PentecostB, 2000
Acts 2: 1-8

PENTECOST: A DAY TO SEE RED!

Pentecost is the day when most Christians see red!
Pentecost is about freedom from fear
and release from a ‘locked- door’ mentality.

It is about allowing the breath of God/Sacred/Life
        to fill every fibre of our being,
        in every moment of our lives.

And Pentecost is also about hearing and experiencing
the presentness of the divine in a language we can understand...

Not just in Australian or French or German
or any of the Asian or Pacific languages, but also in 
        the language of reconciliation,
        unemployment,
        television commercials,
        supermarket shopping
        and school play-yards.

But for orthodox traditionalist, Pentecost is recalled as the birthday of the church.
Or was christianity 'born' with Peter's confession, or Easter or at Nicea?

What an interesting day we have here!

oo0oo

There are two well-known comments
which form the ‘top’ and the ‘tail’ of the traditional Pentecost story.

The ‘tail’ comment comes from the larger Pentecost story set for 
…"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?” (Acts 2:7-8)

The ‘top’ comment comes from a story just after Easter Day.
…"After [Jesus] said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  (John 20:20).

• The first or ‘tail’ comment as I have called it,
speaks of a weaving into a new inclusive community.
        The idea that in Jesus and the Spirit
        the diversities in humankind take on new significance.

The Spirit is the source of unity amid diversity.
She does not eliminate diversity,
        but she makes it possible
        to rejoice in it instead of fighting over it.

Neither Greek nor Roman,
Jew nor Gentile,
male nor female,
but all one in the spirit of Jesus.

Neither Irish nor Mediterranean,
neither Anglo nor Aboriginal,
neither straight nor gay,
neither ‘blue’ nor ‘maroon’,
but all one in the spirit of Jesus.

This is a glorious vision, not yet achieved in Christian practice (to put it mildly).
Rather, it is a goal towards which we strive
        with greater or lesser success
        and indeed with greater or lesser effort.

If we are unable to rejoice in diversity, the fault is ours, not God’s spirit.

The story of Pentecost, then, is the story of the presentness of the sacred experienced again and again…
Not incarnate in a person, but as Spirit becoming incarnate in us.

Not in the babble of tongues, but in the gift of tongues -
the ability to hear and speak the word, each as we come to know it,
understand it
and tell it
in the uniqueness of our personhood.

And in the gift of interpretation and meaning -
as they unfold in our human experience, here in (this place).

• The second or ‘top’ comment as I have called it,
is about ‘holy laughter’ as part of our faith.

No congregation, of course, is a stranger to tears and grief,
        to sorrow and loss,
        to tragedies and death.
Sometimes laughter does not come easy.

But sometimes the difficulty lies
not only in the kind of world in which we live,
        but also in the kind of church in which we belong.

Those who like to ‘salt and pepper’ everything with a biblical verse,
are usually quick to point out
the gospels speak of the Lord’s 
but do not record his smiles.

But ‘holy laughter’ in the foyer and aisles is a sign of a healthy congregation.

Like when the Sunday school teacher who told me about the time
she told the parable of the Good Samaritan to her morning group.

After telling the story, she asked why the priest
didn’t go over and help the injured man.
        A little girl answered:
        “Because he saw that the man had already been robbed?”

You may appreciate this story, apocryphal of course!

The Prime Minister/President was making a public relations visit to a nursing home
and came upon a wizened old man hobbling down the corridor.

The PM/Pres. took the man’s hands in his own, looked into his eyes, and said:
“Sir, do you know who I am?”

The old man replied:
“No.  But if you ask one of the nurses, she’ll tell you.”

And then there was the teacher who asked her third-graders
to write about their personal heroes.

One little girl brought home her essay and showed it to her parents.

Her father was flattered to discover his daughter had chosen him as her hero.
“Why did you pick me?” he asked expectantly.

The little girl replied:
“Because I couldn’t spell Schwarzenegger.”

Do you hear the sound of laughter here?
That is the sound of ordinary 'pentecost' people rejoicing.

And even though our individual sorrow may at times be great,
the pentecostal spirit can make us laugh.

oo0oo

Pentecost wasn’t a one-off experience.
It was for all time, and for all of us.

Let us breathe deeply of all that life has to offer us.