The Rev. Robert Lundquist           Pentecost C      5/27/07                      St Paul’s, Ft Collins

Acts 2: 1-11  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=47390069

I Corinthians 12:4-13  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=47390108

John 20:19-23  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=47390139

There are 2 conditions that seem to evoke power of Holy Spirit:

1.        The situation too much.  You hit a brick wall in your job, relationship, illness, addiction, or tragedy  Whatever it is, it’s  bigger than you.

 

2.       The mission Got has given you is too big, the job too difficult.  It overwhelms your capacity to cope.

At these times many of us have probably felt the way Woody Allen put it:  “We are at a crossroads.  One path leads to despair & utter hopelessness; the other leads to total extinction.  I pray that I have the wisdom to choose.”

This describes the disciples before Pentecost – Jesus was alive, but he’s witnessed only by the disciples.

Jesus gave them “All authority on heaven & earth…”  but the job of preaching, teaching & baptizing to the ends of the earth was too much for them to do by their own strength.

You’ll remember this crew –

They were unable to watch with Jesus for 1 hour of prayer

They fled the crucifixion

And Peter, the ringleader, denied Jesus 3x before dawn on Good Friday

The had no training – not a seminary graduate in the bunch. 

All they had was a mandate…

So in those days after Resurrection and before Pentecost – what were they to do?

They needed God’s help – the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Advocate promised by Jesus

They were told to wait in Jerusalem upon the Spirit & power, until the time…

They didn’t know what would happen, or when…

 Imagine their conversations: 

“Well, what should we do?”

 “Jesus said we should cool it.” 

Perhaps it’s Peter who pipes up, “I’m tired of waiting, let’s just get going!” 

“No, we’ve got to wait.”

 “For what?” 

“We’ll know when it happens…”

 

And today is Pentecost, the 50^th day of the Easter season.  It’s sometimes called the Church’s birthday…  Actually the Church’s birthday is Good Friday, the day when   Jesus forgives, the disciples despair…  That’s the day on which Christ’s Body is no longer just Jesus…

 Pentecost is God’s ANSWER to the questions raised by the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.  And it’s the day when the gifts are given – the tongues of flame, the ability of tongues, the power to fulfill the mandate.  The disciples are DRUNK on the Spirit!  “We can’t be intoxicated, it’s only 10 in the morning!” they say…

 In their weakness the disciples were open to God, emptied of all other options.  So must we be emptied before we can be filled!

In 1985 the movie  Cocoon was released.  Do you remember that key scene, with the swimming pool, and the 3 old men jump in and become young again?  They were swimming in a living presence.  They expected nothing – and yet they are filled with new life, vitality and energy!

This is a fairy-tale of Pentecost!  It’s a retelling of what we know – we’re made new in water of baptism, by God’s Holy Spirit.  When we swim in those waters we are remade, revitalized and re-energized.

CS Lewis wrote:  “If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water.  If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get lose to, or even into, the thing that has them…”

Pentecost is all about getting warm, getting wet, getting God.  It’s about getting drunk on the Spirit.  The Spirit is  poured out upon the disciples, roaring through them and around them.  Flames alit upon each one of them, and they exploded upon the unsuspecting people in the marketplace, telling them good news of God.  Can you picture it?  Folks from dozens of different places trading and bartering with hand signs and gestures – the language of commerce.  Suddenly a second-floor door bursts open – perhaps the smell of something burning wafts over the crowd – and a group of excited people bubbles down the stairs.  They’re all talking about God – and everyone understands them!

You’ll recall from the book of the Exodus the story of Moses meeting God on the mountain?  He went up and was gone for some time.  The people got impatient, and, feeling abandoned, they melted down their jewelry in order to make a golden calf to worship instead of Yahweh.  When Moses came down from Mt Sinai with the tablets on which the 10 Commandments were written, he smashed those tablets in his anger.  In the Rabbinic tradition it is said that when those tablets were shattered, they broke into 70 pieces, 1 for each of the 70 known nations of the world.  Each nation received a piece of the tablets, a portion of God’s Word given to Moses.

In Pentecost YOU have been given such a piece, a portion of God’s Holy Word.  But now it is like a hologram –  it is complete in every portion.  So it is with the Spirit – it has been poured out upon you as a follower of Christ.  It is your mandate, just as true now as it was to Jesus’ first followers, to: 

Breathe in the Spirit!

            Give good news to everyone!

                        Get wet, get warm, get intoxicated,

                                    get God, & get God’s peace.

And listen – the Spirit is speaking to you & through you

            in a new language and a new way, today and every day!

Amen.