Text — Acts 1:3-9 and 2:1-13

Since this is Pentecost Sunday, I thought that it would be a good to weave the scripture lesson into the sermon as a short lesson on how the Pentecost event fits into the larger story of Jesus in the gospels.

The gospels tell us many things about Jesus, but one thing that all the gospels include is that Jesus performed deeds of power.  He healed the sick.  He cast out demons.  And he had the power to face challenges.  He had great rhetorical power.  He had great visionary power.  And he had great compassion, which is also a kind of power.  He had this special power because God worked through him.  Jesus had the Holy Spirit in him.  He was a conductor of divine energy. 

At the end of his earthly life, a different kind of power, the power of military might and control, even tyranny, represented by the Roman Empire, came down on Jesus and crucified him. 

So at its core, the Christian story is a story about the classic struggle between the power of Satan and the power of God, a struggle between good and evil. 

When Jesus was crucified, it looked as if the power of evil had won.  But that wasn’t the end of the story.  God’s power raised Jesus from the dead, not as resuscitated corpse.  Jesus did not come back to life as an ordinary, mortal person who had to die again.  Jesus was raised as a new kind of being, a new creation.  Within the framework of the New Testament, his resurrection is a sign that there is a different kind of power available.  Power from on high.  Power to change the world.  Power to change our lives. 

But the resurrection was more than a demonstration of God’s power.  This wasn’t just to give Jesus the chance to say, “My Daddy is stronger than Pontius Pilate’s Daddy.”  The main point is the promise — to the disciples — that they will receive this power.  They will receive the Holy Spirit.  They will perform deeds of power, just as Jesus did.  No one could deny that Jesus’ followers, equipped with this power, changed the world.

So now that I’ve sketched out the context, listen to this first part of the drama from Acts 1.

3 After his suffering [Jesus] presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.  4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me;  5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

The period of 40 days after his death and resurrection, mirrors the forty days he spent in the wilderness being tempted by Satan before his ministry began.  After Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit descended on him in his baptism.  After this second 40 days, the Holy Spirit will descend on the disciples in a different kind of baptism.  First the power goes to Jesus.  Then it goes to the people. 

Now, when the disciples hear this, they’re excited.  They want to know when this will happen:  “When will we have that same spirit and power that Jesus showed us and that Jesus promised?” 

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

This part you just heard, when Jesus is taken by God up to heaven, through the clouds, is the event we call the Ascension.  Ascension Day was May 5, 40 days after Easter.  So now Jesus has left the earth completely.  In a sense, the disciples have nothing tangible.  They don’t have the earthly Jesus.  They don’t have the risen Jesus.  They don’t know how long they will have to wait.  And they don’t know exactly what they are waiting for. 

But they don’t have to wait a long time.  Just 10 days more, for a total of 50 days after Easter.  Pentakosta is the Greek word for fifty.  Now we’ll hear the account of that day.  This is the Pentecost story.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  2 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.  3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?  9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,  10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”  12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”  13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

So God’s plan isn’t to keep the power for himself.  And it’s not for Jesus to keep it, or for Jesus to be a wonder-worker.  That would just be theatrics.  God’s plan, according to this story, is for God’s Spirit and Power to be let loose in the world and spread around through the community of Jesus’ followers.

Just as a footnote, but a very important footnote: This strange business about the disciples speaking in other languages, is a part of the New Creation that God is bringing about.  You remember that, in the old creation, back in Genesis 11, in the story of the tower of Babel, God deliberately confused the languages of humans so they wouldn’t be able to conspire together to reach up to heaven.  Now God is reversing that confusion so that people will have the power to communicate not by human power but by God’s power.

Power is a subject we don’t talk about it church.   At least, in liberal churches like ours we tend to talk about power in a negative way. We talk about the abuse of power.  We think of people who are power hungry and on “power trips.”  We say “power corrupts.”  We’re suspicious of power, and there are good reasons for that suspicion.  Power has a bad name.  Telling your friends at work, or telling your family that you want more power won’t endear you to anyone.  No one, even politicians, go around saying, “I want more power,” even though power is what politics is all about.

But from a Christian perspective, power is exactly what we want.  And we should want it — at least the right kind of power for the right reasons. 

Our shyness or awkwardness in talking about power is a weakness in liberal churches.  There’s something not quite honest in our disdain for power.  A certain kind of power is what people come to church looking for.  Finding that power here is what keeps us coming back.  I’m not talking about the power to control and exploit people.  I’m talking about power as energy, as life force, as integrity and conviction. 

To be healthy, to be a person with vitality, is to feel power in our bodies and minds.  We need spiritual power to get up in the morning.  We need it to live.  We need it to face what we need to face. 

We need power — to push through anxieties and fears.  We need it to take risks. We need it to resist temptations.   We need it to concentrate and do what we need to do.  We need power to overcome bad memories, and obstacles, and sickness, pain. We need power to enjoy life.   Hope is a kind of power.  Excitement is power.

The Pentecost story says that this power of the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples when they were “all together in one place.”  That’s a key phrase. 

The simple act — although it’s really not simple at all — of gathering here all together in one place, singing hymns, feeling this architecture, finding ourselves in the Bible characters, praying for each other, reciting the Apostles’ Creed and singing the Kyrie, the sacraments, confessing our failings, saying in effect that we all need God’s mercy — all of this gives us power— all of this is built up specifically to connect us with the power that we see in the person of Jesus.   

It helps us live.  It gives us a reason to live.  It makes us a part of something bigger. People don’t get up on Sunday morning and come to church because they have nothing else to do.  We come here because we find a certain kind of power in being here.  Power is not a bad thing.  It’s a good thing.  We need it. 

I was trying to think of an example of this and I asked myself, “What is it in our society that evokes passion and devotion?  What  do people not only follow, but organize their lives around.  What is a kind of religion outside the bounds of religion? 

What I came up with is football.  Women Huskies basketball would qualify too in Connecticut.  I heard one time that at Notre Dame, the football team has not only pep rallies and the coach’s pep talk, but the football team has a long prayer session and even attends mass before each game.  They don’t do this to be nice people.  They do it because it helps win games. It brings them power.

What kind of power are you looking for in your life?  What are you facing?  What is your struggle?  Jesus promised his followers, “You will receive power from on high.”  What kind of power do you need?