The Real Gift of the Spirit — May 19, 2024
May 19, 2024
Acts 2:1-12
The Real Gift of the Spirit
I do my best to always have a positive attitude, to not be negative. I make a real effort to be an optimist. I am not nearly the optimist as my wife, not even close. Pam Kirchoff is another true optimist. In fact, I just visited her recently and when I left I sent her husband Craig a text that said, “if I had a fraction of Pam’s positive attitude and enthusiasm I could run this country.”
I do try to be an optimist, but I’m not as good at it as some people.
It just might be my impression, but it seems to me like a lot of true optimists are also extroverts. Stephanie is definitely an extrovert. I am more of an introvert. There are certain social settings that make me uncomfortable.
For example, I don’t like birthday parties. Or, to be more precise, I don’t mind going to birthday parties, in fact I love going to birthday parties. I just don’t like parties on my birthday. You might have noticed my renewal leave happened to fall during my birthday which wasn’t intentional, but it was an added bonus.
When we go to a restaurant on my birthday, I beg Stephanie not to tell the staff it’s my birthday. I never know what to do when these complete strangers sing me happy birthday when they would probably be doing something else, like getting their work done.
To me, it’s just a little embarrassing. It’s like when you get a gift and you’re not sure what it is even after you’ve opened it up. You unwrap it and there it is…
The person who gave it to you is looking at you like, “do you love it, do you love it?”
You look at it trying to identify what it is….
Is it a pencil sharpener or a coffee grinder?
Is it a golf towel or a winter scarf?
Are these earrings or fishing lures?
You can’t figure it out so you try to think of something safe to say like, “Oh you shouldn’t have,” or “How could you have known?” The whole time you are trying to figure out what they have given you.
I can’t help but wonder if something like that might have happened with the gift of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost Sunday as we heard described in our text from Acts 2.
All the leaders of the church where gathered there in one place when suddenly the gift of the Spirit was given, there was the sound of rushing wind like a tornado or a hurricane and then tongues of fire that rested above each person’s head, and they began speaking the Gospel in other languages.
Do you think any of them might have thought, “this is great, Lord, you shouldn’t have?” or “how did you know?” I don’t know if any of them were confused, but I do know there is some uncertainty today about what the gift of the Holy Spirit is. There is a lot of uncertainty and confusion.
When we open up the gift of the Spirit do we know what it’s for?
Back in the days of John Wesley, people understood the mark of the Spirit’s presence to be where there was order and structure. Anything extemporaneous was suspect. (extemporaneous prayer, extemporaneous singing)
In fact, there is a tombstone dating to that period that says, “She was completely devoid of the spirit of enthusiasm.” That was a real compliment. It meant she didn’t get caught up in reckless disorder and chaos.
These days, however, some people would identify the presence of the Spirit with things that are unpredictable. There are those who are fascinated by the drama we see in our text today. The power of the wind moving like a freight train through the congregation, the tongues of fire resting on the head of each believer. They say, “That is what the gift of the Spirit it, the gift of Pentecost is the gift of energy and excitement in the church.” Pentecost is God’s way of waking us up a little bit, blowing the cobwebs out of the sanctuary, bringing some electricity and excitement to the congregation.
Tom Long who taught preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary and Emory University tells the story about being in church some years ago one Pentecost Sunday when his children were very young.
The preacher decided to spice things up and infuse a little drama into the reading of the Pentecost story from the Book of Acts on that Sunday.
When they scripture was read and they got to the part about the wind blowing in a powerful way, that was the secret cue for someone up in the choir loft to turn a tape recorder up all the way with the sound of a hurricane wind. He said, “even though my children were a little bored by that point in the service just sort of lazily coloring in their bulletins with crayons, when that loud sound of the wind kicked up, they snapped to attention and started looking around the sanctuary.”
Then when the liturgist got to the part of the story about tongues of fire landing on people’s heads, there were people planted throughout the congregation who had hidden bright red pom-poms in their coats and purses and they started waving them around.
When the liturgist got to the part about the apostles speaking in other languages, the pastor had people stand up, some from Asia, some from part of Europe, and some from Africa, stand up and speak in their native tongues.
He said, “at this point my children were practically standing on the pew looking around, and then as things settled down and it was time for the message to begin, a man stood up in the balcony and blurted out, “They must be drunk on new wine.”
He said, “After the service, my little boy turned to me and said, ‘Wow, Dad! That really was church!’ ”
Maybe he is right. It’s not like we couldn’t use some energy and excitement in the church from time to time and if that is what the gift of the Holy Spirit is about then that’s great. Sometimes church can get boring. Sometimes it feels like we go from trying to balance the budget to getting more people involved with the Fish Fry, so a little bit of excitement could be a good thing.
But have you ever noticed where this story falls in the Book of Acts? It is right between two other stories. On one side is the story of the selection of an apostle to replace Judas. It’s a nominations committee meeting, we know how exciting those usually are. Then, on the other side we have the story of the early church breaking bread and attending to the teaching of the apostles and trying to meet the needs of the poor. In other words the story of Pentecost takes place right in the middle of ordinary church business and life.
Don’t forget how later in the Book of Acts when Paul was preaching a man fell asleep and fell out of a window and died. If people fell asleep when the Apostle Paul preached I can’t expect everybody to stay awake while I’m preaching.
So whatever the gift of the Spirit and Pentecost does, it doesn’t mean it makes ALL of church life exciting and invigorating, some of church life is just work.
But then, there are those who say “you know the real gift we receive on Pentecost is the gift of power. “
Jesus did say, “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power.” Those are words in red.
And of course, just like we could use a little excitement in the church we could use some power too.
However, maybe you’ve noticed, but the church doesn’t have the clout and power it once did. There was a time when you would not dream of scheduling soccer practice or a baseball game on a Sunday, but those days are gone.
I also heard about a church out in California that wanted to build a new building. They had a beautiful view of the mountains. They wanted to build a new building with a huge steeple. Their neighbors said, “no way, you are not going to obstruct our view of the mountains. Finally, the church had to alter their plans and instead of a big steeple had to settle for a little cross above their front door. So the church doesn’t have the power it once did.
Maybe the power of the Spirit isn’t like the power of this world. Notice what happened when the church received the gift of the Spirit.
The people who heard them said, “Those people sound drunk to me.” That is a strange kind of power.
It’s pretty clear the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost does involve power; it does bring some excitement, but if you look at the text the real gift of the Spirit was that church was moved from silence to having something to say.
Peter quoted the prophet Joel saying: “In the latter days, I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity. And your sons and your daughters will prophesy.”
This is that day. The birthday of the church.
Your sons and your daughters will have a Word to Speak, that life is stronger than death, that hope is deeper than despair, that every tear will be dried, and that in the power of Christ’s resurrection, death and pain will be no more.
God is with us.
Christ is risen.
The Spirit has been given.