Wind and Fire

A Sermon Inspired by Acts 2:1-21 for Pentecost Sunday 2020

Today is the Day of Pentecost. It’s when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the first disciples, a gift that enabled them to proclaim boldly the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Many call Pentecost the birthday of the church!

In Acts chapter 1, the risen Jesus instructs the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until God would fulfill God’s promise to send the Holy Spirit, a helper and advocate that would empower them to do the work Jesus was giving them—to be witnesses to the gospel in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth!

And, so the disciples return to the upper room to pray and to wait, the same room where they had shared the Last Supper with Jesus before his crucifixion, the same room where the risen Christ has appeared to them on Easter showing them his nail-scarred hands and feet. Their future was uncertain. Jesus was no longer physically present with them, for he has ascended to the Father. I wonder, even as they prayed together, if they began to worry and wonder about what was next.

We know a little something about worry and wonder, don’t we? Recognizing the disorientation we are collectively experiencing, we just spent the last fifty days, the time between Easter and Pentecost, in our own season of waiting, hoping, and trusting that God will somehow make a better future out of our own uncertain present. At the beginning of this year, I would have never imagined that we wouldn’t be gathered together in one place to celebrate the birth of the church.

Still, as the first disciples gathered to wait, God showed up and something amazing happened. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Church was born! Happy Birthday, Church!

The Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised, fell upon the disciples, a representation of the presence of the risen Christ in their lives and in the world. And this gift of the Spirit enabled the disciples for the work Jesus had commissioned to them – being his witnesses as they proclaimed the gospel to the ends of the earth.

As you read through the book of Acts, you’ll discover that at every turn the Holy Spirit continues to show up in mighty and powerful ways, surprising the disciples time and time again at what wonderful things God is up to. We discover, along with Jesus’ earliest followers and the early church, that wherever there is love, wherever there is peace, wherever there is justice…the Holy Spirit is at work!

Throughout the book of Acts, the Spirit is shown to be a gift in three specific ways – a gift to the world, a gift to the church, and a gift to all people.

First, the Holy Spirit is for the world God’s love. Although the Spirit falls fresh upon the disciples in the upper room, the Spirit is not a new gift to the world. The Spirit, along with the Father and Son, has been present since the beginning of creation—showing up on Pentecost and before as wind, as breath, as fire. Sweeping over the deep waters at the beginning of creation in Genesis, the Spirit is gives birth to the created order and breathes the very breath of life into human beings created in the image of God. Calling Moses to action and mission through a burning bush, the Spirit of God shows up as a pillar of fire to lead God’s people out of slavery and death in Egypt and to freedom and new life in the promised land. Peter’s sermon on Pentecost borrowing from the prophet Joel’s words even remind us that the Spirit will redeem all of creation in love.

Second, the Holy Spirit is for the church God’s peace. The Spirit is sent by God to bring people together as the church and empower them for their works as disciples. The story of Pentecost is a story of peace that comes from unity in fellowship of the Spirit. ALL of the disciples are TOGETHER in the SAME place. Wind fills the WHOLE house as ALL are filled with the SAME Spirit and tongues of fire rest on EACH and EVERY person! Pentecost reminds us…we are all in this together! Together, the Spirit calls us to faith in the church and then continues to comfort, challenge, and guide us as we seek to live missionally in the world.

Third, the Holy Spirit is for all people God’s justice. The Spirit accomplishes what God desires for his people and his creation, uniting us in diversity. In our baptism liturgy, we remember that Christ has opened the church to people of all ages, nation, and races. By the Spirit, Christ brings people of all ages, all genders, all nationalities, all races, all social statues together as the Body of Christ. We are a church for ALL PEOPLE! Some see Pentecost as a reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel. Where at Babel God confused the language of a proud humanity seeking to pilfer God’s power, in Pentecost God sends the power of the Holy Spirit to bring people together through language in extraordinary ways. In Acts, the Holy Spirit is always breaking down the barriers we set up as humans, challenging the ways we label and divide ourselves. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit makes clear what the disciples will spend years learning – that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for [we] are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

As I consider the justice of radical equality that the Spirit brings and the words Peter preaches on Pentecost about signs of “blood and fire and a cloud of smoke,” I can’t help but consider how our country is burning right now. On Memorial Day, George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died at the hands of police officers who were sworn to serve and protect their community.

