“The Amazing, Perplexing Spirit of God”

Acts 2:1-21

John 3:8 (NRSV): The wind [or the Spirit] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Acts 2:12 (Barclay): They were all astonished, and completely at a loss what to make of [this miracle of speaking and hearing]. “What is the meaning of this?” they said to one another.

Robert L. Maddox: The uniqueness of Pentecost is the dimension of commissioning and affirming that it imparted to the disciples. Jesus had promised that the Spirit would come. They were supposed to wait to begin their responsibilities until after the Spirit came. While wind, fire, and unusual language may not be normative for all Christians in every generation, a deep and abiding existential experience with the Holy Spirit is desirable for all of us. Though we may not all have the same mental and spiritual equipment and thus express the indwellingness of the Spirit in the same way, as followers of Jesus we have the Spirit. Our deficiency is in failing to claim what is already ours – namely, the Spirit – and in not acting with power and determination.

Theodore Ferris (in IB): [The Spirit] is free, not bound; flexible, not fixed; creative, not cruel; personal, not impersonal. Every now and again [the Spirit] breaks through into this world of flesh and matter in an incredibly wonderful way.

Mark 3:31-35: Then [Jesus’] mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

[prayer]

Today is one of those rare times when Pentecost and Mothers Day occupy the same Sunday. In one of her blogs a colleague brought up the issue of preaching a sermon that dealt with both at the same time. How does one address the biblical, spiritual, and liturgical reality of Pentecost while at the same time saying something worthwhile about a secular, and in many ways, manufactured holiday?

I have my reasons for avoiding Mothers Day sermons, and they’re not all liturgical. In spite of all the efforts by florists, chocolate makers, and the creators of greeting cards to convince us otherwise, Mothers Day is not always a happy day for some. I learned that the hard way several years ago when a woman, while sitting alone in her pew, broke down in tears following a special Mothers Day moment because she, by way of her own actions, was estranged from her children. That moment was a bitter reminder of all that she had lost. For some women Mothers Day is a sad and painful reminder of the children they desperately wanted but could never have.

Furthermore, let’s be honest, not all mother/child relationships are happy and healthy. There are adult children who brazenly disobey the biblical admonition to honor their mothers. There are mothers who thoughtlessly disregard the Apostle Paul’s warning to provoke not their children to anger. Some mothers are abusive: physically, emotionally, and even sexually. Some mothers abandon their children.

Conversely some children who have wonderful mothers make their lives hell. There are adult children who physically abuse their mothers. Those of us fortunate enough to have been blessed by God with a happy, healthy relationship with our mother should sing God’s praises for such a wonderful blessing. We should go out of our way to honor our mothers, never forgetting, however, that not everybody is so blessed.

Dysfunctional, destructive families abound. Some people find their first – and sometimes only - healthy, happy family experience in a church. The good news is that in Christ we can know a loving, nurturing, forgiving, healing God whom we call Father yet sometimes experience in a maternal way. The good news is that by the power of the Holy Spirit we can be gathered into a body of believers who will often give us what our parents either couldn’t or wouldn’t. The good news is that by the power of the Holy Spirit we can come to terms with whatever it is that we never received from our parents, realize that they often did the best they could, and just as God has forgiven us, forgive our parents. If we remember nothing else on this Mothers Day it should be this: none of us will ever have perfect parents and none of us can ever be a perfect parent.

In the preceding paragraph I mentioned the power of the Holy Spirit twice, that power that is “creative, not cruel.” Today is all about the Holy Spirit. Today is all about the birthday of the church. Today is all about that unique family that the Body of Christ is empowered by the Spirit to be. Today is all about claiming what is already ours, that gift known as the Holy Spirit, and then acting with power and determination to be the individuals – the mothers, fathers, and children - God has created and called us to be, acting with power and determination to be the church to which God gave birth on that first Pentecost Sunday, acting with power and determination to do God’s will and thus become the true brothers, and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In last week’s sermon I talked about how a true vision for Grace Church must be of God: empowered and enabled by the Spirit. Such vision cannot be manufactured. It comes in God’s own time and in God’s own way, just as did Pentecost. Listen to these words from the prophet Joel quoted by Peter in his Pentecost sermon, “… I [the Lord] will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy [shall preach, shall proclaim God’s Word], and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

God’s dream for his people, Christ’s vision for his church, cannot be discerned and carried out apart from the Holy Spirit. No congregation can be a true family in Christ apart from the Holy Spirit. Nor can any congregation faithfully discern and carry out Christ’s mission apart from the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God – the breath of God – that wind of God that blows where it will and is free, not bound, and flexible, not fixed, is a gift sent from God, a grace initiated by God. We don’t own the Spirit. We don’t control the Spirit. He does not appear on command. All we can do is prayerfully and intentionally prepare ourselves to receive him, and when he comes be willing to what he demands.

Sometimes what he demands is that we forgive one another: the mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, sisters, and brothers who are kin to us by blood and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes his demand is that we welcome strangers, open our hearts to the lonely and hurting, and even forgive our enemies. Sometimes the Spirit’s demand of us is that as a congregation we radically change our style of worship or our way of promoting financial stewardship or the dynamics of our church leadership.

Or that we learn to listen to and learn from those whose patterns of speech, dialects, and accents differ from ours, whether they be from Appalachia, the deep-south, the northeast, Canada, Africa, or Latin America, whether their first language is English or not. It’s not for nothing that some commentators refer to Pentecost as a divine disturbance. The Holy Spirit has a way of disturbing our thoughts, behavior patterns, beliefs, prejudices, and comfort zones. When the Spirit moves the status can no longer remain quo!

When the Holy Spirit blew through Jerusalem that day the conventional theological wisdom of Judaism was turned upside down and inside out. Nothing reflects this more than the words of Joel that Peter quoted in verses 19-21 of today’s text. Joel wrote of great signs that portended the coming Day of the Lord. Traditional Judaic wisdom understood this day as a day of national and racial victory, a day when a David-like Messiah would rule the world Jerusalem.

William Barclay had this to say about that: “Here Peter is saying to these Jews – ‘For generations you have dreamed of the Day of the Lord, the Day when God would break into history. Now, in Jesus, that Day had come’.” The conception life, death, and resurrection of Jesus stood history on its head. And when the Spirit blew into Jerusalem, giving birth to the church, and setting it on fire for God, the way was made clear for anyone and everyone who will call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

On this Mother’s Day let us seek to move beyond all the commercialized syrupy schmaltz pumped out by Hallmark and their ilk and begin discovering what it really means to love and honor our mothers. On this Pentecost Sunday let us open ourselves more fully to the power and direction of the Holy Spirit. There may be no rush of wind or tongues of flame, but if we will prayerfully listen we may hear that still small voice through which the Spirit often speaks. Amen.