1 The Rev. Amanda Eiman Pentecost Sunday May 15, 2016 Acts 2:1-21 Good morning! What would you say is one of the greatest gifts of being human? Is it the ability to create, to learn, to think, to experience joy? I can t be certain, but I bet that if we took a survey of this room, or any group for that matter, many of us would say it is the gift of rational thought. We humans are part of the higher order of mammals so unlike a blade of grass or bacteria, an insect or a horse, we interpret what we learn through our senses. We know about something or about someone because we can see, hear, smell, feel and taste. But then, we use our logic and cognition to make decisions about what we have observed, or respond to it, or draw conclusions. The gift of cognition and rational human thought has been a gift not only to those who have used it well but the greatest thinkers throughout time have advanced our world and our human society tremendously. Without logical thought, we definitely would be at a loss.
2 But I wonder if each of us here this morning - at some point or another - has said something, done something, felt something, or known something very powerfully and deeply - and realized that rational thought was not involved. In fact, the experience was so far from involving a rational explanation it was a bit illogical. Or unbelievable. Or mysterious. But it happened. We might try to attribute experiences like these to coincidence or extra sensory perception or even hormones but deep down we know the experience didn t involve any of these things. Somehow we knew or felt or spoke and the reason we did seemed to be because of a feeling or being beyond ourselves but at the same time, perhaps within ourselves too. Have you had an experience like this? I have had a few in my life. One such experience was a few years ago, when I was serving as an associate at a church in Kansas. It happened to be Palm Sunday. I was the preacher and just before I preached, as we do here, we heard the Gospel reading. Since it was Palm Sunday, we heard the
3 Passion narrative. You know it- the long reading with many parts and voices describing Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his arrest, crucifixion, and death. As the readers read their various parts I sat in my chair listening and preparing myself to preach, but for some reason I couldn't focus. At least not on the passion narrative or even my upcoming sermon. All I could think about, it seemed, was an incident that happened a few years earlier, when during a church service at a church I served in Virginia, a man had a seizure during the prayers of the people. When he had the seizure I remembered someone calling out, "is there a doctor here?" And someone jumped up to help. I remembered the intercessor pausing and asking someone to call 911. He then prayed for the seizing man - asked gods presence with him, and with the EMS as they arrived. We paused the service for a few minutes and when the man received care, the service continued. All of this was swirling and replaying in my mind as I heard the voices of readers reading the passion narrative. But as hard as I tried to
4 listen to them, in my head I was back in Virginia replaying the events with the seizing man. And I sort of felt guilty for my lack of attention on what was happening right before me. But soon, the passion narrative was finished. So I stood up, walked to the pulpit, and began to preach. But I don t think I got even as far as the second or third line when I saw, in the pew right in front of me, a man beginning to have a seizure. I stopped preaching in mid sentence and thought, What is going on? Is this really happening? I was just thinking about that other man s seizure and now this man is having one? I suddenly realized, well whatever is happening, it was now my turn to handle the situation. I turned and asked someone to call 911. A few nearby parishioners surrounded the man to help him. I said a prayer, asked God s presence, and paused the service. Eventually as the man received care, I resumed my sermon, and the service continued. Afterward, I realized that I was a bit shaken up by the whole experience so I told my rector what happened that I
5 couldn t focus during the passion reading and instead was thinking about a similar situation. "Oh Amanda" she said. "Don t be concerned. That was just the Holy Spirit working, and preparing you for the event". My goodness I felt overwhelmed, tired, and a bit bewildered by the whole thing. But at the same time I thought she was probably right. Sometimes the Holy Spirit just comes. Without warning or time to prepare - there it is - "blowing through your life, as Barbara Brown Taylor says, rearranging things, opening things up, and maybe even setting our heads on fire" (Taylor, 146). And perhaps that's what the disciples may have felt on that day of Pentecost. We heard it described in our reading from Acts today. There they were, in that house when suddenly there came the rush of a violent wind. They too may have felt overwhelmed and a bit bewildered by it to say the least.
6 Before any of them could defend themselves, that mighty wind had blown through the entire house, bursting into flames above their heads, and they were filled up with God's own breath. And then the air came out of them in languages they did not even know they knew. Sometimes we find ourselves speaking with eloquence we know we do not have, or offering forgiveness we had not meant to offer or find ourselves taking risks we thought we did not have the courage to take or reaching out to someone we had intended to walk away from (Taylor, 144, 148). And in these moments we might be bewildered or overwhelmed, but also, we can be sure that we are not alone. The Holy Spirit comes and leads us into all truth and joy and empowerment and freedom more than we could ever know on our own or with our own mind alone. The experience of the Holy Spirit can be irrational and unexplainable, but it comes when we sometimes least expect, and enables us and
7 empowers us to grow in the likeness of Christ. So as we at St. David's are finalizing are finishing this program year centered on the theme of Christ is calling, we might remember today that Christ is always calling us to open our hearts and receive the gift of the Spirit. This Spirit lights us up, infusing that great wind into us, and perhaps too every living being, more than we could ever ask or imagine. And it can cause us to speak of things we can only begin to understand. So today, we might ask ourselves again, what is one of the greatest gifts of being human? Logic, perhaps. But the gift of the Holy Spirit? Ah, that is one we can add to our list, most definitely! Amen. Taylor, Barbara. Home By Another Way. Cowley Publications: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.