As we celebrate the Spirit that comes as wind and breathe and fire, I can’t help but hear the voice of Jesus in George Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe” as a police officer pushed a knee into his neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

As we seek to be a church unified past all boundaries by faith in Christ, I can’t help but remember that George Floyd was a man of faith, known to his friends as Big Floyd and remembered by loved ones as a gentle giant and a man of peace who spent the majority of his life witnesses to the power of the Gospel in his historic black Houston neighborhood, speaking to young people about breaking the cycle of violence.

But, I shouldn’t have to share the good things George Floyd did to justify why his death is a tragedy. But, its clear, church. In America, black lives do not yet matter.

While the events of the past few weeks, and the news stories about black children of God like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery being murdered by the sin of racism may feel new and shocking to us, our black brothers and sisters would tell you that “there is nothing new under the sun.” For years, for decades, for centuries, our black family has been crying out for justice and equality. The names of their fallen are engraved in their hearts and minds.

Atatiana Jefferson.

Stephon Clark.

Jordan Davis.

Alton Sterling.

Michael Brown.

Tamir Rice.

The Charleston 9.

Trayvon Martin.

Sean Bell.

Sandra Bland.

Philando Castile.

Eric Garner.

Freddie Gray.

Emmett Till.

The list goes on and on. And so, once again, weary protestors have taken to the streets to remind us, “BLACK LIVES MATTER.”

And we need reminding. We seem to have forgotten. Or at least, we have been silent when Jesus, a brown man who was executed unjustly by the state, called us to be the church, to be witnesses to the radical inclusivity of the Holy Spirit.

And, when peaceful protests turn into riots, we as white people sit in judgment and say, “That’s not the way to get change.”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an advocate for the power of nonviolent resistance. When faced with fire hoses, dogs, and police batons, King resisted without retaliation. But, let us not misremember King and his understanding of the grief and anger that fueled riots and resistance. Twenty-two days before he would be shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, King gave a speech entitled, “The Other America” at Grosse Point High School in Michigan. Addressing how the problem of racism creates two Americas – the one that whites experience and the other that blacks and other racial minorities experience – King said this about riots, “But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.”

If a riot is the language of the unheard, beloved, then it is our turn as white folk in America to listen. The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is not only found in the ability to speak in new language but also in the miracle of listening to understand, to hear the mighty works of God in each language.

And we will only understand by listening. We will not find understanding by justifying ourselves by saying or thinking, “Well, I’m not racist.” We will not find understanding by deciding what is an acceptable or unacceptable form of protest. As white folk, we don’t have a great track record of listening to or accepting peaceful protests, either. Colin Kaepernick could tell you that. And we will not find understanding until we stop talking long enough to hear, to really hear the pain and oppression our black brothers and sisters have been experiencing.

Pentecost reminds us not only of who we are as the church but, also, who we can be, who God calls us to be. As we begin to re-gather gradually, both as the local church in worship and as participants in American society, we have a choice. 

Will we insist on our own way, talking until we are blue in the face so that we don’t have to hear the pain of others, pain we do not experience or understand? 

Or will we come together again, as the first disciples did, for the sake of the Gospel, propelled into the world as Jesus’ witnesses to love God and love neighbor, empowered by the Spirit to join in the holy work of redeeming the world through the love, peace, and justice of God?

On this the birthday of the church, may we actually be the Church, the Body of the Crucified and Risen Christ in the world.

May it be so, and may it be soon. 

Amen.