Our Text: Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“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.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Jerusalem was more crowded than normal.The city was bustling. The sounds of the markets and animals and tourists filled the streets. Jews of the diaspora had traveled far and wide to this holy city to celebrate the Festival of Pentecost. Celebrated fifty days after Passover, the festival commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai. Originally a harvest festival, pilgrims filled the marketplace searching for the perfect grain offering with which to honor God.
Removed from the hustle and bustle of the celebration a group of disciples gathered together. Jesus had told them before he ascended that they were to go to Jerusalem and wait. And so they did. They waited.
And suddenly it came.
At first is seemed to be a faint whistle coming from under the door. Whoooo. But the sound continued to grow and build until it filled the entire room where the disciples were sitting.
Like fire, divided tongues lit upon each of the disciples. Surely it must have seemed like a special effects scene from any summer blockbuster movie. As with this fire and wind, there came a new sound; one of many languages filling the room.
Soon onlookers appeared to take in this awesome event. Crowds converged on the house where the disciples were, the center of this new and strange phenomenon.
Fifteen years ago a group of 40 high school and college kids boarded a plane in San Francisco bound for worlds unknown. For the vast majority of us, it would be the first trip away from home, much less to a foreign land. For nearly a day, literally, a flight of 23 hours, we traveled up the western sea board of the US and up by Alaska and then down next to Japan and to korea for a brief refueling stop. After a couple of hours we were back in the air and headed to a 36 hour layover on the island nation of Singapore. We checked into our rooms, in a very fancy european style hotel. For an Asian country, it didn't really feel that foreign a place. It felt a little like New York, but much cleaner. In fact, I later leanred that English is the second most popular language there. Sure, the drivers drove on the “wrong side of the street” and the whole place was entirely too clean to be home, it still didn't have that,”not quite in Kansas anymore” feeling. And yet, even though we were just over a day removed from being “home” when faced with the choice of local cuisine and KFC for dinner, most everyone raced to the familiar, the KFC. Only a few of us were brave and tried the local fare; it wasn't that bad. The KFC on the other hand, we were later told, was not quite right.
Landing in Hanoi, Vietnam was like a “whole new world.” It did not take a long time to recognize the “foreign-ness” of it all. The air smelled different. The writing on the walls and signs. Bikes, scooters, taxis and bike-taxis were everywhere. Going every which direction. There was no order about it. And crowded? Wow. With a population of over 6 million, there were people everywhere. Working in shops. Riding their scooters. Walking to and fro. And it seemed none of them spoke English.
If you've ever traveled to another country you know what it's like. The feeling of isolation. Of wanting to break through the communication barier and the frustration when you are unable even to get a simple thought conveyed to another person.
So you can imagine our excitement when were heard a little english, a bit broken, with an asian accent, but it was English!. Our ears naturally perked up and we focused in the direction of the sound.
Their ears perked up as well, those people in the crowd, as they each heard told of the wonderful deeds of God in their own native language.
But, as is always the case, there were those who doubted. “They're just drunk.”
Listen as author and theologian Frederick Buechner describes SPIRIT:
The word spirit has come to mean something pale and shapeless, like an unmade bed. School spirit, the American spirit, Christmas spirit, the spirit of '76, the Holy Spirit- each of these points to something you know is supposed to get you on your feet cheering, but which you somehow can't rise to. The adjective spiritual has become downright offensive. If someone recommends a person as spiritual you tend to avoid that person, and usually with good reason. Inspiring is even worse. Inspirational is worse still. Inspirational books are almost invariably for the birds.
Like its counterpart in Hebrew and Greek, the latin word spiritus originally meant breath (as in expire, respiration, and so on), and breath is what you have when you're alive and don't know when you're dead. Thus spirit=breath=life, the alive ness and power of your life, and to speak of your spirit (or soul) is to speak of the power of life that is in you. When your spirit is unusually strong, the life in you unusually alive, you can breathe it out into other lives, become literally, in-spiring.
