Sermon For July 9, 2000
HEBREW TESTAMENT: The Day of Pentecost ~ Acts 2:1-13
I never was much of a speaker. I was a fisherman, like many of the others who followed Jesus. Working men. It was fine enough when we were with Jesus, for he was the one who did all the talking. We were there to take care of things along the way. Although there were times when people came up and asked some of us to pray with them or to give them a healing touch. But mostly it was Jesus. When I think about Jesus and I think about my life, it is like the tides of the ocean rising and falling, rising and falling again. Though there is nothing regular in the way my life has gone up and down. There were times when we were with him when it was so very exciting. When we believed that we could change the whole world. There were other times when we were cold, or hungry, or tired from traveling mile after mile of dusty road, when we wondered what we were doing, and whether it made any difference at all. I remember going to Jerusalem, with the excitement, the expectation. We were stunned when it turned around so quickly, and people were calling out for his arrest. We were confused and bewildered, when he was taken away by the authorities. When we watched him slowly die on the cross each of us thought that our life had come to an end.
When the women reported that he had risen from the dead, that Sabbath day, none of us were prepared to believe it. Then we saw him with our own eyes. Our joy was beyond measure. It seemed he stayed with us but a moment, forty days and he was then taken up to be with his Father. Again, we tumbled to the depths, wondering how we could carry on the work that he had begun. We had no words, no power, no way to speak the message that he had spoken. He promised us the coming of the Spirit, with power. At his baptism, John spoke of just such a thing. “The one who is coming will baptize with the Spirit and with fire.” We didn’t expect it to happen. We stayed in Jerusalem, for all the Jews from, it seemed, the whole world were coming there to celebrate the feast of weeks. In Greek, it is called Pentecost, pente, fifty, fifty days after Passover. The Feast of Weeks was a harvest festival, a gathering in of the crops, the wheat, and the barley. In the temple, the priests would offer two loaves of bread made from freshly gathered grain. We would give thanks for the abundance of the crops, and look for a blessing for the year to come.
I was with the disciples in the upper room. We were talking quietly, men and women gathered, friends of Jesus, those who had listened to his words, who had watched his healings. We did not know what lay ahead of us. We were such a small group. When Matthias was chosen to replace Judas, there were more than one hundred and twenty gathered, but what is one hundred and twenty when Jesus told us to take the message out into the whole world. As we sat there, a sound began to come to our ears. People looked up and around with a questioning look on their faces. What is it? Someone said, “It is the thousands headed to the temple.” Then the slats on the shutters began to shake. There was a sound of whistling as wind came through the cracks. Andrew looked out the window and said, “There is no wind. The pilgrims’ clothes hang straight.” As it grew louder, the pilgrims themselves began to turn and look in our direction. We were confused and began to feel the anxiety build within us. The wind blew louder and louder. Then above each one of us, something appeared. It is so hard to describe. It looked like tongues of flame above each head! With the tongues of flame, the tongues of language began to speak. All those who were gathered began to speak in languages that they had never known before, never learned. Pilgrims who had gathered around us began to hear disciples speaking in their very own tongue. Someone spoke and said, “It is the Spirit. It is the Spirit here among us!” We were caught up with voices and with wind and with flames! Always amazed that each of the pilgrims could hear in their own tongue. Even more surprising was the poor fishermen, the simple workers; the followers of Jesus were able to speak out with strength and with power. There are those who misunderstood. They said to us, “What is the matter with you? You are drunk already with the wine for the festival?! Couldn’t you wait? Show some discipline, get a hold of yourselves.” But Peter stood up to speak. Peter stood up to speak. Peter, who in his own darkness turned his back on Jesus. This was the Peter who, when confronted by the maid said, “I do not know this man!” It was this Peter, filled now with the power of the Spirit, who was able to stand before the crowd and say, “Brothers and sisters, people of Israel, we are not drunk! It’s only nine in the morning. We are filled with the Spirit as the prophet Joel has proclaimed! For the Lord God will send the Spirit down on the people. And in the last days the sun shall darken and the moon will turn to blood. The people will see visions and dream, dreams and speak words of prophecy. And you will know that the power of the Lord is upon you all. You will know that the time of God’s kingdom is at hand!” Peter, who could not speak a word in defense of Jesus, stood up and preached to the crowd. He told them of what had happened. He said “You have waited your whole life for the messiah of God, God’s special messenger. I tell you that special messenger was Jesus of Nazareth. But your hearts were hardened. You refused to listen. Instead, you called for his death. His faithfulness took him to the cross. Your refusal to listen took his life away. God used this opportunity to demonstrate the divine power, and brought life from death and a new beginning.” All who heard were amazed at his words, at the power of his preaching. They called on all of us who had spoken in their own voices, “What must we do to be saved?” Peter said, “You must repent, you must turn to God, you must live your lives in faith. Receive forgiveness for your sins.”
There were many that day who heard the message. There were more than three thousand who came to us and begged to be baptized. Each of us, who could barely speak more than a sentence, found the words to speak the faith. With confidence, we responded to each one who came to us. Baptizing with water. Baptizing in the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. One hundred and twenty, three thousand, the Holy Spirit giving us the words and the courage to carry the love of God, the message of Jesus the Christ out to the whole world. The day of Pentecost, the beginning of the church.