“Happy Birthday”
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-21
Sermon Transcript for June 4, 2006
By Pastor Bob Coleman
This is the day of Pentecost. Unfortunately, a lot of the church doesn’t really understand, recognizes it either out of ritual and habit or doesn’t recognize it at all. The day of Pentecost is older than the Christian church. It is a Jewish celebration. It was a time of recognizing fullness of harvest, harvest of the grain; as we now know, harvest of the fruits of the spirit. It was the harvest and the gift of the torah, what we know as basically the Old Testament, of God’s law and full understanding. The day of Pentecost became a day to recognize that Christian believers were a vital part of the body of Christ and that it is the Spirit that makes it possible for them to be. Pentecost has now become, as it should, a time for baptisms, confirmation of those who have gone through, as we will do for you today, a recognition of this time within your life, you who are confirmands now, soon to be declared the leaders of Jesus Christ and members of the church universal, the big “C” as well as this church, Grace United Methodist. It is a fifty-day celebration period. It starts with Easter and ends with Pentecost—that’s what the “pent” means. And my apologies for the balloons if some of you have to dodge them out there. That’s okay; you just keep swaying back and forth to the time of the music. It will be alright; we will see each other eventually. It’s more important that you listen to what I say than look at who I am. I’m really just an old guy up here.
Listen to the words because that’s what happened on that day so long ago. But you know, good things usually are better when there is a bit of anticipation and waiting for them. It’s like birthdays! You know what it is like. Your birthday, it is important isn’t it? You look forward to it. Wait until you are thirty when you are really old! It’s something that changes. Yeah, you recognize them. Actually what happens is your children begin to appreciate your birthdays more than you do. And I was kind of reflecting on that this past week in the fact that my mother just turned 86 this last March and to her a birthday is, “I’m still here!”, where Joyce’s mother is 94 and then two days after her 94th birthday breaking a hip. Which by the way for all, she’s actually doing as well as she could do for her age and her condition. So when she celebrates 94 years it is more like, “I’m still here?—a surprise in that way.
But anticipation is essential throughout all of Scripture. Just look at some of the pieces of anticipation and times of waiting until something good happens. Sarah and Abraham—they waited and waited and waited until they could have a child. The Israelites waited for 400 years while they were slaves in Egypt and then Moses went off into the wilderness and waited for forty years until finally he heard God’s call and came back to Egypt to lead the people out of bondage. Did they get it right away? No, it was forty more years in the wilderness--long periods of time waiting and waiting with anticipation and hope. David before he was king had to wait in caves before he could receive his coronation. Prophets made great declarations and then had to wait to see them fulfilled even though some of them were somewhat strange in their predictions. Mary and Joseph, earthly parents of Jesus, Anna, Simeon, Elizabeth, Zachariah—they were all waiting like all Jews for the Messiah to come. And then when Jesus does come, the disciples keep waiting for Jesus to be the kind of Messiah that they wanted. They wanted a Messiah who was going to be a King, who would lead them out of bondage of Rome, be a great warrior and ride in on a horse. But Jesus kept saying, “But that is not my kingdom. You’ve got to wait. Wait further! When the time is right, when it is the right moment it will come and you will see it.” Before Jesus ascends, now remember Easter he is raised from the dead. Forty days later, notice the forty again, he ascends into heaven and he tells them in Acts 1, Verse 3, let me read it for you, “After His suffering, He showed Himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. On one occasion while He was eating with them, He gave them this command: Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So for ten days, they went and waited in Jerusalem in a place set aside praying, I’m sure. A little nervous, anticipation, they didn’t know it was going to be a “birthday” celebration with flames and wind and strange languages. Yes, that is exactly what happened. When the birthday celebration happened, it was beyond their expectation. It was greater and bigger than they thought. And it was in a different form than they would have ever anticipated. In fact, we want you to see this in action. We have a video clip that portrays visually and audibly Acts, Chapter 2, Verses 1-12. Let’s watch that.
VIDEO: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared 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. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 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? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all in one place. But even after it happened to them, they still had the question, “What does this mean?” And we are still asking the question because it is a question for each individual; it is for the whole church. From that time, God was saying, “My Word is to be spread to all people.” Now for almost 2,000 years, it didn’t happen as quickly as we would have hoped it might have happened. But it is now! The opportunity today is that the Word can be spread literally to all four corners and is being carried so many different ways. The Word is being spread faster today than ever before. But it still comes back to the anticipation, hearing the Word and responding with a celebration. They were waiting then just like for a birthday but it was a different one than what they expected. It was their confirmation. It was the birthday of their new birth. It was a new birth for this life and the life to come. With anticipation and excitement, they still asked the question, “But what does this mean?”
