"2 a.m. Pentecost Prayer" – Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: "In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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It’s 2 o’clock in the morning; do you know where your pastor is?

At 2am Wednesday morning I was lying down on the couch, unable to sleep. It was a frustrating experience, not only because of being so exhausted, but more so because of the thoughts and ideas that were keeping me awake, which I couldn’t shake out of my head.

Something rather insignificant happened earlier that day that made me think of myself as a failure in one particular area of my life. Once that thought pried its way into my mind, it infected my thoughts about parenting, marriage, work, friendship, and many more. My mind was like that scene from Ghostbusters, where the ghosts escaped their containment and terrorized the streets of New York City. You know, like this:

Lying awake at 2am, having listened to the same mental message playing on repeat for three hours, being exhausted and furious at my inability to stop the voice in my mind, I finally decided to pray.

You might like to think that your pastor wouldn’t wade through three hours of emotional frustration before turning to prayer. You might like to think that your pastor wouldn’t engage in prayer only as a last resort. However, in that particular situation, that’s exactly how I handled it.

The prayer was a simple one –something like, “Lord, help me realize I am more than my failures.” And it was in this act of prayer that I was finally able to hear and believe a different mental message – the message that I was a beloved creation of the Holy God and that God had promised to be with me.

It is not always easy to believe or even remember God’s promise to be a part of us, particularly when there are so many voices in our world both “out there” in the world and “in here” in our own minds. It sounds unbelievable to claim that the God who created the heavens and the earth would ever choose to make a home in our bodies.

And yet, the creation stories in Genesis tell of a God who formed human beings in God’s own image and filled them with the divine breath. Scripture begins with a claim on our bodies – that it is God’s own presence that brings each one to life.

Scripture is also filled with story upon story of people choosing to look outside of themselves to feel God. For instance, when the Hebrew people built a temple. “On the day of the dedication of "Solomon's Temple," the glory of Yahweh (as fire and cloud from heaven) descended and filled the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-13)....[The temple became the residence and visible reminder of God’s presence] for the Jewish people. This naturally made Solomon's Temple both the center and centering place of the whole world, in Jewish thinking.

But in 587 BC, the Babylonians tore down the Temple and took the Jews into exile. As Father Richard Rohr writes, “[This destruction] prompted a crisis of faith. The Temple was where God lived! So Ezra, Nehemiah, and Jeremiah convinced the people that they must go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple so God can be with them again. There is no account of the fire and glory of God ever descending on this rebuilt temple.”

He continues, “The absence of visible glory [of Yahweh] must have been a bit of an embarrassment and worry for the Jewish people. This could explain the growth of Pharisaism, a belief strong in Jesus' time that if they obeyed laws more perfectly--absolute ritual, priesthood, and Sabbath purity--then the Glory of God would return to the Temple. This is the common pattern in moralistic religion: our impurity supposedly keeps Yahweh away. They tried so hard, but the fire never descended. They must have wondered, "Are we really God's favorite and chosen people?”

At 2am earlier this week, I felt a lot like those believers who couldn’t sense God’s presence in their new temple. My hours of frustration and desperation and only being able to think of myself as a failure left no room for God’s presence. I felt alone.

At yet, in my experience of anxiety, something prompted me to pray and connect with the truth that I had been taught so long ago: that God’s love for me overcomes all my mistakes and feelings of failure. God hadn’t abandoned me, and God never would.

And so I prayed, just as Jesus’ followers prayed when they gathered following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension; just as Jesus’ followers prayed when all of the sudden there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and “the fire from heaven descended, not on a building, but on people! And all peoples, not just Jews, were baptized and received the Spirit (Acts 2:38-41).”

The story of the disciples being filled with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost tells us that the new temple of God is the human person – just as it was in the beginning, when God breathed into the first man.

Gathering on this Day of Pentecost, we hear the stories of fire and prayer and amazement and are challenged to claim these stories as our own. We hear Jesus’ promise to send the Advocate to bear his presence in a world so concerned about labeling people as right and wrong, sinner and righteous, just and unjust.

God is present in this world, actively working in all people, especially those who are consumed with fear and feelings of failure. God’s presence and promises are ultimately the only thing to which we can ever hope to cling And that is enough.

quotes from Richard Rohr, "The Evolution of the Temple" from Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation email dated April 20, 2015.

G2A #12: "Spiritual High-Fives" – Acts 1–2

It’s not uncommon for people to be very afraid or apprehensive to speak about the Holy Spirit. There’s an understanding among Christians (among mainline denominations, especially) that the Holy Spirit is the part of the Trinity that is hard to define and even harder to explain.

Actually, the Holy Spirit can be explained in one phrase: at its most basic, the Holy Spirit is the on-going presence of the crucified and risen Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is actively working on us to conform our lives to resemble Jesus.

