Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Good morning, friends.
Let's take a brief moment and pray, shall we?
Holy and gracious God, give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that with our hearts enlightened we may know the hope to which Christ has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance among us, and the greatness of his power for those who believe.
Amen.
This morning Irma and I will be reading scripture in both English and Spanish. You can follow along up here behind me, or you can check your pew bible for page 885 and we'll be reading from acts two, 1714 21. Let's hear from God.
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like a rush of violent winds, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, divided tongues as fire 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.
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 09:00 in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: The prophet Joel enosultimo diaz de serios de ramaremia, spiritu sobreto sancianos tendran suenos de ramaremia spiritualos isenales abajo en atiera sangre huevo y nuevas de humo el solce oscuricera ilaluna se pondra roja como la sangre ante de quega el grande y glorioso dia del senor perotodo el que imboque el nombre del seor sera salvo.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: This has been the word of the Lord.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Thanks be to God.
Thank you. And my Jim.
Back when I took swimming lessons as a child, I learned of a remarkable practice some of you may have engaged in over the course of your life. I was at a summer swim course course at the northwest YMCA near where I lived. It was the junior lifeguard course that was offered to those who completed the beginner and the intermediate courses, and along with other children, I watched as this practice was demonstrated for me. The woman instructor, she had been our instructor for previous classes, showed us this particular thing called mouth to mouth resuscitation. She had another adult with her who was the volunteer, and he was laying on his back as if he had drowned. And she showed us how you could mouth to mouth resuscitation remarkable. I thought that the breath of somebody else's body breathing into a person could give them life again when their breath had expired.
I later learned in researching this practice that the earliest documented case we have, at least that's been written and published in a scientific journal, was back in Scotland in 1732. It was recorded by a surgeon named William Trosach. One day in 1732, a man named James Blair was working in a coal mine when a fire erupted. The smoke overwhelmed him, filled his lungs and he collapsed. It then took about 30 minutes before rescuers were able to descend the ladder into this coal mine, pick him up, bring him up to the surface and then try to revive him. Well, this surgeon, Trosak, tried mouth to mouth resuscitation. He breathed into his mouth a few times and noticed that a pulse began in him, sensed a pulse and sensed some light breathing. So he then breathed some more. And at this point, Blair actually was breathing. He was still cold and unresponsive. And at this point, if you're interested, you can read about Trosach trying a host of different medical practices that today. Jay, you can correct me on this, or Karen, but I think we'd frown on today. They bled him. They put special scents in front of his nose. They massaged him, thinking, that will sort of get the lungs working again. None of this worked. But about an hour later, he was breathing and returned to consciousness. And according to the surgeon, a week later he was back at work. And his only lasting struggle was actually back pain that was caused by the rescuers who brought him up from the ladder. Remarkable, isn't it, that someone who had stopped breathing 30 minutes could be brought back to life by the breath. Another in today's passage from the book of acts, this kind of portrait is evoked at least to my eye and imagination. I see a portrait of person to person, mouth to mouth, if you will, breath to breath, air to air resuscitation. In this text we see not a single person, but a whole group of people who had known a kind of expiration when it came to their own life breath. They had all, you remember, known this teacher named Jesus Christ. He had been their community's life breath. In him. We read in the gospel of Luke. The very reign of God had come near to them. But they had then seen that leader of theirs suffer an excruciating death.
The heartbeat of their community had expired before their eyes. And they surely wondered when he breathed his last, when jesus breathed his last, if that was their last breath as a community as well. A community centered in him. They also surely wondered if their own life breath might soon expire as well as the authorities would surely come after them right, and do to them what they had done to their leader. Crucify them.
In the story told in the book of Luke and acts, we then read of a miraculous resurrection. And the disciples get to see, as Luke's gospel tells us, the risen lord. They're given new breath in their lungs, you might say. And then Jesus prepares to ascend into heaven and depart from them. But before he does, he says this as his final words, according to acts, chapter one. You will receive power when the Holy spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Jesus was then lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. The disciples then returned to Jerusalem and ascended, we read to a room upstairs. Now, we aren't told specifically their emotional state at this point, but in their shoes, in that upper room, I imagine myself being terrified.
Still fresh in my mind is that image of my teacher, my lord, getting crucified, tortured to death. And though I might have seen his risen presence, that presence now was gone. It had departed. And the mysterious promise he made of some holy spirit. That promise hadn't been fulfilled yet. Would it be, I might have wondered in the meantime, what was to keep the authorities from doing to me what they had done to Jesus? While I would like to think, I would courageously face whatever repercussions there might have been at that time for faithfully and publicly proclaiming my faith. I read in the gospels of Peter, denying how he even knew Christ, this supposed rock and leader among the disciples. And I wonder if I, too, might have denied Christ. Were I confronted by the authorities in Jerusalem even after I'd seen the risen Christ, but had also seen him leave?
