Pentecost May 15, 2008

Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

John 7:37-37

The hard part about preaching on Pentecost is not trying to squeeze a theme or sermon out of the texts but deciding which of the abundant images and themes the preacher needs to preach in this place on this day.

We've already seen in the Acts reading for Easter 7 how Jesus instructed the disciples for forty days prior to his being taken into heaven. His further instructions urged them to wait and pray for the gift of the Spirit. As Luke tells the story from crucifixion to resurrection to ascension to Pentecost and beyond, there is no break in the action. Rather than a series of chapters, this is the continuation of the story of salvation. Pentecost is not a different story from Easter or ascension but the continuation of the same. The power of God that we see unleashed at Pentecost is the power that raised Christ from the dead and is now let loose, first on the eleven and then on the whole fledgling church.

Elements of this Pentecost story are supernatural; they don't give in very well to explanations and formulations. On a purely analytical level, what is described is something strange, even bizarre, that we could never have dreamed up; something miraculous, ambiguous, and mysterious.

I think it would be helpful with the gathered assembly to paint the picture so that together preacher and people imagine what this must have looked like or sounded like. Such an imagined scene is not for the purposes of speculating about what the disciples were thinking or feeling but to capture the astonishing nature of the event and the varied reactions of the crowd. The crowd likely had no knowledge that Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit, and even if they had, would they have made the connection? All they knew was what they were seeing. No wonder they were amazed and perplexed. No wonder some of them came up with easy and, I suppose, natural explanations for such bizarre goings-on: "They are drunk."

The sound, the wind, and the fire give the impression of an almost violent unleashing. Fire needs oxygen to burn, but wind and fire are not always a good combination. Not if you're a camper trying to get the evening campfire lit and the wind keeps blowing out the little kindling flame. Not if you were a homeowner in southern California last October. The combination of wind and fire is potentially lethal. But here--Is it yet another sign of how things are new in Christ?--the wind and the fire set loose a mighty demonstration of God's power and love.

The wind plays prominently in the story. One can hardly read the Pentecost account without the creation account dancing merrily in the back of the mind, when the spirit/breath/wind of God "swept over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2 NRSV), and God said, "Let there be ..." and there was. And alongside it is the story of Nicodemus in John 3 when Jesus told this religious man that one must be born again of water and the spirit/breath/wind.

What was heard as wind was seen as fire. And then the tongues of fire became the tongues of the diverse peoples in Jerusalem from all over the world. There to celebrate a feast, they become eyewitnesses of the unleashing of the Spirit of God for a new day and a new way. Here is the first charism of the Spirit: speech. Proclamation. The first recipients of the Spirit in the first public ministry of the church became a proclaiming community!

Quoting the prophet Joel, it is clear that Peter believes that he is standing as an eyewitness to the fulfilling of Joel's prophecy and watching as the last days unfold. Could he have grasped how true this really was, that forthtelling would no longer be the exclusive bailiwick of the professionals but would become the duty and delight of all God's people?

The psalm supports this exuberant unleashing of the Spirit. In its entirely, Psalm 104 is a psalm in praise of creation. In the section included in the lections for Pentecost, it comes to some climax when the psalmist declares that all the creatures belong to God and that God cares for all of them. Even the work of creation--its beginning and its sustenance--comes by the sending forth of the Spirit.

The second reading comes from the spiritual gifts section of Paul's letter to the troubled and dysfunctional congregation at Corinth. The many varieties of gifts--and Paul lists several of them--are all activated (participle of [epsilon][nu][epsilon][rho][epsilon][omega]) by the same Spirit. I find this an interesting word. Generally it's intransitive, indicating that it gets done to rather than does. In short, whatever gifts are employed in proclamation, and even in the wider ministry of the servant church, those gifts are energized by the Spirit. And to each to whom gifts have been given, the manifestation ([phi][alpha][nu][epsilon][rho][omega][sigma][iota][DIGAMMA]) of the Spirit is also given. No longer is the presence of the Spirit by stealth; the Spirit is revealed, up front and visible, made known in and through each member of the body active in the ministry of Christ.