First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Michigan
Pentecost Sunday, June 7, 1998
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5, Acts 2:1-17
Two New Yorkers were driving in the state of Louisiana when they entered the town of Natchitoches. They immediately began discussing with one another how to pronounce the town’s name. The discussion escalated into an argument and became rather heated. As it was nearing lunchtime, they decided to find a fast food emporium. Standing at the counter, one of them decided to settle the argument before ordering. So he said to the person waiting on them: “Would you help settle a disagreement between us? Would you please pronounce where we are, very slowly and very clearly?” Whereupon the counter man said to the two men: “Burrrr-gerrrr Kinnnng.”
So where are we….really? Obviously, we are here….rooted in the present….grounded in the moment….located in time….Birmingham, Michigan….June 7….First United Methodist….8:41 a.m. Less obvious is our historical location….our liturgical location….our ceremonial location….which is that wonderful, colorful, implausible and utterly incomprehensible experience known as Pentecost….i.e. Jerusalem….29 A.D….nine o’clock in the morning.
This is why we are dressed in red. Because, once upon a time, a group of people felt themselves to be “on fire.” And, quite apart from the question of whether or not we can be them, we have the intuitive good sense to know that we should never forget them.
Which calls to mind the college graduate, taking the summer off to “unwind” by traveling through Europe on a Eurail pass. One night, in northern Italy, he awakens to find the train stopped and a red light flashing frantically in his compartment. He can’t read enough Italian to translate the words under the light, but the urgency of the flashing coupled with the suddenness of the stopping lead him to the only obvious conclusion….the train is on fire.
Springing to his feet, he throws on his pants, grabs his knapsack, fumbles with the door latch, and lunges into the corridor. Looking down to the end of the car, he screams at the conductor: “Do you speak English?”
“What’s wrong?” the conductor cries (in perfect English).
“The light….the red light…the flashing red light….with the words under it I can’t read (because they’re printed in Italian). What do they say?” the student counters.
“Ah,” says the conductor. “They say when the train is stopped, please do not use the toilets.” Leading one to ponder where the church of Jesus Christ is these days. On fire? In motion? In the toilet? Stopped dead in its tracks?
We read today’s story because it has the feel of “fire and motion” about it, even as we understand this is not just any “fire and motion,” but God’s “fire and motion”….made possible through the agency of the Holy Spirit. In the nick of time, one might add. For there they were, the friends of Jesus….the discouraged friends of Jesus….hanging around Jerusalem, pondering the prospects of life after Jesus. But let Luke tell it:
Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting. And something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire. These separated and came to rest on the head of each. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the Spirit gave them ability.
In effect, what we have is a room full of people….all fired up….talking at the same time….in a cacophony of languages. Some who heard it called it “babble.” But others, taking time to sort out words and phrases, said: “I recognize that language. It is the language spoken by the people in my ancestral nation.” And other languages became similarly recognized, to the degree that what was experienced was equivalent to a United Nations town meeting, taking place without benefit of interpreters or headphones.
But this posed an obvious question. Where did these men learn these languages, given that they were all residents (and natives, for the most part) of Galilee? This was a good question, but one for which there was no ready answer. Which prompted scoffers to say: “Pay no attention to these men. You will find what is in them, once you check the wine supply.”
Whereupon Peter countered with a pair of arguments. First, he said, these men can’t be drunk because it is still early in the morning….meaning that they haven’t been up that long to get that high. Second, if they are drunk, it is more God’s doing than the barkeep’s. For what is in them is not spirits, but Spirit….not whiskey, but wind….not bourbon, but breath….not Galliano, but God. And either Peter was sufficiently convincing….or the Holy Spirit was not yet done for the day….because, before the sun called it quits in the west, fully 3,000 bystanders approached the disciples, saying: “Tell us what we need to do to get what you guys seem to have.” Which is why we associate, to this very day, the initial stirrings of the Christian movement with whatever it was that happened that fiery morning in Jerusalem.
The mistake we make, some 2,000 years later, is in assuming that because the Spirit came in that manner once, the Spirit will come in a similar manner every time out. Persons who think thusly draw the erroneous conclusion that if the Spirit doesn’t come in like fashion….or in manners similarly spectacular….then it can be logically inferred that the Spirit hasn’t come.
