Rev. Dr. Douglas K. Showalter Scripture: Acts 2:1-8,14-17 First Congregational Church of Falmouth, MA of the UCC May 23, 2010 Copyright 2010 The Spirit Wind of God THIS MORNING I will begin by asking you a question: AWhen you think of God, what images come to your mind?@ --Do you think of God as a divine being, who resides in heaven--somewhere above the clouds? --Do you think of God as one who watches over us humans on earth? As the familiar hymn says: God's eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me. --Do you think of God as eternal, omniscient, and all-powerful? As another familiar hymn says: Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes. All of these descriptions of God have their value. But they also have a problem. The problem is, that they don't go far enough. If you think about it, you=ll realize, that all these images portray God as a being who is distant and passive. They portray God as a spectator of human life, not an active participant and guiding influence in our lives. I AM REMINDED HERE of a story told about two young English girls, who were taken to visit the British Museum in London at the turn of the 20 th century. There, in a gallery, they discovered a massive painting of England=s Queen Victoria, seated on her royal throne. The Queen looked majestic in her sparkling jeweled crown, and her ermine and blue velvet dress, which flowed down onto the floor, all around her. With great dignity, the Queen held the scepter of royal authority in her hand, and her face gazed out, impassively, over the museum's gallery. Looking up at this picture, one young girl wrinkled up her nose and asked: "What does the Queen do?" To that, the other girl replied: "Oh, don't be silly. The Queen doesn't do anything. She just sits there and reigns!" IS THAT HOW WE OFTEN think and talk about God? As though God just sits up there in heaven, and reigns? We say that God resides in heaven. But do we also look to see where God is actively involved on earth, in the present? A seminary professor I once knew, made this point. As he said: All Christians should realize, that God is a local phone call. If we don't
Page 2 of 6 know God's grace walking around in blue jeans and tee-shirts, then we don't know God's grace. God is not a pious abstraction. Rather, our God is real and present with us--even in the small and seemingly ordinary events of our daily lives. NOW, IT=S OFTEN SAID that God watches over us humans on earth. That=s an important Christian belief. But consider this. When we humans are suffering, combating evil, or struggling to make a tough decision in our lives, don't we want a God who will do more, than just passively watch us from a distance? It's one thing to watch and feel compassion for sparrows as they fall. It's quite another thing to be there with those sparrows: catching them, mending their broken wings, and guiding them to safety. We humans need a God who does more than just watch us from afar. WE SAY THAT GOD is eternal, omniscient, and all-powerful. We say those things, but do we really believe, that God acts very much in our world? For example: When our bodies are healed, we thank modern medicine. But do we also thank God, for God's healing touch in our lives? When circumstances in our lives turn out well, do we thank God for playing some role in that? Or, do we credit our blessings to just a streak of good luck, or a set of favorable coincidences. A RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY called Deism teaches, that God created our world to be like a great clock. Once the mainspring was wound up at the beginning of time, God simply abandoned our world. Thus, as the centuries tick by, our world continues to run under its own power, without any support or guidance from God, who=s long been absent. In Deism=s way of looking at things, there have been no actions of God in our world since it was created, thus no divine ministry or resurrection of Jesus. In sharp contrast to such an absent God, Christianity affirms, that God is present and actively involved in our lives. Some modern Christians come close to Deism in the actual practice of their faith. They may call God all powerful. They may even sing favorite hymns like: Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. But those Christians actually live their lives, as though God is almost always absent. Some of you may remember Joannie Fuller, a beloved member of our church,
Page 3 of 6 who passed away years ago. Joannie was the mother of Nancy Porter. One day, Joannie came into my office with a gift. It was a maroon teeshirt, which bore two quotations, which almost looked like graffiti written on a wall. The first quotation said: GOD IS DEAD!--signed NIETZSCHE,[the 19 th century German Philosopher]. And below it, the second quotation said: NIETZSCHE IS DEAD!--signed GOD. As Christians, we may act as though God is dead or completely absent from our lives in our modern day. But we must remember, that our acts do not make it so. In factb-as our faith teaches us--our God is vitally active in our world today, and as close to us, as the very breath we breathe. IN RECENT WEEKS, have you had an opportunity to spend some time out-ofdoors? One day recently, I just stood outside and exulted in some of the beautiful weather May has brought. I enjoyed the warmth of the sun, and rejoiced in the blowing wind which tugged at my clothes, tossed my hair, and made my skin and soul feel so very fresh and alive. I love the wind. I stood watching, as blossoming plants and tree branches bent and swayed with the wind. That wind also brought to mind, summers past, when wind-filled sails sent sail boats coursing across blue ocean waters, which gurgled and foamed in their wakes. IN ANCIENT HEBREW the word for "spirit" also means "wind." To my mind, that was no accident. For as the ancient Hebrews knew, the Spirit of God, really is like the wind. --Like the wind, God's Spirit is invisible and all around us. --Like the wind, God's Holy Spirit is an active power in our world, which never stands still. --Like the wind, God's Spirit is a creative force, which repeatedly stirs and guides our lives, with a new sense of freshness and vitality. THE IMAGE OF GOD as wind is an important one. For it serves as a corrective to all those other images of God, which tend to portray God as only passive and distant from our lives here on earth. B-For, like the wind, God's Spirit keeps our lives from becoming dull and uneventful. --Like the wind, God's Holy Spirit cannot be contained in just one place; nor is it always predictable. --Like the wind, God's Spirit often carries us humans forward, and
