Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
June 4, 2006

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

We were a small bunch of frightened men and women on the first Christian Pentecost. We were sure our movement was a failure. True, we had seen him risen from the grave, but we didn’t have any idea how that was possible or what it might possibly mean. And when we saw him, one of the things he told us was not to leave Jerusalem but to "wait for the promise of the Father," whatever that was supposed to mean. Then after he’d said a few more things he disappeared from our sight. Right up into the air. I’ll tell you true, it was a weird few days. He’d told us he wold be crucified and rise again on the third day, but we didn’t believe him. We thought he’d gotten into some bad wine or something, but then it happened just like he’d said. That disappearing act, though, we didn’t expect that. He hadn’t told us about that one, and we sure didn’t know what to make of it. And we weren’t too happy about that stay in Jerusalem bit either. There we were sitting right under the noses of the murderous Romans who had crucified him and who would have been only too happy to crucify us too. But then, when someone who’s just risen from the dead tells you to stay put, you stay put. Still, we didn’t know what to do. There were so few of us, and what we had to say sounded so strange. It was so unpopular. We knew that no one would believe us.

But then the most incredible thing happened! We were all sitting around one day, just waiting in Jerusalem like he’d told us to do. Suddenly we all heard this sound. It filled the whole house, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. It sounded like the wind had started blowing a gale; but there wasn’t actually any wind, just the sound of the wind. We all froze. Weird, we thought. We’ve been through so much. Now what?

Then it got weirder. All of a sudden it looked like the air was full of flames. There were tongues of what look like fire darting all over the room, but nothing got burned. By this time I think we were all kind of in shock, so many impossible things had happened, so we just sat there at first and waited to see what this weird stuff that looked like fire but that didn’t burn anything would do. What it did was it came and sat on our heads. A tongue of this fire stuff rested on each one of us. Some of us tried to duck not wanting to have our hair set on fire, but it didn’t work. The fire just followed us until everyone had been touched by the stuff. Then, as quickly as they had come, the wind sound and the tongues that looked like flame just disappeared.

All of that was bizarre enough, but what happened after the flames had touched us was beyond comprehension. You see, we were all Galileans. We spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic, and that’s all we spoke. We weren’t educated people. We’d never traveled and learned other languages. But all of a sudden we all started speaking all kinds of other languages, all of the languages of the ancient Mediterranean world in which we lived. Me, I was suddenly speaking Arabic. I didn’t know Arabic. I’d never even met an Arab before, although I knew there were some of them in Jerusalem at the time. And here I was talking in Arabic about Jesus, about how the Romans had killed him but that he rose from the dead, and about all the things he had taught us. It was like I’d been raised an Arab myself. And the others had the same experience with other languages.

Some people said we must have been drunk. They said: "They are filled with new wine." That never made sense to me, since I’d never seen anyone suddenly speaking a new foreign language just because he was drunk. And good old Peter, our leader now that Jesus was gone, was as clumsy as ever when he responded to this charge for us. He said: "Indeed, these are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning." Thanks a lot Pete! You gave everyone the idea that the only reason we weren’t drunk was because it was too early in the day! Just wait a few hours. They’ll all be smashed. Sheesh!

But here’s what I really want to tell you about. When the Holy Spirit came and rested on us that Pentecost day so long ago, it wasn’t just that we could suddenly speak languages we hadn’t known. That really was the least of it. I told you that we were a small band of frightened people who didn’t know what to do. All of a sudden that wasn’t true any more. All of a sudden we were full of energy. All of sudden we were fearless and creative. We were filled with passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We just had to share it with everyone. We had no skills. We had no money. Clumsy old Peter was the best we could do for leadership. There was every reason in the world why our movement should have been stillborn in a hostile world. That’s what should have happened, but do you know what did happen? We conquered the world! We converted that same Roman Empire that had crucified Jesus as a political criminal. From there the Good News of Jesus Christ spread to the entire world. True, those of you who came after us have messed it up quite a bit at times, but still. You’re here today worshipping God in and through Jesus Christ because of what we did in the power of the Holy Spirit after that first Christian Pentecost.

And guess what. You can do the same thing! Oh I know. You’re a small group of women and men. You’re scared like we were. You’re scared about money. You’re scared about what people think of you because your Christianity is truer to Jesus than the Christianity that’s popular in this town. (It is you know. I knew him, and I know you’re on the right track.) You get frustrated because the church and its coffers aren’t full. You think maybe this church won’t make it.

Well, I’m here to tell you that if you will just open yourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit, none of that stuff matters at all. If you will let the Spirit rest on you the way it rested on us that day, there’s nothing you can’t do. If you will open yourselves to the Spirit you too will be filled with power. You will feel a joy that the world cannot take from you. You will be passionate, creative, and courageous. You will spread the Good News of God’s unconditional love for all people the way we did two thousand years ago. You will reach the ones who think Christ and Christ’s church reject and condemn them. You will reach the ones whose hearts burn with a passion for peace and justice but who think Christianity has nothing to offer them.

Open yourselves to the Holy Spirit, and you cannot fail. I know. We did it. We were inspired, which means filled with the Spirit. You can be too, and I pray that you will be. Amen.