New Life Unleashed
May 11, 2008
David Brubacher
Text:
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34
Introduction: I did not hear the sound of a loud rushing wind. Nor did I see tongues of fire on people’s heads. As best as I could tell there was no extraordinary gift of language either. Yet I believe what I heard and saw is the very essence of what we celebrate today in Pentecost. I saw new life unleashed.
At the annual gathering of MCEC churches in Leamington two weeks ago, my good friend Jim Loepp Thiessen, church planter and pastor of the Gathering in Kitchener, one of MCEC’s newest congregations, showed several clips of people talking about their new found faith in Jesus.
A young man told of being hospitalized and all he could think of was getting out and finding his next fix. But something told him that was not the life he wanted anymore. Discovering the Gathering he found himself embraced in a loving and accepting Christian community. As he began to walk with these people and the Jesus toward which they pointed him, he found healing for the pain he was trying to mask with drugs.
A woman told of growing up in a home where “church” was everything that was wrong in life. Her search for meaning brought her to the Gathering. She told how in baptism Jesus met her under the water and healed her from the wounds of abuse in her life.
Others spoke as well. The stories varied. But the themes were the same. The pains of life had left them broken. Through a healing relationship with Jesus and a loving Christian community, they found new life. With calm passion and conviction they expressed a sense of being unleashed to new life in Jesus.
Today is Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. A small band of Jesus’ disciples was huddled in a room with fear. The Holy Spirit came upon them to unleash a movement that now reaches around world – the church of Jesus Christ. Lives were changed. Today we celebrate new life in Jesus through the power of God’s spirit marked in baptism.
We will hear Bill Voth declare his commitment to God in Jesus and to this church. We will celebrate together at the Lord’s Table and receive the bread and cup, symbols of new life in Jesus new every day. God’s spirit continues to bring healing for the wounds of life. New life is being unleashed.
Today is also Mother’s Day. It is rare that Pentecost and Mother’s Day come on the same day. As we celebrate new life in Jesus we give thanks to mothers – and fathers – for the gift of life. I know that Mother’s Day is not received equally by all. I recall when my best friend’s mother came up to me after a Mother’s Day service and said, “I hope that when you are a pastor you will not make so much of Mother’s Day.” She continued to tell of being married for ten years before my friend was born. She remembered the pain of those earlier years. Yet we celebrate the initial gift of life made new in Jesus.
Acts 2 tells the story of Pentecost – the coming of the Holy Spirit – in a graphic manner. Tens of thousands of people had gathered in Jerusalem for the annual celebration of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. Jesus’ disciples had also gathered to celebrate the feast. Suddenly, there was the sound of a violent wind that filled the entire house. Divided flames of fire appeared and rested on each of the disciples. They were filled with the Holy Spirit – the power of God – and they began to speak in other languages.
What was going on? The sound of a loud wind, flames of fire and manifestations of transformed speech, were these real or someone’s imagination? I suggest that as modern, rational, historically aware and scientifically astute individuals we not get lost in the reported details. It intrigues me to consider biblical texts through the lenses of the original writer. While the level of drama is significantly different I suggest that the stories told by the new followers of Jesus at the Gathering and what is happening in Acts 2 are essentially the same. People are being touched by the transforming power of God and new life is being unleashed.
Pentecost is above all things an unleashing of the creative, imaginative, healing and empowering Spirit of God. The manifestations of the unleashing of such power are endless. In Acts 2 all the stops of the great literary organ are opened to describe the coming of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus.
Jesus’ disciples were waiting for something. The sudden, unmerited new life that followed was understood against the backdrop of their Jewish world view.
The Feast of Pentecost provided an initial window. Originally the feast was a celebration of the bounty of the wheat harvest. Eventually the harvest festival was combined with a celebration of the coming of the Law on Mt. Sinai. Acts 2 reports approximately 3000 people were added to the number of the disciples that day. Against the backdrop of celebrating the abundance of harvest this great in gathering of people marks the first fruits of a new era.
Pentecost becomes a pregnant moment in the life of God’s people. The time of gestation, of waiting, has ended. Birth, new life is now. God’s people are being launched, unleashed, with power and creative energy.
To live in the power God’s transformation we need to drink at the well of new life. Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that created it.” To move beyond the realm of sin that separates us from God we need the healing presence of God’s Spirit unleashed among us today.
In Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit fell on those gathered, everyone was included. There was no inner circle of disciples. With all the commotion people began to gather from the streets. The tens of thousands of people gathered for Pentecost had come from all known regions of the Roman Empire. When the Holy Spirit gave the gift of transformed speech, people from each of these regions heard the good news of what God was doing in their own language.
There continues to be a miracle of language in the Christian church today. The people from the Gathering told about coming to know Jesus while not knowing the language of faith. They needed spirit led interpretation to help them understand the teachings of Jesus. They experienced that in the language of love and genuine wel
come. As they experienced the love of God’s people, they slowly began to open themselves to the healing and transforming power of God. New life was unleashed.
Psalm 104 is traditionally coupled with Acts 2 for Pentecost. It reflects God’s concern not only for the community of faith but the life and well-being of all creation. The church and all creation live only because of God’s creating and empowering spirit. The whole world utterly belongs to God and depends on God’s breath.
The only adequate human response is to say in some way, “You are God, O Lord our creator, and we are not.” With songs of praise and gratitude we lift our voices to God. How better to celebrate that act of submitting to God so that we and all creation might live, than in the act of baptism and the celebration of communion.
Conclusion: In a few moments you will hear Bill testify to his desire to follow Jesus, to walk away from a life of sin and covenant to live with love in this community of faith. As you hear Bill’s response how is it with you? Do you desire to follow Jesus in your life? Do you seek to walk away from sin? Are you seeking to grow in your covenant to live with love in this community of faith? As we grow together on this journey of faith, we will indeed discover the new life of God’s Spirit unleashed. Amen.