Heads and Hearts On Fire
Below is my sermon text for Pentecost Sunday, May 20, 2018. The lessons were: Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:22-27 and the Gospel was John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15. This was also the day after the Royal Wedding and Bishop Curry's magnificent sermon.
An audio file of my message from Redeemer is downloadable here.
This photo is of the sign for Redeemer, and the text was put together by the youth of the church.
May my meditation be pleasing to You, for I rejoice in the Lord.[1] AMEN.
Did anyone watch or hear about the Royal Wedding yesterday?
If you did, did you hear the sermon given by Bishop Curry?
If not, please try to hear it. It is a message about the
power of love, not just the love between two people getting married, but the
power of love, the love the Jesus was talking about when he said the greatest
commandments are to love the Lord your
God with all of your heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Bishop Curry gave a powerful proclamation of the Gospel to a
global audience. Given the people in attendance, and the millions who watched,
he gave a sermon that may actually change the world.
He reminded me, and other
pastors, I hope, what an awesome responsibility and privilege we have to stand
in a pulpit, or three, each Sunday. We too have the ability to change the world
with our words, if we only reach and make an impact in one heart.
The day of Pentecost – which means 50 days – is a festival
of the Jewish tradition. It is the festival of the booths, and one of three
pilgrimage festivals, where people are to come to Jerusalem. That’s why the
city is packed with people from so many different places.
They hear this commotion. It sounds like a tornado, and
rather than seeking shelter, people rush to see what is going on. A group of
men come from the house at the center of the commotion, and they are speaking a
variety of languages. The people who have come from all over to celebrate the
festival of booths can hear these men speaking in their native languages. They don’t
understand what has happened, and wonder if these men are drunk.
No. They are filled with the Holy Spirit, which has come as
Jesus had promised. Peter proclaims this is part of what was prophesied, that
God would pour out God’s Spirit upon all flesh, sons and daughters, even
slaves, will receive the Holy Spirit.
Later
in this chapter, it is recorded that 3,000 of those who listened believed in
what these men told them and were baptized. They began to devoted themselves to
the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their
prayers.[2]
The first act of the empowered, emboldened
Spirit-filled disciples was to proclaim the Good News, baptize new believers
and to form a community.
All of this came about because the Holy Spirit came, caused
a commotion and people wondered “What does this mean?”
This question should be familiar to Lutherans. It is the
question Martin Luther asks over and over in his Small Catechism. As he
explains the parts of the Commandments, Creed and Lord’s Prayer, he continually
asks, “What does this mean?”
So, what does it mean to you? We believe we receive the Holy
Spirit in our baptism, and the Spirit is in action in our lives all the time.
In
his explanation of this part of the Creed, Luther puts the responsibility for
our individual and collective faith in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that by my
own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come
to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel,
enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just
as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on
earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith. … This is
most certainly true.[3]
It is through the Holy Spirit that our faith comes to us. We
make the mistake of saying that we, or that someone, comes to faith. Faith
comes to us through the work of the Spirit.
Sometimes the Spirit moves believers to help others to come
to faith, to understand what a loving Creator, what a giving God, and what a
merciful Savior we serve.
What does it mean that because 12 spoke out as if their
heads were on fire and 3000 came to believe?
What does it mean that Jesus said it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the
Advocate will not come to you?[4]
He meant that with the Advocate, with the Holy Spirit coming to work with us
and with in us, the disciples moved from followers to leaders. It means they
could bring the Good News to more people than did Christ himself.
So what does that mean for us?
It means that the Spirit works in us, through us and with us
to call, gather, enlighten, and make holy
the whole Christian church on earth and to keep it with Jesus Christ in the one
common, true faith.
As Bishop Curry did in his sermon yesterday, I’m going to
borrow a phrase from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. I have a dream. I have a
dream that our little collection of churches, our covenant congregations can be
a force for good in this community. I have a dream that we can change Oklahoma
City for the better.
But to do that, we need more. We need more people. We need
more resources. And that starts with you. What do I mean?
Since I’ve arrived, I have heard that our worship attendance
numbers aren’t what they used to be. I don’t think those people have all either
died or moved away. They just stopped coming.
Invite them back. Call them. Stop by and visit them. I’ll
talk to them if you think that will help, but I don’t know them. I’m only the
new guy. You know them, you have a relationship with them. Invite them back.
And feel free to invite others as well.
We celebrate this Pentecost Sunday because the Apostles,
filled with the Holy Spirit, went out and shared the Good News of the Son of
God with people in words and terms that they could understand. In doing so,
they changed the world.
May the Spirit inspire each of us to change at least one
heart. AMEN.
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