Proclamation of the Word

Rev Michael Woods

First Presbyterian Church

June 12, 2011

Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-21

1 Cor. 12:3b-13

John 20:19-23

Prayer of Illumination: Dear God, thank you for giving us these stories from the Bible that remind us of how much you love and care for the world. As you welcomed a little child long ago, we now welcome your Word. By the power of your Spirit at work in us today, teach us how to live. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

          When we last left the disciples, the eleven had returned to the upper room … they wait in anticipation with the other disciples, which includes a number of women and Jesus’ brothers, James and Jude … they devote themselves to prayer and to preparing themselves to receive the power of the Holy Spirit so that they can be Christ’s witnesses to all of Judea, and then Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth.

          And we gather, also, not just on Pentecost but on every day of worship. We devote ourselves to prayer and studying the scriptures … we prepare ourselves to continue the work of the disciples … to be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the ends of the world. But the disciples who gather almost seem to be afraid. They gather “together in one place,” afraid of being scattered … afraid of being without each other’s support and comfort … afraid of being without the familiarity of each others’ presence. Outside the walls of their upper room, the world has changed drastically … and it continues to change. Outside, the world seems a foreign place to them: they no longer have Jesus there to guide them through it. Most of them are simple people – provincial fishermen who hardly ever ventured outside of Judea or Galilee. They are overwhelmed by the complexity of the modern city of Jerusalem with its inhabitants and visitors from all over the Roman Empire … they are baffled and confused by the many different languages that are being spoken on the street (time was when everywhere you went in Jerusalem, everyone spoke Hebrew – and if not Hebrew, at least Aramaic) … and they are bewildered by the many different modes of dress and customs and cultures they see … they feel like aliens living in their own country. In short, the disciples are a lot like you and me.

          Every worship day, across the US – whether that day be on Saturday or Sunday or some other day of the week – it strikes me that we gather as if we are hiding from something … as if we are afraid of the world that lies on the other side of those walls. Our world has changed in ways that make us feel like aliens in our own land. But when we come into this room, we find sanctuary … we are greeted by the familiarity of friends … of people we know and love. We are comforted by familiar hymns and music … by rituals we have gone through so many times they are second nature to us … and by prayers we have prayed and sang so often we know them by heart.

          We need the comfort of the upper room, I think. We need that sanctuary! We need a place where there is some stability, in an ever-shifting world, so we can stand – so we can keep our footing … a place where we can be grounded. To say that you don’t need church is saying you don’t need to be grounded. To say that you don’t need religion is saying you don’t need anything to help you keep your footing in this world going through upheaval – you can be spiritual but not religious.

But life is like flying a kite … a kite needs to be grounded … somebody needs be standing in one place holding on to the string! … let go of the string and the kite always comes crashing down to the ground. We need some sense of stability … we need to have some sort of order in the midst of chaos – otherwise we just get carried away. We need some kind of sanctuary in our lives.

But a sanctuary is not a place where you are to spend the whole of your lives. The disciples were never intended to remain in their upper room and let the rest of the world go by.

We are now ready to meet the main character of the Book of Acts – I don’t mean Peter … and I don’t mean Paul ... I’m talking about the Holy Spirit! If Jesus is the main character of the Gospels, then it’s the Holy Spirit who is the main character of the Book of Acts. It’s the Holy Spirit who will lead Peter and the rest of disciples throughout Jerusalem, spreading the good news, giving sight to the blind, helping the lame to walk, and challenging the injustice of the Pharisees. It is the Holy Spirit who will lead Philip to broaden the Table Fellowship of the early church to include Samaritans and the Ethiopian Eunuch. It is the Holy Spirit who will change the heart of Saul of Tarsus along the road to Damascus and make him Paul the Apostle, leading him to Antioch, and to Ephesus, and Philippi, and finally to Rome – the center of the western world – and from there the good news can spread to the ends of the earth.

And everywhere the Spirit goes in the Book of Acts boundaries are pushed, walls are knocked down, traditions are reformed – people are taken out of their comfort zones. In short, everywhere the Spirit goes the afflicted are comforted and the comfortable are afflicted.

And when the Spirit makes the Spirit’s first appearance, it is with the grandest of entrances! The walls that separate the disciples from the outside world … the walls that protect and insulate the disciples – they may as well not be there! For the Spirit comes right in to the middle of the room, unhindered. And when the Spirit arrives, the Spirit brings in all the disorder of the outside world. The disciples begin to speak in all of the foreign languages of those who are outside on the streets. And those outside can hear what is going on in the upper room, and they are amazed that these provincial men and women can speak their language so fluently … so gracefully … and they hear the good news!

When we come to worship God, we cannot hide behind these walls! We ought to let the Spirit in. And if we ought to let the Spirit, then we ought to let the world in. Because the Spirit has a vision of the church of Jesus Christ that goes beyond you and me … that goes beyond 154 South McIntosh Street. It goes all up and down North and South McIntosh Street … it goes down Edwards Street and up Tusten to where it turns into Martin Luther King Avenue. It goes into the Black neighborhoods of Elberton … to the homes where Hispanic immigrants live … to where people from India, China, Japan, and Korea now live.

The church of which the Spirit has a vision cannot be contained by walls … it cannot be hidden behind stained glass windows … it is a vision of a church which itself is scattered … scattered to the ends of the earth! It is a church that meets in the homes of its members in places like Africa and Asia. It worships in English, Korean, Spanish, Mandarin, and Swahili. Its members dress in two-piece suits, kimonos, sarongs, tribal robes, blue jeans, and resort casual.  The people who gather do so with loud music, orchestras and praise bands, or with a single organ or piano ... some gather in contemplative silence. In many ways and in many manners do the people of God’s church gather!

But everywhere the people of the church gather, the Spirit finds a way in! And the Spirit brings in with it the cares and concerns of the outside world: the sick are prayed for … our national leaders are prayed for … we take up special offerings to help fight poverty and for ministries for children at risk … we commission mission teams to go out into the world to care for the poor, give aid to the sick, and shelter the homeless.

Do we really want to see the Spirit inside of the walls of this church? Do we really want to let the Spirit within the walls of our individual lives? Or do we want to hide?

Are we willing to let the Spirit shake things up? … Lead us to creatively engage the chaos of this world? Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable? Are we willing to let ourselves be afflicted? INFSHS.