beyond reality. God's kingdom transcends our world. It is the Spirit that invites us to move beyond this world.
Today is a day for change. Today is a day for soaring. Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church. The day the people of God discovered a changing world.
Amen