Here’s one example of how I saw this in action. A few years ago my wife, my oldest son (who was 2.5 at the time), and I were at a park in Ohio. As we were walking back to the car, we crossed paths with another little boy. He was a tiny kid with big eyes, dark skin and curly black hair. The boys cautiously approached each other; each waved and took turns saying, “Hi.” And before we knew it, our son reached out his arms and gave the little boy a big bear hug. I’m sure the boy was startled, but before he could respond, our son let go, reached up, removed his own red baseball hat, and placed it on the little boy’s head.

You should have seen our son’s smile; and you should have seen the other little boy’s smile; and you should have seen the other little boy’s mom smile; and you should have seen my wife’s smile; and you should have seen the smiles of the people in the parking lot after they witnessed this encounter.

Thirty seconds earlier every person in that area was leading an independent life. We would have all been content to pass by one another and not speak one word between us. But, thanks to an innocent gesture by an ornery and big-hearted two-year old, we were suddenly connected in a profound way. Even if it was only for a second, we all realized we were a part of something greater – something that connects us all. These are what I like to call “thin moments,” where we catch a glimpse of Jesus’ ongoing work in our world. Moments when the division between the sacred and the mundane seem to vanish. I once worked with a high school student who called these moments “spiritual high fives.”

The next day, as we were driving home, we stopped to eat at a restaurant. When I went to pay the bill I noticed that there was a 20% deduction on our total bill. Turns out that the family next to us had a coupon and they had instructed the waiter to apply it to our bill. I was astonished. Again, there was no reason for our paths to intersect like that. I’ve eaten at hundreds of restaurants but cannot recall anyone going out of their way to make a connection with me. I felt Jesus’ presence in that moment. That was another “spiritual high five.”

These two stories are unremarkable–little gestures, so innocent and simple–but they are incredibly vivid examples of the Holy Spirit that have inspired and nurtured my faith.

My purpose today is not just to tell these stories, but it is also to ask that the Holy Spirit would cause us to act in such a way as to invite others to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Or, to put it another way, I want God to give spiritual high fives through us–his church.

But that’s where things get sticky.

God is ready and willing to let the Holy Spirit work in and through us to give spiritual high fives to the world. The problem is that God needs us to be willing to take risks and be open to failure and rejection.

Remember, the Holy Spirit is on-going presence of the crucified and risen Jesus, crucified and risen. In order for resurrection to take place, something must die. Before God can create a new spirit in us, our old spirit must die. After all, Jesus took incredible risks, and he endured epic failure and rejection. Why should our lives look any different?

Is the risk of failure and rejection too high a price for us to pay?

What are we willing to give up in order to make the world a better place? Would we give up our red baseball hats? Would we give up our 20% coupons? Would we smile at a complete stranger and possibly strike up a conversation? Would we invite someone to worship with us? Would we be willing to accept changes in the church that would make it more welcoming and mission-oriented for people who would otherwise never darken the doorstep of a church?

There is a whole lot of discussion about the church, both universal and local, centering on the idea of being open to new ideas and ways of being the church in the world. There is a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit being the catalyst for change in the church – change that sounds scary to a lot of people, but could very well open the door for a whole new generation of people who are not darkening the doorstep of churches today. Perhaps more so now than ever before (at least, since the Reformation began) Lutherans are getting excited about the prospect of change! Imagine that!

We, as the congregation of Cross of Grace Lutheran Church, come together today to celebrate the ongoing radical presence of Jesus in our world today. We come together today understanding that in order for our individual and corporate lives to resemble the resurrected Jesus, we will be called upon to leave any apprehension, close-mindedness, or fear of failure at the foot of the cross. God is poised and ready to use us to give spiritual high-fives throughout this community, nation and world.

On this day and every other day I am grateful for your openness and willingness to let God work through you. It isn’t always easy, and we all require reminders to choose God’s path instead of our own, but the peace and love of a life in Christ Jesus is a beautiful gift.

And with that, we’ve concluded our twelve-week journey through the Bible; although, we did end up skipping over quite a bit of material! That being said, we have touched on some of the most important themes and learned more about the structure of the Biblical narrative–the story of our faith. In a phrase, it can be summed up like this:

“There is one God. This God created the universe; and with it: the earth and every human being, plant, animal, mountain, and valley. This world was created good and will be completely redeemed and restored one day. However, we live in the in-between years, caught up in the swirling winds of strife, misunderstanding, distrust, selfishness, as well as beauty, grace, peace, and hope. God’s people regularly fail to live up to the expectations and possibilities God has provided. There are many forces vying for our attention and allegiance; however God has constantly advocated from the beginning of time our complete surrender to the mysterious ways of love. The life, death, and resurrection of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, demonstrates once and for all that love conquers all and that we are heirs of the promise of grace.”

And for that we say, "Amen."