Whatever their state, we're told, these disciples were gathered in one place in Jerusalem, one Pentecost. When things changed. A christian community that might have been hiding out was transformed into a people that proclaimed the wondrous works of God in all manner of different languages of community of faith that had been silent speaks of the call of their savior to repentance and new life. We see this group of Christ followers become precisely the people Christ had said they would be, people who are witnesses to Christ in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to even the most remote parts of the world. That sense of a broadening witness of Christ is imagined in this Pentecost text. As we read of people from all over the known world gathered in Jerusalem who hear the wondrous works of God, hear these galilean disciples speaking of Christ's work in their languages. In that way, the word spreads, and it's like a community without breath receives it from the heavens. New breath comes to their bodies and the body that they were together.
And I love how it's presented in this passage we read of a sound like a rush of a violent wind.
Those of you who know Greek will probably imagine that greek word in the original rendering of this text was noe, which comes from the same greek root as the word for pneuma. Pneuma is the greek word that shows up in verse four and is often translated as spirit or ghost. But pneuma, like noea, can be translated as win, too, for it evokes a sense of presence or substance you can't see. But is there all the same moving in the air like wind or breath?
Noe and pneuma are both sometimes translated breath.
But now in the hebrew lexicon, there's a distinction between the kind of breath that exists in our lungs, transitory and fleeting, and the breath that comes from God, the kind of breath that first gave life to all things and continues to animate.
The hebrew word for the breath that is ephemeral and doomed to quickly expire is Hebel. Hebel is sometimes translated vanity. You'll find it often in the book of Ecclesiastes. Vanity or chasing something that is not of lasting value, but rather is vapor or breath. That's Hebel. Breath of God. However, breath that comes from a more lasting, eternal source is ruach in Hebrew. Ruah is what we read in the book of Genesis for swept over the waters at creation.
Ruach in Hebrew is the word for what God does with Adam, with humanity, breathing into them life. That was Ruah. Ruah is what filled the prophets in the hebrew scriptures and gave them the inspiration to see visions and to engage in these courageous acts, like calling a people to repentance or challenging kings who were poor shepherds of that people and failed in defending the widow, the immigrant, and the orphan.
We read in the book of Joel how the spirit of God is what gave young people visions and allowed the older ones to dream dreams. And it's that very passage from Joel that speaks of Ruach. Ruach is the word for spirit. In that passage from Joel. It's that passage that's referenced by Peter in today's passage as he speaks of the pneuma, the hagios, or holy pneuma, holy spirit of God that came over the disciples without God's breath or spirit, not Hebel, our fleeting breath, but that breath that comes from the heavens, that breath that animated us and animates all things. We have but fleeting ephemeral air in our lungs, but at Pentecost, we have more than Hebel. We have Ruah, we have Numa, we have a spirit that is beyond us and yet animates us, connects us, gives us life, as if God were giving us all, giving the church community itself, mouth to mouth, person to people, resuscitation.
I was telling a group earlier during the adult ed time, how back when we moved to Connecticut for me to follow my wife Jill, as she pursued a PhD in theology with Miroslav Volf, how I followed her and at that time was looking for a church call. And it was clear it might be some time in finding one. There were only 30 some churches in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode island combined, excluding Boston. So during that time I took advantage of an opportunity at Yale School of Religious Studies and took a class on John Calvin with serene Jones, who went on to become the president of Union Theological Seminary. All we did was read Calvin's institutes and discuss it, and it was fascinating. Here's just one gem from those institutes, how John Calvin was speaking about writing about rather the Holy Spirit, and I love the words he used to describe it. He speaks of how the Holy Spirit is crucial for our relationship to Jesus Christ. Calvin writes in the institutes that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we're separated from him, all that he's suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, Christ had to become ours and to dwell within us.
The question is, how does this happen? How does Christ, who is bodily up in heaven, at very least not here, at least in physical form, how do we understand his connection with us? Calvin writes this the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself. The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself.
I love that statement.
As Christians, we believe by faith we have life in Christ.
Life, his life, has become ours by faith. In that relationship we're given so much. We have his courage, his empathy, his identification with the poor and suffering, his healing power, his witness to the God we know in Christ, his power to make peace between warring parties, his forgiveness given to us, and that we get to extend to others in his name. His self giving heart of service, his yearning for justice, his connection with God, the divine parents, his power, even over death, all of that it's imparted to us. And yet, how can that happen if he is in heaven and not here? How can we say we're connected to Christ really and truly? The answer, according to Calvin, the Holy Spirit, the pneuma or ruach of God. It's that breath or wind or spirit from God that unites us with Christ by faith. That's what we see God's ruach doing in Pentecost, filling the disciples and uniting them who had been separated from Christ with their savior again by that rush of a mighty wind. And with that, they are in Christ.
It's that same spirit we possess as believers today. And it means we have not only Hebbel in us, this fleeting breath in our lungs. We have ruach, God's spirit at work in us, uniting us to Christ, granting us life that is not fleeting, but eternal.
