Pentecost Sunday and the Holy Spirit: It sounds mysterious.  It sounds intimidating.  Or perhaps, it simply sounds like something that we just can’t wrap our minds around.  I mean, we have tongues of fire that allow people to speak in other languages.  Even with three years of seminary behind me, I have yet to hear of anything that completely satisfies my curiosity about this story.

       So let’s begin with the meaning of the word itself: Pentecost is literally translated as the “fiftieth day.” For the disciples in today’s reading, the number fifty and Pentecost were already well established concepts.  In their agrarian society, it took about fifty days to bring a crop of grain to harvest.  During that harvest celebration, Jews also commemorated the giving of the law at Sinai.  Because it was upon Mount Sinai that God first became present in the form of fire, it is possible that the image of fire was already present in the minds of those gathered together in today’s reading.

Recalling the setting of today’s story, the disciples had recently been in the presence of the risen Jesus.  It was at that time that Jesus foretold that the power of the Holy Spirit would come.  Even with this notice, and even with the remembrance of the symbols associated with God’s activity on Mount Sinai, it is nevertheless impossible to tell whether or not the disciples were prepared for what came next.  Tongues of fire came upon them and they began to speak in other languages.  With this historical footnote, we once again arrive at the mystery surrounding this event and what it means to us.  The Holy Spirit created quite a stir.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, I think that we often become confused.  And by “we,” I am not just talking about Presbyterians, but about everyone. We take this story of the Holy Spirit and we tend to go to one extreme or the other.  We read the second chapter of Acts and take it to mean exactly what it says or we consider it as a story that is to be taken metaphorically.  Our various interpretations of this account remind me of a Volkswagen commercial that has been running on television lately.  In the commercial, the Volkswagen Jetta with the turbocharged, direct injection engine is characterized to be much more fun to drive than the favorite among hybrids, the Toyota Prius. Not only that, but the Jetta more or less matches the fuel economy for which the Prius is most well known.  So while the Jetta TDI provides the muscular vroom, vroom, vroom; the Prius engine humbly offers a sound that is equated with a gentle blowing breeze.

So which is it?  Does the Holy Spirit move boldly like the Jetta or does it move softly and tenderly like the Prius?  One only has to look elsewhere on television to see the choices being acted out.  On one hand, there is the television evangelist, who, with the power of the Holy Spirit invoked, is able to save ten people with the single sweep of an arm.  On the other hand, we might find someone who is able to save ten dollars on an article of clothing because he or she was patient enough to wait on the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Are either of these interpretations correct?  Because God can do anything, maybe so.

I have also seen other preachers who will use the Holy Spirit to invoke fear in the hearts of their listeners.  These preachers will slam their fists on the pulpit or stalk angrily around the chancel while threatening their listeners with visions of fire and darnation.  It seems that in these cases, the Holy Spirit either will change your heart or will chase you down and punish you with a final and horrible kind of vengeance.  Is this interpretation correct?

Before I go on too long with the comparisons, I think that we must remember that the Holy Spirit is not anything that can be weighed or measured.  It is further not anything that we can assign to any one particular denomination of Christianity.  The Holy Spirit cannot be used or kicked around like a soccer ball.  The one thing that we need to know and believe about the Holy Spirit is when we ask for its assistance in any matter, we are asking for the very presence of the living and triune God.  And as we know, it’s pretty silly to equate God to the activity of a Toyota or Volkswagen, even if it has a turbocharged, direct injection system.

When we consider the mysteries of God and God’s activity in the world, I do not think it is necessary to go to extremes or to always look for the supernatural.  Neither must we rely on moments where we experience silence and serenity. 

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, all we have to do is look to the people around us.  The people in this church and in churches all over the world owe their existence to the power of the Holy Spirit.  Like that crowded room where the disciples gathered, it is true that we no longer have the physical Jesus to see and touch and to hear preaching a sermon.  What we do have is someone who is just as powerful.  We have the gift and the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit.  How else can we describe the powerful ways in which we are called to serve?

This past weekend, the mission committee conducted a silent auction that was to last for two hours.  It sounds simple enough.  How much effort could go into something that takes about the same amount of time that we might otherwise spend in a movie theater, right?  Well, in putting this event together, every member of the committee spent hours upon hours for the last several weeks in planning the details of this auction. I thought about making a list of the tasks that the committee had to accomplish, but the sermon would have lasted another hour.  Let’s just agree that it was a lot of work.  And all of this effort included many more than the members on the committee.  Members of this church and community provided the goods and services.  Our office manager, Laura Seymour, went above and beyond her duties in taking care of our numerous copies and publications.  Holly Carrigan is now an honorary member of the committee due to the countless hours she offered with the contribution of her artistic gifts. 

