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Pentecost A—June 8, 2014
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 8
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39
The Very Rev. David R. Wilt
Churches for a long time have been trying to make Pentecost
Sunday another reason to pack the pews, just like Christmas and
Easter. At one of the churches I served we had a plane fly over
over with a huge banner saying, “Pray Holy Spirit,” just as a flock
of homing pigeons were released.
The most breathtaking moment of that was as one of the
pigeons streaked skyward directly toward the low flying plane
and everyone held their breath to see if perhaps we had tried to
manufacture too much of a “Holy Spirit moment” that perhaps
was about to end in flames.
We all know that flames of tongues are symbols of
Pentecost, but a sigh of relief spread through the skyward looking
congregation as the pigeon darted off and avoided collision with
the plane’s propeller.
We have failed miserably at making Pentecost the third leg
of liturgical celebrations with Easter and Christmas. The whole
concept of this Holy Spirit thing is somewhat mercurial and hard
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to explain so why not do as some have actually suggested and
just get rid of this celebration of Pentecost.
Well perhaps I can offer a reason.
Most people at some point in their lives have seen the
Potomac River as it flows majestically past the monuments and
memorials of Washington, D.C. Millions have made the journey
each year to see the cherry blossoms blooming along her banks.
One US Congressman, Wilbur Mills even tossed his career into the
Potomac Tidal Basin one night when the woman he was with at 2
am in the morning decided to elude the Park Police by jumping
into the river.
But the Potomac does not magically and instantly become
this majestic body of water. It is fed and created by hundreds,
perhaps even thousands of feeder streams and rivers and creeks
along its 400 and some mile length from its origin at Fairfax
Stone, West Virginia to where it finally joins with the Chesepeake.
These are streams and rivers and creeks that all have names.
And, growing up in Western Maryland I swam or waded or fished
in many of those waters that would eventually become the great
Potomac.
But, for themselves are unique little streams and rivers and
creeks. Some are named after people. Georges Creek, that flows
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down from Lonaconing with it rich coal fields down through
Westernport to where it becomes part of the Potomac.
Others are named after distinguishing characteristics. Big
Piney, with its stilled pools of deep dark, very cold water
overlooked by majestic fir trees. Of course if you are going to
have a Big Piney it only makes sense to have a Little Piney.
One of the feeders was named Dry Run up in Garrett County,
which I remember as a child, and even now being much older,
seemed to be a very oxymoronic name for a body of water.
Then there is Rock Creek which flows just to the North of
Washington and the Rock Creek Parkway which is a critical sign in
the spring as to whether or not the Potomac will flood.
The one I spent the most time on as a child, climbing over
rocks and trying not to slip and fall into the water, or donning
waders and fly fishing for beautiful speckled trout is the Savage
River. The Savage flows behind my Grandparents house and is a
lot less savage and more manageable since a reservoir was
completed in 1952 by the Army Corp of Engineers.
Further South on the Savage the Luke Pulp and Paper Mill
would, when I was a child, discharge its effluent into the river
which would create a thick foamy smelly crust on the river. Years
later the mill would “clean up” its act and stop the pollution.
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Repentance and amendment of life is available and possible even
for large corporations.
The Savage would become part of the greater Potomac in
Swanton, Md.
It is interesting to contemplate that while we might think all
these rivers, creeks and streams lose their individuality when they
become part of the Potomac, in reality, forever within the
Potomac runs the water of the Savage, Georges, Big Piney, Little
Piney, Rock Creek and hundreds of other contributors to the Great
Potomac. The Potomac would be nothing without them.
Jesus said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of
living water.”
We are, individually, the rivers, the creeks, the streams of
life. We are, individually, the rivers, the creeks, the streams of
the body of Christ. If any of us were to be diverted or taken away
or removed from the body of Christ, from the streams of life, the
body would be infinitely diminished.
What each of us contributes to this majestic flowing river
that we call the body of Christ is its spirit of life. We, individually,
and as the body, enable lives to be touched, lives to be changed,
lives to be saved or restored, and lives to be cherished.
Interestingly enough, just like the Savage River in Luke,
Maryland, where the chemicals from the pulp making process
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were discharged into the river, there are times, perhaps, when our
lives may contribute things to the body of Christ that may not be
particularly healthy or wholesome or sustaining to the body,
things like dissention, exclusion, or prejudice. But, just as in
Luke, Maryland the solution was not to cut the Savage River off
from the larger body but to work to restore that flowing spirit to
life sustaining water, where it could strengthen the larger river of
flowing water, to make it healthy again.
Whereas, Christmas and Easter are all about Jesus,
Pentecost is all about us and how important each of us is if the
body of Christ is to continue to flow out and quench the thirst of
those whose throats are parched and dry from estrangement
loneliness, loss, rejection, or any other affliction that a world
deprived of living water will suffer from.
There cannot be a world without “love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
There just cannot be.
So that is why Pentecost is so important.
We may not fully understand now or ever, this concept of the
Holy Spirit. Theologically we may not be able to articulate the
whole concept of the Holy Spirit.
What matters is that Christ has instilled that spirit in all of
us. All of us, every one of us. From the smallest of rills and creeks
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to the most serene of streams, to the pooling waters, to the
raging rivers, all of us.
The majestic body of Christ which is sufficient to satisfy the
thirst of any one who seeks to drink can only flow if it is fed by all
of the individuals who make up the body. Take away any source
and it is diminished.
Pentecost is important to remind us that the body of Christ
just doesn’t happen. The hungry aren’t just fed. The lame are not
just healed. The oppressed are not just freed. The poor are not
just eased of their situation.
That beautiful body of Christ depends on what each of us can
contribute to make it happen. For, out of our hearts flows the
love of Christ. We are the countless rivers of living water.