On more than one occasion, I have had people visit this church (or previous churches I have served), only to attend a couple of Sundays and then move on. When asked what led them to look further down the road, they explained they were looking for a “Spirit-filled” church. By inference, such persons are suggesting that ours is not. Occasionally, I press the question. “What constitutes a Spirit-filled church?” I ask. “How does one know when one is in one?” To which I receive a variety of answers. But most people generally point to one of two signs. I am told that ours is not a “Spirit-filled church” because there is either too little animation in the congregation, or too much formality in the ministry.
By “too little animation,” they mean that you (as a congregation) are stiff. They are critiquing everything from your posture to your passion. They do not sense that the Spirit is moving you. They are looking for you to sing, sway, speak, shout, clap, raise your hands, or even faint in ways that have never been your custom. By “too much formality in the ministry,” they are critiquing me, demanding that I loosen the liturgy, unbridle the order and throw away my sermon manuscript, the better the allow for the spontaneous to happen and God’s Spirit to breathe.
Which is an opinion, of course. But little more than an opinion. As concerns the worship of God, there is no right or wrong way of doing things. To suggest that there is but one formula by which the Spirit can be experienced or expressed is, in effect, a contradiction in terms. The nature of Sunday morning worship varies from place to place. And, in most places, it is often a matter of practice and tradition (“doing what we have always done”) coupled with a matter of comfort and taste (“doing what feels good”). Then we quietly assume we are the norm, claiming for ourselves the middle ground. Episcopalians are too rigid. Baptists, too loose. And Pentecostals, nowhere to be found on our personal reference map.
I remember the first time I worshiped in a church where people were regularly “slain in the Spirit.” This is a practice, popular among certain Christian groups, that describes what happens when an individual comes to the altar (or chancel rail) and is touched or thumped on the forehead (in a moment of deep prayer) by one said to possess gifts for healing or Spirit-channeling. When the touch (or thump) is received, the individual is literally propelled backwards, as if having been struck a stunning blow. This backward fall is best described as a faint, although I am not certain all the same medical criteria apply. Churches that feature “slayings in the Spirit” provide assistants to stand behind the people being “touched,” the better to catch them when they tumble.
Such things are spectacular to behold. Such occurrences are also cited as evidence that “surely the Spirit of the Lord is in this place.” And it may be so. It may also not be so. I know of nothing to be gained by trying to figure the “whys and wherefores” of every strange thing that happens in church. One person may faint dead away as a result of being touched by the Spirit. A second person may faint dead away as a result of watching the first person fall. The power of the Spirit is great. So, too, is the power of human suggestibility. And I lack the discernment that enables me to tell one from the other.
Unless, of course, someone tells me. Which someone did. Just the other day. He called me up to thank me for coming to the hospital to see his wife….in the pre-op room….at 7:00 in the morning….before they wheeled her off to surgery.
I wasn’t there that long. And I didn’t say that much. But I prayed, after the three of us joined hands. And he said:
I need to tell you something about that prayer. I didn’t sleep much the night before. And I was kind of shaky going in. But something that happened in that room that has changed, forever, the way I am going to think about prayer. Because while you were praying, I felt something come from your hand into mine. It traveled up my arm….through my body….out my other arm….and into my wife. And I wasn’t just thinking it….or imagining it. I was feeling it (as real as I’ve ever felt anything in my life). Once it came and went, I knew that everything was going to be all right. And from that moment on, I was as calm as calm could be.
Can I explain that? No. Do I understand that? No. Did I feel anything leave me? No. Did his wife feel anything enter her? Don’t know. But I believe it. And he swears by it (and said I could tell you about it).
In truth, most of us do not know how the Holy Spirit operates. Neither are we all that certain who….or what….the Holy Spirit is. Biblically, we have a host of suggestions to choose from. Early in the book of Genesis, the Spirit is mentioned as being part of the creative process:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
But this is one of those rare places where I actually prefer an earlier translation of the Bible, wherein we read: “And the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep.” The word “brood” sounds beautifully gestational….as in a mother hen brooding over her nest, an artist brooding over his paints, or even a preacher brooding over seven blank pieces of manuscript paper.
