Acts
2:1-21
The
Wind Blows
We need to make sure that everyone
has the basic information in their heads about Pentecost. Pentecost is the Christian Festival on which
we observe the sending (or arrival) of the Holy Spirit among the
disciples. All of this happens on “the
day of Pentecost.” “Pentecost” is not an observance added to the calendar. Pentecost is another Jewish festival onto
which Christian tradition is added. This
is a rather common practice. The events
we observe each Easter are intertwined with the ancient liturgies of Passover. It during Passover that the Christian story
of the Last Supper occurs. In John’s
account, it is on the day of the sacrifice of the Passover lambs that Jesus dies
an innocent death.
Pentecost was being observed, in
Jerusalem, on the day that the events described in Acts 2 are depicted. The people of God were assembled, to remember
God’s activity in the past and to commit themselves to living in accordance to
God’s hope for the future. This celebration
was already underway, and the people of God were comfortably repeating their
liturgies and carrying out their traditions.
They were happy and content. Comfortable
in their relationship to God.
Then. Something happens. Acts tells us that there was “a sound like
the rush of a violent wind.” The whole house
was filled with it. And soon, those
gathered in the house were filled as well.
And they began to speak. And as
they spoke devout followers of God from every corner of the world heard them
and could understand. Peter steps
forward and tells them that all of this is God’s doing. And he tells them that this sound, like the
rush of a violent wind, is announcing good news. God is adding to their stories and their
traditions. God is bringing them an
update and God is inviting them to see Pentecost in a whole different light.
That is what happens. On the Day of Pentecost. As recorded in The Acts of the Apostles.
These events became visual for me
this week. I will call it a revelation;
a vision – from God. This vision wasn’t
only in my mind, my eyes participated as well.
And so did the camera in my smartphone.
I took a picture and we printed it on the cover of today’s
bulletin.
Right along the border of the two
yards is this stand of day-lilies. Our neighbor’s
yard puts ours to shame, but Laura and I appreciate all their hard work. We admired this flower bed, talked about it,
and for weeks anticipated the day when the shafts would produce buds and the
buds would burst forth into flower. Then
it happened! And they were so
beautiful!
The hard work and care of faithful
stewards of God’s creation resulted a lovely and admirable display of the beauty
and wonder of God’s creation. Something
to behold; a work worthy of admiration; an end result too powerful for words.
But then, there came this
thunderstorm. We heard it. But we also saw its effects. The rush of a violent wind came upon that bed
of day-lilies. And the scene was
changed. Much of the bed of flowers
remained; but you can see that a good number of them were blown to the ground.
Even an armchair agronomist knows
and would quickly point out that the wind is not to blame or be feared. In fact, without the wind, those beautiful
blooms could not scatter their seeds. Without
the wind, rain would not come and rock would not be transformed into rich, fertile
soil.
The vision, the revelation which I attempted
to capture in this photo is an acknowledgement that these faithful stewards had
used all their craft and devotion in order to craft a thing of beauty; and then
God’s wind came. When the wind came,
some of what they had worked so hard to build was torn down. That tearing down disappointed me, Laura, and
others who were admiring what had been built up. But it is God who makes the wind to
blow. And when God’s wind blows, that
expression of God does what it is that God is doing.
We need to be careful, that we are
too limited in our ability to see. We need
to be prepared, to accept the change which comes when something like the rush
of a violent wind comes. We may be too
quick to stomp our feet and complain at the disruption this wind has brought
upon that which we have crafted. That wind
is absolutely necessary to bring to completion that which God has created.
I didn’t do the work; but I was
still disappointed when I saw what happened to the flowerbed my neighbor had
worked so hard to establish. I caught myself,
but I did initially think “What a tragedy.”
That’s when it became a vision, a revelation. Like those verses in Job when Job complains
about the worm that kills the tree that had given him shade, God reminded me
that I had not created those lilies nor had I tended them. Who was I to place my desire for a thing of
beauty above the designs and intricacies of God’s creation and the ends toward
which God is calling that which God has made?
The devout followers of God who
were gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost were no doubt content with the world as
God had made it and revealed it to them.
