Sunday, May 11, 2008

Sermon: "A New Way to Catch the Wind"

Scripture: Acts 2: 1-21

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

Flying wind farms are now being developed to capture the power of the jet stream. Can the church catch the wind ? the rush of a violent wind from God?

Wind power.

It's one of the most promising forms of renewable energy, but it can be notoriously difficult to catch. One of the problems is that the best winds don't tend to move at ground level. Instead, they do their blowing six miles up in the air, at the height of the jet stream. At that level, the winds are stronger and blow more consistently, carrying up to a hundred times more energy. 

It seems that if you want to catch the wind, you have to put yourself where the wind is blowing.

Let's say that one more time: If you want to catch the wind, you have to put yourself where the wind is blowing.

This is Pentecost Sunday: A time to renew our energy as Christians: A time for us to catch the wind. Perhaps it is a time to catch the wind in a new, or renewed, way.

 If the Christian community is going to tap the limitless energy of Holy Spirit wind power, then it's going to have to position itself correctly. Fortunately, the book of Acts provides us with a blueprint for building a church that can catch this wind. It suggests that there are four points to put in place, kind of like the four points of a flying generator: Community, Communication, Courage and Clarity. With these four points in the right place, we can feel "the rush of a violent wind" (Acts 2:2), and capture the energy of the Holy Spirit.

I served four small but powerful churches in northeast Arkansas while I was still a student in college in 1965-66. These were small but vibrant churches. They were small in number: anywhere from 5 to 45 in worship on any given Sunday. I was a college student with no training as a pastor and still not sure if I was going to be a preacher or not.

The secret to the success of those otherwise struggling churches was that they had community, communications, courage, and clarity.

Thanks to conference apportionments from other churches I was paid $75 a month to serve those four churches. Thanks to the Holy Spirit at work in those little churches I was fired up and challenged to drive 50 miles each Sunday and lead them in a worship experience. I think that they led me more often than I led them because they were determined to be the church in community, communications, courage, and clarity.

As much as they were being fed by my preaching and leadership, I was being encouraged to go forward with my call to me in ministry. These churches were small in number, poor in dollars, but they were giants in witness, and rich in the Holy Spirit. They had the 4 c's:

1) The Community Point. Acts tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the apostles of Jesus "were all together in one place" (v. 1).

Were they all there? Yes.

Were they all together? Yes.

Were they all in one place? Yes.

They were all together, gathered in community. They were not in different places, but were in the same spot, on the same page, reading from the same sheet of music.

Community is critically important, because when the Holy Spirit came with a sound "like the rush of a violent wind" (v. 2), it came to one group in one house. "Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them" (v. 3). If Peter had been in Capernaum, John in Nazareth, James on the Sea of Galilee, Andrew in Cana and the other eight scattered across the country, there would not have been a catching of the Holy Spirit wind. Pentecost was a communal experience, and it was only because they were together that "all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability" (v. 4).

Gathering together is a challenge for us today because we have become so individualistic in our practice of the faith. It used to be that people would routinely take their spiritual search to church, and look to their fellow worshipers, to their pastors, to their religious traditions and to their sacred Scriptures for guidance. (The four churches I served were made up of people from some distance from the little churches, but the church was the focal point and distance and cost of fuel would not keep them away).

 Unfortunately, more and more people today are taking their quest directly to the Internet, surfing for religious insights and accepting Internet information as the gospel truth. Christianity is becoming more like Wikipedia and less like Encyclopedia Britannica, with people relying more on online opinions than on time-tested religious insights.

This is not to say that Christian bloggers are wrong to post their insights online. They have every right to do so ? after all, we live in a nation based on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But religious communities have a long history of drawing people together, and something precious is lost when people choose to practice their faith in isolation. It is only when we are "all together in one place" that we can catch the wind of the Holy Spirit, and begin to use the gifts that God wants to give us. Which brings us to ?

2) The Communication Point. The apostles in Jerusalem "began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability" (v. 4). This amazed the devout Jews from every nation who were living in the city, because they knew that the apostles were Galileans ? men not famous for their foreign language abilities. 

 But, on Pentecost, the apostles were chattering away in the native languages of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Romans, Cretans, Arabs and others - in these diverse languages, they were "speaking about God's deeds of power" (v. 11). The apostles had been given a gift of communication by the Holy Spirit of God so that they could tell people about the good news of Jesus in a clear and compelling way.

We need to position ourselves to put this gift to work today. Not only by supporting services in languages other than English, but by using communication techniques that reach a new generation of potential believers. We communicate  when we praise God with instruments besides the organ, when we make the experience of worship more creative and interactive. We have to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gives us ability, if we are going to reach new people in the same manner that the apostles did on Pentecost. All of which is going to require ?

3) The Courage Point. Acts tells us that some of the residents of Jerusalem sneered at the apostles and said, "They are filled with new wine" (v. 13). They didn't want to hear the message of the Galileans, so they tried to write it off as drunken babbling. But Peter 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, it is only 9:00 in the morning" (vv. 14-15).

It took guts for Peter to stand up to the sneering crowd. It took Spirit-powered courage. Remember that this was the very same Peter who - just a few weeks earlier - had slinked away from conflict by denying Jesus three times.

Peter didn't make a joke. He didn't shy away from conflict. Instead, he stood up to his detractors and said that the speech of the apostles was a fulfillment of ancient prophecy. "This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel," said Peter: "?In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh'" (vv. 16-17). Peter made a strong stand for what God was doing in the world at that particular moment.

We are challenged to do the same, especially when people dismiss our practice of the faith. Our job is to show a little courage as we describe what we see God doing in the world. We don't have to engage in philosophical arguments with agnostics or refute the best-selling books of today's neo-atheists - instead, our challenge is to point out what God is doing in our churches, communities, nation and world.

When estranged family members come together, that's a God-moment.

When an unexpected healing occurs, that's a God-moment.

When warring factions make peace, that's a God-moment.

Peter courageously pointed out a God-moment that he saw in his world, and so can we. This brings us, finally, to ?

4) The Clarity Point. When the apostle Peter spoke to the crowd, he didn't invent a whole new set of Holy Scriptures. Instead, he clarified a passage from Joel that had been confusing before, but now made perfect sense. He provided a commentary on this Scripture lesson that awakened people to the power of the Holy Spirit and the significance of God's Son, Jesus.

Making the message of the Bible clear is one of the most important ways in which we position the church to catch the power of God. Peter did this well in his sermon to the people of Jerusalem, by showing that God's promise to pour out his Spirit was coming true all around them, and the day was dawning in which "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (v. 21). This was the greatest clarification of all, because it made clear that the name of the Lord is Jesus, and everyone who calls on him shall be saved.

Salvation is no longer limited to the Jews. Gentiles can be saved as well. It's a surprising twist in the biblical story, and Peter suddenly makes clear what God is doing. God is offering the wind to people beyond the Jewish community.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, Jew or Gentile, shall be saved. Everyone, Jew or Gentile, shall be forgiven, and made right with God. All they have to do is call Jesus their Lord. For years, people didn't know what the prophet Joel was talking about. But Peter made it clear.

So these are the four points of a Holy-Spirit-harnessing church. A Community that Communicates with Courage and Clarity is going to be in a position to catch the wind, the power of God, and put it to work in the world.

Will you fly with me? Do you have woo power? On this day of Pentecost let us launch the 4 c's and woo others to Christ.