Pentecost Acts 2:1-21 May 23, 2010
This Sunday at Augustana Lutheran Church in Downtown Minneapolis, the Rev. William Berg will step up into the pulpit and deliver the sermon while at the same time celebrating his 100th birthday. For Berg, he could think of no better way than to celebrate his first 100 years!
When asked about preaching on Pentecost Sunday, Berg states: "Christmas is nice because it celebrates Jesus birth, God being with us. And Easter is nice because it celebrates God being for us. But Pentecost—God in us—is the most important, because nothing happens until God is in us."
I have been pondering Pastor Berg's comments all week, and in doing so I was struck by the reoccurring sentiment that God is with us, for us and in us—in other words: God is giving, sharing, and wanting to be a part of our lives. God is striving to be up close and personal with us, God desires to be more than a passing acquaintance in our lives.
All of which raises an important question: Why would God do this?
Why would God go such extreme measures for folks like us?
Why would God bother to be humbled and humiliated and then ignored by an often ungrateful and belligerent people?
And the only answer that makes sense to me is because God loves us—God has an overwhelming affinity for what he considers the crown jewel of all creation. On top of that God has plans for us—not humdrum, casual aspirations, but instead, God has some big audacious dreams for the likes of you and me. And in order for those dreams to come to fulfillment we need to be fully on board and intimately connected to God.
In our reading from the Book of Acts we have Peter delivering his first sermon in the marketplace-- a sermon that on his own he never would have pulled off, but rather with the Holy Spirit ablaze within, a sermon that reminds us that God has dreams and visions for all of humanity. Quoting the prophet Joel, Peter recalls how God will pour out his Spirit on all people—how our sons and daughters shall prophesy—our young men will have visions—and our old men shall dream dreams—how all people, both slave and free, male and female—all people who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
As I ponder and reflect upon the events of Pentecost I can't help but wonder—what does all this mean? What does God have in store for us? Where is God leading each of us in our individual faith journeys? Where might God be calling this congregation to go, to do, to become?
In the spirit of Pastor Berg's brief summary of God's activity, I'd like to us to propose three considerations that I believe would be helpful in opening our eyes and ears to what God might have in store for us.
Let's start with "God with us."
God entered the human story in a new and unconventional way when Jesus was born in a simple manger in Bethlehem. The whole notion of God being humbled in human form is amazing and scandalous to some. It is amazing because it tells us that God truly wants to be in relationship with us, to walk with us, to communicate and be in communion with us in a personal level.
So perhaps it would do us well to consider our prayer life.
In the 1st chapter of Acts we are told that, "They all joined together constantly in prayer," (v. 14)
When it comes to healthy relationships, one of the key necessities is communication. If you want a healthy and vibrant marriage you will want to communicate with one another, to share with one another your hopes and dreams as well as your concerns and fears. If you want a healthy and vibrant relationship with God, there needs to be avenues for communication, for prayer, times to share your hopes, dreams, concerns and fears with your Lord and Savior, as well as times when you sit quietly listening for the still small voice of God calling and challenging you in your faith walk.
At times when my own life is feeling a bit overwhelmed and I wonder how I am going to complete the tasks I have set before me, I am reminded of Martin Luther who once said: "Tomorrow I plan to work, work from early until late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."
What would Luther say of our prayer lives? Far too often, too many of us have been trying to go it alone. Forgetting that God desires to be with us, beside us, comforting us and stirring us.
Instead, we have tried to go solo, making it on our own, ignoring the gift of God's presence.
And where has it gotten us? Quite honestly--not very far. And when we try to go it alone, we become stagnant and unaware of God's voice beaconing us to listen and follow. And nothing audacious happens, nothing that reflects God's creative handiwork happens.
So, perhaps a renewed dedication to prayer would be worthy of our time and energy.
This brings us to Berg's second sentiment that with Easter we are reminded that God is for us.
On Good Friday Jesus allowed himself to be humiliated at the hands of the overly pious and put to death by the hands of cruel and callous political hacks.
And then on Easter morning Jesus shatters the bonds of death by returning to free us from those things that beat us down, bind us up and prevent us from living the lives God intended for us.
On Easter morning God shatters the notion that death has the last word, that life is limited to the here and now.
And Easter morning proclaims God's amazing grace to people like you and me who are in desperate need of grace and forgiveness.
With the resurrection of Jesus Christ we are given the good news that we are loved—that we are loved in spite of our brokenness and our pride.
That we are loved no matter how much we have messed up our lives and the lives of others, no matter how far we have wandered away and no matter to what length we have gone to distance ourselves from the One who loves us more than we can ever imagine.
In other word's God is for us—even when the rest of the world might be out to get us.
