[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage 557, Pentecost, 5/27/07

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Pentecost – (May 27, 2007)


Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17 (25-27)

TAKING THE MESSAGE TO THE STREET

The disciples were sitting down when the Holy Spirit arrived.  Surely 
they jumped up.  They must have jumped up and run out into the street.  
  Else, how would the sundry residents of Jerusalem have heard them in 
their own language?  They came out of the house saying what?  "Look at 
these flames on our heads?"  Doubtful.  Luke assumes that we know what 
message would issue from such a power.  We don't know what the Jews all 
heard in their own language, but we know what Peter said in one 
language.  It was a message about the end time and the beginning time.  
The coming of the Holy Spirit marked the end and the beginning.  Jesus 
was the end of waiting for the Messiah and the beginning of the waiting 
for the one already known to be the Messiah.  Baptism marked the end of 
being a thrall of the present age and the beginning of a new 
citizenship.

Jesus had to end his sojourn with the disciples following the 
resurrection in order for the new age to begin.  The new age needed 
Jesus in the sky and the Holy Spirit in the heart.  The new age was to 
knit back together the human fabric that had been shredded on the tower 
of Babel.    It was like a space ship departing.  Everyone had to make 
the decision to get on or stay behind.  It sounds as if it were a 
democratic boarding, open to all regardless of race, religion or 
national origin.  "Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord 
shall be saved." (Acts 2:21)  But, it also sounds as if it one boards 
by invitation only, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be 
with you forever." (John 14:15-16)  The new age is somehow a mutual 
venture of God and people.  Is that why the new age is so old now and 
so incomplete?  Did we get on board too slowly?  Or, were too few 
invitations sent out?

The Psalmist looks briefly at the dark side of the dependence of the 
creation on the Spirit of God.  "When you hide your face, they are 
dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their 
dust.  When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew 
the face of the ground."  (Psalm 104: 29-30)  If there is a Pentecost, 
then can there be an un-Pentecost?  What is the sound in the room when 
the Holy Spirit withdraws?  And, what happens then when the disciples 
go out into the street?   It doesn't have to be tongues that we 
remember when we leave a worship service, but it does have to be some 
manifestation of the presence of God.  Otherwise, we have nothing to 
take to he street, nothing to send us out of the room with a message.

It isn't tongues that Paul holds up as proof of the new citizenship but 
prayer, a crying out in prayer.  Paul wants to be sure that all 
disciples stay in touch with the experience of the Holy Spirit when 
they leave the church, "When we cry, "Abba! Father!"  it is that very 
Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,"  
(Romans 8:15-16)  When we leave our worship services, do we take with 
us any such touchstone?  Do we take a burning message into the street?  
In the present age, are the only burning messages among us commercials?

It is asking too much of preachers to expect us to come up with 
something everyone will recognize as the Holy Spirit.  It is too much 
to ask of an order of worship, a liturgy, to guarantee such experience. 
  A tongue-speaking service is a contrivance.  The disciples didn't meet 
that day to speak in tongues.  It is not asking too much to expect God 
to give us the Holy Spirit.  Our liturgy and our preaching should be 
filled with such expectation and supplication.  Then, just before our 
people leave the room, we should prompt them to reflect on the worship 
hour and search their hearts for the evidence of God's having drawn 
near.   "They said to each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within 
us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the 
scriptures to us?'" (Luke 24:32)  For it is only after we identify our 
own experience of the Holy Spirit, that we take the message to the 
street.


May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
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