They liked the beauty of their rituals and their Temple and their
understanding of God’s involvement in their lives. Then, there came a violent wind. And it filled the whole house, and eventually
it filled all those who were gathered in the house and then it began to fill
the streets and the city and eventually the whole world.
Those who were there, that first
day, probably would have liked to put that wind back in a bottle. But they couldn’t. And they didn’t. They allowed the wind violently remake the
world and the understanding God’s people have of what that world is to be like.
They started gathering on Sundays
rather than Friday evenings. They
started making the sign of the cross when they prayed. They would not neglect the widows and orphans
– particularly the orphans and widows of those who did not share family blood
lines and/or skin tones. They begin to
write new, sacred books and they instituted new religious festivals and reinterpreted
old ones.
That wind was violent. It disrupted so much of what they had come to
know as God’s pattern for their lives.
It blew down their day-lilies, and wreaked havoc on the beautiful gardens
they had planted and tended.
On this Pentecost Sunday, in the
year of our Lord 2017, we would do well to prepare ourselves for an expression
of that same violent wind. (Actually,
the text doesn’t say it was a
violent wind, but a sound, like
the rush of violent wind. I also need to
insert a reminder that the Hebrew word for “wind” is the same word as is used
for “Spirit” and “Breath.” So, this “wind”
is to be understood as God’s “Spirit,” even God’s “breath”.)
The form taken by God’s agent of change is up to God. What we need to do is to be ready to
experience it; we need to be prepared to embrace it; and I would go so far as
to say that we need to be praying for its arrival.
I know I upset more than a few of
you a few months back when I spoke about the popular notion that the church is
in decline. What I said then, I am
saying again now, but I want to attempt to saying it with more clarity and
precision. The Church of Jesus Christ
will never decline. That is why I refer
to it as a “popular notion.” The Church
of Jesus Christ grows stronger and more beautiful every day. However, this reality should not be confused
with the very real possibility that some of what we have (in good faith) built
to house the Church of Jesus Christ may decline or even come to an end.
The thunderstorm which destroyed
the day-lilies was of God and from God.
The disruption which began in
Jerusalem on that Pentecost Day some 2000 years ago was of God and from God.
In this year of the 500th
anniversary of The Reformation, we ought not be surprised at the suggestion
that God’s presence among us is calling forth additional understandings and interpretations
of the ancient writings and rituals. God’s
presence is being experienced among us; some of the day-lilies may fall; but let’s
make sure we are welcoming this expression of God rather than attempting to put
it back in the bottle.
The vision or revelation for which
I am grateful did not bring any clarity as to what aspects of the way we
express our devotion are to be blown over and which are to remain standing as
tall as the day-lilies to the left of the photograph on our bulletins. And I want to be very careful not to allow
the revelation to become lost in my own agenda.
Perhaps every generation of followers has come to wonder if theirs was
the age when things had gone downhill to the point where something needs to
happen. Maybe every society longs for making
great again the institutions and structures which we have crafted and carefully
attended. Maybe. But there seems to be an unsettled feel among
God’s people. It seems that some may
already be hearing the arrival of that violent wind.
The vision of God’s violent wind,
shaping the world to God’s liking without respect for what we think is best
surely needs to be seen and shared in every age. We need to ask whether what we have crafted
and attended (all out of extreme devotion) is in keeping with what Jesus
instructs his disciples to do. It is
those outside of the Church, or folks who have left the Church, or persons who
explain why they don’t belong to a church who speak most often about the
structures and systems which require tremendous energy to maintain. Sometimes, it seems, at the expense of
tending the lambs and feeding sheep.
Exactly like the devout persons
gathered in Jerusalem on the very first Pentecost of the modern era, I don’t
want any wind or spirit to come and disrupt the Church, this congregation, my
life. I like things the way they
are. I have tended and crafted much of
what surrounds us today, as we gather in this place. But scripture won’t allow me to ignore how
God acts. And that bed of daylilies is
an image I can’t get out of my head. I
will work to preserve and enhance the beautiful things we have built in the
name of Christ. But I will pray, and
invite you to join me in praying, for the ability and strength to perceive,
accept, and give thanks for the change which occurs when God’s Spirit blows
among us.
Amen.
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