Come Down, Holy Spirit

Read: Genesis 11:1-9

 

Pentecost - May 19, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

When our son Sean was stationed out in Oklahoma one year in the Air Force, I flew out to visit.

As we were driving from the airport to his base, the terrain was boringly flat mile after mile.

Then all of a sudden, there was a great rise, a veritable mountain to our right, the highest thing for hours in any direction.

“Wow, finally there is something interesting to see” I said.

“Oh, yes,” said Sean, “that's the regional garbage mound.”

 

This great human effort is a pile of garbage!

It seems a strangely appropriate commentary on our First Lesson today, doesn't it?

All of that work to try to build ourselves up to God, to make ourselves worthy of God's attention, turns out to be as worthless as a pile of garbage, without even the  methane generating possibilities that we have down at Allenwood!

 

Although it is usually the first thing we remember, our First Lesson is not just about a tower, the  stepped pyramid or ziggurat, which megalomaniac Saddam Hussein partially restored in Babylon 30 years or so ago, just in time for it to be riddled with bullets in more recent battles.

There are two other things in verse 4  of the lesson that the people say they are also going to do:  “build ourselves a city,” and “make a name for ourselves.”

So often when we have read this story we have focused on the tower and not noticed these other two elements, but they are also important.

 

 “build ourselves a city,”   How often have we seen that too many people, too close together, without God, …. as a recipe for disaster.

So the scattering of the people over the face of the earth sounds like it is a way to protect God from us, but not so!  It is for the protection of the people from each other!

 

The second phrase to notice is “make a name for ourselves.”

This one leads to a really funny response from the Lord.

For you see, no matter how much we build up, no matter how smart we think we are, how clever and efficient, God still has to come down in order to get to us.

Our efforts are so puny and ineffectual in this regard!

We should laugh at ourselves and our pretentiousness.

 

The consequence, the confusing of languages, has a certain ambiguity: it is not all punishment for human pride, but it is also partially a way of protecting people by driving them apart to preserve them, to keep them from killing each other if they were too close together all the time.

 

Then our lives are plunged into darkness, never mind how or why, they just are, and we are in the blackness of despair.

The question is what happens next.

Will God be like the smart-aleck sitting beside the light switch  who refuses to reach up and turn it on, preferring instead to snicker as he hears everyone fumbling and banging into things in the dark?

No, that is not the picture of God we get from Scripture; he is not a god of such vindictiveness.

Instead he is the Spirit who gets our attention, who re-directs, who comforts, who gives anticipation of the outcome of creation.

In order to do those things, the Lord God of all creation has deigned to come to where we are.

He is not waiting for us to grope around in the dark and perhaps accidentally stumble onto him.

God is come to us; this is the message we heard at Christmas, again at Easter, and now at Pentecost.

It is the same message told from three different angles.

Incarnation is the theological word for this.

Of the Father's love begotten

E're the worlds began to be

He is Alpha and Omega,

He the source the ending he,

Of the things that are, that have been,

And that future years shall see,

Evermore and evermore.   [LBW#42.1]

That's how we sang it at Christmastime.

 

Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands For our offenses given;

But now at God's right hand he stands And brings us life from heaven;

Therefore let us joyful be

              And sing to God right thankfully

Loud songs of hallelujah! Hallelujah!  [LBW#134.1]

That's how we sang it on Easter.

 

God came to us then at Pentecost, His Spirit new life revealing,

That we might no more from him be lost, All darkness for us dispelling.

His flame will the mark of sin efface,

              And bring to us all his healing.  [LBW#161.4]

This is another way to sing the same message today on Pentecost.

 

Remember yet one more Old Testament story, the one about Jacob in the wilderness, lying down with nothing but a stone for a pillow, and he dreams, oh, such a dream!

The heavens  are opened and he sees the messengers of God descending and ascending on the great ladder or staircase from heaven.

Lots of times black spirituals have great theology, but this is not one of them.

“I am climbing Jacob's ladder” is simply wrong; we're not doing any such thing.

That ladder is for the angels from God coming to us, not for us to be doing anything at all!

It is God's entry that makes it a holy place, not anything that Jacob says or does.

God reaches down to  a man who had deceived his father and twice cheated his brother, and fills the anguish of his soul with the promise “I will be with you and keep you wherever you go, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

 

One portion of the ongoing problem of Jerusalem is that it is about geography, with several groups arguing over the same small parcel of land.

But the Good News of Jesus is not tied to geography in quite the same way, but instead tied to the person of Jesus.

Oh we appreciate walking in the places that we think that Jesus walked, but our faith is not dependent on whether the church tomb or the garden tomb is the actual one...or whether neither one is right!

Our faith  focuses on Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead, and thus proclaimed Lord of all time and space, and able to make promises that he can keep with us.

That ties together past and future into the present.

The gift of the Spirit leads to spirited action... ”You will keep my commandments,” Jesus urges.

The gift of the Spirit will teach us,  “reminding you of all that I have said to you,” Jesus insists.

The gift of the Spirit is peace and wholeness, ...”not as the world gives,” Jesus consoles us.

 

No pile of mud bricks is needed, no ziggurat or step pyramid to try to get to God.

No pile of good works or accomplishments however fine will do it either.

For proving worthiness to God, they all turn out to be garbage.

Hear instead that the creator Spirit is come among us to:

--pour his joys on humankind

--set us free from sin and sorrow

--make us temples fit for the indwelling Spirit

 --sanctify us (make us holy) while we sing.

--and finally, to give us himself so that we may see the Father and the Son by way of this Spirit.     [LBW#164]

That is the joy of knowing the God who does not expect us to build our way to him but instead comes to us,

the God we know because Christ is risen, HE IS RISEN INDEED.  Amen.