Waiting Together
May 19, 2024
Year B; Day of Pentecost
Acts 2: 1-21
Psalm 104: 25-35, 37
John 15: 26-27; 16: 4b-15
Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
`In the last days it will be, God declares,
that 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.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "
Homily by Rev Megan Limburg
Last week we celebrated Ascension Day, Jesus lifted up and returning to the Father, to God. And those wonderful angels, told his friends to stop looking in the sky, in the wrong direction, and to go back to Jerusalem, and wait, and to wait in joy and in worship and together in community, until, as Jesus promised them, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The church calendar counts 10 days between Ascension and Pentecost, but who knows how many “not many days” was. We can all remember when we were children and being told by an adult that something would happen “soon” or “not many days from now”. We quickly learned we would not get an exact answer, but we knew it was not now!
So, the disciples finally did stop staring up and went back to the city and waited.
But a couple of key points: they waited together, not wandering off from one another, not saying I’ll just take care of me, but staying together, putting up with each other, and caring for each other. And also key, they waited in joy and they waited worshipping together.
I wonder if at first, right after Jesus was lifted up, his friends kept being easily startled, and wondering is this it, that Holy Spirit? The Advocate, as Jesus calls the Holy Spirit in our gospel today. Did they see a shimmer, a cloud, and think is this it? Are we missing it?
But finally, you just have to wait, be patient, and wait.
And then I imagine a warm day, not a breath of wind. They are sleepy, drowsing, getting pretty good at waiting, not expecting anything to happen right now.
When SUDDENLY the text tells us! Suddenly, it is here!
A great wind, the drowsy air gone, and they are awakened, refreshed, and most of all, alive! And with the tongues of fire in the room alighting on each of them, and suddenly, the Advocate is here, and they are each filled with the Spirit!
And Peter leads them all outside, Peter, the one who swore he did not know Jesus at dawn on Good Friday morning. Now knowing he is forgiven and loved, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, and he leads the others out into the streets to preach, filled with the Spirit and able to preach in languages they did not know.
Theologians have written volumes on Pentecost and on the Holy Spirit, but I’ll limit myself to 3 points here!
First, this is the Holy Spirit, when we are able to do what we cannot possibly do on our own.
The power of the Holy Spirit is God’s power, and God’s power is always, always about LOVE.
The disciples went out speaking new languages. Today what are new languages we need to be open to learning? Maybe a language foreign to us, like Spanish or German or Arabic? Or is it a language less with a different alphabet, and more with a different experience? What is the language, the life, of a person struggling to recover from addiction? What is the language, the life, of a young person struggling to understand their sexual identity? What is the language, the life, of a person struggling to fit into a rural life after an urban one, or vice versa?
The language we are called to speak with the power of the Holy Spirit may just be English, but in new and unknown places, where we are able to do what we cannot possibly do on our own.
The power of the Holy Spirit is God’s power, and God’s power is always, always about love, about making room for more folks at the table, being vessels of God’s love and light in the darkness of another’s world.
Second observation on Pentecost, one miracle of the day was being able to do things they could not have done on their own. But I think, another miracle was that the disciples did these things together.
Keri L. Day, a writer and professor of constructive theology and ethics at Princeton, who was raised in the Pentecostal tradition, wrote about this miracle:
“My church community also understood what made Pentecost a joyous occasion. Pentecost was about the miracle of community, the community across differences that was made possible through the work of the Spirit. Miracles sit at the center of this Acts narrative. (Christian Century 2018)
Pentecost, the miracle of community across differences. This definition seems so appropriate for Trinity and SMWC as you all travel this transition time together. There are differences between the churches, historic and present day, but as we celebrate Pentecost, may the churches together surrender to God’s miracle of community.
Final observation on Pentecost; a writer notes:
“Bethlehem is God with us; Calvary is God for us; and Pentecost is God in us.”
God in us. That is Pentecost, God’s love in us, and only then we are able to do what we cannot possibly do on our own, and only then can we come together as community and offer that love together.
Our worship service calls us over and over to offer ourselves to God, to be less about us, and more about others.
But in closing I want to share a favorite prayer of mine from the Rite 1 service in our prayer book. Rite 1 is older language than the Rite 2 service that we usually use. It can be a bit wordy, and the people have far fewer responses, but there are parts I deeply love, and that speak so clearly what we need to hear.
This prayer occurs just before the breaking of the bread in Rite 1.
The priest has presented the bread and wine and blessed and consecrated them. And the only thing left to do is to offer ourselves to God. The words are read by the priest but on behalf of all the people gathered:
And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves,
our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living
sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all
others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may
worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son
Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction,
and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and
we in him. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 336)
On this Day of Pentecost, we called again to offer ourselves, to offer ourselves to God, that God may be in us, so that we can do the hard work of sharing God’s love in a hurting and conflicted world, and that we do that work together.
“…that he may dwell in us, and
we in him.”
Amen.