Spirit is highly contagious. When people are very excited, very happy, very sad, you can catch it from them just as easily as measles or a yawn. You can catch it from what they say or from what they do or just from what happens to the air of a room when they enter it without saying or doing anything. Groups also have a spirit, as anybody can tell you who has ever been caught up in a football game, a political rally, or a ...mob. Spirit can be good or bad, healing or destructive. Spirit can be transmitted across great distances of time and space. For better or worse, you can catch the spirit of people long dead, of people whose faces you have never seen and wose languages you cannot speak.
God also has a spirit, is Spirit, says ... John. Thus God is the power of power itself of life itself, has breathed and continued to breathe himelf into his creation. In-spires it. The Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, is highly contagious. When Peter and his friends were caught up in it at Jerusalem on Pentecost, everyone though they were drunk even though (it was only 9 am). They were.1
“Men of Judea,” Peter calls out, “what you see and hear now is the fulfillment of what was written by the prophet Joel.”
“ '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...”
Joel spoke of the Day of the Lord as a day of destruction, a time of death and suffering and judgment.
Not so for Peter. Peter takes what was originally a forecast of destruction and death... which becomes on Peter's tongue a declaration of new life.
The Day of the Lord (anticipated by Jews as Day of judgment) had come in the person, ministry, passion of Jesus... when God broke into history and marks not the beginning of the end but the beginning of a new beginning....When “God became flesh and dwelt among us.”
In the last days it God's spirit will be poured out on all people. I've always loved the inclusiveness of this passage. Sons, daughters, young and old. Everyone.
Chuck Poole reminds us that “we ordain women because we baptize girls.” Because we firmly believe that whosoever will may indeed come.
In those days God will pour out his Spirit on all the people. All means all.
Once the initial shock of being in another country wore off, we got to work. We enrolled in classes at the University. We learned their history, their culture, their language. We visited the orphanages and a school for the blind. We shared stories. We listened to theirs. They listened to ours. We broke bread with them. We made friends with them.
And when we left for the airport, we gathered in a big group hug and cried.
Again, Buechner:
A woman with a scarf over her head hoists her six year old up onto the first step of the school bus. “Good bye,” she says.
A father on the phone with his freshman son has just finished bawling him out for his poor grades. There is mostly silence on the other end of the line. “well, good-bye,” the father says.
When the girl at the airport hears the announcement that her plane is starting to board, she turns to the boy who is seeing her off. “I guess this is good-bye,” she says.
The noise of the traffic almost drowns out the sound of the word, but the shape of it lingers on the old man's lips. He tries to look vigorous and resourceful as he holds out his hand to the other old man. “Good-bye.” this time they say it so nearly in unison that it makes them both smile.
It was a long while ago that the words God be with you disappeared into the word good- bye, but every now and again some trace of them still glimmers through.2
Jesus told his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait. Before he ascends, he tells his closest friends Goodbye.
“God be with you. God be with you,” Jesus said as he ascended into heaven. I will not leave you alone. God will be with you. And at Pentecost, the Spirit came.
This same Spirit, which appeared in such power at Pentecost so long ago, is the very same Spirit which empowers each of us who are followers of Christ.
Because the story of Jesus doesn't end with Jesus.
The story continues even as the Spirit of God is poured out on each of us, even as the Spirit continues to move and to work.
This is our purpose. This is our place. This is our story.
We are to be:
a mouth to speak for Jesus;
feet to run errands for Jesus,
hands to do the work of Jesus,
and a heart to love Jesus and our neighbor as ourselves.
This is the work of the Spirit.....poured out on the church (That's US!) and it continues...
Because there is a world at there that is hurting...
There is a world out there that needs to know.
It's up to us to tell them.
Let's go! What are you waiting for?
1Buechner, “Spirit” in Wishful Thinking, 110-111.
2Buechner, Frederick. “Good-bye” in Whistling in the Dark, 60.
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