For a number of years, I had a habit in the churches I served of calling my parishioners and serenading them on their birthdays. I wanted them to know that their pastor thought of them at some time other than when they were sick in the hospital, were burying someone they loved, or it was getting hear to Pledge Sunday. It was a fun thing to do. Now, here it is PENTECOST, and many refer to this day as the birthday of the church. So...
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, Dear Chur-urch,
Happy birthday to you.
Amen.
OK, let's do it up right. If this is the church's birthday,
there ought to be a party, true? One would think that an
observance of this magnitude would be noticed around town, just
like Christmas or Easter. But I have had occasion to
shop in several stores recently, and amazingly, not one of them indicated
that there were so few shopping days till Pentecost! In fact, in
all my years, the closest thing I have ever seen approaching even
a hint that this special day was soon to arrive was one year in
the nursery department at Home Depot where there were PENTAS on
sale (and for those of you might not know, [and that included me
until I looked them up] pentas are bushy, rounded evergreen
shrubs with hairy, bright green leaves and dense clusters of many
small, star-shaped, tubular flowers in shades of red, pink,
purple or white.(1)) So the question must be asked, "How much does
a PENTA COST?" [Ugh!] That is as close as we make it to any
commercialization of the holiday. Happy birthday, Dear Church.
By the way, you will occasionally hear a preacher here or
there on this annual observance refer to the FIRST Pentecost,
meaning the one we read about in our lesson. Not exactly
accurate. As you Bible scholars know, Pentecost was not
originally a Christian observance. Ancient Jews celebrated the
day as a spring harvest festival (Shavuot in Hebrew), the 50th day after Passover.
When the holiday was centuries old, a religious "spin" was put on
it, and Pentecost came to be the time to remember the giving of
the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, but from Canaanite days this
season of the year was the time to celebrate the spring harvest.
The festival was one considered so important that all Jewish men
within traveling distance were supposed to worship in Jerusalem
at the temple. And they WANTED to - it was like a Christian
celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem. And, yes, it was PARTY TIME!
Pentecost was similar to our Thanksgiving, but one crucial
difference between the Hebrew Pentecost and our American
Christian Thanksgiving is that the pilgrims did not grow grapes!
Pentecost was a festival of new bread and new wine! And while we
do not want to make the forebears of our faith sound as though
they were irresponsible, it is true that this festival was
immensely popular and very well attended, not just because it was
the religious "thing to do," but because this was the only day
that a faithful Jew was allowed to drink to excess. In fact,
some rabbis of the period taught that all of the Jewish men had
to drink to the point of intoxication on this day as a sign of
their gratitude to God for the gift of the fruit of the vine!(2)
Hmm. Now do you see why I am surprised that modern commerce has
missed this golden opportunity?
Our lesson from Acts, chapter 2, recalls the first Pentecost
AFTER the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Just
before he was taken up out of their sight, the Lord had
instructed his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait, which they
had done. For ten days, off and on, they had been having a
prayer meeting. No doubt, they reminisced. They talked about
the three incredible years they had traveled the countryside with
this most amazing man any of them had ever known. Then, just
seven weeks ago, they had experienced the emotional roller
coaster ride of all time, first seeing their hopes dashed in the
horrifying crucifixion of their teacher, only then to be shocked
by his resurrection from the dead. Then, for 40 days, there were
occasional visits from their risen savior, but those visits ended
when he bid them farewell and disappeared from their sight one
final time.
To be painfully honest, up to this point, scripture portrays
the disciples as pretty much clueless...bumbling fellows who
never seem to understand the Lord's teachings and who appear
hopelessly taken with themselves and their private concerns.
Even in the account of the Lord's ascension into heaven, they
were still asking Jesus if he was about to throw out the Romans
and give Israel back to the Israelites! The apostles do not seem
to understand much at all. To their credit, they knew enough to
do what they had been told: Go to Jerusalem and wait. Now, it
was about to pay off.
Pentecost. It began at daybreak with the sound of the ram's
horn being blown and a priest standing on the city wall waving a
loaf of bread in each hand. The city was full of the sounds of
laughter and celebration, and everywhere you could see the
reunions of old friends and families meeting for the festival.
No doubt, there was a sense of anticipation in the Upper
Room. After all, it was a holiday. But I doubt that any of our
friends envisioned what they were about to experience. Suddenly,
the room was filled with the sound of a mighty wind. Tongues of
flame danced over their heads...wind and fire, ancient signs of
the presence of God. It was the coming of the Holy Spirit among
them that Jesus had promised. Too bad nobody had a cell phone to get some pictures or a first century version of YouTube so we could all check it out. In their excitement, they all
began to speak at once creating a cacophony of sound such as
would be heard at a United Nations celebration. Their gathering
looked like a fiesta - no problem - remember, this was Pentecost!
No wonder some passers-by thought it was some hearty party.
Not so, said Peter. He defended the group's honor by
protesting that it was still only 9:00 in the morning, and even
on Pentecost they had not had time to get drunk. He stood and
preached from the window of the upper room to the people gathered
in the streets below him:
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.'
