A Mighty Wind is Blowin' - Pentecost 2022

Acts 2:1–21 NRSV

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” 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. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 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. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

In 2003, Christopher Guest and his troupe of co-starring actors took up their guitars, upright bass, and banjos to bring us the mockumentary film, A Might Wind. If you have seen Christopher Guest’s other classics, like This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, or Best in Show, then you know the satirical style and humor this movie is steeped in. It’s a stunning musical homage to American folk music of the 1960s.

The film centers on three folk bands planning a television reunion show, playing together for the first time in decades. The bands, The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey, have faded into relative obscurity and this reunion is a chance for them to once more show the glory of their musical sound, joining together as a folk super group and playing together the title song, A Mighty Wind. The movie climaxes with all three bands (about 25 people all together) on stage singing out these lyrics:

Oh a mighty winds a blowing

It's kicking up the sand

It's blowing out a message

To every woman, child and man

Yes a mighty winds a blowing

Cross the land and cross the sea

It's blowing peace and freedom

It's blowing equality

It’s no easy feat to get a bunch of aging, quirky folk musicians to get back in sync with each other and perform this concert. The movie is hilarious, but it is also a spectacle to the struggle for us to join into the Spirit as it works and moves between us. It’s easier to focus just on our part, just our songs, and not attempt the difficulty of collaboration with others. It’s easier to let our divisions just be divisions, our disharmony remain. But instead, as we know from the story of Pentecost, as well, God uses difference to actually bring us into community and harmony, our unity in our diversity.

As we hear in our reading today from the book of Acts, a mighty, violent wind blows through the house where the disciples have gathered to celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost marks the 50th day following Easter. The celebration is actually drawn from an older Jewish festival of the early harvest, the Festival of Weeks, which is celebrated 7 weeks, plus 1 day, after the Festival of the Passover. It is a time to gather, to remember God’s goodness at the beginning of the growing and harvesting season, and anticipate God’s providence in the harvest to come. So it became, for Christians, a similar celebration of the new church, the first fruits of Christ’s disciples living out his message following his departure from them. We mark Pentecost as the celebration for when the disciples receive the power of the Holy Spirit, as well, the marker of the life of God at work now in them as followers in the way of Jesus.

I find it helpful to think of this day as a marking of the first fruits of God’s new movement of the church. We might sometimes get distracted by the expectancy of some mighty movement of the Spirit, some sort of revival or emotional experience that marks our new way of being in the world. But if we step back and consider what it means for us to be the beginnings of a movement, the beginnings of the spirit’s movement in us and out into the world, then in some ways it’s easier to see how this actually manifests in the world.

The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey are all singing their own songs, out in the world on their own path. They are not united, at least at the beginning of the film. But in their reunion, they go from many disparate voices to oneness — a shared voice and song.

As I’m sure many of you know, I have spent many years singing in choirs and ensembles. I love the experience of singing alongside another person, hearing our voices intertwine, harmonies and unison lines ringing out. Anyone who has sung with other people has witnessed this — even if you don’t think you’re a great singer, you witness it even when we sing our hymns together here in church.

I’ve shared this before, but it bears repeating, especially on a day like Pentecost. When you sing with others and your voices begin to tune into each other’s, to harmonize and match pitches and share melody lines, when this happens, a group of 30 singers starts to sound like one voice. Our voices meld together and compliment one another. And then, under the right circumstances, something even more profound can happen.

It’s a bit of a trick of how sound works, but here’s the gist: These multiple voices, dozens even, all begin to make up a common voice and then, emerging over it, you can start to identify what we’d call a third voice, an overtone, a shared but different voice. It is a sound of voices combining in a way that can only happen with more than one person singing together at the same time. It is this third layer, this Spirit voice.

Theologian Steven R. Guthrie says it much more succinctly than I do. He says, “I hear my voice and your voice, and this third thing: our voices together, a sound that has properties that belong neither to your voice nor to my voice alone, but one that is nevertheless shaped and takes its substance from the individual voices comprising it. The church’s song is a sound its participants indwell even as it indwells them.”

