Acts 2:1-21
May 23, 2010
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that 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.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I want you to imagine something. Imagine that three members of this church, whom you know fairly well, came up to you one day and told you about an experience they had. One of them, Ann, said to you, “You wouldn’t believe the experience we had this past week. John, Sarah, and I gathered together the other day just to pray. For some reason we all believed that God was calling us to pray, so we did. We were in my living room praying, and all of the sudden something weird happened. A wind started blowing through the room, yet all the windows were closed. It was like something out of a Stephen Spielberg movie—papers flying all over the place, books shuffling open and shut, pictures rattling against the wall, water sloshing around in our cups.
“Then we looked at each other and we noticed that each of us had something that looked almost like a flame flickering above each of our heads. Then the strangest thing happened. I started speaking in German, and I’ve never studied German. John was speaking in Chinese, and he’s never been to China. Then Sarah opened her mouth and started speaking in some sort of language that none of us had ever heard,… but we seemed to understand it anyway. It was the most amazing experience we’ve ever had. It was the Holy Spirit”
So, what do you think of Ann after she tells you this? If you are like most modern Presbyterians you think she’s nuts, right? You certainly don’t want to go over to her house to pray anytime soon because who knows what will happen. But here’s the problem. What I just described is very similar to what happened on the day of Pentecost, on the day that the Christian Church was born. Why is it strange for people today to have that experience, but not strange for the original Christians to have it? We would think that it’s strange for a member of our church, or anyone else for that matter, to have an experience like this, but it’s the experience that 3000 original Christians had. In other words, we’re not sure what to make of an experience that lies at the very foundation of our whole faith. Isn’t that a bit odd, that we’re founded on a dramatic spiritual experience and now we think dramatic spiritual experiences are odd?
This whole account of Pentecost creates a problem. Most of us really want God in our lives—we want the Holy Spirit to act in our lives, but not if it's gonna be weird or lead to experiences like this. We've got a dilemma. We're all here because we want God in our lives, but how much do we really want God if God is going to get all freaky on us? Do you know what our problem is? We keep beckoning for God to come toward us, and then put our hand up, telling God to stay away and keep a distance.
It's the willingness to accept the whole package that separates many modern Christians from these early Christians in our passage. We want God to be in our lives, but at a distance. They wanted God to be in their lives, and as close as possible. They knew that if they accepted the Spirit into their lives, life would change. They were so passionate about wanting the Spirit in their lives that they didn’t care what happened. They just knew that something good would happen, so they waited patiently as they prayed. And the result was that they received the Holy Spirit, who really can be in our lives in every moment.
Whether you believe this or not, there is a way of being open to the Spirit that allows the Spirit to be a part of even the most minute parts of our lives. In fact, what our passage for this morning teaches us is that a major core of Christianity is the Spirit being part of every detail of our lives. We are meant to live in unity with the Spirit, and to have the Spirit be a part of everything in our lives. The question is always whether we have the passion to seek out the Spirit, and then the patience to wait for the Spirit.
Roger was a man who had this kind of passionate patience. And because of this he discovered how the Spirit could work in the details of life. Roger is French Canadian, having grown up and lived most of his life in the province of Quebec, until he moved to Ontario. He’s a man who had a steady job, provided for his family, went to church on Sundays (mass, actually, since he’s Roman Catholic), and lived a good life. He was a carpenter by trade, although he really only worked four months a year. In much of Canada it is hard to find construction work in the winter because it’s too cold to work outside. Still, he was busy enough, and successful enough, that in six months of work he made enough money to provide for his wife and nine children.
Then the economic stagnation of 1975 hit, which lasted till 1980, and it devastated him and his work. No one was building. No one needed carpenters. Roger struggled to find work. Increasingly he felt like a failure at home, becoming more distant from his wife. Eventually he did find some work, but he had to travel long distances, and thus be away from his family for long stretches. During this time his wife took up with another man, a man that Roger knew treated her poorly and his children even worse. But he felt helpless. Roger, who once had been so happy and positive, was becoming downtrodden and depressed.
Eventually he couldn’t take it anymore. He felt as though God had abandoned him. So one day, on one of his short trips home, he railed in his head against God. He said, “Jesus, Mary, and all you Catholic Saints people pray to, throw them in a bag and dump it. To me they don’t exist. The whole thing with religion feels like nothing but lies! Now there is nobody here but You and me, God. If You are really there, I will give you not three years, not three months, not three days—I will give you three hours to show up. If you don’t show me You are real and You are here by then, You will be dumped with the rest.”
Soon after his prayer, his wife called him to the dinner table. All nine children were there, and it was a noisy dinner as usual with food flying back and forth. Roger sat there, looking at his kids while they talked with each other, no one paying attention to him. Suddenly he heard a voice: “Go get your paper. I have something for you to write down.” Roger looked at his kids to see which one had spoken to him, but they were all talking with each other. No one was even noticed him. Then he heard the voice again, a friendly yet insistent voice that said, “Get some paper and a pencil, I have something for you to write.” Roger looked at the wall, thinking someone was behind him, but no one was there.
He got up from the table and got several sheets of paper. Then the Voice spoke again, uttering syllable by syllable in a way that made it hard for Roger to actually understand what he was writing. He wrote for three pages. He had been so busy that he didn’t even notice that the others had finished dinner. When he was done he read what he had written, and it amazed him. I can’t recite all three pages, but I can share with you this, which was the essential message:
“Three days ago you told your friend that your family never missed their three meals a day and that two-thirds of the world eats only one meal a day—sometimes one meal in three days—and still you cried you were a poor man.
“You say you don’t have a penny left to pay your bills, yet I see money in many envelopes in your drawers. Poor people don’t have that. (It turned out that this was right. Roger looked in a drawer and found envelopes filled with money that he had stashed away many years before and had forgotten).
“You are deeply hurt about your wife, and that fact is important to you. That is not important. Every day, remember, your children are very happy with you, no matter your situation. That is important.
“Know that love is the key. Everything is attached to that. Learn to love and there is no real problem anymore.
“Now, you must know that you will never be alone again. You asked Me to show Myself and I came to you. I am always here.”
Afterwards Roger found that the Voice guided him constantly. A few days later he received a call from a local hospital that needed a carpenter to do some outside work, even though it was -30 degrees outside. When he got there the person in charge of hiring said that there was nothing outside to do, but that they needed someone to do maintenance inside, and that the job was his. Once again he had full-time work, enough to care for he and his family.
The Voice has stayed with him over the years, and has guided him moment-by-moment, in a way that many of us don’t believe is possible. How has he been able to keep the Spirit speaking to him? He’s managed to form a passionate patience. He’s been passionate about seeking the Spirit that he is always asking the Spirit to guide him. But at the same time he has had the patience to wait (adapted from “The Man Who Hears the Voice,” in the book, When God Spoke to Me, by David Paul Doyle).
Roger heard the Spirit because desperation gave him passion and patience. Are you willing to form a passion for God? Are you willing to let the Spirit into your life in a way that changes your life forever—in a way that makes your life wonderful? Are you willing to have the patience to wait on the Spirit? If you are, be here next week and I'll talk with you about how to get the Spirit to be more active in the nitty-gritty of your life.
Amen