And then we have Leslie and Bill Cutts who offered their home as the setting to the entire affair.  It was not always easy and there were moments when tempers were short and anxiety high.  Yet, so many people were involved and so much was accomplished toward an event that brought in approximately $12,000 in support of our world mission efforts.  What moved and guided us to accomplish such a thing?  Surely it was none other than the power of the Holy Spirit.

And while this event is now behind us, there is much, much more to come and God’s Spirit will surely be in the middle of it all.  With the gifts donated, people will be joining others for meals and for fishing trips.  Newly acquired artwork will provoke thought and discussion.  And let us not forget our missionary families who will be the recipients of our efforts.  Can we begin to imagine the work that they will be able to accomplish and the ways that lives will be influenced in Lesotho and Madagascar?  This, friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit.  This is what we remind ourselves every Sunday when we say our mission statement together: “We are called by the Spirit…” 

For those Urban Mission Campers who are here this morning from Maryville, Tennessee, I imagine that this week is not just something that you decided to do at very last minute.  I imagine that there were lots of plans to make and funds to raise.  There was also a good bit of risk taking by campers, parents and leaders alike.  Why go to Mobile, Alabama?  What will we see and do?  How will we serve God by spending time with people who live differently than we do?  These are all reasonable questions.  And as you seek to answer them, remember that you are not alone.  You will have the Holy Spirit guiding you along the way.  

Looking again to today’s reading from Acts, I think there are a couple of things that we must remember.  First: The gift of the Holy Spirit does not mean that things will come easy for us.  When the presence of God’s Spirit came over the disciples, they immediately became distinguished as being different from everyone else.  They were saying things that other people could understand, yet not comprehend.  While some were left in wonder, others said, “You all must be drunk.”  The very first church of Jesus Christ had to hear this.  But because of God’s assurance and guidance, they were not silenced or broken apart.  Because they remained, we remain today; if only in a very different kind of world.  A different kind of world that will sometimes look at what we do, what we believe, and exclaim… “You all must be drunk.”  Maybe the world is not that different, after all. 

Our road will not always be easy.  We will bicker among ourselves and as a result, Christ’s church will continue to separate into more like-minded factions.  This is very evident in the city where I served prior to going to seminary.  Between the twenty miles on Franklin Road separating First Presbyterian, Franklin from First Presbyterian, Nashville, there are at least ten other churches.  These churches range from those that are near death to those that are under construction.  God’s people apparently have a lot of different ideas about what worship should look like.

We will also be the subject of outside scrutiny.  Why should we have a silent auction for the benefit of people in Africa when there are people right here in this community that need our assistance?  …never mind that we take great joy in serving those people as well.  Why should you spend so much time and money in coming to Mobile?  Wouldn’t it be more beneficial if you campers just wrote out a check? …never mind that you will learn of the reasons that checks need to be written in the first place.  …never mind that you are active participants in the commission of Christ.

There will also be the scoffing upon our individual person.  People like to scoff.  I have endured this while sitting on airplanes.  “What do you do?” someone asks.  “I am an associate pastor at a Presbyterian Church” I reply.  “Oh.  So.. are you able to get married?  Do you really believe all that stuff?”  When I was in seminary, I was usually able to escape those kind of questions by simply stating that I was in graduate school.  If pushed further, I would say that I was  majoring in religion.  What I have since learned is that those were missed opportunities to tell people about what makes faith in Christ so wonderful.  In avoiding those discussions, I missed out on explaining what the church is truly about.

This brings us to the other theme to take from today’s story.  The church has a wonderful message to tell.  We have God’s gifts of love to share.  And when we tell God’s story, we can be sure that God is there with us.  When we share the Good News about Christ, we can have faith that the Holy Spirit is active in the telling.  We have also been equipped with the Holy Spirit to do this together.  We should take note that the disciples received the Holy Spirit in the setting of a community of faith.  They were not alone when the rush of wind swept through and their experience was not something to be cherished as a private moment of tranquility.  What they felt burning in their hearts was the need to speak and to speak loudly. 

Are we at Government Street Presbyterian Church really all that different?  Our languages include liberal, moderate and conservative voices.  We cry out in terms of social justice and in song and music.  We speak in a diverse variety of ways as the Spirit gives us ability.   We also join the church universal in proclaiming that Jesus is risen.  Through God and Christ, we as a community of faith have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us and to show us the way.  Now and always, we are called by that Spirit to glorify God, so that we may become joyful disciples of Jesus Christ.  We are called to encourage others to do the same.  Amen.