Pentecost
Eric Lemonholm
June 12, 2011
Pentecost A
Let’s pray.
God, your Holy Spirit is present with us, around us, within us, between us. Make us aware of your Spirit among us. Open our hearts to the Spirit of love, the Spirit of truth.
We are created in your image, but we are fallen, imperfect, mortal.
Spirit of God, you know our deepest thoughts, our deepest feelings, our deepest needs, our deepest selves.
You know the depth of our sin, the extent of our estrangement from you and from one another.
You know our hearts.
And you love us.
You call us your children.
Through baptism you call us and form us into a people of God, a people set apart, not set above.
Set apart for a mission, to share Christ’s love.
Set apart to serve.
In the midst of our weakness, through our weakness, you work wonders.
Wonders of mercy. Wonders of grace.
Move in this congregation, Spirit of Life. Breathe new life into our old bones.
Ignite our hearts with passion to follow you and share your good news with a world that needs good news.
Unite us as the body of Christ in this place, and send us together to reach out to this neighborhood with your love.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, renew us as your children created in your image, an image of fellowship and friendship, a joyful dance of life.
In the midst of a frightening time, give us courage to face whatever comes our way.
Restore to us the hope of your salvation.
When we do not know what to pray, pray within us, Holy Spirit, with sighs too deep for words.
In the name of Jesus, and through your power we pray. Amen.
As we heard this morning, there is more than one experience of giving of the Spirit in the Bible, but the story in Acts 2 is the most famous.
Jesus’ friends were gathered together in one place on the day of Pentecost, the festival of the spring barley harvest.
They had not given up being together, eating together, praying together, worshiping God together.
They were united by their crucified and risen Savior Jesus, and that unity was expressed by living life together.
We often call Pentecost the birthday of the church, and rightly so, since it was the day that Jesus’ friends were inspired to turn outward and share the good news of Jesus Christ with the world.
But it is also true that Pentecost was born on Easter morning.[ii] Pentecost is the culmination of the Easter season.
Before Jesus ascended to be with God, Jesus had promised that his friends would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high.
And on Pentecost, the Spirit came.
A sound like the rush of a violent wind filled the house.
Tongues of fire rested on each of them.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
And they began speaking in other languages, foreign tongues.
But it’s not random.
They’re not speaking gibberish, or Mayan, or 21st century American English.
No, they are speaking in languages that the Jews and Jewish converts from other nations who are in Jerusalem can understand.
They are suddenly speaking the native languages of their neighbors, and their neighbors are attracted by it.
The Holy Spirit inspires them to leave the house and go outside to meet their neighbors and share Jesus with them.
I think it’s important that when the Spirit comes upon Jesus’ friends, the Spirit does not give them super powers to shock and awe their neighbors with thunder and lightning and balls of fire.
No, the Spirit gives them the gift of communication, connecting them with their neighbors through talking and listening.
YOU have the Spirit of God within you.
As you go to your neighbors and open up yourself to them, God will speak and act through you to share Jesus with them.
It’s not always easy.
In fact, it often takes time to reach out and build relationships.
There may be languages we need to learn.
Some of them are spoken languages; some are cultural languages.
Do we know the languages of our neighbors, how they articulate their hopes and dreams, their fears, anxieties, and needs?
Can we learn their languages?
The best way to learn a language is to spend time with native speakers, listening and talking.
Whether you are talking with children or youth, young adults or young parents, middle aged or older adults, it takes time to get to know one another and speak the same language.
With people from different ethnic backgrounds, it takes time and care to cross the boundaries that separate us and build relationships.
The Holy Spirit did not solve all the problems of those first Christians.
In fact, the Spirit pushed them out of their comfort zone and created new challenges, new dangers, new opportunities to try and fail and try again.
At the time of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were only reaching out to their fellow Jews.
Later, their comfort zones were stretched much farther, as the Christian movement moved away from Jerusalem and non-Jewish pagans started coming to faith in Jesus the Christ.
The Spirit is moving us out of our comfort zones and into God’s world so we can meet Christ in our neighbors.
There is a story about a little girl who, on the way home from church, turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, the pastor’s sermon this morning confused me.”The mother said, “Oh! Why is that?”The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?”“Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied.“He also said that God lives within us. Is that true, too?”Again the mother replied, “Yes.”“Well,” said the girl. “If God is bigger than us and lives in us, shouldn’t God show through?”[iii]
If the Spirit of God dwells in us, then how can we hold the Spirit in?
How can we keep from singing?
How can we keep from sharing the joy that is within us?
“If God is bigger than us and lives in us, shouldn’t God show through?”
Let us pray.
Come Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, fill us with your love, fill us with your grace, overflow us and flow through us to be Christ to our neighbors.
Renew us as a Pentecost people.
Pour us out as drink offerings for the sake of our community.
Restore our hope, renew our faith, and rekindle our love for you and for all your children.
In the name of Jesus we pray in the Spirit. Amen.
Follow me on Twitter 
