As we have already been reminded this morning a very real and worrisome way, the tongues of fire that suddenly appeared among the apostles gathered all together in one house for Pentecost probably didn’t give them a sense of the spirit, spirit of gentleness. Instead it came, as Acts tells us, with a sound like the rush of a violent wind, right in the middle of the room where they were sitting. The fire and the wind were so dramatic that they were compared to a prophet’s description of the last days. This was more than a simple puff of the wind and a tiny flickering light. This was enough to be compared to a day when the sun would turn to darkness and the moon to blood. This, this…was trouble, uncomfortable trouble.
If the apostles were hoping to blend in little after the very public execution of Jesus, this was not going help them at all. Instead of being able to fly under the radar, the Spirit of God descended on the them, those who were commissioned and sent out to speak for Jesus and minister in his name. The Spirit of God came into their very room and dramatically equipped them for a very important ministry. The Spirit of God blew violently among them, knocking the old wind out of them and filling them with a new wind, a new breath, with new words in languages they had never spoken before so that they could go out of that place and bear witness to anyone and everyone of what they know of the kingdom of God that Jesus ushered in. The Spirit of God joined with them that day, dramatically, terrifyingly even, and very publicly, so that they could open their circle to include others in the good news of God’s love.
The reaction from the crowd that witnessed what was going on was mixed. There were Jews from nations all over the known world who could suddenly hear these Galileans speaking in their native tongues. Some were amazed at what they heard, but others were… less than impressed. Some were perplexed and confused about what was going on. Other’s were downright derisive, sneering. “They’re DRUNK!” their accusations came, mocking the apostles. They dismissed what they heard, apparently confusing it with the slurred, indistinguishable speech of those who have indulged themselves beyond their limit, the uninhibited behavior of those who had no control over what they were saying or what they were doing. While the apostles had been waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus, it seemed that all they got was the gift of trouble.
The Spirit of God, it turns out, is not an easy gift. It’s not a gift you get, smile at, and then stick on your shelf to look at every once in a while. Instead, it’s a gift that is life-changing, a gift that causes you, forces you even, drives you to do something that looks, at first anyway, irrational, maybe not really well thought out, and completely, unabashedly uninhibited. It makes you give up your comfort and stability in order to welcome others.
Before the Holy Spirit blew through the apostles on the Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection, his followers and his apostles were a relatively homogenous bunch. They were all from Galilee. They were all Jewish. They all spoke Aramaic. They had the same or at least similar experiences and expectations. They ate their food with the same spices. They played the same games. They wore the same fashions. They valued the same things. They worshiped God the same way. Birds of a feather, they flocked together.
It’s just the way it happens, right? I enjoy these kinds of sports so I tend to find others who do, too. I like these books or movies or food, so I get together with other people who do, too. Even in our church and our worship, sometimes because we simply like different music or different styles of worship and sometimes because we literally speak different languages. In many aspects of our life, we say, “I speak this way, value these things, believe those, worship like this, therefore I naturally want to get together with people just like me.” It’s not on purpose, we tell ourselves; it’s just the way it happens. It’s not because I think other ways are wrong; it’s just that those ways don’t appeal to me. They just don’t make me comfortable. I just don’t feel myself, at home, if we’re not doing things the way I’m used to doing them.
But the problem with letting this line of thinking go uninterrogated is that in most of our core stories about the Spirit at work in the world, the Spirit had precious little to do with making the people of God feel comfortable. The Spirit of God brought floods to the face of the earth. Not so comfortable. The Spirit of God, as a pillar of fire, led the Israelites around a DESERT. Not so comfortable. The Spirit of God went with people who were exile. Not so comfortable. The Spirit of God brought a baby to an unwed teenage mother. DEFINITELY not comfortable. The Spirit of God has a lot more to do with stretching our understanding of what it means to be the people of God, with leading the people of God into difficult situations, with expanding the circles of our community beyond those who look just like us and speak our same language, with moving us from what we know to what we do not know, than making us feel comfortable.
For the apostles gathered in a house on Pentecost, that meant they spoke new languages to include those who weren’t among their numbers. For the church today, our church specifically, it may mean something different. Over the last few months we have begun to talk more and more about work that actually began several years ago, when a task force was convened to look at our aging buildings and consider how it might be a better asset for our ministry and mission rather than stick out as a very expensive line item on our budget. We’ve had some public forums about this. We’ve set up places on our website where you can get answers to some of the most commonly asked questions. Very soon the session will announce more opportunities to get together — all in one place — to learn more, to consider what’s next, maybe even to wait expectantly for the Holy Spirit to move among us and lead us to the next way we are called to witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the next way we can use the gifts of this congregation to serve God’s purposes, the next way we are being led to minister in his name, demonstrate his love, carry out his ministry of compassion and welcome and grace. Because we still have a lot of work to do for the sake of Jesus Christ.
That’s what the gift of the Holy Spirit is for; it’s a gift meant to carry us out of our selves and into the work that God desires in the world. After the miracle the apostles experienced in the room where they were all together, after the tongues of fire and the mighty rushing wind, even while the crowds tried to dismiss them, Peter got up and went outside to tell the people who were not with them what it was all about. He got up to witness to what he knew of Jesus. He met the people where they were in their understanding and told them the truth of what he knew about God’s presence on earth and promise to never forsake God’s people. And he and the Holy Spirit did it so convincingly that the story tells us about three thousand people were added to their community.
And that’s what Pentecost is really about. Pentecost is not a miracle for the sake of a miracle. It’s a discomforting call to action. It’s a miracle for the sake of building God’s kingdom in the love, redemption, and justice of Jesus our Christ. It’s about letting the Holy Spirit so dramatically cover us, so dangerously fill our church and our lives that we can’t HELP but get out of our seats, out of this room, out of this building to let people know about God’s love. Pentecost is about reaching out with the languages of the world around us to the people around us, that they might know the radical welcome of the kingdom that draws us together.
And I don’t just mean the languages that form the words we speak, but the language of food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, companionship for the lonely, welcome for the excluded, work for the jobless, houses for the houseless. The Holy Spirit, when we notice her, when we listen, when we allow ourselves to be changed and follow will show us just where we need be to accomplish God’s mission for us, just how we can speak in a way that people can hear, just what we will do that will touch our community in profound and life-changing ways so that they will feel and know God’s never-failing love.
May we be so blessed with ears to hear, hearts to follow, and faith that trust in this Holy Spirit.