The Wind of the Spirit Blows Communication! Pentecost, May 23rd 2021 Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Acts 2:1-21 Each week in our Order of Worship we pray the prayer of Invocation. That is, we invoke or we invite God’s Spirit to be with us in our worship. Some have said that this is inappropriate, because God’s Spirit is always with us – within and all around. It is up to us to notice her. I agree, and at the same time, I realize that I am not very good at noticing the Spirit, without having my attention drawn to her. On these days of outdoor services, my focus is on the weather, setting out the chairs and our makeshift altar, positioning the lectern and the tripod for my phone. With all that busy-ness I need a prayer of noticing to turn my attention to what God is doing here. I need to notice the Spirit of Christ. Today, I’m inviting us to approach the story of “the gift of the Holy Spirit” with the same lens as the prayer of invocation. Perhaps reframing Pentecost as the day the disciples and the crowds around noticed the Holy Spirit in particular. After all the Spirit made her debut millennia before this moment. Go back to Genesis chapter 1, and you will find her there, hovering over the waters. She appears again in chapter 2, breathing life into humankind. The dramatic event we read of this morning breathes life into the apostles again. It awakens them, and all those around them, to the powerful presence of the Spirit of Christ. We learn that this happens while they were “all together in one place.” The apostles are all together in a house in Jerusalem, on the festival of the Pentecost fifty days after Passover. This is another joyful Jewish holiday, a celebration of the first fruits of the wheat harvest. When I ponder this story, I’m often left wondering what kind of a house they were in. We hear that a sound, like the rush of a violent wind sweeps in, filling the entire house. And divided tongues, like fire, appear among them, and a tongue rested on each of the apostles. We learn that a great crowd gathers around – Jews of every nation. And so, I wonder, how the crowd witnesses this. How do they hear the sounds of the Spirit and see the divided tongues of fire? How do they smell a hint of burning, and feel the electricity in the air? I have to imagine that the apostles are not in a closed, contained kind of house. There must at least be open windows and doors. Perhaps they are assembled in an open-air courtyard, or on the house roof. This is not a private, invitation-only event. As the story is told, we notice, more and more, the involvement of those observing from outside. Once the sounds and sights of the Holy Spirit are noticed, there is another dramatic effect. The apostles begin speaking such that the Jews from every nation understand in their own languages. The people already know that the apostles are Galileans. They are considered simple country folk who wouldn’t have a knowledge of languages, certainly not Cretan, Arabic, or the Libyan dialect. The apostles speak about God’s deeds of power. Some members of the crowd are curious, they ask “what does this mean?” But not everyone is impressed. Others sneer, and accuse the apostles of being drunk. There are always sneer-ers when the Spirit of Christ is noticeable. They sneer to mask their fear of the power of God, manifest in the moment. Perhaps if they say the apostles are drunk, it will be true. Then they can get along with life, uninterrupted by this disturbing display of power. Peter is inspired to interpret the moment in the light of writings of the prophet Joel. Joel anticipates the “last days” when God’s Spirit pours out on “all flesh”: all genders, all ages, any social status. Almost five years ago, when I began as your minister here at the Wollaston Congregational Church I was inspired by the Wollaston ocean breeze. It was a beautiful September Sunday and the Deacons had kept open the doors, to help to cool the sanctuary. Suddenly, though, there was a violent gust of wind. The doors slammed, people turned around, startled. I couldn’t have wished for more. Yes! The Holy Spirit had showed up. I loved it, even if others in the congregation were not so sure. In some ways I feel the same about our outside services. We have to secure the white cloth on our little altar with clothes-pins to avoid having it blow away. We cannot light candles for more than a few seconds. And, I agree, the weather is often a pain. This time of year it is so changeable, and we can never be sure if it is going to be too hot or too cold. I know that there are people in the congregation who just want to get back inside the sanctuary as soon as we can. After all, the sanctuary was designed, created and crafted specifically for worship, unlike this lawn. And yet, there’s something about this outdoor space I want to hold on to. It gives us a sense of “all together in one place”. At the same time it is not private. And, of course, it exposes us to that