Celebrating What God Gives You By the Rev. Michael Blackwood United Church of Broomfield June 4, 2017 PENTECOST

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1 Celebrating What God Gives You By the Rev. Michael Blackwood United Church of Broomfield June 4, 2017 PENTECOST Numbers 11: So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. 26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. 28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, My lord Moses, stop them! 29 But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them! 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. 1 Corinthians 12: Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says Let Jesus be cursed! and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. PENTECOST What is it? In Greek, pentekoste means 50 th. It celebrates the 50 th day after Passover.

2 In earlier days (O.T. / Hebrew) the 50 th day was called Shavuot or Weeks. So, for the Hebrews, Shavuot was an agricultural event, celebrating the wheat harvest a calculation of 7 weeks or 50 days after Passover. But it also commemorated the anniversary of the day that God gave the Torah to the entire nation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai. A celebration of life through food and the Word. Now, in the year of Jesus crucifixion, on Shavuot, according to the book of Acts, there were many of Jesus followers gathered, including the Apostles, his mother Mary, his brothers, etc. when the Holy Spirit leapt into action! Imagine being present at that moment. You re a follower of Jesus. You re an insider. It s been seven weeks since your Messiah was crucified and resurrected. Since then, Jesus has appeared to various members of your company, spent time with you ate, drank and talked. About ten days ago, Jesus ascended into heaven. You re now in the upper room. You and the others have been in fervent prayer. You re likely still gathered together for reasons of safety, security and, in honor and respect of your Jewish leader, you observe Passover. While still grieving, celebrating and trying to comprehend all that just happened, you re now trying to figure out how to continue the Way - without Jesus. It s still a dangerous and uncertain time. You ve handled the business of officially being 12 again by voting in Matthias. Remember, when Jesus was alive and following his resurrection you found it hard to believe what was happening right in front of you; the events and words that he prophesied. So, t s unlikely that now it s all clear as day. Imagine that kind of energy in the room. Suddenly! The sound of a violent wind! Perhaps like the train sound a tornado makes? Fills the entire house around you and everyone else. Was it just the sound or was it also the feeling of a fierce, blowing wind? Had the sound been brief and stopped or did it continue for a period time? You see what looks like tongues of fire FIRE appear above each person s head. Did only the disciples see the fire or did the observers also? Everyone then starts speaking strange words foreign languages. Ok follower of the Way, an insider - you re in the midst of this you see fire above your head and everybody s head. Everyone is speaking a foreign language does that mean you re speaking a foreign language? What are you saying? What might everyone

3 else be saying? Are they expressed of joy and wonder or maybe disbelief and fear? As a follower of the Way, when Jesus said that you would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, would you have thought that this is what he meant? What about the observers? What about the outsiders? What must be going on in their minds? Imagine seeing something like that happen? Acts tells us that the crowds accused them of being drunk. I don t know about you, but as an outsider someone who s not in the know about all that is Jesus or the Way - it sounds like a crazy acid trip to me. Imagine seeing something like that today. A large group of people, speaking strange words and what appears to be hallucinating? What might your first thought be? - Hallelujah, it s the Lord at work! Let s me join them I want to be a part of that! - Or perhaps, more realistically - These people are crazy! Let me get as far away from them as possible. Our scripture readings today from Numbers and 1 st Corinthians would have us believe that what happened at Pentecost were spiritual gifts. Gifts? Hmmm When we think of spiritual gifts, gifts from God, we often think of knowledge and wisdom like that of professors and pastors Albert Einstein, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr; faith and healing like that of a nun or a doctor or a nurse Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer; hospitality and service Anne Frank; the 9 Trappist monks at the Monastary of Tibhirine (Of God & Men) we ll also throw in things like art, poetry and music; the beauty created by some is astounding and could only be explained as a gift from God think of Maya Angelou or Beethoven. But what about some of those other gifts mentioned in 1 st Corinthians? Prophecy Working of Miracles Speaking in tongues Interpreting tongues How do we feel about those?

