Acts 2:1-24 What Does This Mean? I can tell you that my farmhouse up in Cleburne suffered some damage this past week when the storms came through- roof damage mainly and a little bit of leakage; the best news is that my nephew and his wife and daughter who live there were unhurt. I ve never been in a tornado- been really close, seen the tail suck back up into the clouds right over my head- but this is the second time the whirlwind hit the farm. According to the radar from Wednesday, the tornado struck maybe just a couple of hundred yards away from the house; and some years ago, when my grandparents were still living there, two trees- standing side by side not even fifty feet outside the west windows, were blown over in opposite directions. A strange sight- and the house wasn t damaged at all. Maybe you ve seen pictures from Cleburne or Granbury, or gone through those kinds of storms yourself. You know already that the howling wind, especially the concentrated, twisting force of the tornado, can cause frightening destruction. I was told that on Wednesday night, the house was moving, like it was breathing. I had heard of this before, not that the walls were moving from the wind beating upon them, but expanding and contracting because of the changing atmospheric pressure inside and outside. When I heard that I immediately thought
of this sermon text for Pentecost, and the roaring sound and the power of the great wind; and I recalled as well, the story of Peter and John in chapter 4, detained by the religious rulers of Jerusalem, who were angry that the apostles were healing and preaching. The council of elders told them to cease, or there would be real trouble. But later that night, the apostles and believers gathered together, as they always did, and worshipped and prayed, and were filled with Holy Spirit- and the house was shaken. I ll bet it was just like the tornado, but this time it wasn t a destructive power- leaving behind broken glass and overturned vehicles and uprooted trees- but constructive, filling up frightened people with courage and with care for one another and with the desire to share a great story. It s the story of Pentecost in chapter 2, this first day of the church, and the story of chapter 4, and the story of all of Acts. And the Spirit of God is the main character. Something like two-thirds of Acts is composed of preaching or speechifying of some sort, so it shouldn t surprise us that the Holy Spirit appears upon the believers as tongues that look like fire. The story of Acts is the story of conversion and the outward spread of the gospel, so it shouldn t surprise us that the Spirit as a great wind filled and inspired the believers that day- and every day that they listened for it, and then blew them into other lands to tell the good news. And
here, it s Peter who preaches to Jews from all parts of the Roman Empire- who hear these locals speak in their native tongues, and who hear the gospel proclaimed, and who, perhaps in just a few days, may go back home with a new and different understanding of religion burning within them. But not all of them will. Some won t believe. I m sure you ve heard the jokes about the two kinds of people in the world: there are two kinds of people in the world, those who see the glass as half full, and those who see the glass as half empty; there are two kinds of people in the world- idiots who think they are smart and idiots who don t; there are two kinds of people in the world- those who think there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don t. The same here: there are those who are amazed and intrigued by this miraculous outpouring of languages and ask, What does it mean? and the other kind, the scoffers who say, They re just drunk. Now, the inquiring and open mind that asks, What does this mean? may find answers, where the second kind of people, the scornful and close-minded and self-satisfied, never do. The first kind may discover that God is doing something new, moving like the wind among them, and among all the communities of the world- something new perhaps even this day- Pentecost 2013. Shouldn t we be asking then, What does this mean? Let s see if we can find out.
Peter rises to speak, and we should note, answers both kinds of people, the interested and the disinterested, we re not drunk, he says. Of course that s not a complete answer. But maybe this is: he quotes from Joel the prophet. It s not drunkenness, but the Spirit God has poured out that makes for this wild and astonishing scene: and it means that God is at work among men and women so that they are able to do remarkable things; God is working so that even the earth and the sky display the signs of it. And it means that the visions and the dreams and the prophecies, the smoke and the darkened sky, the wind and the foreign languages, prove just this, verse 21, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. The preacher goes on for many more verses- the best preachers can speak for hours and still keep their hearers attention (and there are the other kind of preachers who cannot)- but the heart of the sermon is in those few words, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. If you had been one of those who asked, what does this mean? this is your answer: whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And the sermon teaches us one even more amazing thing, which intensifies the meaning of God working and making signs that call to us: that the Lord named Jesus was made to suffer- was killed by their
sinfulness, and by our own; that this Lord was resurrected because the power and love of God are greater than the destructive power of death. It s an impossible thing, of course, what could it mean: it s the greatest miracle of all, the Wind of God blowing into a dead body and creating life. What can it mean? It means that it can happen to us. The great wind at the church s beginning is not a new story. Throughout the Old Testament, God is in the storm and wind. In Psalm18, the psalmist, in trouble, calls to the Lord, and God flies swiftly on the wings of the wind to save him; in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Lord comes in clouds or the stormy winds- or this interesting phrase, that God rides in the chariot of the whirlwind ; the Lord answers Job s questions and complaints out of the whirlwind; Elijah is taken up into heaven on the whirlwind. It is Moses and Elijah, 500 years apart, who climb to the top of the mountain, and the Lord meets each of them there, in storm and darkness, in the wind that breaks the rocks and shakes the mountain. For Moses, a loud, continued trumpet blast sounds over the area- is that the voice of God, or the screaming wind, or both? For Elijah, God is in the sound of nothingness, the
silence after the storm. What can this mean for us, so far removed from Moses and Elijah and Pentecost in Jerusalem? It doesn t generally happen this way for us. If we haven t seen the power of God in miracles and great events, we can still be assured by what Acts 2 teaches, that the Spirit of our Lord fills up God s people as they find courage to speak; that the Spirit moves so that the hurt and the sorrowing might hear and believe and be healed; and that the Spirit creates a community of people who care for one another and who love each other more than they love themselves. Maybe this is a helpful way to think about the presence of God s Spirit, with us even now, even without the noise and miracles and amazement. In our regular everyday lives, let us consider that God is in each breath we take; that each time we inhale, let us remember God is present that moment with us, and be filled with gratitude; let us think of the Lord who abides so intimately with creation- like the air that surrounds us, like the breath we share with all things. Let us not think of God as just an idea or an ideal, but the essential realitylike breath- that moves among us and lives in converted and changed and hopeful hearts, and in the community of forgiving and committed and thankful believers.