unpredictable Wollaston ocean breeze. It enlivens us to the disturbing action of the Holy Spirit. A striking aspect of our story today, is the new ability of the apostles to speak so that people from many nations understand in their own languages. We might wonder what was the relationship between the Parthians and Medes, Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes. Perhaps relations between these many diverse peoples were harmonious, but I somehow doubt it. When diverse groups of people come together – even when they are supposed to have a common faith – conflict often emerges. I think of Jerusalem and Israel/Palestine today. The various sects of Judaism, the numerous branches and denominations of Christianity, and the Muslim residents. Israel/Palestine often seems to be more of a tinderbox than a melting pot, and the terrible violence over recent weeks has shown the worst of that. Carrie Ballenger, a pastor serving the English speaking congregation at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem posted a report on life in Jerusalem this past week. She accompanies her report with a photograph of graffiti that says “stay human.” Rev. Ballenger writes: “Most of our church workers live in the West Bank … The Ramallah checkpoints have seen violence between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the last days—Fridays [Islam’s Sabbath] are worse. (My colleague who lives in Ramallah plans to stay home. ‘Maybe I could get to church, but I’m afraid I couldn’t get home.’) “Armenian priests were attacked by settlers near Jaffa Gate this week. When I hear this, I wonder at the ‘protection’ I thought my clergy collar gave me. My American-ness is probably much better armor. …. “In front of the falafel shop [someone calls out]: ‘Sister! Sister, do something, please to end this war, to make the people come back. Pray for us!’ … “It’s 90 degrees. A woman sits next to me on the train and unwraps her headscarf carefully from around her neck, attempting a cool breeze with her hand. She is the only Palestinian on this train, which is usually packed with a wild mix of religious Jews, Palestinians, schoolchildren, and soldiers. “Last night, the girls next door (23 and 22) walked to the nearby Jewish neighborhood for groceries. They told me, ‘We decided to speak only English to each other there, not Arabic. We were too afraid.’ “When this latest round of violence started, my dear Israeli friend wrote me to check in, and to say his young kids … want to be sure I know that I know that ‘not all Jews think this is right.’ I was so sad they would even need to worry about that. I’m so very sad—and angry!—that there is any reason for them, or any child, to be afraid. Fear is our true enemy. Fear of each other is what keeps this evil occupation alive. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And stay human.” [1] We can give thanks that a ceasefire has been brokered in Israel. Even so, we are aware that tensions might easily flare again, until the underlying problems are solved. And, still, in Rev. Ballenger’s post, in the midst of fear, we notice evidence of the Holy Spirit inspiring human-to-human communication: friends checking in across cultural boundaries. Here in our corner of the United States, we can be grateful that we rarely experience that kind of violence, whether from rocket fire or missiles launched on vulnerable residential communities. And still, we know that we need to do better in our relationships with members of our own faith, and other faiths. We can do better with people who originated from different nations, both new immigrants and long-time residents. We can do better with those who look different from us, and with those who speak a different language from us. The bottom line is that we need to learn to talk with one another about the things that matter. I recall a parenting book titled: “how to talk so that kids will listen, and listen so that kids with talk.” That is what the Holy Spirit enables us to do, if we allow her: talk so that others will listen, listen so that others will talk. There are those who think that conflict in a church, or other community is a bad thing. And there are others who understand that conflict is inevitable in human relationships. How we acknowledge and communicate through conflict is what is important. Friends, these days perhaps we are like those people gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost. Will we notice Spirit, about to sweep in disturb us, giving us the gifts we need to communicate, if we dare? Or will we sneer and turn away, like the fearful members of the crowd? Let’s pray that we will be the former. May all God’s people say, Amen If you read this far, whether you enjoyed the sermon or it provoked another response, please leave a comment. I'd love to be in conversation with you. [1] https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10159609609733799&set=a.54296043798
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