Page 4 of 6 empowers us, to venture forth and accomplish new things for God. Let's consider a few of the images of God's Spirit as wind, which appear in out Bible. FOR EXAMPLE, according to the first creation story in the Bible: in the beginning of all things, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. Yet, like a wind, the Spirit of God hovered over those waters. We can imagine those dark, primeval waters, stirred by God's Spirit Wind. Pushed by the wind, we can imagine those waters, first rippling, then swelling, then frothing into tall waves--until finally the dry land appeared, on the third day of Creation. ACCORDING TO THE IMAGERY in Genesis= second creation story, at the time of creation, God also bent down beside a stream bed, to gather up handfuls of clay. After fashioning that clay into a figure, God blew God=s own breath into the figure=s nostrils, so it would live. Thus, as that second creation story suggests, it was essentially the gift of God's Spirit Wind, which gave us humans life. ALSO, AT THE TIME OF THE EXODUS, God's Spirit Wind caused the sea waters to part, so the Hebrew people could walk across dry land, and be delivered from their terrible slavery in Egypt. ALSO ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST, which we and Christian churches around our world are celebrating today, God's Spirit Wind filled the house in Jerusalem, where the followers of the resurrected Jesus had gathered. Before Jesus= death, he promised his followers, that God's Holy Spirit would soon come upon them. And so it was. As you heard in our scripture reading this morning, from the book of Acts: the house where the disciples and other followers of Jesus were, was suddenly filled with a sound. It was a sound, like the rush of a violent wind from heaven. And, the result of that Spirit Wind experience, was that those followers were both stirred and given power, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout their world. In the words of the ancient Hebrew prophet Joel, God declares...i will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. [Acts 2:17] And so it was, and has been, ever since that day, of the first Christian Pentecost.
Page 5 of 6 LAST SUNDAY in our church, we witnessed and celebrated, the Confirmation of five young adults in our church family. As those of you who were here then will recall, at the climactic moment in that service, hands were laid on the head of each Confirmand. At that time, I said the following prayer for each Confirmand, using his/her name. As I prayed: Strengthen, O Lord, this your servant...with your heavenly grace, that he/she may continue yours forever, and daily increase in her/him your Holy Spirit, until he/she comes into your everlasting kingdom. Amen. Through that special prayer, our congregation specifically asked God, to send God=s Holy Spirit into the life of each of our Confirmands. We asked that, so our ConfirmandsB-along with the rest of us--will be stirred and empowered to live their lives for Christ. As you can see, at the time of Confirmation, we reached out with faith, not to some impassive, distant God, but rather to our Spirit Wind God, who actively moves through our lives with love, guidance, and dreams and visions for the future. THIS MORNING we will conclude our worship service, by singing the hymn, Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness.@ That=s one of my favorite hymns. It was written in 1978 by a United Church of Christ minister. I think many of you will be pleased to know that this hymn will be included in our church=s new hymnal. That hymn, ASpirit, Spirit of Gentleness,@ is a very appropriate one to sing on this Pentecost Sunday. It=s appropriate, because it emphasizes the actions of God=s Spirit Wind to stir people=s hearts, and thus influence human history. Consider what the four verses of that hymn, say about God=s Spirit: The first verse begins: AYou moved on the waters; you called to the deep...@ It speaks of God=s Spirit at the time of the world=s creation. The second verse beings: AYou swept through the desert; you stung with the sand...@ It speaks of God=s Spirit at the time of the Exodus and when Moses received the 10 Commandments. The third verse begins: AYou sang in a stable, you cried from a hill...@ That verse speaks of God=s Spirit, at the time of Jesus= life and ministry, and at Pentecost. The final, fourth verse beings: AYou call from tomorrow, you break ancient schemes...@ That verse reminds us modern Christians, that--as in the past--god=s Spirit Wind is still in our world, and still
Page 6 of 6 moving through our lives, to guide us to a future, which is even better than the past. Today is Pentecost. Today is the birthday of the Christian Church. On this day, let us all notice whatever wind is outside, causing the plants and tree branches to sway. And, let us all pray, that God=s Spirit Wind will always be with us. As we journey through this world, may each of us always be filled, with a deep sense of God's abiding presence, and with God's active love, power, and guidance in our lives. Now let=s sing that hymn, ASpirit, Spirit of Gentleness.@