Sermon Acts 2:1-21 (1-14) May 31, 2020 Pentecost
yr A in the time of Covid19
A House Full
It
is Pentecost Sunday.
It
is the day we all gather together as the church from near and far.
It
is the last hurrah before summer. It is the time of year when we celebrate
graduates, from PreK, Kindergarten, fifth grade, eighth grade, high school and
college. It is a time we celebrate our youth through confirmation as they enter
into the voting rights of the church and become full participating members
taking on responsibilities and offering their gifts.
It
is the time of year we plan to leave our homes and head off on vacation to
distant states, across the globe, to the beach, the mountains, the lakes and
the national parks.
It
is the time of year when summer sports take over, the swim teams, the little
leagues, the travel teams, all keep our lives bustling and full of energy. Our
houses are usually so full this time of year with the business of busyness. In
the church this time of year on this Pentecost day we are full of excitement to
celebrate the power of God alive in us through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And
this year, it feels like none of that.
We’re
not even together.
None
of what I’ve mentioned has been possible.
It’s
as if the breath of life has been taken out of us.
It’s
as if the energy and enthusiasm of this time of year has been drained away from
us.
The
violence of the virus to steal our breath and
the
violence of one man to steal the breath of another
have
left us empty, hopeless, and alone.
We
cry out to the Lord and ask, “When Lord, when?”
Where
is your church now?
Where
is your gathered people?
Where
is your power?
We
can’t breathe and you have left us alone.
We
have nothing left.
And
perhaps this year in our state of being we can understand being in the room
with the disciples as if for the first time.
They
were gathered in one place,
lost,
alone,
waiting,
uncertain
about any future,
uncertain
about life itself,
uncertain
if the promises
they
were given would really happen.
Fifty days from the resurrection they had been
without Jesus. Ten days since his ascension and they had no idea of what’s next. Of course they’d been
told.
But, Jesus told them about his death and
resurrection and that still came as a surprise to them. And now Jesus has told
them about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Power of God
within them to stir them and to equip them.
And even with all that information, it seemed
impossible and it seemed unbelievable, and it seemed foolish.
Many of them in their house full of people sitting
and waiting were just hoping to find a way to get their life back.
How could they find their old boats and start
fishing again.
How could they get back to any of the things they
did before?
And
so on this Pentecost, just as promised, the Spirit shows up.
There
was no mistaking the sound of the presence of the Spirit being poured out upon
the people gathered there in Jerusalem.
There
was the roar of the mighty wind, there was the rush of the breath of the
Spirit.
All
the noise and the force appearing to the crowd created an uprising of sound,
a sound finally understood, a sound finally spoken and claimed and shared.
They
were in one accord speaking of God and the presence with one another became the
language they could all share and learn from.
All
of a sudden through the breath of the Holy Spirit, the people of God
moved into another mode of existence.
They
became united in thought and united in purpose and united in action.
May
we who are gathered together on this day, you in your rooms at home and we here
(by the Spirit’s power we are all together) may we hear the rush of the
mighty wind of Pentecost today!
May
the Holy Spirit descend upon us as was done thousands of years ago and unite
us through the language of understanding and the purpose of God’s love
for all life.
May
the Spirit fill our houses full of wonder and grace in every corner,
in
every crack,
in
every space,
may
the power
of
the presence
of
the Holy Spirit with you all
be
so incredibly noticed
that
you too become full in your hearts,
your
whole body be renewed
and
refreshed
with
new purpose and
new
breath of life.
When I was a young mother living in our 10X50
trailer I remember reading about the Holy Spirit power to fill homes and
hearts. So I walked through our home with a baby on my hip and started praying from
one corner of the house to the other. “Enter our home, fill our lives, fill
our spaces, fill all of every corner, every nook, with the power of your
presence, so we may live and we may be guided by your love. Come Holy Spirit,
come”
God
gave us the Spirit to help us in our weakness, to release us from our timidity,
and to give us the power to love, to be disciplined in the gifts poured out
upon us for ministry. This is not for
personal gain but as the community of faith to further the truth of God’s love
for all people. They are poured out upon us to guide us to refresh us to show
us a new way of life that draws us all closer together. We may be shy, or
introverts, but gives us the voice to speak.
As
we read through the New Testament and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we
learn through their stories how the early church was open to so many new
ways of being the church.
It
was all brand new.
It
was all something they had never done before.
It
was all something they had to experiment with and be fluid in.
They
almost seemed at ease in the way the Spirit guided them to new experiences.
There
were so many variables in those days about the whats, wheres, hows, and whos of
the day that the only thing they could do was to rely on the power of the Holy
Spirit to direct them.
As
the church today in the last twelve weeks we have been faced with the same need
to go back to the days of the early church. We had to learn fast how to be ‘live’
in worship.
We
have had to look more than ever to the power of the Holy Spirit to direct and
guide us. We have had to learn to accept the rush of the breath of the
Spirit to fill our lungs and to open our ears to hear.
We
are reminded again when we look to the early church the magnitude and scope
of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the disciples.
We’ve
discovered that our houses are full. 2000+ years and we’re still here!
Yes,
the church as then, is now in more than one place.
Our
houses are full because the church is there.
Our
houses are full because the energy is there,
the
enthusiasm to discover and do and learn new ways is there.
Life
has been fluid at every turn new
and
refreshing ways of being have
found
us united in hope and united in faith.
It
doesn’t feel anything like Pentecosts of the past.
It
doesn’t feel anything like the beginning of summer of the past.
But,
today unlike any Pentecost we have ever known
the
Holy Spirit is descending
upon
us like fire and wind
can
you see it,
can
you hear it?
Look,
listen, it will change us,
it
will ignite us,
it
will stir us to action,
it
will get our house full
in
ways we can’t even imagine yet.
Be
alert, be open.
Swim
team, little league, vacations will happen, they will come, not in the way we
imagined, but they will come again.
The
sound of laughter united together, united in purpose, united in life are
emerging…
just
listen…
God
is here…
just
listen…
the
breath of life is here…
just
listen…
like
a mighty wind…
we
are filled.
Praise
to the Lord. Amen.
Resources:
NIB Acts, How to be Filled by the Holy Spirit by AW Tozer, Feasting on the Word
year A David Gushee, My old sermons 2015,2017.
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