Do you realize that, for the 2nd time in the last few years we have had a major fire in this area in the week before Pentecost? Three years ago, the very week of Pentecost, we had the large and devastating “Indian Fire,” as they called it, just outside of Prescott. I remember it well because we were among those who had to evacuate. I recall preparing that weekend’s sermon in a motel room. Now, this year—this past week—there was a huge structural fire in downtown Prescott that destroyed a local restaurant. Jerry and I were driving down the street and looked up to see the dark, black smoke billowing over the buildings to blacken the sky. Our first reaction was that a terrible storm was coming…

This all reminded me of the time, not too long ago, when a former pastor decided to burn the mortgage on the church parking lot during morning worship, on Pentecost Sunday yet, and the church’s smoke alarms went off, resulting in everyone quickly exiting the sanctuary as we listened to the sirens of the approaching emergency vehicles. And just like our scripture of today, it was a man called Peter who did it. Unforgettable!

However there’s another incident that must have had all of those beat for dramatic impact in worship. I only read about it in the paper, but it was the notice of one of our neighboring churches, and I don’t even think it was Pentecost Sunday (although that would have been even better). The paragraph read: Pastor—I don’t want to give his name-- “will focus on the book of Leviticus, chapter 6, in which God shows up in the fire during the 10 a.m. service.” I mean… WOW! How did they do that?

Yet, the events that happened at that very first Pentecost got everyone’s attention. Frankly, it’s stuff I love to preach about because it was such an exciting, life-changing, even world-changing, transformational time. I’m reminded of a writing of Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes—
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”

G.K. Chesterton, a wise and witty British writer of the early 20th century, once said that “there are two kinds of people in the world. When tree branches and leaves are waving wildly in the wind, people think of it in two opposite ways”. He explains that “most of humankind through the centuries has always believed that the wind moves the trees. But in recent times,” he said,” a whole new breed of people has emerged. They assume that it is the movement of the trees that creates the wind.”

While Chesterton was joking, he made a good point. Generally in the past, we humans have had pretty much of a consensus that there’s an invisible world behind the visible. That may have changed now, as more and more, folks believe that only what they can see, hear, and touch is reality.

Yet there’s the situation of a young, African couple—from deep in the jungle—who arrived in a relatively rural area in Canada and were provided a fully equipped home to live in. They were given the keys and moved in, in mid-summer. No one had thought to explain about the electrical appliances. For a while, they went to bed when it was dark and got up when the sun came up. They collected wood for the fireplace and cooked their food there. They discovered water came from the taps and they did their washing in the kitchen, drying their clothes on the line.

By November, they were cold, miserable and very frightened. Finally, some friends came to visit, found the house in darkness, and flicked on the lights. The friends showed them how to set the thermostat for heat and use the electric stove for cooking. They later learned about the washer and dryer, the vacuum cleaner, how to answer and call on the phone… Now they could use the TV that helped them learn more that they needed to know.¹

This story gives us a small insight into the major change that took place on that Day of Pentecost in our scripture reading. “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a mighty wind and it filled the entire house…” Not unlike the couple who simply turned on their electricity and were freed for a world of changes they had not known before.

And yet the outcome of that first Pentecost was so much more…
The disciples in today’s scripture did not know all that God had in store for them. The Pharisees and other religious leaders had never told them. For the first time, those early Christians began to experience the light and power available to them from the Holy Spirit! For the first time, they became aware of God’s limitless love and grace and the way they could pass that on.

It was a tremendous power that was unleashed on the world as those early disciples — probably 120 of them, because it’s thought the now wider group was included—were baptized by the Holy Spirit to newly become the People of God.

Peter, as just one example, had been timid and denying Christ not long before this. With the other disciples, he had been hiding in fear. Now, they were all filled with a boldness and a sense of purpose that so consumed them that it would drive them to tell others about God’s power in the world, a power which included raising Jesus Christ from the dead. Peter did his first sermon and the church was birthed, in that marketplace where he stood.

The day this all happened was really not that special. It was the Jewish Festival of Weeks, one of three yearly agricultural festivals that included celebrating the first fruits of the spring harvest, and was 7 weeks after the Passover, where the word Pentecost comes from. “Pente” means fifty.

But what really was special was the supernatural aspect of all this, not the natural, for as they all spoke in other languages—tongues—there was unleashed a torrent of understanding , a gift from the Spirit. We are told the message was for all of those throughout the diaspora, that wider world beyond the Jews, which means, friends, that it’s a message for all of us, and for all of the world, as God’s spirit was poured out to everyone, including slaves—and both men and women!

There will be signs and visions and prophesies, and men shall dream dreams, we’re told. So we, all of us, and the world with which it is shared, now have the power and the responsibility to reach out beyond ourselves. As modern day disciples, we are to look for those signs, explore our visions, to be prophetic, and to dream dreams, that the world might know of this gift and of God’s great love.

We don’t have to look far to see the need for the Holy Spirit, or to see it at work. We can walk down to Open Door on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, or on a Thursday afternoon. We can watch the film, “Hotel Rwanda,” a true story about the small African country.

Friends, the movie, “Hotel Rwanda,” is absolutely horrible to watch. Yet it’s important to see because it is true. Before viewing it, I knew what had happened, and I knew it was terrible. But I still wasn’t prepared for what I would see. It’s like seeing the Passion of Christ all over again, and I suffered through it, as I did that one. Yet if it impresses on us the need to call on the name of the Lord and to bring the good news of the Holy Spirit to places where people are hurting—Darfur, Sudan and the like, we need to respond.

The redeeming part of Hotel Rwanda is one individual named Paul, owner of a local hotel, who is moved by the Holy Spirit to save his people. God’s work continues on… The change that the world needs happens as each of us is changed by the divine love of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ, knowing that the Holy Spirit is active among us, merged in that blessed Trinity through which we, as modern day disciples, attempt to understand the nature of our relationship with our God. It is incumbent upon each of us today to examine where we are in our life with God…

And now, today, our friend Judith Aurel, who has shared her gift of dance with us, has agreed to share her personal experience with the Holy Spirit. Judith…

The Holy Spirit can and will do so much with each of us, and with our church at this time of change. Let it move through us, as a church family, and transform us into the People of God that we are now becoming, crossing all cultural barriers and shifting all misunderstandings.

The power of the future has erupted into history, and the era of salvation has come. To God be the glory! Thank you, Jesus! Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

Pastoral Blessing:
O God, the Holy Spirit, come to us, and among us; come as the wind, and cleanse us; come as the fire, and burn; come as the dew, and refresh; convict, convert, and consecrate many hearts and lives to our great good and to thy greater glory; and this we ask for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

¹Robert Brow, “Electricity: A parable for Pentecost,” June 8, 2003; Model Theology Web Page.

Sermon delived by Carol Mumford on May 22, 2005.