4 When I was a kid, maybe around 6 years old, I briefly attended a Pentecostal church. While there, during Sunday morning services I witnessed men and women physically jump out of their seats, fall on the floor, writhe around uncontrollably and utter sounds that were unintelligible. As an observer, I didn t understand what was happening and it was scary. I thought, these people are crazy! But I was reassured from church-goes those inside that it was a good thing a gift from God. I didn t want that gift. I hate to admit it, but I like to watch the Long Island Medium, Teresa Caputo. Have you seen that show? She s a woman from Long Island, NY who talks to dead people; or at least claims that she can. The show s been on for 7 years now and while I don t DVR the show or actively go out of my way to watch it if it s on, I ll watch it. If her ability is anything like the movie the Sixth Sense, I don t think I d wat that gift either. The gifts of prophecy, discerning spirits, speaking in tongues are very challenging for us so much so that it s easiest to label them in many cases as mental illness. Are these holy rollers tongue twisting, legitimate? Is the Long Island Medium an interpreter of tongues speaking beyond this realm? Are we witnessing spiritual gifts in these cases? Or are they just crazy? Utilizing today s scriptures, I d like us to consider spiritual gifts from the framework of insiders versus outsiders. On the day of Pentecost, the events that were happening were seen as spiritual gifts from those on the inside, but seen as lunacy and hallucinations from those on the outside. Think about it if you were to sit down with an indigenous native from a remote tribe in the jungle of the Amazon and explained the day of Pentecost, what do you think they might say? That s sorcery. That s magic. That s evil. They re on the outside. You re on the inside. In north Denver, there is a large Hmong population. Hmong are a people and culture from Southeast Asia Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and China. For Hmong people, their spiritual leaders are shamans, gifted individuals who have the ability to enter trances, speak in tongues and communicate with spiritual ancestors. While I worked as a hospital chaplain at St. Anthony North hospital, I had a brief encounter with a Hmong family. While we, the westerners, attempted to perform our forms of medicine and spirituality in caring for their loved one, they insisted their shaman be a part of the healing processes as well. He came to the patient s bedside because he needed to

5 enter a trance and travel through the spirit world to discern the cause and remedy of the problem. It was unusual and certainly beyond my realm and ideas about spiritual gifts. I m was on the outside. They were on the inside. What is a spiritual gift? Who defines it? Who re-defines it over centuries or millennia? Once a gift, always a gift? Just because speaking in tongues was seen as a gift 2,000 years ago, must we still see it as a gift today? Our reading from Numbers today shows us that God s spiritual gift (in this case, prophecy) will fall on whoever God wants (the 70 insiders as well as the 2 outsiders Eldad and Medad. It will fall for as long as God wants. Verse 25 indicates, But they did not do so again. They prophesied for only a period of time. They did not have the gift very long, only for the time that God deemed necessary in order to fulfill God s wishes and plans. As usual, we think we know better than God and try to do something about it. Joshua thought it his job to control God s blessing and objected to Moses, who put him in his place: Are you jealous for my sake? Do you think I m upset that God is sharing the gift of prophecy with more than just me? I wish all could have such a gift. Our reading from 1 st Corinthians tells us that there are a variety of gifts. There s a nice list of gifts that we have taken and placed on a pedestal. Wisdom Knowledge Faith Healing Working of Miracles Prophecy Discernment of Spirits Various kinds of tongues Interpreting tongues These are gifts. These are the only gifts. Nothing else can be a gift. We will determine who has and does not have these gifts. We will clarify the nuances of said gifts to determine legitimacy and accuracy. Who do we think we are?

6 How quickly we forget that the Holy Spirit will fall on whoever, whenever, wherever and how-so-ever God deems it so, whether you or I or anybody likes it or not. Verses three tells us how to discern. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, Let Jesus be cursed! and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts are GOOD. They aren t BAD and they can t be BAD. That s how you discern a spiritual gift. Is what a person says or does beneficial and loving to themselves and to all that it affects? Think of the Hippocratic oath, which basically says that [as a physician] I will keep pure and holy my life and my art. I will help all others. I will do no harm. Does the spiritual gift from God pass such a litmus test? So why do I watch The Long Island Medium? Because it makes me feel good. I feel good seeing people given comfort and receiving comfort. Am I being duped? Perhaps. But I m not a fool. I recognize the faith and mystery associated with gifts from God. God s gifts are not always clear, explainable or according to my desires or comfort level. Pentecost is called the birth of the church. Not a building, or an organization or a hierarchy created by man. The church is humanity gathering together in love; born out of the Holy Spirit s unpredictable and astoundingly amazing energy touching lives in ways that defy description and explanation. I began asking, what is Pentecost? Pentecost is you and I receiving undeserved, free gifts of grace from God and then passing them along. Those gifts take many forms, ones we can explain and describe and some we can t. But they re good gifts. Receive God s gifts in whatever form they may take and delivered by whoever God uses as a messenger. Whatever your gifts are, share them with the world. So be bright, be bold and be loving. Amen.

STUDYING THE BOOK OF ACTS IN SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS

STUDYING THE BOOK OF ACTS IN SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS Lesson 3 - The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost - Acts 2:1-13 Read the following verses in the Last Days Bible or a translation of your choice. Then discuss