A sermon by David Roquemore
The Camp Hill Presbyterian Church
May 23, 2010 Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17
The Spirit comes to the disciples as they wait in the upper room. They have waited as Jesus directed them, remaining in Jerusalem praying. The Spirit comes on the feast of Pentecost, a celebration fifty days after Passover, remembering when God gave the Law to Moses. God gave the Law to Moses; now God gives the Spirit to Peter and the disciples.
The Spirit comes dramatically. There is a rushing wind. There is something like fire that touches each of them. They begin to speak and preach in other languages. Because it was a festival, Jerusalem was filled with visitors from all over the Mediterranean world, who hear their languages being spoken. How do these Galileans, these fishermen, know Arabic and Cappadocian and all the other tongues?
The reaction is mixed. Some hear and believe. Some hear and with scorn accuse them of being drunk. Peter addresses the crowds: they aren’t drunk, it’s way too early! No, this is what the prophet called for, and he tells them, and three thousand of them believed. They believe Peter who says that God has raised Jesus who was crucified, and made him to be Lord and Messiah. That claim is reinforced by the sign, the coming of the Spirit, and they believe.
Do you believe it? Do you believe these fishermen were suddenly able to preach in Farsi? Do you believe in miracles like this? It is a hallmark of our time to be skeptical. We want life to be controlled, reasonable, predictable. Apparently the Spirit of God is none of these. Do you believe what Peter said? That Jesus, who died, is raised? That God has made him Lord? That is the real question, the reason for the coming of the Spirit. Do you believe Jesus Christ is Risen, and that he is Lord of all?
Be careful how you answer. There is a line from a movie, Ever After, a retelling of the Cinderella tale. A woman is brought before the king and queen and asked, “did you or did you not lie to the Queen of France? Be careful how you answer – the words you speak may be your last!” Be careful how you answer – as a professor of mine commented once, you might say the Apostle’s Creed once too often. Do you believe that Christ is Risen, that he is Lord of all?
The Spirit comes and testifies that the answer is Yes. Yes, I believe. Yes, believing I will live in the power of the Spirit, as a follower of Jesus. The Spirit gives us the grace, the ability, the power, to believe and to obey.
The Spirit comes and brings power, energy, life. Frequently in the New Testament the Greek has these words – power and energy. We sometimes translate them in other ways and soften their impact. The Spirit is pictured as bringing us energy – like a battery. If you have anything in your house that runs on batteries – the TV remote control, your cell phone, your cordless phone – you know that if you leave it off of the charger, it goes dead and then is useless. Just as these things need their batteries charged in order to work properly, so also do we. The Spirit charges us up.
The Spirit comes and brings confidence, courage, conviction. At eight o’clock these disciples were sitting in the room scared. At nine o’clock they were talking languages they didn’t know they knew. They were no longer afraid. They had confidence. They knew their Lord, but they also knew that God was with them, God the Spirit, and so would sustain them. The Spirit witnesses to our spirits, teaching us truth and giving us conviction so that we can make our profession without fear. You have all seen the TV courtroom dramas, where you don’t quite know how things will end, and suddenly a timid witness is filled with conviction and courage, and tells the truth. The Spirit does that to us.
The Spirit comes and brings community, brings us into relationship, gives our friendship depth. These disciples became a community in a hurry – the group went from 120 to 3000 in that one day. Can you imagine? There were organizational struggles, but their common life centered on praying the liturgy and celebrating the sacrament, every day, or every Sunday at least, and that quickly bound them together.
Imagine you go to the movies. You enjoy the show, and you have a shared experience with the other 400 people in the theater. Do you talk to them? No. Do you discuss how great the film was, and what you intend to do now, since it has changed your life? No. It does not matter who else is there, or if anyone is. You can be the only one in the theater and still enjoy the film.
The church is not like that. Oh, you can go to a church and not be a part of the community. You can go to a larger church and be anonymous, – at times that can be comfortable – but to really live the faith fully, you must live it in community. Our society is so individualistic that we have lost sight of how vital relationships are to our well-being. The Spirit brings us into relationship with one another and with God, and through one another, we hear the Spirit speak to us. If we are listening.
A word here about the Spirit: the Holy Spirit gets talked about sometimes as though he were some kind of mojo-juice, some kind of energy or power. The Spirit of God is a person, the Third Person of the Trinity. The Spirit brings power, but is not the power itself. And so we might say, “I really felt the spirit today,” when we mean we felt a certain energy or even emotion. The way we use language matters, and we should always speak of and to the Spirit as a person, fully God.
Today our confirmands will profess their faith. They come before you to say they believe, that they want this grace, this courage, this relationship. They come before you to confirm the promises made for them at their baptism. They have been raised in the faith, taught by many of you, by the community of faith, here and in other places. They are confirming that they believe what the community believes.
As they make these promises, you are invited to make the same promises with them. You are invited to affirm and renew your commitments. You are invited to confirm your intention to live in the power of the Spirit of God.
And after we confirm those promises, make our commitments yet again, we come to the Table: here by the power of the Spirit bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood. We are fed, nourished, sustained, renewed, strengthened, empowered, made whole, given life. Come then, so that we may go forth rejoicing in the Spirit.
Thanks be to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
