Marking the Date

Sermon-Year B-Pentecost May 31, 2009
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
Last week I told you part of a sabbatical story. I had begun my sabbatical in Ireland walking with my son Kyle. He returned home and I spent a few days on the island of Iona, and then I began walking the 62 mile trip across southern Scotland called, St. Cuthbert’s Way. It was the first day walking from the little town of Melrose. I got lost even before I got out of town. It rained. And within minutes of leaving the village I had to immediately begin climbing a steep hill. I was wet, cold, alone, and very soon I was lost again. Then I ran into women, who I had met that morning at breakfast me, and they walked with me that whole first day. I felt rescued. I told you all this last week. As the first day ended, they were going on-but I was stopping at my B&B for the night. These two angels had saved me, and now I was alone again. And I felt sadder and lonelier than before I had even met them. That’s where the story ended last week. I still had 50 miles and 5 days of hard walking ahead of me. I had “no one to walk with, and I had this propensity for taking the wrong path. I was worried. And a little scared. I was 2 weeks into a 13 week sabbatical (right at the beginning), in a foreign country, I was alone and for the most part, lost.”
That’s how I started my sermon-and ended my story-last week. And here’s what happened next-after they left. I went to my B&B that evening, the first day, and the owner sent me to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, had walked 18 miles, and I had terrible leg cramps. The only other people in the restaurant were a couple about my age. They were from Australia. It turned out that they, too, were staying in the same B&B as I was, and they, too, were walking St. Cuthbert’s Way, also for the next 50 miles. They asked if I wanted to walk with them. And I had company, and I had guides, and new friends, and for 5 days, again, angels rescued me.
This may not sound like a dramatic story to you. The hard moments in our lives seldom sound dramatic when we try to explain them to others. All we know is how it felt. A little coincidence here, a happy accident there. Most of the time, we never realize the power that something has in our lives. We look back and say, “boy, was that lucky,” or “what a fluke that that bus was late and I met my wife” or whatever. We look at something in our lives and think that the small things that happen to us, the tiny incidents that occur, mean little, or were fortunate chances. We don’t realize that there is a power constantly working in our lives to change us and help us and guide us. First we have to be aware that God is working, then we become inspired to act with courage and hope. And we mark our lives with dates, anniversaries, remembrances-because we believe that we were one person before-and a different person after.
I was with a bunch of clergy this week, talking about today’s lessons, and someone asked, “what is your definition of the Holy Spirit?” (hold on to this question for a while)
Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks was a Jewish harvest festival celebrating the barley crop. It was supposed to happen 7 weeks after Passover. Centuries later in Judaism Pentecost became associated with the giving of the Law to Moses. Again, the Passover that Jesus and his friends were in Jerusalem celebrating at his crucifixion was the great remembrance of God saving the Hebrew people, and Pentecost was the celebration of God communicating his will to the people through the 10 commandments.
The disciples, gathered in the upper room 50 days after the resurrection, to celebrate the Jewish Pentecost-the feast of weeks. They gathered with people from all over the Ancient Near East. They were in mourning. They were uncertain . They were unclear what to do, where to go, who to be. Jesus had left them for a final time 10 days earlier as he ascended into heaven. 2:2 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.
They weren’t expecting it, they didn’t ask for it, they didn’t even know what it was. All they knew was that they could understand each other, where before they couldn’t. All they knew was that something had happened and they were different. All they knew was that God was acting, and they were witnesses. These tired, scared, alone disciples left that upper room in Jerusalem and went on to change the world. And they marked this date. Pentecost. The great scholar N.T. Wright says that the greatest proof of the resurrection is the change that happened to these close followers of Jesus. 11 of them went on to die for their faith. Read the gospels. Nowhere do you see leadership or courage or great hearts in the disciples while they were following Jesus. But suddenly they are transformed, and they take the story of Jesus to the ends of the earth. They were different. They felt rescued. They understood that God was alive and active in their lives, and they were inspired. And they remembered when this happened-the 50th day after the Resurrection.
Last year I told you a couple of interesting dates. 7900 BC. Anyone remember what happened that year? (and no, I wasn’t there when it happened). Scientists believe it was the first time fire was actually used by human beings-harnessed by humanity for heat and cooking. First time. How about 3000BC? The first time that Egyptians used wind to sail boats. Fire. Wind. Both had been around a lot longer than 10,000 and 5000 years. But until they were channeled by humanity they were just forces of nature. Suddenly they become power that could be used to bear fruit, to improve the world, to change lives. Fire and wind. Just scary mother nature-until we realize how they connect with our lives, how they can be used, how our lives are different with their existence. We remember these years. We were one way before-we were different after.
Power means nothing until it connects with who we are and changes us. Until that happens, it’s just stuff we observe. But then, something happens, and we start becoming altered, new. Sometimes we don’t even realize it, most of the time we don’t expect it, we very seldom ask for it, we may not even know what it is. But all of a sudden we realize that we are different people than we were before. There is something new in our lives, and we are changed. And we try to remember the date-because we were one person before-and we had a different understanding of life-and ourselves-after. Who were we before July 4, 1776? How about the day we were born, the date of our marriage, How about 9-11?
6 days in Scotland, walking with 2 different groups of people who helped me, I started understanding that no matter what happened , I would not only make it-but that I would be ok. Everyone knows this, but there is a deeper realization, a more profound awareness, that God is working, that I can do what seems overwhelming to me at the time. We realize that the power is working in us.
Disciples who were in a room, grieving, alone, discouraged, felt a new wind and tongues of fire-and believed that their faith could bring light to a darkened world. They understood each other-and they understood that God was working, and that they could face and conquer the overwhelming challenges in their lives. And we celebrate their new understanding by remembering the day.
Fire and wind mean nothing until we realize that they can be harnessed and used, until we understand them and know that they can help us and change our lives.
What is my definition of the Holy Spirit? That power of God that I see and understand working in my life, that helps me to realize that God is moving-and that inspires me to face and conquer my fears and challenges. Just hearing about it, just watching others, just reading about it, is like seeing fire before 8000BC or feeling the breeze before 3000BC. Nice, but irrelevant. The Holy Spirit is power that changes me. Me. My life. That is when I write down dates, that is when I remember events-when I am changed.. That is when I begin measuring my life. I was baptized 46 years ago, married 27 years ago, came to Trinity 23 years ago. Why do I remember those dates? Because that is when I realized that the power was working in my life, and I felt strengthened and inspired, when my direction, my life, became different.
Today is Pentecost. It is the 50th day after Easter. Jesus was raised 7 weeks ago, but it was on this day that disciples changed, understood, realized, were inspired. On this date that disciples, the word meaning followers became apostles-meaning those who are sent out.
Today, Pentecost we realize not just that there are angels in our lives, but that there is fire and wind, that there is power moving to help us understand, to show us that God is active, to inspire us to act and to change. There is a Spirit alive in the land. Maybe we will remember this date, Pentecost 2009. Maybe we will say someday, at least to ourselves, this was the date that I understood that God was active in my life, this is the day that I felt God’s presence, on this date, in this year, I felt the power, I understood it, and I was changed. What is the date you will look back on and say, I was changed that day, I became new?
Acts 2:1-21
2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2:2 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.
2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in=2 0Jerusalem.
2:6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
2:7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
2:8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
2:11 Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
2:12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
2:13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
2:14 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.
2:15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
2:16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
2:17 '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.
2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
2:19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
2:21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be sav ed.'