Spirit Poured Out: Dare to Dance Again

Acts 2:1-21 CEB

1 When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

5 There were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered. They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages. 7 They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them? 8 How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!” 12 They were all surprised and bewildered. Some asked each other, “What does this mean?” 13 Others jeered at them, saying, “They’re full of new wine!”

14 Peter stood with the other eleven apostles. He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem! Know this! Listen carefully to my words! 15 These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning! 16 Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions. Your elders will dream dreams.

18 Even upon my servants, men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

19 I will cause wonders to occur in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.

20 The sun will be changed into darkness, and the moon will be changed into blood, before the great and spectacular day of the Lord comes.

21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

INTRO

Last week we celebrated the Ascension of our Lord Sunday. As we celebrated this holy day together, we continued exploring what it means to dare to dance again through the lens of the beloved community we are called to be. We received the model of the beloved community in Christ’s ascension into heaven. We explored how Christ’s ascension into heaven leaves space for the disciples to do the work of ministry - when Holy Spirit comes down and begins her work in the world. This week, we further this model of community through our understanding of Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday is often referred to as the Birthday of the Church. It is the Sunday where we gather together in our sanctuaries wearing red and celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit came down and stirred up the disciples and others gathered to create the church. Often times we focus too much on celebrating the “birthday of the church” as we find balloons and cakes in our church fellowship halls and stand up in the service and sing happy birthday to the church. But Pentecost is about more than simply celebrating the “foundation” of the church. It begins to expand on last week’s model of beloved community as we reflect on this story from so long ago.

Acts 2 begins to sort through this Spirit that has been promised by Jesus by grounding the day of Pentecost in the traditions of the church. The Spirit comes on the heels of a tradition that is associated with the God who gives to us good gifts. At first, Pentecost was a festival that celebrated the harvest, and it was a time where people gave thanks to God for God’s faithfulness in giving the harvest and supplying all the needs to the whole household.

Later in the tradition of the church, Pentecost becomes associated with God’s gift of the Ten Commandments as an instruction manual for living faithfully in covenant with God. In our story today, the gift is neither the harvest nor is it the commandments - even though these things are certainly a gift of God - but rather God’s gift given at Pentecost is the gift of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit manifests God’s presence and power while leaving space for the work of God’s people: God’s people who are empowered by the Spirit for faithful witness to the world.

The church is brought into being by this good gift of God as the Holy Spirit establishes the fellowship of faith and calls the community into a new family (the family of God) to witness to what God has done and is doing in and through Jesus Christ, our Lord. One commentary notes “It is God who initiates Pentecost, as God initiates salvation. God’s Spirit calls a people of faith and comforts, challenges, and guides the church. The reality of the Spirit’s presence is the church’s guide to living as faithful servants of God in the world and faithful witnesses to Christ.” In other words, it is only through the gift of the Holy Spirit that the church is furtherer gifted with an identity as a community that follows after Christ. And the authority of the church to follow and witness the revelations of God is centered in the proclamation of the Gospel.

Last week as we celebrated Jesus’ ascension into heaven, we were promised that God would send something to the disciples and to us. This Pentecost Sunday we recognize what God promised to send: the Holy Spirit. The gift of God’s Spirit is that we are gifted by God with the divine presence of God. At times the Spirt comes upon the church in such a way that she can be seen and heard. The Spirit in our passage this morning is like a wind, that comes upon the disciples like a fire which throughout the biblical cannon have traditionally revealed the presence of God. Moses for example counters God in the burning bush and the people of Israel encounter God in the cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  We encounter God in coming to the table of the Lord and in our baptismal covenant. These are ways in which we as the church name and give witness to the presence of God in our life.

Yet, other times the presence of God is mystifying, much more difficult to discern. After all, at times it is certainly harder to experience the Spirit of God or God’s presence no matter which person of the trinity one encounters. In the story of Job there was a time where Job could not feel God’s presence.

Despite Job’s faithfulness, he wondered where God was in his life. Even on the cross Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). If we think about our own lives, all of us can remember times where we have felt God’s embrace. We have felt like we could clearly discern God’s call on our lives. But we must also acknowledge that we have felt and lived through times where God’s presence has been hard to feel. Sometimes it feels like we can name God’s presence so clearly in the lives of others, but it is harder to see God working in our personal lives. Sometimes our inability to see God working in our lives has caused us to feel less than or different. Yet despite those times, God promises to be with us always, even to the end of the age.