God always has and God always will have our best interests in mind. God always has and always will have our back, and will never abandon us. Because of God's intense love for each of us, God is willing to go to any extreme to help us grasp the magnitude of this love and concern, even death on a cross. And if there is anything likely to get our undivided attention it is the cross and the suffering Jesus endured in order to give us the gift of salvation and a life worth living.
In the 21st verse of our reading from Acts we are told, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Later in the 38th verse when Peter was asked what they must do, he said, "Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
What Peter was saying was that to be open to the Spirit of God we have to change our ways, to repent and seek God's forgiveness and grace, allowing God's Spirit to shape and mold our lives in the manner in keeping with God's original intent—that we might be the people God created us to be—people created in God's image—people who are filled with love, grace, compassion and mercy toward all of God's children.
When we repent, when we admit that the path we cast for ourselves has not worked out so well, when we choose to trust the One who is ultimately for us—it allows God to transform our lives and give us new purpose, new joy and new meaning in our lives in ways that we have never experienced before. And that is a good thing.
Lastly, with Pentecost, we are reminded that God is in us, God's Spirit is alive and well in our lives—and that is when the real fun begins.
For when God is in us—God's audacious love and grace burst forth in ways that might shock us and scandalize others. For there is no greater evidence of God's presence in our lives than the love we share for others, especially those who the rest of the world would soon forget or ignore or be rid of. God's love has no limits, no hoops we have to jump through, no standard we have to reach before we receive it, it is simply there—being offered as a free gift—with no strings attached—pure audacious grace!
As I think back on my life and the individuals who have crossed my path and who have made a difference in my life—they have all been people whose lives reflected the love and grace of God busting forth in their daily lives. They are people who are compassionate and gracious, people who have been generous to a fault, and people who exude joy regardless of the circumstances and who are ever hopeful. They are people for whom it is evident that God is in them and God is working in their lives, making a difference in the lives of others. And these are the people who I have looked to as mentors in my own faith walk, they are the ones I look up to and whose opinions I respect and whose wisdom I seek out when I am in need.
I am reminded of a man named Ken Peterson, an old Swedish farmer who lived up near Wright MN. Ken was a quiet, gentle man who had a passion to end hunger. Ken was the quiet; yet gentle persistent force behind our synod's effort to raise money for the hungry. In him God was working out audacious dreams and visions of no one going hungry in this land of milk and honey.
Ken taught me that we do not have a shortage of food in this country—we have a shortage of compassion--that we as a nation have bought into the myth of scarcity and the notion that it is better to hoard than to share or to only give conditionally. And if we were better at sharing—nobody in this land or any other land would go to bed at night hungry.
I am reminded of one of my pastors, a fellow name Dan Olson. Dan and his family had been missionaries in Ethiopia prior to moving back to the States where he served along side my father.
Dan was the guy I went to talk about matters of faith and life when I was a teenager. Maybe it was because he too had been a pastor's kid when he was going up. Maybe it was because it was because he was willing to listen and not judge. I appreciated the fact that he allowed me to do most of the talking and he didn't feel the need to lecture and instruct the sometimes-misguided notions of a kid who was trying to figure this called faith. I appreciated his quiet respectful patience, as well as his probing questions that caused me to think things through a bit more—eventually drawing out a deeper faith. It was Dan who I eventfully asked to write a letter of reference when I was looking to enter seminary and the ministry. In Dan I saw and heard God's still quiet voice, I saw a man who had allowed God Spirit to take him to places he might never had considered going, like Africa, in order that he might share God's love with others.
To whom do you see God's Spirit of love and grace alive and well?
To whom do you look for evidence of God's Spirit?
If I were not here this morning, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to sit in the pews of Augustana Lutheran in downtown Minneapolis and hear what Pastor Berg had to say in his sermon of the century. Since I am here, I will hang on to the words I have:
In Christmas we have the word that God is with us.
In Easter we have the word that God is for us.
But in Pentecost we have the assurance that God is in us—and unless God is in us—nothing can happen.
On this Pentecost morning, I invite you to ponder as well—What is God calling you to?
What new faith-filled venture is the Holy Spirit attempting to launch in your life?
Where might God be calling this congregation?
How might we be faithful to the Holy Spirits stirring and stretching us in new ways to the glory of God and our neighbor in need?
How might our prayer lives be further enriched and expanded?
What changes do we need to make in our lives in order better reflect God's will in our daily life?
How might repentance change and transform your life?
And lastly, what big audacious dream does God have in mind for you?
Peter proclaimed: "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…[and] everyone who call son the name of the Lord shall be saved.
May this Pentecost Sunday fill you with God's Spirit, so that you too may see visions, dream dreams and walk with the assurance of God's gift of salvation. Amen.
Pastor Stephen Blenkush
Zion Lutheran
Milaca, MN
www.ZionMilaca.org(Sermon Archive)
