Pastor Brian's Ruminations

May 27, 2007

Greetings, fellow sojourners!

I’m off to Annual Conference this week, and so I thought I would share my Pentecost meditation (not a full-length sermon, since we celebrated communion today!) with you, since I think we had a Pentecost experience here at Centennial this past week.  (Read the meditation to find out more!)   Please excuse the way it is formatted—this helps me learn the sermon by heart a little better.  Please read Acts 2:1-21 beforehand—as you know, it’s always best to go to your primary sources!

May the Holy Spirit enliven your faith this week,

Brian

Meditation for Pentecost Sunday
Text: Acts 2:1-21
Delivered May 27, 2007
By Pastor Brian C. Hacklander

**Henri Nouwen once told the story of an old woman brought to a psychiatric center.  She was wild, swinging at everything in sight, frightening everyone so much that the doctors had to take everything away from her.

--But there was one small coin that she clutched in her fist and would not give up.  In fact, it took two assistants to pry open her clenched hand.  It was as though she would lose her very self along with the coin. It was as if, in depriving her of that last possession, she would have nothing more, and be nothing more.  That was her fear.

--Do you and I ever hang on to small clammy coins for too long?  We’ve all got them, or had them.  Maybe the way we’ve coped with life’s ups and downs is to hit the bottle, so that the bottle becomes more and more of your world.  Small clammy coins.

--Or maybe we’ve lost a dream—a business, a promotion, a project, a relationship—and we still carry that hurt or bitterness or guilt or failure around like small clammy coins       

--But the message of resurrection leading to Pentecost is a message of new life.  It tells us that we can open our hands.  We can let go and let God, as A.A. puts it.  No longer do we need to look at our fears and say, “God is too small.  God cannot help me with my problem.”  Instead we can let go of having all the control.  We can say, “God, I trust that you are working in this conundrum, in this tragedy, or in my brokenness.  And my faith seeks understanding.  Help me get on with living.”

**The disciples in our Pentecost Scripture today had to let go and let God.  After Jesus’ crucifixion, they spent all sorts of time in fear, all locked up, buttoned down, and battened down..

--Then there was a rush like a mighty wind filling the whole house where they were gathered.  Then tongues like fire rested on each of them.  Then miraculously they began to speak in other languages.  The disciples had to let go of their fears, their need to control things.  The Spirit was loose!

--And it just so happened that there were people from all around the Roman world gathered in Jerusalem for the big Jewish religious festival of Pentecost as the disciples spoke in these many languages.  These pilgrims from around the world said, “In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 

**The Spirit gives us language as we let go and let God.  That’s one of the great promises of Pentecost.  We’re a Pentecost people!  The Spirit give us language as individuals.  Have you ever felt just too tired, too exhausted to pray?  Have you ever walked into an overwhelming situation and felt like you just didn’t have the words to pray?  Have you ever felt that your faith just wasn’t strong enough to pray sometimes? 

--Don’t get down on yourself.  Relax.  Just share what is on your heart.  The Spirit gives us language to pray.  As the book of Romans puts it, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness…that very Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” 

**The Spirit also gives us language as we move forward as a church.  Stephen Jay Gould was a leading paleontologist and evolutionary biologist until he died in 2002.  He was also a devoted member of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.  Stephen Jay Gould was asked one time what he would broadcast to other galaxies if we wanted to transmit the very best of human civilization.  Do you know what he said?  The Bach B Minor Mass, with its Sanctus and “We believe in one God” and everything else.  That’s the language he would have shared across the galaxies. 

--So my question to you is this: What language does the Spirit give us to reach new people, people right here, people old and new, people from every age and stage?  It’s a Pentecost question.

**We heard Don Hopkins tell us just a few minutes ago about the Church Council decision to add a Sunday evening worship service along with a Faithwalk experience in the fall, in addition to keeping our current morning schedule of traditional worship and Faithwalk.  I have to say that this was one of the most Spirit-led church council meetings I have been a part of in 27 years as a pastor. 

--We started off with prayer and reflection on Scripture.  We delved deeply into all the results of the congregational survey on the fall worship and schedule options—we were up to our necks in statistics!  Then we heard a thoughtful, detailed plan to add a Sunday evening option, complete with bold moves to deepen our discipleship and bold plans to make this possible financially, without burning out our staff. 

--Upon hearing this presentation, our chairperson Don Hopkins said, “You just took my breath away.  We need to pray.”  And we did.  How many times have you ever prayed in the middle of a church meeting?

--And then the motion passed unanimously, with a big “Amen.”  You know what?  We are going to speak the language of people who cherish traditional worship—and we’re going to speak the language of people who need alternative worship.  It’s a Pentecost thing.  It’s a gift of the Spirit!  Thanks be to God!