God’s promise to be with us manifests in the work of the church. It is through the Holy Spirit that the church emerges, and it is through the Holy Spirit that the church continues to move forward in mission and ministry. Sometimes, we tend to view the story of Pentecost as the model for how our churches should look on Sundays. If the Bible contains everything that is necessary for Christian living, shouldn’t we just model our churches after the church here on Pentecost and call it a day? However, the story of Pentecost seeks to communicate to us not that we are to model ourselves after the church at that time and that place, but that our work and our lives are inseparable from Christ. God is who we proclaim and the very source of what we are to proclaim to the nations. Thus, we are to ground ourselves in this message from the church in Acts, through the ages, to our church today.

In this grounding we are reminded of the universality of our message. When someone joins a congregation of the United Methodist Church, they are asked several questions. One of the questions that is asked of the individual is: “Will you be loyal to Christ through this congregation of the United Methodist Church?” You see even in belonging to a denomination our utmost loyalty belongs to Christ. Our call is not from a bishop or a district superintendent or even from your pastor, our call is from Christ to spread the message of salvation to all the world. One theologian notes, “Pentecost reminds us that even though all our faith practices are rooted in local contexts, the church’s identify extends beyond every congregation, denomination and cultural tradition. Pentecost celebrates the face of Christ throughout the world in all its theological, cultural, and liturgical diversity.” In other words the message of Pentecost is a reminder that we are part of one Holy Catholic, Apostolic Church. This is what we proclaim each time we recite the Apostles’ Creed!

The grounding of our call finds its foundation in the constant reminder shared with us this Pentecost Sunday - that it is God who calls us into relationship, and it is the Spirit who equips us for the work of ministry. Just as God initiates salvation, God initiates Pentecost. God in Christ Jesus promises that God the Father will send God the Spirit. God’s Spirit this day calls us as God’s people to be comforted, to be challenged, and to be guided as individuals and as a community. Last week we talked about our Spiritual Gifts. We talked about how each and every one of us has these gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. These gifts of the Spirit are meant to build us up for the work of ministry that we might come together as a congregation, as laity and clergy, who in the Spirit are united together in mission and ministry. This Pentecost, we also celebrate this part of our ministry. We celebrate that we are called by and equipped by God through the Holy Spirit to participate in the work of ministry on behalf of the whole church. We celebrate that anything we do in the name of Christ; we do on behalf of Christ’s whole church.

This Pentecost we are also reminded that the church will continue to move forward. The church is not meant to be a static institution that does the same things week in and week out. Rather, we are called on this Pentecost Sunday to renew ourselves. The outpouring of the Spirit is not a one-time thing. It must be continually sought anew. We tend to act as though we own the Spirit of God. We walk into meetings with our decisions already made and then we have the audacity to claim it was the Spirit of God who led us to that decision…yet we all know that this is not always the case. The Spirit is a gift and like all gift the giver can certainly revoke the gift that was given. Rather, than treat the Spirit of God as something we can control might we come to truly align seek God’s Spirit as we pray, read and mediate on God’s Holy Word and take part in works of mercy.

For the ongoing gift of the Spirit is that she stirs us up to hear our call from God to grow into who God is calling us to be as individuals and as a community of faith. Often times in life we must stop, reflect and honor what was, celebrate what is, and look to God to show us the way forward. So often in the life of the church we pray for a new outpouring of the Spirit, a new Pentecost. We want the flames of the Spirit to come down and “set our church on fire.” Sometimes, we don’t realize what we are asking for. When our churches set on fire, we set on fire. When we are set ablaze, the fleshy, earthly things begin to burn away and we begin to see more clearly the ways of God.

I’m reminded of the words of the Hymn writer, Ruth Duck when she wrote, “As a Fire is Meant for Burning. She writes, “As a fire is meant for burning with a bright and warming flame, so the church is meant for mission, giving glory to God’s name. Not to preach our creeds or customs, but to build a bridge of care, we join hands across the nations, finding neighbors everywhere.” You see our call is not to work to spread Methodist doctrines until everybody is methodist. Rather our call is to be in mission and ministry showing the word the love of God. This is the fire of the new pentecost we seek. A world where all know the love, mercy and grace of God.

As Duck concludes her hymn, “As a green bud in the springtime is a sign of life renewed, so may we be signs of oneness ‘mid earth’s peoples, many hued. As a rainbow lights the heavens when a storm is past and gone, may our lives reflect the radiance of God’s new and glorious dawn.” May the Spirit pour out on us, may we respond to dance God’s dance of love, may the burning away of earthly things and divisions cause us to shine forth God’s light to a world that needs it now more than ever. Come Holy Spirit. Come.