Acts 2.1-21

Pentecost Sunday May 27, 2007

when the Spirit blows through the house

When the wind blows through the house, you duck for cover. When a tornado comes through you hide in the bathtub. If you ask me, that’s a scary plan. I’ve though since I first heard it as a child. I used to imagine people flying around in bathtubs. Harry Potter, for real!

On the other hand, when the wind blew through the house of the people of God, they had already run for cover, hiding in fear and trembling, not in bathtubs, but alone on in a upper room. They didn’t have a clue about the future or even what to do. All they knew is the way they knew had been was put to death with Jesus. The future coming to be with Jesus’ resurrection was unimaginable. So fearful, anxious and clueless, they did the next right thing as Jesus instructed: wait and pray. Wait and listen for God’s next move.

Let’s be honest. Their fears did not go away as they waited, nor did they swiftly create strategic plans to calm their anxiety about the future. Instead, they lived honestly before God with all the broken pieces of themselves, waiting patiently and praying, listening for God’s future.

Wow! The days of Pollyanna didn’t arrive, but the Spirit of God did and she blew the roof off the house! Fear turned to hope, anxiety turned to courage and these once timid disciples took the message of Jesus to the streets, mixing it up with folks from all over the world.

What do you make of this?

I believe when the Holy Spirit blows through the people of God, she transforms a fearful people into a courageous, joyful community to proclaim the God’s Good News to all people in all places. I think the Spirit is blowing through the people of God in our time, too, even here among us at Saint Mark.

What I am about to say is nothing new for most of you, but it is said so clearly that I think it is worthy to mention here.

Western society is experiencing a shift from one historic period to another. Many believe no parallel exists in history for the current rate of change. And what has shaped past centuries is yielding to a fresh set of ideas and perspectives. For thousands of years civilizations focused on continuity. But now, the overriding and new fact of history is living with constant radical change. Rapid transformation is becoming a way of life. For instance, whole communities in South America, Africa and Asia have went from no telephone at all to a whole continent using cell phones. They have no experience whatsoever with a dial-up telephone. They went from nothing to having cyber cafes hooked to the internet in nearly every village.

Would you believe Chicago – the heartland of America – now has more Muslims than Methodists? With the exception of the Southern Baptists, who never take anyone, dead or alive, off their rolls, Methodists are the largest Protestant body in the United States and there are fewer of them in Chicago than Muslims. Here’s something else to ponder: there are more practicing Lutherans in Nambia than in Minnesota. Here in our own neighborhood the 2000 census in Montgomery County showed that 32% of residents over the age of five speak a language other than English at home. That was seven years ago! America is undergoing a sea change in religious and cultural identities in the swell of immigration. (see Peter Steinke, “Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What.”)

Ever since the day of Pentecost, congregations have been and will continue to be affected by swift, broad changes. The church traditions – especially denominational loyalties – that once organized religious identity are waning. Whatever the position of the Protestant Church was a generation ago, it is no longer the same. Christians of all traditions and cultural backgrounds now live in a multi-religious, multi-cultural society. New forces are emerging and a growing number of people, many of whom regard themselves as Christians and Seekers without a home, are seeking a fresh vitality in spirituality, worship and a new passion in social activism that is rooted in a community of faith.

The dial up world that once was is not coming back. Nor will computers disappear or as much as we might wish it, blackberries are hear to stay along with cell phones, too.

These changes are accelerating and show no signs of slowing down.

In Called to Commitment, Elizabeth O’Connor said, “When the church starts to be the church, it will constantly be adventuring out into places where there are no tried and tested ways. When it does, it has often been called an experiment. That means the possibility of failure always exists when you are stepping into the future following the Spirit, trying new ways to be present to God in the world. We would say that the church of Christ is never an experiment, but wherever that church is true to its mission it will be experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling Word of God to its own age.”

I believe this is an opportunity for renewal at the center of our congregation’s ministry if we are courageous enough to step into the emerging future with open-hearted faith in God. The great hockey player Wayne Gretsky said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be not to where it has been.”

I believe this skating for the puck is about searching for where God is at work dismantling barriers and transforming lives, not where we have already been. I believe it is about discovering fresh ways to embody God’s love among the people, in surrounding neighborhoods, across every barrier, trusting the Spirit of Christ to transform lives. This is what it means to be a missional church whose primary purpose is lives being transformed by the Spirit.

The Church did not begin as an institution whose survival its members were enlisted to ensure. It began as a movement of believers, whose lives were being transformed by the Holy Spirit and summoned by God's love into the streets to announce the Good News. I often wonder if the birth of the institution was the death of the church. The Church began a movement, when believers heard the Good News of God’s love, opened themselves to the transforming grace of the Spirit and went forth into the world speaking truth to power, welcoming the lost, embracing the outcast and joyfully following Jesus.

Now get this: the surrounding culture responded to this movement and its message with “astonishment. More importantly, day by day, God added to their number those who were being made whole (saved.)

This is a moment for churches to be communities of hope open to the Spirit of God leading us into the a future. The Spirit is evoked when space is provided for people to discover their gifts, experience inner transformation and find ways to love their neighbor. This is the opportunity for our congregation to join with other communities of hope practicing the counter-cultural disciplines of Jesus: praying for others, welcoming the stranger with generous hospitality, healing the sick, lifting up the poor, giving sight to the blind and mending the broken hearted.

People are made whole (saved) through the generous grace of God. This is the gospel; the Good News for everyone. Proclaiming this gospel in word and deed is the central calling of the church.

I believe this is central calling at Saint Mark - to be a community where people are made whole by God’s Spirit; a people capable of loving God and loving neighbor, where Spirit and Service come together to the glory of God. We have no other calling.

Pentecost is one day a year, the search for the puck goes on every day.

Alleluia.