This third voice bears witness to the presence of the Spirit in our midst. Engaging this third voice in song involves a gathering up together into collective thought and being, a place where I let go of my own insecurities and desire for perfect and instead engage with you and the Spirit in a living manifestation of God’s presence.

Guthrie, again, argues that it is in our worship, our gathering and lifting our voices in worship, that it is a way in which the Holy Spirit brings life and an embodied experience of the light of God tangibly. Our breath becomes the Spirit’s breath, the Hebrew ruah or Greek pneuma, the breath that is God.

Friends, when we gather and lift our voices together, we become this manifestation of God’s Spirit, here and now. We get to live it, and it lives in us.

Let’s get back to the text and look at how this engagement in the spirit is perceived and what it means for us to keep living more deeply into it.

As the violent, mighty wind blows through the place where the disciples have gathered, we see another manifestation of the Spirit, this time in physical form of flaming tongues above the heads of those gathered. And then they begin to speak. And their voices, while not united in language, are a cacophony of sound that is united in the Spirit’s speaking through them.

Again, as we think about a choral or large band experience, the voices are still unique, still individuals. I’ve sung choral pieces where one section is singing in Latin and another is singing in German. Two very distinct languages. But when gathered up in chord with each other, they begin to have a oneness to them.

And so these voices are raised, Parthians, Medes, Judeans, Cappadocians and so many others — they begin to hear their native tongues spoken, the language of their hearts spoken.

The banjo line comes in. The bass holds the foundation. The singers resonate in harmony. All this different parts coming together to create something new, a whole from so many parts.

And those on the outside think the whole lot of them are drunk. Like it’s babble. (Remember, the tower of Babel, where language is separated and our uniquenesses blossom as we are sent out throughout the earth). But when you’re not in on the song, not in on the Spirit, then these voices can sound like drunken rambling.

And the people are amazed, perplexed. They see something here, these voices coming together.

And the people are looking for guidance. What does this all mean?

Peter stands up and raises his voice. This is his big moment, his resting in to his position of leadership and elderhood among this new church.

Like Jesus, who in his first public preaching moment, draws not from his own words but from the wisdom of the Hebrew prophets, likewise Peter turns the people’s attention to the teaching of the prophet Joel.

He says, friends, this is the time we have been expecting! The Spirit is being poured out on us and we are seeing things and dreaming things and God’s vision is one of revival and freedom. Call out to God and receive salvation!

Peter teaches the onlookers, the disciples, and us about what it means to step into this new thing, this new church that is forming. It is time to be prophetic, time to sing out, time to tell the stories of Jesus’ resurrection and the power of his love.

It is time for the church to receive the gift of the Spirit, which enlivens us and sparks us and inspires our action and service in the world.

It is time for us to receive the Spirit, which unites and quickens our collaboration. The Spirit draws us together, creates harmony out of our difference.

So it is with you and me and all of us here: The Spirit is with us and takes all of our different gifts and strengths and passions and can unite them into what we call the church. The Spirit brings us together in our difference to make common cause with one another, for the good the all creation. The Spirit falls on us and we see our purpose, our desire for justice, our shared resolve to be a part of making things right.

Presbyterian friends — we don’t always know what to do with the drama of Pentecost.

Maybe we are like those forgotten folk bands, thinking they’re too dried up or rusty to get the gang back together.

But maybe today, we can feel the buzz of possibility. Maybe we can sense that from all the different ways God has called us to be, we might be able to form up again and sing out true once more. Maybe we can actually get the band back together, sing another song.

The celebration of Pentecost gives us a glimpse of what it means to gather up together in song and word and service. So look around you — see the community that is being called together to experience this movement of God’s presence.

I’ll close again with some of the lyrics of A Mighty Wind…may we feel it blow through and light up in us today.

When the blind man sees the picture When the deaf man hears the word

When the fisherman stops fishing When the hunter spares the herd

We'll still hear the wondrous story Of a world where people care The story of this mighty wind That's blowing everywhere

Oh a mighty winds a blowing It's kicking up the sand It's blowing out a message To every woman, child and man Yes a mighty winds a blowing Cross the land and cross the sea It's blowing peace and freedom It's blowing equality Yes it's blowing peace and freedom It's blowing you and me!