Holy Spirit Power Acts 2:1-21 Sunday, June 12, 2011 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching

Transcription

1 Scripture. Prayer. Holy Spirit Power Acts 2:1-21 Sunday, June 12, 2011 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Opening. Mary Lou Retton, 1984 Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, once said, Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It s our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit. Goethe, that great writer and thinker, once wrote, Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. A fire in our hearts. Boldness. Holy Spirit power. Do you have a fire in your heart? Do you feel bold? Do you feel powerful? There are days (weeks, months, years hours, minutes, moments) when we can feel completely powerless, totally defeated. We can feel like the Holy Spirit came in power on the day of Pentecost and it passed us by. Somehow, for some reason, the church universal has been empowered by the Holy Spirit throughout the centuries since Jesus death and resurrection and we have missed it. There is an old rabbinic saying: If there is not more than one explanation to an event, then it is not of God. The Day of Pentecost has multiple explanations. I offer a few for your consideration this morning. I. The Holy Spirit: A Wild Goose? Pentecost is one of the three most important Jewish feasts, along with Passover and the Feast of Booths. Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Weeks because it is observed seven 1

2 weeks after Passover. And it is known as the Feast of Harvest, because it is the feast that celebrates the first fruits of the wheat harvest, according to Exodus 34:22. The name, Pentecost, which means fiftieth, refers to the 7 weeks or 50 days after the beginning of Passover. In other words, Pentecost is celebrated on the 50 th day after the Sabbath on which Passover begins. For Christians, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter, with the entire 50 days being observed as a season of festivity and joy. Pentecost marks the end of the 50 days of Easter and the beginning of the period when the Church moves forward with the ministries received from the Holy Spirit. Mickey Anders asks us to consider an alternative to the dove image for the Holy Spirit. He writes: Celtic Christians chose, not the dove, but the wild goose as a symbol representing the Holy Spirit. It sounds strange to us, but it has a long tradition in Ireland. While the Roman Church imagined the Holy Spirit in the form of a peaceful, graceful dove, the Ancient Celts understood the Holy Spirit to be like a wild goose. When you hear of the Spirit descending like a heavenly dove on you, you hear harps and strings softly playing and get a peaceful feeling. The image of the Holy Spirit as dove has become so familiar and domesticated an image we pay little attention. The image of a wild goose descending upon you is a different matter altogether. A wild goose is one noisy, bothersome bird. I like this image of the Holy Spirit as a wild goose because it jars us out of our complacency. We need such an image to correct our overly safe and overly sweet image of the Spirit... 2

3 Luke writes, in the book of Acts, that others sneered and said, They are filled with new wine. (Acts 2:13) One aspect of being filled with Holy Spirit power seems to be the tendency to be mistaken for a wild goose! The power of the Holy Spirit is wild. Untamed. II. The Holy Spirit: We Swim In It! Susan M. Fleenor, in her book, The Indwelling Spirit of Pentecost, describes the communal nature of the Holy Spirit. She writes: It s like the story of the shark and the whale. Both were swimming in the sea when the shark swam up to the whale to engage in conversation. As they swam along, the shark said to the whale, You are so much older than I, and wiser too. Could you tell me where the ocean is? The whale responded, The ocean is what you are in now. The shark would not believe it. Come on, tell me where the ocean is so I may find it! The whale repeated, The ocean is here, now; you are in it. Unbelieving, the shark swam away searching for the ocean. Continues Fleenor, The moral of the story, I believe, is this: don t spend too much time looking for God because the Spirit of God is here in the now of your life, dwelling within you, within me, within this community. And that truth is nurtured in prayer. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. (Acts 2:1) As we gather together people from many nations, people of all shapes and sizes and ages and races the Holy Spirit comes. Many of you may have heard of something called The Alpha Course. It s a series of sessions designed to help folks wrestle with their questions and their challenges regarding the Christian faith. One session of the course is about the Holy Spirit. During the Alpha Course training, which I ve been through, one of the leaders simply stands at the front of the auditorium 3

4 and says, Come, Holy Spirit. It tends to be a guy with an English accent, since the Alpha Course originates in England. My point is, our invitation to the Holy Spirit can be very low key. The Holy Spirit doesn t need our persuasion in order to arrive. The Holy Spirit comes. The Holy Spirit is among us. The Holy Spirit is here. Really, the person who needs to be persuaded is you. And me. We all need to be persuaded that the Holy Spirit is truly present and powerful and living and moving among us. It is so easy to become discouraged. We must fight this temptation. Together. C. Eric Funston writes: A clergy colleague, a minister in another denomination, commented, I really think we are afraid of power. Most folks I know (myself included), he said, are afraid of power that is beyond ourselves. He went on to suggest that we are like that Forest Service official down in New Mexico who wanted a controlled burn but got a wildfire instead. At some level, we know that the fire of the Spirit is not a controlled burn but a wildfire and wildfires change more than we had in mind. Therefore, he put forward, we are cautious about really inviting the Spirit into our lives. If we invite the Holy Spirit to come into our lives, if we say, Holy Spirit, come, who knows what might happen? At the same time, we remember that the Holy Spirit is also a comforter. Writes King Duncan: The year was 1887, and a humble music professor named A.J. Showalter received some sad news. Two of his former students had just lost their wives. Both of these men were in 4

