Acts 2:1-8 (NRSV)
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Spirit Signs
Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Acts 2:1-8
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston on Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009
There used to be this concept called "family time." Many children today are being raised in families who do not know the meaning of "family time."
Traveling down an interstate on a long car trip used to be good "family time." Anybody remember "The Alphabet Game" where kids and grown-ups could work their way from A to Z by getting the letters off the highway signs? Did any of your families sing together those awful camp songs that have a hundred verses? At the very least the back seat could go to war with the front seat and the jump seats. Fights over what music the whole family had to listen to; explanations as to the answer to the question "Are we there yet?" every two miles—that was the stuff family trips were made of.
Then came the Walkman. Then came built-in DVD players. Now a long-distance trip with a car full of children can be the quietest, most solo experience a parent can have.
-One child is plugged into their iPod, moving to a beat no one else can hear.
-Another passenger is playing a video game—-eyes and ears focused on a scenario that has nothing to do with what is outside the windows.
-Texting on a cell phone while plugged into an MP3 player keeps hands, eyes, and ears connected to friends who are far away, and keeps the rest of the family in the car completely distant.
Try pointing out a funny sign, a beautiful sight, or just asking a question, next time you are the only un-plugged one in the car. See how much response you get. The car might be pulsing with music, video games, cell phone conversations, and movies. But the car hums with nothing but a hush.
There are two ways to know if things are going well—in your world–-be it your family, your home, your office, your church, your community.
1) If things are going well there is a lot of peace and quiet.
2) If things are going well there is a lot of noise and commotion.
Within both the noise and the silence there are the reassuring sounds of community and connection.
In a life of faith there are both days of din and days that are dampered. In a life of faith God appears to us in both the rushing mighty wind and in the still small voice. In song and in silence, in coming together and going apart, in private meditation and in public prayer—-you can hear the voice of God.
The God who grandstanded as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by day to the Israelites, also hid out in the "still small voice" that spoke to praying prophets. Jesus spoke to the multitudes, preached to huge crowds, prayed thankfully for food he did not yet have before thousands. But Jesus also wandered into the wilderness, climbed up mountaintops, took stormy sea voyages, just to get away from the noise and the needs of the crowds pressing in on him. Like Jesus, we all need to "come a-part" so we don't' "come apart."
Leonard Sweet points out how the spiritual soundings and Spiritual silence—-the Holy Hoopla and the Holy Hush—are both part of our connection to divine presence and purpose in a sermon called "Are You Pentecost?" This morning's story of Pentecost is the story of stunned, bewildered disciples who re-grouped and waited in Jerusalem for the "whatever" that Jesus had promised would come their way.
Who knows what the disciples envisioned the promised Spirit would bring to them?
Perhaps they hoped for super-hero powers.
Perhaps they dreamed of the perpetual presence of cherubim and seraphim or some other such heavenly creatures.
Perhaps they prayed for some sort of spiritual military mobilization.
So what is it that the disciples finally got? Well, the Big Gift was the Holy Spirit, and with that Big Gift came a lot of other gifts. But how did the Gift of the Holy Spirit come to them?
On this Day of Pentecost, Jesus' disciples received the gift of sound.
Who would have thought?!
First, this was a sound that filled the house in which they were gathered together. This sound, like that of a rushing wind, filled the space between each other where they stood. Next the sound filled the space between their ears. Then the sound filled them up. Finally, this sound poured forth.
When the sound poured forth it took the form not of exploding bombs, whirring rockets, or roaring tanks. This sound took the form of language, the sound of communication, intelligible words, directed out to all the world. There was rush of wind–type sound. There was a rush of words, of multi-lingual confessions and extrapolations upon "God's deeds of power" (v.11).
Yet despite all this "rush," there was a clear and present "hush." There was the hushing of the disciples' anxieties. There was the hushing of the petty, personal agendas that still drove these disciples. There was the hushing of doubt, filled to over-flowing but blown over by the rush of a Holy Spirit so loud and exuberant that it attracted the attention of the crowds in the streets. The healing, "hushing" of the Spirit became a rush of new words of wisdom that poured out of these once-timid disciples.
Presbyterians get a chance to experience how the disciples may have felt on that first day of Pentecost during the opening worship service of a General Assembly meeting. I have attended three of these worship services and found them to be full of spirit signs. As you look down to the ground level from high your seat high up in a coliseum, first come the liturgical dancers waving batons with long red streamers to signify the entrance of the Holy Spirit. Then comes the multitude of banner bearers with a banner from each presbytery across the United States. These are followed by many ministers of Word and Sacrament in their various robes and stoles and elder representatives who will be serving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper during the service. The coliseum of worshipers pray aloud the prayer of confession and this is followed by a prolonged, hushed silence. After the scripture readings, someone stands near the preacher and interprets the sermon in sign language for the hearing impaired. The highlight of the service comes after the sermon when a host of missionaries who will be commissioned to service all over the world, taking the message of the Spirit to the people in their own language. The visual and auditory signs of the opening worship service of the Assembly reinforce the theme of diversity and inclusiveness, a priority for our denomination and a sign of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
The rush and the hush—-both were gifted to the disciples on the day of Pentecost. The parting of the Red Sea, the breath that raised the dry bones, the power that blew the trumpets and brought down the walls of Jericho: combined with the still, small voice, the nine month silence of Zechariah, the private mountain top meditations of Jesus. Some things are too glorious to keep silent about. Some things are too wondrous to mention. The RUSH and the HUSH are both Spirit signs. In fact, when you are living in the Spirit, the times of greatest rush can be the times of greatest hush.
Here is the promise of Pentecost: Can you live this promise?
"Rush hour" can be "hush hour"-–if you let the Holy Spirit in.
"Family Frenzy" can become "Family Fun"—if you let the Holy Spirit in.
"Off-line, "out-of-service," "unplugged," annoying electronic glitches can become "on-line," "quality-service," "plugged into God's power source," personal commitments—if you let the Holy Spirit in.
The disciples, waiting for a miracle to receive . . . sound that becomes silence, a holy rush that becomes a holy hush, a brassy, brazen message that is at the same time a calm, delicate mystery.
What a heart-stopping "rush, what a heart-filling "hush" Pentecost was . . . and is.
The Spirit of God wants to flood your soul with whatever it needs this Pentecost morning . . . .
-do you need to feel the rush?
-do you need to feel the hush?
-do you sense the spirit signs?
It's yours.
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This sermon is adapted from a sermon by Leonard Sweet called "Are You Pentecost?"
