“Not Just A Lot Of Hot Air”

Text: Acts 2:1-21

© May 11, 2008 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

There were two elderly men who shared an apartment together down in Florida. But one day, the police went into the apartment and found the one man lying dead on the kitchen floor. In fact, it turned out that the fellow had been dead and lying there for three days. When the officer asked the other elderly man why he had left his friend on the floor like that – why he hadn’t called for an ambulance, or someone to come and help – the man said, “I didn’t know he was dead. Frank always told me I was the most boring person he knew. I figured he was just lying there like that to ignore me.”

Who’s the most boring person you know – I mean, other than me? What makes that person boring? Chances are that they’re boring because they’re always talking about themselves or about things that you’re just not interested in. People are boring to us when we don’t feel included or drawn in by what they’re talking about.

But what the Pentecost story shows us – the story that we just listened to from the Acts of Apostles – is that our God is anything but boring. Instead, when God’s Holy Spirit shows up, an electricity, an excitement, fills the air. Because when God’s Holy Spirit shows up, it’s God’s way of drawing people in and including them in what God is doing in the world.

Consider what happened that day of Pentecost. On that day, it says that “they were all together in one place.” And based on what we are told in the preceding chapter of Acts, there were about 120 of them, about 120 believers. But as they huddled together inside that upper room that was their gathering place, all of a sudden some rather strange and amazing things started to happen. First, they heard a sound – a sound like that of a strong, mighty wind. And then, as they looked around, over each of their heads appeared what looked like bits of flame dancing about. And when they finally opened their mouths and began to speak, they were stunned to find themselves not speaking their own native language of Aramaic. Instead, they were suddenly speaking all kinds of different languages, foreign languages that they had never studied or spoken before. But in those different foreign languages they were all talking about Jesus.

Well, as you can imagine, when people out on the street began to hear that rowdy cacophony of voices, they started to come together and wonder what was going on. But as they listened carefully, they noticed something. They noticed that even though the group that had assembled there on the street represented people from all kinds of different countries that spoke all kinds of different languages, each person in that crowd heard at least one of the Christians speaking in their language. Each person in that crowd heard at least one of the Christians speaking in their language about Jesus. And by the time that day of Pentecost had come to an end, that original group of 120 believers had swelled by more than 3,000 people. By the time that day of Pentecost had come to an end, God’s Holy Spirit had reached out and excited more than 3,000 people to take part in what God was wanting to do in the world.

Some years ago a man named John Wimber went to a church for the first time. But after going to worship for three Sundays, he was disappointed. So he went up to the minister of the church and asked, “When do you do it?” “Do what?” the minister asked. “You know, the stuff.” The minister paused for a moment, and with a puzzled look said, “What stuff?” The man said, “The stuff in the Bible. You know, multiplying loaves and fishes, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind. That stuff.” “Oh,” the minister said, “We don’t do that here. I want you to understand that we believe in those things, and we pray about those things. But we don’t do those things.” Needless to say, that man never returned to the church again.

I believe the question that we’re being asked on this day of Penteocst is this: Are we ready to do the “stuff”? Are we ready to take part with God in doing the amazing, life-changing work that God wants to have happen in this community and in the world? For instance, this past week Tricia Sanders, our Outreach Coordinator, was talking with the social worker at the Crafton Towers, the senior citizen facility over near the shopping center. And when their conversation eventually turned to the subject of food, Tricia found out that there are about 40 older adults in that facility who live below the poverty line and who struggle to get enough food to eat, but who aren’t currently registered to get help from any food pantry. In other words, there are at least 40 more people right here in our community who desperately need some help when it comes to food.

But when Tricia and I talked about that need, our first reaction was: Our food pantry can’t take on 40 more people just like that! After all, just two years ago we were serving only about 35 families. Right now we’re serving more than 70 families. And if we add on 40 more older adults from the Crafton Towers – well, you can do the math – that’s 110 households per month that would be counting on us to help make sure that they have enough food. How would we ever get that much food donated and sorted each month? How would we ever get that much food packed and ready to be distributed? And quite a few of those older adults in the Crafton Towers are in poor health and don’t have any transportation – so how would we ever get their food from here at the food pantry to where they live – that could potentially be a lot of lifting and carrying! But even though that would be by no means an easy thing to pull off, I believe that is the kind of “stuff” God wants us to be doing.

In the same way, a couple Friday nights ago we had somewhere around 110 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders here for a dance. But most of those kids and their families don’t have a connection to any church. Many of those kids have never been baptized. And unfortunately a lot of those kids practically have to raise themselves because their parents just aren’t there for them to guide them through those difficult growing-up years. What would it mean for our church to connect with those kids in such a way that it made a real difference in their lives? What would it mean for our church to connect with those kids and their families in such a way that they would become enthusiastic, passionate disciples of Jesus Christ? I believe that is the kind of “stuff” that God wants us to be doing.

But the reality is that we can’t do that “stuff” by ourselves. By ourselves, we don’t have the resources. By ourselves, we don’t have the manpower. By ourselves, we don’t have the ability. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, what had seemed to be impossible suddenly becomes very possible.

I’ve mentioned before that a vision I have for our church is that within the next three years we’ll be a church where, on an average Sunday, at least 170 people will be wanting to worship. Is that so unbelievable? After all, on that day of Pentecost long ago the Holy Spirit added 3,000 people in one day to that church in Jerusalem so that they would be equipped with the people they needed to carry out the mission that God had for them. And if God has the mission in mind for our church that I believe God does, we have to trust that in time the Holy Spirit is going to draw in and excite the people that are needed for this church to fulfill the mission that God has for us.

Pentecost is about more than just strange winds and dancing flames. If that’s all Pentecost was about, the day would be about nothing more than a bunch of hot air. Instead, Pentecost is a special day for us to trust that God has great things in mind for us. Pentecost is a special day for us to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit into our midst. Pentecost is a special day for us to celebrate and say, “Come, Holy Spirit, come! Come, and make us the people – come, and make us the church – that you want us to be!”