The day of Pentecost June 8, 2003 - Preaching Helps

Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14

Psalm 104:25-35,37 (24-34, 35b NRSV)

Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

When Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father, he completed the course he began when he took on human flesh. The circuit is now complete. And when the circuit is complete, power is unleashed.

The reading from Acts tells the story of the first Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with the power of a violent wind and of fire. The Spirit empowered them to speak in other languages. The division among people that began at the tower of Babel is now reversed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Peter, not many days before these events, was afraid of his own shadow. He denied to a servant girl that he knew Jesus. Now the Holy Spirit rests upon him and he stands up in front of a crowd and boldly proclaims Jesus Christ.

The psalmist praises God for the creation, saying, "You send forth your Spirit and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth." The Holy Spirit is the power of creation, says the psalmist.

Paul says the Holy Spirit is the power of new creation. "The whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now," he says. We too "groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." The Holy Spirit is midwife interceding for us. The Holy Spirit ruminates within and about us with sighs too deep for words.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus describes the power unleashed by his ascension as the sending of the Advocate. The Holy Spirit advocates Jesus' case and cause to us just as Jesus advocates ours in the heavenly throne room. The Advocate testifies on Jesus' behalf and guides us into all the truth. We are called to testify to Jesus and guide others to the truth. The truth is Jesus Christ.

Richard Schaull in the Journal for Preachers (Pentecost 1998) tells the story of a renowned German theologian who went as a guest teacher to a seminary in Latin America. He was there for a couple of weeks giving lectures. These lectures were on a variety of topics, having to do with theology and Scripture and ethics. No matter what the topic, he closed each lecture with a strong evangelical statement. "We know we are sinful human beings. We have fallen short of the glory of God," he said. "Jesus came into the world to bear on the cross the weight of our sin. By his death and resurrection God gives us forgiveness and salvation. We know at our death God will take us to heaven." He gave the classical Lutheran statement on justification. "We are justified, made right with God, by God's grace, God's gift, through faith in Jesus Christ."

The students attending his lectures were unsatisfied. Everywhere this professor went in Europe and North America he received rave reviews and standing-room-only audiences, but not in this school in Latin America. The dissatisfaction of the students went unvoiced until nearly the end of the professor's stay with them. Finally, during the question-and-answer period at the close of one of his talks, one of the students rose and said, "What you tell us is all very well and good, professor. But isn't there more?"

The professor was truly puzzled. "But what more could there be?" he asked.

The more that there could be, the more that there is, is the power unleashed when Jesus ascended to the right hand of God to rule. With his ascension he completes the circuit. We sing about this circuitry in the Adventhymn "Savior of the Nations, Come" (LBW #28), "God the Father is his source, Back to God he runs his course; Down to death and hell descends, God's high throne he reascends." (See also stanzas 5 and 6.)

When the circuit is complete, power is unleashed. Even those of us with arudimentary knowledge of electricity know that. The power Jesus unleashes is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one connecting us to Jesus' resurrection. Holy Spirit power is resurrection. Holy Spirit power is new creation. Power is the "more" that those Latin American seminary students thought was missing from the words of that theologian.

What sort of power is this? Those seminarians knew about power. Their government was composed of thugs who specialized in death squads and disappearances. Power was in the hands of a few obscenely wealthy families. Is this the power we find missing? The same kind of power, only used in reverse, blow for blow, until good triumphs over evil?

In our sermon on this day we might spend some time examining how power is used by God. We can cite plenty of evidence of God using coercive power. But the power God manifests at the cross moves death's boundary stakes and inaugurates a new creation. Paul Scherer did a little twist on the hymn, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!" According to him the song should read, "Blessed disturbance, Jesus has me!" The Spirit of God is the power of the new creation on the loose, disturbing this old realm, even these old hearts and minds and lives of ours. Where do we look for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit? The cross gives us the clue. Paul says, wherever we hear groaning or see the evidence of a groaning creation, look there for the power of the Holy Spirit. It does not happen at the places we are strong or think we are strong. It happens at the groaning places. That's where the power of the Holy Spirit comes through.

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group