Catching the Wind ¹

5-11-08

This morning in our Sacred Dance we saw an amazing image of the power of the Holy Spirit. As we enter fire and hurricane season, we all know both the power and the destruction that can be caused by the wind and fire. And yet, each of these elements also has amazing potential. Wind power is one of the most promising forms of renewable energy. The problem is, apart from a good gust now and then, the wind can be very difficult to catch. One of the problems is that the most effective winds don’t tend to move at ground level, but rather they blow six miles up in the air. At that level, the winds are consistent and stronger, carrying up to a hundred times more energy. So how do we harness such power? Good question! Although we have made progress, even our most advanced technology does not adequately harness the power of the wind.

It seems that if you want to catch the wind, you have to put yourself where the wind is blowing. "Call it the Pentecost paradigm, because the same principle applies to the church."²  If the Christian community is going to make use of the limitless energy of Holy Spirit power, then it’s going to have to position itself correctly. It is a good thing then, that the book of Acts provides us with some guidelines for creating a church that can catch the wind of the Holy Spirit. It suggests that there are four points to put in place: Community, Communication, Courage and Clarity. With these four points in the right places, we should feel "the rush of a violent wind" (Acts 2:2), and capture the energy of the Holy Spirit.

Community is central in this morning’s story. Acts tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the apostles of Jesus "were all together in one place" (v. 1). The disciples were all together, gathered in community. They were not in different places, on the same page, experiencing transformation as a group.

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. 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, the Holy Spirit would have shown up as a whirlwind, but rather a light breeze. Pentecost was, and continues to be, a communal experience. "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 divided in our obligations and individualistic in our practice of the faith. It used to be that church was as much a priority as brushing one’s teeth. 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. More and more people today are taking their spiritual wonderings directly to the Internet, surfing for religious insights and accepting any Internet information they come across. Religious opinion online is fine and allows freedom of expression. But like any other media source, we must engage the internet and its information with caution. 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.

The Communication piece is important as well. 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. You know the riddle:

What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? American.

Well, in the first century, the punch line would have been: Galilean. But on Pentecost, the apostles were talking away in the native languages of all those gathered in Jerusalem. The Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Romans, Cretans, Arabs and others. In these wonderfully 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. Much of the gift of that power was in those who heard the message and had their lives renewed and transformed.

We need to position ourselves to put this gift to work today. We have to speak in other languages, multi-media language, street language, creative language, 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 Courage. Acts tells us that some of the residents of Jerusalem sneered at the apostles accused them of being drunk. 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. It took courage 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. He didn’t shy away from conflict. Instead, he stood up to the skeptics and explained 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 witnessed to what God was doing in the world at that particular moment.

We are challenged to do the same. Our job is to show some guts as we describe what we see God doing in the world. We don’t have to engage in philosophical and theological arguments instead, our challenge is to point out what God is doing in our lives, churches, communities, nation and world. When and where do we perceive God at work? When estranged family members come together, I see that as a God-moment. When an unexpected healing occurs, that’s a God-moment. When warring factions make peace, it is a God-moment. Peter courageously pointed out a God-moment that he saw in his world, and so can we.

Peter brought some Clarity to the situation. When he spoke to the crowd, he didn’t invent a whole new set of Scriptures. Instead, he clarified a passage from Joel that had been confusing before, but now made some sense. He provided a commentary on this Scripture lesson that awakened people to the power of the Holy Spirit. Clarifying the message of the Bible, beyond our simplest understandings, 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. He was letting those gathered there know that God’s message was not limited to a few people but opened to Jews and Gentiles alike. Christ’s love is for all. It’s a surprising twist in the biblical story, and Peter suddenly makes clear what God is doing.

A Community that Communicates with Courage and Clarity is going to be in a position to catch the power of God and put it to work in the world. The Holy Spirit is upon us and that Spirit equips each of us with tongues of justice and love. So how will we use that power in our walk together? I pray that as a community we too can have courage like Peter to share the ways we see God at work in every moment. Thanks be to God for the Spirit that allows us to re-create the world all over again. Thanks be to God. Amen.