5 despair, and looked to their old music professor for comfort. Showalter had always been deeply devoted to his students. He had no comforting words of his own, so he turned to Scripture, where he found this verse from Deuteronomy 33: 27, The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms... Out of this verse, professor Showalter wrote a chorus to send to his students. You might recognize it: Leaning, leaning, Safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Jesus did not tell his disciples that they would not have problems. In fact, their problems would dwarf most of our problems. What he did promise them was peace of mind. He would send upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit to give them courage and comfort. They would be warriors and not worriers. And that is the same promise Christ offers us today. Perhaps you have come to this house of worship today like Jake seeking the assurance from someone that things are going to be okay. I can give you that assurance. God's Holy Spirit is here to give both courage and comfort. Let go and lean on the everlasting arms of God. The Holy Spirit is a wild goose and a wild fire. It is also a dove. It is also a comforter. III. The Holy Spirit: Expect It! I started out by saying there are times when we can feel powerless. We do not always feel the fullness of Holy Spirit power, if we are honest with one another. We ve all had some rough times; some of us are in the midst of rough times today. We may feel guilty. Sure, times are tough, but there are people in the world who have it a lot worse than we do. People are sick, hungry, homeless. There are people dying out there. What s wrong with us? 5

6 There are many factors that impact the way we feel. Our childhood experiences, our physical health, our current circumstances, the events of the day. These factors can sometimes leave us feeling that we are not good enough. The point is that we know in our minds, as Christians, that Holy Spirit power is available to the Church to us since that day of Pentecost long ago. And we know from experience that we can feel the Spirit s power at work in our lives at times. But what about those times when we feel lost and alone and powerless? Not good enough? What then? I think a place to start or at least this helps me, and I hope it s helpful to you a place to start is to remind ourselves of some of the truths of the Christian faith. For example: 1. Jesus died for us and on the third day He rose again. Nothing we feel, nothing we think, nothing we do can erase what Jesus has done for us. It s a fact. 2. God created this beautiful world. God, in relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has blessed us with life and a world to live it in. God created the heavens and the earth and all that dwells within it. And He declared it good. Nothing we feel, nothing we think, nothing we do can erase God s ongoing mighty acts throughout history, from the beginning of the world. It s a fact. 3. The power of the Holy Spirit is here. The Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, right now, at this very moment. Nothing we feel, nothing we think, nothing we do can erase the Holy Spirit coming in power. It s a fact. I was supposed to talk with a friend one day and she didn t answer her phone. All day long I had it in the back of my mind maybe she ll call soon to explain why she missed our 6

7 phone date. Every time the phone rang, I answered it, thinking it might be her. (She did call eventually, by the way, and we had a good talk). What if we waited expectantly on the Lord like that? What if, every moment of the day, as we went about our daily routine, in the back of our minds, we had this expectancy, this anticipation, this sense of waiting for something amazing and wonderful and important to happen? What if we, in every moment, had it in the back of our minds that God could be calling right now! Any minute now, the Holy Spirit could fill us with a purpose, in this moment that God has for us, right now! The wind and the fire are here, all around us, moving in us and through us. What if we entered the room in our own hearts, made ourselves ready, in prayerful accord and expectation, for Jesus to send His Holy Spirit to act in power in our lives now, today. What if we believed that the wind and the fire, the power and the passion, were available to us, every day, at every moment? What if we trusted that God has a purpose for us in His Church? That we are just as precious and important to Him as Peter and the other disciples and all the people gathered, from every nation, in Jerusalem on that day of Pentecost over 2000 years ago? It was the first birthday of the Church. But it was not the last day the Holy Spirit would come upon us in power. It was the beginning of the Holy Spirit s abiding presence among us as the Church, the gathered people of God. You are powerful. I am powerful. In the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are powerful. 7

8 We don t need to feel powerful in order to be powerful. We are powerful, in the Spirit, through Christ who strengthens us. We are His Church, His people, empowered by His Spirit. The wind and the flame, the passionate Spirit of God, is always with us. Closing, I close with this story from James W. Moore, in his book, What Do You Do With Such A Gift?: Erasmus, the famous Renaissance scholar, once told a classic story which was designed to emphasize how important it is that we take up the torch of Christ s ministry with great commitment. In the story, Jesus returns to heaven after His time on earth. The angels gather around Him to learn what all happened during His days on earth. Jesus tells them of the miracles, His teachings, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. When He finishes his story, Michael the Archangel asks Jesus, But what happens now? Jesus answers, I have left behind eleven faithful disciples and a handful of men and women who have faithfully followed me. They will declare My message and express My love. These faithful people will build My church. But, responds Michael, What if these people fail? What then is Your other plan? And Jesus answers, I have no other plan! Jesus has no other plan for the future of His kingdom. You and I are it! But we are not alone. The Holy Spirit moves among us in power. Be bold. Have courage. Holy Spirit, come. Amen. 8