We can hear the question echoing around Jerusalem: “What does this mean?

What is going on here? 

What is happening with these persons who were followers of that prophet that got himself crucified awhile back?

We thought that they would just quietly fade away when their leader was gone, but now there is all of this commotion!

And we are hearing from them.

we are hearing this Jesus explained in our own language, even though we come from many different places, languages, and cultures.

What does this mean?”

 

There are two possibilities:

(1) what the disciples are saying is just the ranting of some well-lubricated drunks.

or (2) it is the fulfillment of the hope of the prophet Joel about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon mankind, starting with the disciples.

Well, which is it?  drunks, or God's Spirit in action?

Many continue to stick with the first possibility, and still today say that the Christian faith is just craziness, an “opiate of the peoples” as the communists claimed, or “useful foolishness” as Hitler declared.

Do we agree with them, or with those first witnesses to Jesus?

 

If they were not drunk, but were voicing the true word of God, then the Pentecost commotion

means that what you thought was nailed down, isn't.

It means that God's Holy Spirit is loose in the world.

It means that what is unexpected, is to be, and what we thought was inevitable, isn't.

It means that the whole scheme of things is disrupted, and a new course is being set.

 

It is not just the stock market that doesn't like uncertainty; all of us work from a routine.

Every morning we tend to do the same things in the same way in order to give some structure to our ordinary lives.

It happens in our  worship and Christian service parts of life as well.

We establish a comfortable routine and learn it well, and then tend not to think about it nearly enough.

If we do something more than twice, it is an unmovable tradition.

 

But recognize what happened in the early days of the church.

How did those folks decide to reach out to the despised, outcast Samaritans?

“Well, we didn't really decide anything.

We were just hiding out in Samaria after the stoning of Stephen, trying to keep our heads down, maintaining a low profile, attempting to not get martyred, and some Samaritans just showed up at our little gathering

and listened, and soon enough were asking to be baptized, and the Holy Spirit came upon them... and the church grew in that community.

We didn't expect it or particularly want it, but there it is. 

 

And then Luke wrote down that story about the Ethiopian eunuch jouncing along in the chariot toward home when Philip was directed by the Spirit to show up and talk with him...

and one thing led to another, and that person who was really an outsider was suddenly our brother in Christ, and the Spirit was laughing again.

 

Well, church of Peter and Paul, did you have a written-down program of how you would do evangelism to those Gentiles, those who are outside of the first people of God?

No, not really.

We tended to go first to the synagogues and talk there, since those folks already know the first part of God's saving action through the Exodus.

Sometimes those folks would listen; often they would not and would throw us into the street.

Maybe that would be enough to get someone to ask what we had said or done that got us thrown out...and a new conversation is suddenly under way.

And if it was in a fancy town like Athens where they have a tradition of orators gathering a crowd in the public square by their speaking skills, we might try that approach. 

Paul did that at the public law-court called the Aereopagus.

And we remember that Jesus himself made a trip outside of his usual area, to the Roman colony of Caesarea Phillippi, and in that place of ancient nature-worship encouraged Peter to confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Holy One of God.

Jesus also traveled to Tyre and Sidon to the northwest of Galilee and there called forth the faith of the Syro-phonecian woman.

It was a completely unexpected action, and a powerful reminder that no one is beyond the transforming reach of Christ's Holy Spirit.

 

One generation ago several missionaries made their way to a particular tribe in the Amazon jungles, a tribe who rejected their offer of the Good News, and in fact killed and cannibalized them.

Some years later the children of those who had been killed were directed by the Holy Spirit to travel to the very same tribe and there they identified themselves to the tribe.

The tribesmen were so stunned that they had come to them, that this time they listened, repented of their evil deeds, and in due course were baptized.

 

There was a proud old church in New York City most of whose members had moved to the suburbs.

It was down to a handful of people, and they kept things locked up tight most of the time.

A new pastor came and asked them what the Holy Spirit might be prodding them to do these days.

Frankly, they hadn't been listening for the Spirit much at all.

In fact, institutional survival was the only thing on their minds those days, and it looked bleak indeed.

The pastor said “I see lots of kids walking past here on their way home from school, with too many temptations to get in trouble along the way.

Let's change the pattern.

Let's see what a different example will do.

Let's offer something positive in the name of Jesus.

And so one afternoon they creaked open a portico door that hadn't been opened in maybe 20  years, pushed out the old upright piano, and a grey-haired lady pounded out some old-time jazz tunes, and some Sunday school songs, and a chorale or two...

and the curious kids gathered around, and someone else told a Bible story, and another person made peanut butter sandwiches,

and the Spirit was cajoling that old congregation into a new and different life with the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

 

We serve a living God, a God on the move, a God who seems to be unwilling to have us be too calm and cool and orderly,

a God who keeps assigning us new tasks, and opening new needs to our eyes and hearts.

We worship the God

who led his people through the Exodus,

 who was with the patriarchs in all of their wanderings,

 who let them know that he was still available even when they were in exile in far-off Babylon.

 

What does this mean?

If we are not asking that question day after day, we are likely so stuck in our routine that we cannot hear what the Spirit is trying to proclaim to and through us.

 

Some say “I'm too old, or too whatever to do anything.”

Some want to limit the work of the Spirit to the one hour worship time on Sunday morning.

Some say that Pentecost was a long time ago and far away, and that what we have now is good, safe, predictable routine.

Don't be too sure of that!

The Holy Spirit will not be held down by our desire for safety.

 A time of crisis is not only a time of danger, but also a time of opportunity,

a time to think things through again,

a time to discern what is truly important,

a time to pay attention to the Spirit's leadership in our confusion.

We don't have money enough to do everything that we can think up; what do we need to be doing as faithful stewards in this community?

We don't have time enough to tackle every idea; how do we sort through the ideas to focus on the ones that will get the Gospel message said to those whom we haven't touched yet?

We don't have energy enough for everything; but it will be energy enough for what the Spirit of the Lord Jesus wants us to get done today.

So Rise, Shine, you people!

It is OK that the church is disrupted; in fact, it is a good thing.

The Holy Spirit is come with grace unbounded, calling forth God's new creation!     [LBW393]

Amen.