Pentecost!
May 27, 2007
Acts 1:2
Acts 2:1-12
A funny thing happened on the way to Pentecost. I fell down. That’s right, on the way to the big party day, the dancing, moving, celebration day, I fell down. I fell down and sprained my foot, maybe broke a couple of small bones, on the way to Pentecost my stride was cut short, and my motion has been limited. And, as weird as it is for me to be unsure of my feet this morning, to be relying on a crutch for support I can’t help but wonder doesn’t this all seem too perfect…I fell down on my way to Pentecost. Many of you have been telling me that you don’t know what Pentecost is or why I’d be so excited about it! Some have even come confessing this week, that you looked it up. Wikipedia is full of ideas about Pentecost. It’s the 50th day after Passover. It was a national festival for Israel to look back on how God was moving in their nation. It is also known to be the birthday of the church. And, this is true. And those who’ve come, kind of look at me like…ok…but that’s not exciting! Is this what’s exciting, their eyes have pleaded with me? Yes and no, as good progressive left people, it’s not the literal interpretation of the holiday, it’s the meaning behind this day that really gets me reved up on Pentecost. You see this wild wind. Not a gentle breeze. Not an invited spring wind. This wild and fierce wind, it blew into town and changed things. People who had hard hearts about other kinds of people. People who were suspicious of others now could speak to one another. Once we can understand a person it is so much harder to hate or ignore a person. This wind came into town and broke those barriers down. It didn’t take Jesus. It didn’t take a prophet. It only took some believers, showing up, gathering together and uniting with the spirit of God, and that gets me completely wound up, juiced up, over the top with enthusiasm about Pentecost. Because this story is about us. Nobody special, important, unusual, this story is about us. This is our story! This is our hope! We get out of bed on Sunday morning, in spite of needing just a few more hours of sleep, we get out of bed and come here to plug in because of this story. When we show up, when we unite ourselves with the Spirit of God, amazing, unbelieveable things can happen. It’s never what we expect. It’s never where we thought we were going, but it’s always a powerful witness to the Still Speaking God. What better way to teach us about our neighbors than to have a moment of dialogue between nations. Couldn’t we use that now? An unprecedented understanding, listening session, dialogue between nations on who we are and what we’re about not between presidents but between the people. Where in our world don’t we need just a little more understanding?
I get so enthused about Pentecost because the disciples get a new name. Did you hear it? They go from being disciples to becoming apostles. The word disciple means follower or student while the word apostle means teacher or witness of God’s grace. The twelve are no longer the followers. A leadership transition has taken place. It is no longer the Jesus movement. It is the movement of the apostles. These are the leaders of the church for now. They have taken on their discipleship and united with the Holy Spirit they begin again growing the community of faith as they feel called. There are new disciples, 120 of them and there are new apostles, new leaders calling the community into being through witnessing how God is working in the world through each of us. Pentecost is about passing the baton calling out new leaders, identifying new hopes, uniting with the Spirit to run in new ways.
I don’t think I can stand it, perhaps that’s why I fell down on the way to Pentecost. Isn’t it creepy how this is the holiday when we talk about a transition in leadership and your leader, fell down? Not only did I fall but I’m going to have difficulty walking for about 4-6 weeks? Isn’t that great? Don’t get me wrong, I think it totally blows, but in the larger picture it sure seems perfect for Pentecost. And, this makes me want to holler! Come on, we are in a time of transition. That’s right, people, right here in our community we are in a time of transition. We are in a time when leadership must pass from me to the apostles of our community. This is not a project that can be done by my feet alone. It will take many feet. And sometimes, some of us are so stubborn, it takes an earth moving event to crack us open, shake us up, wake us up. Sometimes it might take falling down in order for us to get out of the way. Because I don’t have enough muscle to build a faith community. I don’t have enough smarts to build a community of faith. I don’t have enough resources to build a community of faith. It takes uniting with God in order to do these things, it takes uniting with one another to do these things and sometimes that takes a bit of a wake up call. Sometimes that wake up call can be about hitting the dirt! I love Pentecost because it reminds me every year to pass responsibility for our communal life together, back to you. How is it that you will embrace this windy Spirit and enliven our world? How is it that you will embrace becoming a disciple or transitioning to an apostle? This is the work of Pentecost, it’s about me getting out of your way!
I LOVE Pentecost! Because it’s about you! I love it because it’s the day we openly celebrate how incredible each one of you is. I love it because I can look out over this congregation and see the unique light that each one of you carries and the difference it’s going to make for our community as a whole. Pentecost is the best! Pentecost is the time when a bunch of faith people, were gathered together in a room and the wind came and blew them out of their comfortable place. They were no longer in the room upstairs. They were no longer speaking the language of their friends. They were no longer shut up, away, and mourning…they were opened up, stepping out and alive with a new presence of God. What would we be if we embraced this still speaking, still moving Spirit of God today in Tucson? What could we be?
I LOVE PENTECOST because every year we come to this holiday and can look back and see the ways in which God has moved this year. God has sent a Spiritual Director this year in Teresa Blythe and you responded by helping make a space for the holy one to dwell. God has sent a music leader in Fletch and a band that makes the holy tangible in music, hardly a Sunday goes by when another evolution hasn’t occurred in their midst. Hardly a Sunday goes by when the gospel hasn’t come alive through their interpretation. God continues to Speak through these gifted apostles who come to tell the story in vibrant and real ways. God has blessed us this year with the Talley sisters and Dacia as interns. This summer bringing us Cassie Meglee as new Nursery intern. Richard Solar blessed the interns by supporting the Don Zastrow Scholarship Fund with the gifts from his memorial service because our community needs more young adults according to Thelma and Richard, they’re the ones doing so much for us, Thelma said this year. What about the Marshallese coming into our midst this year? What about the gift of new language, compassion, understanding for others? Can you stand it? This is why I love Pentecost. It’s tangible. This God that moves in our lives. When we remember to take a moment and look back. Look back at this day, look back at this week, look back at this month, look back at this year…God was there. God was there and calling to us from each high and low. The Spirit was there urging us on, building us up, calling us out and cracking us open that we each might step beyond our comfort zones to do a new thing, to be a new thing, to begin again.
And lest you still doubt about loving Pentecost I want you to consider the source of most of today’s story. It’s delivered through the mouth of the disciple…now apostle…Peter. Do you remember Peter? Peter…he’s the one who denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed. Do you remember Peter? He’s the one who couldn’t even testify to a courtyard maid that he was a believer. This is Peter who cracked. This is Peter who knows what it means to turn again and be healed. This message of repent is something he is sharing from his own experience of God. Peter knows failure and forgiveness. Peter has been encountered by the Still speaking God, the God of the second chance. The one who preaches grace and forgiveness has experienced the same himself. He can preach out of his own experience that this God doesn’t dump us. He can preach out of his own experience that this God can meet us wherever we are on the journey. He can preach out of his own experience that there is room for you in this movement of community.
How can you not love Pentecost? This is who we are. This is how we are. This is our opportunity to be more, to love more, to be healed more, to be more whole, to be in love in dialogue in concert united to God. It is Pentecost when leadership transitions and new apostles arrive on the scene. It is Pentecost when more disciples are united with the Still Speaking God. It is Pentecost, and the Spirit is alive and well! Hallelujah! It is Pentecost! Let us pray.