Pastor Sarah R. Cordray
Luther Memorial Church
May 24, 2015
Pentecost, Acts 2.1-21
“Come Holy Spirit”
When we are greeted with “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all”…when we pray the words “Come Holy
Spirit” as we prepare to receive the bread and the wine…when we pray “Come Holy
Spirit, fill us—come Holy Spirit, fill this place…when we invoke and call upon the Holy
Spirit, do we really know that for which we are asking? Do we really know what is in
store for us?
I’m sure that the apostles all gathered together in one place didn’t really know what was
in store for them either. Of course they knew that Jesus promised them that they would
be clothed with power from on high. Of course they knew that they would receive the
power of the Holy Spirit so that they could be Jesus’ witnesses. But I am sure that they
had no idea what was coming to them when they remembered Jesus’ promise of the
Holy Spirit. There would be no preparing for it. There would be no way to even fathom
it.
It was all of a sudden. No forewarning. No clue. Only a sound of a rush of a violent
wind that filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues of fire resting
upon their heads. **FLAME HATS ON!
All of them were suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit. It was nothing they did to
themselves. It was the power of God filling them. The Spirit filled them and gave them
the ability to speak in other languages. The Holy Spirit brought the presence of the
Risen One into the community of faith forever.
Never again would Pentecost be the same. No longer would it be about bringing first
fruits, seven lambs, one young bull, and two rams to be the burnt offerings to the Lord;
nor would it be about just celebrating the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Now
Pentecost would be all about the coming of the Holy Spirit. It would be all about the
Spirit poured forth and received.
Pentecost would now be all about fifty days of rejoicing in light of Jesus’ resurrection,
ascension, the giving of the Spirit, and the founding of the church. Pentecost would be
now all about the continuation of God’s mission through Jesus now carried on through
the Spirit-filled disciples. I am sure that the apostles had no idea what was in store, but
now there would be no turning back. They’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit and there
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would be no putting out of that fire. They had been filled, called, and sent to live in the
power of the Spirit.
So what does it look like to live in this power of the Spirit? What does this all mean? (as
the crowd itself asks.) Peter gives us a little bit of an idea as he quotes the passage
from Joel. Sons and daughters shall prophesy. Young men shall see visions. Old men
shall dream dreams. Slaves, men and women, shall also prophesy. Are you
amazed…perplexed…or bewildered yet?
With the Holy Spirit, it can be difficult to wrap our mind around this third person of the
Triune God, but nevertheless it is God at work in you. Even if you do not fully
understand what this means, know this--it is the Holy Spirit empowering you to be a
disciple of Jesus carrying on the mission of God at work in our world.
Martin Luther had his own answer to the question “What does this mean?” as he
explains the third article of the creed. Martin Luther explains that it is the Holy Spirit that
calls us through the gospel, enlightens us with the Spirits’ gifts, makes us holy, and
keeps us in the true faith. This is what it is to live in the power of the Spirit in our lives.
It is not about what we must obtain, study for, or achieve; it’s all about remaining open
for the Spirit to blow into our lives so that we may be empowered to carry on the work of
Jesus. What a relief that must be to our graduated Seniors who are were constantly
bombarded with requirements and what you must do to achieve in order to graduate
and then to enter college or their next job. Isn’t it something to now find out that it’s not
about what you do when it comes to believing; it’s about what the Spirit does.
But this just isn’t about being called as individuals by the Holy Spirit; we are also called,
gathered, enlightened and made holy as the whole Christian church on earth for God’s
purpose. Another way to put it is that we are Pentecost People called with a Purpose.
Pentecost is not just about getting our individual selves filled up; it’s about being stirred
up together and sent with the purpose of sharing God’s saving mission to all the world,
so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
We, as the church, are like wind turbines. If you’ve ever been driving through parts of
Nebraska or central Iowa, I’m sure that you have seen these towering huge looking
windmills that adorn various country sides. They are most often white and have three
huge blades.
These are called wind turbines because when the wind blows through their blades, a
conversion takes place. The wind energy is converted into electricity that can be used
by thousands. We are like those wind turbines. When the wind—the power of the Holy
Spirit, rushes through the blades of our church, a conversion happens. The power of
the Holy Spirit is converted in us as we become the presence of Christ in our world.
When we pray, “Come Holy Spirit, fill us…come Holy Spirit fill this place,” we are not
praying for just us; we are praying that God may use us. We are praying that God may
send the power of the Spirit to be converted in us so that we may bear Christ into our
world.
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Yet what happens when we shut ourselves down from the power of the spirit blowing
into our lives? What happens when we become blind to the revelation of God in our
midst? We only sit and spin worried about ourselves. If you remember the child friendly
toy called “Sit and Spin,” you know what I am talking about.
You sit yourself down on a rotating circle grabbing onto the central handle in the middle.
You sit and spin yourself round and round without any purpose, but to get dizzy,
bewildered, and sick.
I believe as a church…a community of faith…we can fall into shutting ourselves down
from the power of the Spirit and just find ourselves sitting and spinning. We become
disoriented and dizzy when we only look at only what we are not. We become
perplexed in working with all the varieties and complexities of who we are and the chaos
that sometimes comes. Yet don’t hear me wrong—I know that this is a normal part of
life together. BUT when we lose sight of the spirit, we are not the church. For…we can
only be the church through the power of the Spirit. We are Pentecost People called with
a Purpose. This is what makes us church. We don’t go to church; we are the church.
Our ultimate purpose is to be Christ and to carry on the mission of God’s saving work in
the world. That’s what the church is all about!!
As Jan Richardson says, “The celebration of Pentecost beckons us to keep on
breathing. It challenges us to keep ourselves open to the Spirit who seeks us. The
Spirit that, in the beginning, brooded over the chaos and brought forth creation; the
Spirit that drenched the commuinity with fire and breath on the day of Pentecost: this
same Spirit desires to dwell within us and among us. Amidst the brokenness and chaos
and pain that sometimes come with being in community, the Spirit searches for places
to breathe in us, to transform us, to knit us together more deeply and wholly, and to
send us forth into the world.”
This Holy Spirit stirs us up and never leaves us the same, which can lead us to places
for where we could never prepare. It can leave us with a haunting sound of a violent
rushing wind. It can leave us with our heads feeling a little warm from the tongues of
fire. However, the Holy Spirit will never leave us alone. It will fill us and renew us. It will
give us, the church, the ability to go wherever God sends us out as Christ’s presence in
the world.
So we pray on this Pentecost day, “Come Holy Spirit, fill us. Come Holy Spirit, fill this
place.”
[video of wind turbine and prayer, “Come Holy Spirit, fill us.”]
And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”
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