Interesting that Peter should hark back to Joel on
Pentecost, of all days. After all, Joel's prophetic ministry
came in response to a terrible plague of locusts that had come
over his country, devouring and devastating everything in its
path - there would have been no harvest to celebrate.
Then again, perhaps Peter is wiser than we give him credit
for. He and the people who hear him preach know very well that
Joel's message was that the coming of the locusts was God's wake-up call to a disobedient nation. Joel's theme was the coming
"Day of the Lord," and the judgment that would ensue. Now Peter
was issuing another wake-up call in Jerusalem.
You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know--this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power...This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.(3)
For what it is worth, Joel's call worked. The locust plague
did indeed get Israel's attention. The people repented, changed
their way of living and began anew. The locusts were finally
driven off, and the people experienced a time of fruitfulness and
abundance. And on Pentecost, people responded to Peter as well -
3,000 souls answered the call of the Gospel that day. Powerful
preaching. Powerful message. Powerful God.
Both Joel's and Peter's sermons noted that there would come
a time when God's Spirit would come upon the people in a special
way. For Joel, it was sometime in the future. For Peter, it was
right then. This was the was the birth of the church.
No doubt you have heard Pentecost sermons lamenting the fact
that the church of 2011 does not seem to experience the powerful
movement of the Spirit that Peter and his friends did so long
ago. If only we would pray
more, or worship more, or study more, or give more. If only...
If only... Well, the truth is that the Spirit has been with us
and IS with us still, enabling us to accomplish some wonderful
things.
The church has given and still gives the world ideals...
ideals like religious and political liberty...ideals like racial
unity, social justice, and human brotherhood. Through the work
of the church and the convictions which have come from her, the
most sinful of the world's economic and social and political
evils have been driven to defeat or shamed into hiding. Who led
the battle against human slavery in this nation in the last
century? Who has been in the forefront of America's quest for
racial equality? Who has been most vocal in its concern for
peace among nations? The church and her people have been the
conscience of the world. Happy birthday, Dear Church.
The church has provided bold messengers...the first pioneers
and adventurers into the dark and neglected areas of the earth -
the William Careys, the David Brainards, the Hudson Taylors, the
David Livingstons - not simply for the sake of pushing beyond
frontiers but that the people who live there might come to know
the fullness of God's blessing in Jesus Christ. The messengers
of the church - not the military, not the magistrates, not the
merchants - have always taken the lead in the civilizing and
enlightening work of the world.
The messengers of the church, not medical people as such,
have been the first to go into all parts of the earth with the
science of sanitation, nutrition, and physical healing. How many
hospitals are named "Baptist" or "Methodist" or "Presbyterian?"
Not professional educators but the messengers of the church
have reduced languages to writing, established schools, and set
up printing presses for the distribution of the Word of God. The
first Sunday Schools were established, not simply to teach Bible
stories to youngsters, but to offer what was then the only
opportunity for them to learn to read and write. Public
education in America grew out of the selfless work of the church.
Not social reformers but the messengers of the church have
taken the lead in the fight against poverty, famine, and plague.
The church has elevated the status of women, created new
conditions for childhood, established orphanages, day care
centers, asylums, homes for the aged and others who need help.
History offers no parallel to the unselfish and uplifting
work of the church whose birth we celebrate today. There is no
question that what goes on in parliaments and congresses, in
council halls and chambers of commerce, and in the highest courts
of the nations is always of importance to humanity. But when the
world is out of joint, when people's minds are disordered and
their hearts are failing them for fear, then the thing of supreme
importance is the living church, with all of her sanctuaries of
worship and her avenues of service, where men and women come to
have their faith strengthened, their thoughts clarified, their
ideas uplifted, their convictions born, and their characters
created. The church, for all her faults, is the institution of
supreme significance and value in the world through the ages.
But for all the good works the church has offered through
history, those pale by comparison to the one thing that the
church uniquely did and continues to do - it has introduced the
world to Jesus Christ. It is the church that first introduced
you and me to the Savior. It is the church that preserved those
magnificent words, "For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." It is the church that taught
us, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
We know Christ because the church brought us to him. The church
gave us a right start, and the church TRIES to keep us on the
right road.
Pentecost. The birthday of the church. And just as the 4th
of July is the birthday of our nation and an opportunity to
recall our marvelous heritage, so Pentecost is a wonderful annual
reminder of this marvelous gift of God to the world called the
church.
Perhaps you have been saying to yourself that you have been
needing a deeper relationship with God. Then let today be the
beginning as you recommit yourself to God's church and the
ministries that have been so important to so many for so long. I
promise, you will be blessed.
Amen!
1. Plant Encyclopedia, via Internet, http://homearts.com/affil/gardb/plants/pentlanc.htm
2. Roger L. Ray, Sermon via Internet, "The Church Aflame," Lectionary Homiletics
3. Acts 2:22-24, 32-33
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