Now, as I say that to you, I recognize you may well be in a season when it's like you can see, hear, feel the power of God's spirit in your life. The presence of God may be showing up to you in fire and wind this very morning. You might come to church having been filled with visions or dreams of what God has in mind for you or for us or for the greater church. God might be moving in your life, and you sense it like there is wind in your sails. You might have a clear sense of the ministry to which God has called you here in the church or out in the world. You might be brimming with confidence to share your faith. Love God. Love your neighbor. Testify to God's wondrous works. The wind may be filling you today, and you know it.
But I also recognize you may be in a season when reading the story of Pentecost makes you a little jealous.
You might be in a season when you don't see tongues of fire. You don't hear a sound of a rushing wind or much of any sound coming from God at all. Visions and dreams of God and God's plan for you, well, they are blurry at best. Courage to live out your faith and vocation, being all that God means for you to be. Maybe you're not sure about that. What do you do when it feels like the wind? You need to move forward, like breath in your lungs seems absent as the spirit descended on that people. It might be helpful to take a lesson from sailors who know well what it's like to be confident that wind exists. But to not feel it in your sails on a given day, sailors call the state of experiencing no wind as the doldrums. There's always wind. Of course, scientists can tell us that air is always moving in some way. And yet, you may know, out on the waters, there are times and places where it seems like there's nothing, like it's dead calm. I remember such a time with my dad. We sailed out on Higgins Lake and Upper Michigan and a little sailfish. You know, those boats are so easy to tip over, and we tip over all the time. This time we didn't tip over, even though the wind was strong. And because it was strong, we were able to make it all the way to the other side of the lake. But when we neared the other side of the lake, the wind died down and then seemed to vanish.
First we thought, oh, this is temporary. And then it seemed to last a little longer. We wondered, is this boat, are we going to, like, just have to float into shore or wait until we somehow the current takes us somewhere? Because it felt like there was nothing in our winds for way too long. And then, you know, if you've sailed, what will often happen? We noticed a very slight twitching of the sails and thought, all right, we're sensing something. Saw just a little movement the water, and then began to pay attention to that, moved our sails so we could capitalize on even that little bit of wind there was, move towards where it looked like there would be more wind. And slowly we got into a nice gust and thankfully were able to make it home.
Maybe you find yourself in the doldrums today where that wind of God seems far from where you are. You have a job, a role, a responsibility, perhaps a host of them, but you don't feel call in that. You know, you might attend church, say your prayers, but your practices, they lack that sense that the disciples felt of a wind blowing in them, the sound of a rushing wind, the sight of fire. You speak and sing and worship, but sense your words might lack inspiration. You wonder if you have the courage to share your faith when the opportunity arises. You might wonder if you, if we, as the christian church, have the energy, the breath to address even a few of the issues plaguing our world today. You see those without homes sleeping on the streets. You see devastating losses of homes and infrastructure and lives in Gaza. And the hope of a ceasefire seems as ephemeral as air. You fear anti semitism or anti arab sentiment or racism is getting the upper hand. You see the plight of immigrants and refugees here and around the world in wonder. Can the winds of heavenly compassion and righteousness and peacemaking and love and rejoicing in God's goodness, can such a true, can such a wind, that wind, that is the very rain of God, Jesus proclaimed, can it come near to us, blow in us?
Well, if that's the case here, what experienced sailors recommend, if you're in the doldrums, if the wind seems painfully faint, they say, take the chance that this, this time affords to do maintenance on the ship. Maintenance. You might have long put off saying, we're going to do it another day. Another day will come. Well, if there's no wind, great opportunity to do that. And important because as sailors will say, the wind will come. And when it does, you want to be ready.
But sailors will also say in the doldrums, keep your eyes especially peeled for, for even slight ripples on the water and then follow those ripples even if it's faint. Let that gentle wind guide you. And soon you might hear the sound of a great rushing wind and see it filling your sail. Maybe your called to a time of maintaining the ship right now, reincorporating spiritual practices that you might have let dwindle over the years or putting energy into those Sabbath keeping, worship, prayer, social witness, social engagement, communal gathering together, scripture study. These things, you know, are the invitation of the christian life. But you may have neglected great time if you're in the doldrums, to address those, to do maintenance on the ship, but also a great time to listen really carefully, to pay attention to that slight breeze that might be blowing just a little bit on the sails and then to let that breeze guide you. Friends, as part of the post Pentecost church, we have, we have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. It's in our lungs, it's in one another, it's in our body together. That spirit unites us with Christ and empowers us for the work of the gospel. Attend to that wind, prepare for it, watch for it, rely on it. We're wind dependent people, for it's that wind or breath or ruah that gives us life and leads us into God's wondrous plans and purposes for us. Once we were no people with the spirit, with Christ, we are God's people. God performed that mouth to mouth, person to person, person to people, resuscitation on us. May God's breath fill our lungs and fill our sails. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, amen.