So what does it mean to have the Spirit move around you and blow like the wind? What does it mean to have the fire come upon you and bring change in your life? There is an old song; well, it’s not that old of a song, its back in the 60’s and 70’s. For you that was an old song, right? And bear with me because I just thought of it this morning. It was an inspiration. I wish I had thought of it earlier; Roger could have had it or Sarai could have had it ready to sing. But bear with me because it’s pretty simple. It goes, “Spirit moves when you will, where you will, how you will. Spirit of God’s love, now move within me.” That’s the surprise and the anticipation. The Spirit moved within them and moved them out to where they could communicate and share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us that from the time of God’s first creation and all the continued creation, God has been wanting all of His creation to be one in one spirit. Paul says in Romans, Chapter 8, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, we’ve grown inwardly as we await eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.” Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Anticipation in the Christian faith and the belief is never something that we concretely see everything about it. There is always that anticipation that “Yes, we are baptized, Yes, we are confirmed, Yes, we’ve declared Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but then we still wait further because the hope can not be seen. It is the hope that God’s Spirit will continue to move in and through us because you who are confirmands today, look behind you. How many of these people were in your place a few years ago, a lifetime ago? How many of them took the training that you have taken and are now having hope in you, a hope yet to be seen? This is the first step in a long journey. It’s called the rest of your life. And Paul tells us that we sometimes groan with that anticipation and with that hope of what might be because we can’t see everything as it is now necessarily.
But the fifteen youth that we have who are going through this process, not a process that’s like a right or passage, this is a very important spiritual journey and step for each of you. We should never underestimate the power of what is happening today. Not Pentecost, not this worship service—but that fifteen youth are declaring their faith in Jesus Christ like so many of you have done before. Some of them will actually be physically baptized or they will be accepting for themselves the baptismal words that were given and taken by their parents so long ago. The blowing of the wind and the Spirit around us, we may feel it physically, but not necessarily, but we can feel it spiritually because that is indeed what God wants us to know and believe today.
Jesus says in John 15, Chapter 15, “When the counselor comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that goes out from the Father, He will testify about me and you also must testify for you have been with me from the beginning.” It’s not the end of something today; it’s the beginning of the opportunity for you to be adults in the church. To be people who are called by Christ to witness however God gives you that strength to witness, to testify by your life, your actions, and your words. Will you be perfect at it? Nobody behind you has been perfect at it. Only Christ is perfect. But we still know that God tells us by the quoting from Joel, Chapter 2, words that help us to know that when we step forward into this journey of faith, God’s Spirit will strengthen and guide you. Joel says speaking for God, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men and women will see visions. Your old men and women will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy.” These are not just for adults; these are for you not those old people over thirty. This is for you that God is calling you to be ready, that the Lord will provide a Spirit that will help you to prophesy, to speak about God’s Word, to show in your life the vision of what it means to be a child of God.
So we today are going to witness an experience that is life-changing and life-forming. It is important for us not to just chalk this up as, unfortunately and not having much history here, if I offend someone my apologies, but not really. Too often I’ve seen parents who have kept their children faithful to the church until they have joined the church and we do not see them any more. That’s a sad understanding of what it means for it is from that moment forward that you are to be vitally a part of the church of Jesus Christ and to be a witness of Jesus Christ. And we, who are the church, should never let them do it in that way—to come, join, and be absent until maybe they have children then they come back or maybe later in life or maybe not at all. This is a step forward; it is not an end to something, it’s a beginning. It’s when the sons and daughters will prophesy and young men and women will dream dreams. And you will be the ones who will do that. And the church must help you to do that because concluding in this section of Acts, Chapter 2:21 it says clearly, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Everyone who calls upon Christ and says: “Be my Savior in my heart. I wish to have a life-long relationship, one that will start now and move on.”
Pentecost is not just for the actual accepting of baptism. It’s for the vibrancy of the church. It’s eternally important to us without question. This Pentecost is not just for the confirmands, it’s for this church, this part of the body of Christ. For each of you here this morning, if you have accepted and been baptized in Jesus Christ, this is the time for you to renew your baptism. But if you have not been baptized, this may be the morning for God’s Spirit to move you to be baptized. We are going to have baptisms between the two services. We are going to offer by pouring, sprinkling and immersion. You see the amount of water isn’t important, but it can reflect what’s happened in the person’s life. And some of our confirmands have chosen to be immersed this morning as well as a few others. That will take place about 10:30 a.m. Is that correct, Dan? Out in the Methodist form of baptismal font called a swimming pool. It’s a temporary thing, but that might become something more permanent. Not the swimming pool, but we need to raise the understanding and the power of the amount of water but also more importantly the physical experience of baptism.
So if you have not been baptized, you may wish to be, please speak to Pastor Dan or myself and we would be glad and honored to help you to be baptized today. But at the least, in a moment, as the confirmands are confirmed in their faith and review the meaning of their baptism, will you say that in your heart. In fact, I would encourage you, that when those words are said, to respond just as the confirmands are expected to respond. It never hurts to reaffirm your own baptism. It never hurts to reclaim what God has done in action in your life. It never hurts to start anew and renew in your life so we give you that opportunity today.
It is time for us as a church to stand in support of these young people, to never lose spiritual and prayer support for them and encouragement. Do all that you can to strengthen them in their faith. Do all that you can and are capable of doing to help them to grow in their faith. That’s our responsibility.
E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman