Sermon for Pentecost - Acts 2:1-21

Today is Pentecost, that strange holiday about the Holy Spirit that we don’t quite know what to do with in the church. I should probably start with a disclaimer, which is that we don’t really know what to do with the Holy Spirit in general. I don’t think it’s just Episcopalians who squirm a little when it comes to talking about it. Most of the time, we’d much rather talk about God and Jesus. But when Pentecost comes along, we have to get out of our comfort zone with the dramatic reading from Acts. It’s such a wild story. There’s the sound of a violent wind, divided tongues like fire landing on the disciples, and their sudden ability to be understood in foreign languages. From that moment on, the book of Acts explains that the Christian movement exploded, with new converts being added by the thousands. We sometimes call this the birthday of the church. It’s not uncommon for churches to have a birthday cake at coffee hour. And since we don’t quite know what to do with the Holy Spirit, we wear red as a nod to the mystery. Under normal circumstances, we might even drop red balloons or, for the more adventurous churches, release actual live doves in the sanctuary. 

But these are not normal circumstances, and this is no ordinary celebration of Pentecost. I wondered what this story has to say to us here in 2020. So I asked the Holy Spirit. That’s always risky. I believe it was Annie Dillard who said if we really took invoking the Holy Spirit seriously, we’d all be wearing crash helmets in church. The message I received was clear. On this Pentecost, our celebration is not about the birthday of the church. After all, we’re not even in church together to share a cake. Today we must celebrate the birthday of preachers. And the preachers we are celebrating are all of you. It’s right there in the story. 

Peter was the one to explain it. He got up to preach to the astonished crowd that had gathered altering hearing the crazy stuff going on. For someone’s first time to preach, this was a difficult crowd. They were a divided bunch. Some people were amazed at the event, while others scoffed and accused the disciples of being drunk. They were probably used to being called drunkards, from all those times they hung out with Jesus at dinner parties. His rebuttal was that it was only 9:00 in the morning. Not the strongest argument, but it was his first sermon and the Spirit didn’t give him time to prepare. 

By all accounts, he did very well. He explained that these miraculous events were the fulfillment of scripture. Specifically, this was the prophet Joel’s vision coming to life, when God declared this: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” The Lord’s great and glorious day is coming.

Did you catch that the Spirit has officially been poured out on all flesh? Not just a few prophets, as was the case in the Hebrew scriptures, but now on everyone? Old people who stopped dreaming about the future a long time ago can start dreaming again. Young people graduating into a world where it’s hard to imagine a better future can start to have visions of a better future (Will Willimon). And people who don’t usually have a voice at all can prophesy. 

That last detail should ring out loud and clear right now. The country is waking up to the brutal realities lived by people of color in this country. The world is also opening its eyes to the dangerous conditions of workers on the front line during a pandemic. And we have learned just how widespread living paycheck to paycheck is for some many, as paychecks have dried up. Joel says that all of these are the ones that will be God’s prophets. And the coming of God’s great and glorious day will need all of their dreams, visions, and prophesies. 

Whoever you are, you are included in Joel’s vision. You are clearly part of all flesh. You have been entrusted with God’s message. The Spirit sends you out to carry on the disciple’s holy work, using dreams, visions, and prophesy of God’s grand, inclusive vision for this world. When God’s dream becomes a reality, the world will be filled with justice, mercy, and peace. 

If by chance, you feel unworthy to carry God’s message out into the world, you are not alone. Any preacher worth their salt worries about this. But take heart. You have been entrusted with the message anyway, and God tends to work through the unsure. Do you remember where the story left Peter before this story in Acts? He had publicly denied knowing Jesus three times on the night Jesus was arrested. The weight of his shame must have been unbearable. And yet, the Spirit at Pentecost sent Peter right out into the public square to be God’s preacher in the world. If Peter could overcome his sense of inadequacy, so can we. God’s vision is too important for any of us to sit this one out. 

The Spirit mentioned one other thing when I asked about preaching today. It would have been a shame if the disciples went out on the day of Pentecost, and then tried to return to normal the next day. What if they had simply returned to the upper room, talking amongst themselves about all the wonders they had seen? The message of our own inclusion in God’s vision might never have reached us. So fast forward to today, when the church is spread far and wide out into the community. You have been carrying out your Christian witness in the public square. 

Like the disciples, we will be tempted to rush back to normal here in the building as soon as possible. But on this Pentecost, the Spirit reminds us not to head back to the upper room and keep the vision to ourselves. We have been entrusted with a wildly inclusive message of grace that everyone, all flesh, needs to hear. So as we make our careful plans to gather in person again, let’s remember our Pentecostal call to preach God’s salvation to the world. I’m pretty sure the Spirit mentioned that what we do going forward as the church shouldn’t look like just getting back to normal.

So happy birthday to all of you preachers. Be sure to dream big, envision faithfully, and prophesy well in a divided world. God’s vision needs your voices. The Spirit has been poured out on all flesh, so out you go. Happy Pentecost.