The well-known author and preacher Fred Craddock tells a rather funny story about a lecture he was giving: A few years ago, when he was on the west coast speaking at a seminary, just before the first lecture, one of the students stood up and said, “Before you speak, I need to know if you are Pentecostal.” The room grew silent. Craddock said he looked around for the Dean of the seminary! He was nowhere to be found.
The student continued with his quiz right in front of everybody. Craddock was taken aback, and so he said, “Do you mean do I belong to the Pentecostal Church?” He said, “No, I mean are you Pentecostal?” Craddock said, “Are you asking me if I am charismatic?” the student said, “I am asking you if you are Pentecostal.” Craddock said, “Do you want to know if I speak in tongues?” He said, “I want to know if you are Pentecostal.” Craddock said, “I don’t know what your question is.” The student said, “Obviously, you are not Pentecostal.” He left (Sermons.com).
Today is Pentecost Sunday, if there ever was a day to be Pentecostal today is the day. You might have noticed the red flags, the colorful descending dove banner, the flames swaying in the sanctuary. All of these are to remind us that today is the birthday of the church and the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples. The word Pentecost is Greek for fifty noting the fifty days since Passover. It also coincides with the feast of Weeks which marks the end of the spring harvest. We celebrate Pentecost every year, but the question remains are you, are we Pentecostal?
I would say if the church is alive in the world it is Pentecostal. And you thought we were Presbyterian!
Both of our passages today are about the Spirit of God being shared; the Spirit of God at work in the world. First with God sharing some of the Spirit upon Moses with 70 elders within the community and their resulting prophesy. The second one was the Spirit coming like a wind, like a fire, to the disciples gathered and their ability to be heard in different languages. And yet a crisis preceded both events. Both times the Spirit of God was shared, there was a challenge before the people. The Israelites had complained about the lack of food on their two-year journey and God provided an abundance of quail. Also, Moses was getting a little burned out leading all these people saying, “I am not able to carry all this people alone” (11:14). God shared the Spirit with the seventy, shared the leadership of the chosen with new people blessed by the Spirit. The H oly Spirit is God’s agent of change to address a need in God’s plan. This was also true in Acts. The disciples were tasked with sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the problem was that they were all Galileans without the command of multiple languages. So, into this crisis, this problem, God sends the Holy Spirit to empower these faithful followers to spread the gospel beyond their own ability. By the Spirit they spoke in their native tongue, but they were heard and understood in multiple languages.
The Holy Spirit answered one of my biggest questions, how did the gospel spread past the small group of people who followed Jesus, past the mostly uneducated men who felt the fire of the Lord in their souls. Pentecost answers that question- by the force of Holy Spirit what divides can be united, what separates can be overcome.
Three things I want to share about Pentecost, that might help us decide if we are Pentecostal.
First Prayer precedes action. Moses candidly spoke to God about the people’s needs and his frustrations as leader. He actually gave God an ultimatum to help or to get someone else for the job. I would not recommend that tact, but honest communication with God is the first step in being blessed by the Holy Spirit. In Acts, we are told that the disciples and the women “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer” (1:14) while waiting to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. So, when we are seeking God’s support, when we know we need ability or strength beyond ourselves taking that matter to God is life-giving. Praying our needs to the constant listener and ultimate creator is such a gift. First it takes the worry off of our shoulders and then it give us the blessing that is found in God through the Holy Spirit.
Secondly do not be surprise if the Holy Spirit does something completely unexpected. What I mean is try as we might to ask and direct God, God will always move in ways of God’s choosing and not necessarily ours. Take for example the sharing of the Holy Spirit with the seventy elders of Israel. At first is seems simple enough, Moses asks for help and God offers the Holy Spirit to empower these leaders in their work. But then we hear of Eldad and Medad, two young men who are blessed with the Holy Spirit. Moses had selected seventy elders to help him with leadership, but God chose two youngsters to give the gift of prophesy. It is almost like the Holy Spirit escaped. Escaped from Moses’ plan and did God’s bidding. But then Joshua wants Moses to stop them. He wants to control the Spirit of God, he wants to contain the power of the Almighty. But Moses sets him straight, saying “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” Whether we call it jealousy or control, we so love to think we can contain God. But God through the Holy Spirit escapes into the places we least expect it. So when you pray, expect the unexpected. Which is part of the reason ending a prayer with “Thy will be done” is so useful. It simply acknowledges the fact that the Holy Spirit often escapes into unexpected places.
If we are Pentecostal we pray, and we expect the Spirit to escape. Finally, we welcome the power of God that is gifted through the Spirit. The disciples had no way of knowing they would soon be able to be heard in different languages. No way of knowing their words would transcend the language divide. But after prayer, with the expectation of the unexpected, when the gift of tongues came upon them, they welcomed it. They rose to the challenge of sharing the gospel with people from all over the region. They did not panic, or tweet about this new ability, they got to work sharing the gospel. But sometimes I think we have forgotten to pray, to expect the unexpected and to welcome the Spirit when it comes.
A character in John Updike’s novel, A Month of Sundays, reflecting on his youthful experience of the church, says, “Churches bore for me the relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola; they promoted thirst but did nothing to quench it.”
The Holy Spirit empowers the church to be the agent of change in the world, a counter-cultural entity. The task of the church is to breathe in the Spirit and be inspired by the Spirit to act on behalf of God. But the church has been waiting to exhale far too long. As the Spirit of God flows into us, it also ought to flow from us in the way we treat one another, the way we speak to one another, in the way we treat others in our community, in the way we live out the new life we receive when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord (sermons.com)
Exhale and share God’s spirit with others. Invite the flames of faith to spread through your life. And pray expecting the unexpected, knowing God continues to share the Holy Spirit with us today!!! AMEN.