John Killinger, taking his cue from Carl Jung, suggests that it may be helpful to envision this pre-creation period of brooding as creation-in-gestation….creation-in-utero….creation-in-the-womb….literally, creation waiting to be born. Killinger also suggests that this “brooding Spirit moving o’er the face of the deep” might be better described as female than male. He equates this “brooding Spirit” with the word “Anima” (the root word for “animation”). Linguistically, Anima is always feminine. He suggests that if we could learn to call the Holy Spirit “She,” instead of “He” or “It,” we could introduce femininity into God’s nature without having to surrender or soften the corresponding image of God the Father.
For a second stop on our biblical journey, turn to Psalm 51. This Psalm is alleged to be David’s prayer of confession after his affair with Bathsheba and his complicity in the death of Bathsheba’s husband. David prays:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
In this Psalm, the Spirit is seen, not in a creating mode, but in a protecting and renewing mode. David is clear that if God’s Spirit be removed, he (David) will have no future.
Now move from David to Jesus. Mark writes that when Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove. What a beautiful image. But here, the Spirit is neither creating nor protecting, so much as confirming, anointing and announcing. Depending upon which Gospel is cited, the Spirit is either telling Jesus who he is, or telling the crowd who he is.
Later, when Jesus first speaks in the synagogue, there is an implied matter of “credentials” to deal with. What (or who) gives Jesus the right to speak? Interestingly enough, Jesus produces neither a diploma nor an ordination certificate. A Yale Divinity School degree would have nicely taken care of things, but Jesus doesn’t possess one. Neither does anyone stand up and vouch for him. Instead, he says: “I am here because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” Again, an anointing function.
Years later, on the eve of his dying, John records Jesus as saying something like this to his disciples:
I must leave you soon. It will be better for you that I go. But I will not leave you alone. I will pray to my Father. He will send you Another. The one he sends will be your Comforter….your Instructor….your Advocate. The coming one will be with you forever. You will not be orphaned. You will not be impotent. You will receive power from on high.
And who will do all of the above? The Holy Spirit, that’s who.
I could go on. But there is little need. My only purpose in walking you through this material is to illustrate that the Holy Spirit (biblically considered) is much more than something that once caused an early morning ruckus in Jerusalem….and occasionally re-emerges in bursts of spectacular irrationality among Christians who “go in for that sort of thing.”
Over the years, I have tended to distrust the more spectacular and implausible claims made in the name of the Holy Spirit. I have waited, instead, to see the fruits. Don’t tell me how high you jumped the night you got religion. Tell me how straight you walked the next morning, once you came down.
As for me, the Spirit has never bowled me over, knocked me down, blinded my eyes, stopped me in my tracks, or made me talk funny. But once a week, usually on a Friday or Saturday, the Spirit wrestles mightily with me….occasionally, even speaking through me. And there have been a few occasions when She has sustained and renewed me, at the very moment when I was beginning to think of myself as an orphan. Surprisingly, the Spirit stills broods over the face of my deep, leading me to believe that even 57 year olds remain in the process of creation. And there are some who say that the Spirit is never more transparent in me than when I sing.
I suppose I might describe my “walk with the Spirit” as largely unspectacular. But somehow, the word “unspectacular” doesn’t quite feel right. So let me substitute a word like “steady” (which, unfortunately, some of you will still find less than adequate). But “steady” is not to be sneezed at. My auto mechanic tells me that a jump start will suffice to start my car when the battery is dead. But the best way to bring a battery to full strength is by means of a trickle charge. And what is a trickle charge? It is where one’s battery remains connected to a power source for hours and hours and hours.
here are some, no doubt, who need to be “slain in the Spirit.” There are some, no doubt, who need to be “jumped by the Spirit.” There are some, no doubt, who need to be “baptized in the Spirit” (so great is the need to dramatically wash away the old and superimpose the new). But there are some….and of this I have no doubt, for I am one of them….into whom the Spirit has quietly trickled for hours and hours and hours. Whatever starts your heart, my friends. Whatever starts your heart.
Note: First Church annually holds its Pentecost celebration on the initial Sunday in June, complete with great hymn singing, balloon raising, and birthday cake on the lawn. This accounts for the sermonic emphasis and the selection of the passage from Acts. As a part of this year’s observance of Pentecost, 80 new adult members were received at the 11:00 service (making this the largest such membership class in the researchable history of First Church’s 177 years).
