Acts 2:1-21
There is something happening here
What is is ain’t exactly clear
Stop, children, what's that sound?
EV'rybody look what's goin' down
Those words from the late ‘60's protest song by the group Buffalo Springfield could perfectly sum up what was going on inside and outside of the house on that first Pentecost for whenever and whatever we think of this day we think of it as a noisy event.
The disciples may have been behind locked doors but the city, Jerusalem, was teeming with visitors. There was a lot going on.
It was a holiday weekend, and the city was filled with people from all over the place.
Many of them were visiting Jerusalem because it was Shavuot, the Jewish Festival of Weeks, and devout Jews were required by Jewish law to come to Jerusalem to celebrate. Shavuot was the marking of seven weeks from Passover, and the remembrance of Yahweh giving the Torah, the law, to Moses on Mt. Sinai. But not all of the people in Jerusalem that day were Jews, because it was also a holiday in the way that holidays bring families and celebrations, travel and obligation into our lives, and lots of worshippers, merchants, and travelers joined the regular population of Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday.1
Yet, there was something going on that might have been hard to hear over the noise of the city. We might have had to strain our ears to hear it. “Hush, children, what’s that sound?” It was the sound of the wind.
We, who live in Chicago know what windstorms are like. The trees bend; hats are blown off; umbrellas go inside out; but we soldier on. We put our shoulders to the gale and move forward as best we can.
But something was happening here that couldn’t be fought against. What we have in this moment was the movement of something bigger, something greater, it was the untamed movement of the Holy Spirit.
Now I know that we Lutherans can be a bit uncomfortable when it comes to this movement of the Holy Spirit business. We like things done “decently and in good order.” If the Holy Spirit would like to work its way into our worship, we would ask that it submit its ideas into the church office by Monday, Tuesday at the latest, so we can find a proper place for it in the bulletin. We are wary of any sudden movement of the Holy Spirit because it seems be dangerous when it causes people to act in ways that seem, just a little out of control.
Whenever we think of a Pentecost moment, or having the gift of the Spirit we usually envision what Timothy J. Nelson, describe in his book Everytime I Feel the Spirit.
The congregation was very quiet during the Scripture reading and remained quite still for the several minutes until Reverend Dayton set out her theme and established her rhythm. Then she moved out from behind the pulpit ... and the people started to come alive. It happened gradually. At first one person in the choir stood up. Then more choir members stood, and then people in the congregation started standing up, until after several minutes the whole choir and the congregation were on their feet. The drummer tossed a drumstick into the air and caught it again with a flourish. The organ and drums started chiming in during response times building in volume and emphasis... One man in a black suit and red shoes started running to the front of the center aisle, pointing his finger, then running back to his seat. Several woman began to shout in earnest, moving out to dance ... in front of the pulpit. One woman ... began jumping up and down on both feet like a child on a pogo stick. After about half-a-minute she ended up prone on the floor... The energy level began to subside and the service continued with the hymn of meditation.2
And we think incense, some stage smoke, bubbles and strawberries in sparking cider are special and really way out there.
That was the response of the original onlookers on that first Pentecost when their attentions was drawn away from the noise of the city to the cacophony coming from behind the locked doors where the disciples were. Some of the bystanders make fun of what was going on believing that those inside and making such a racket were “three-sheets-to-the-wind-in-a-gale.”
What the crowd couldn’t deny was that something was happening here and what was happening was pretty important. People were hearing about Jesus in ways they could understand.
“The miracle in Acts,” says Dr. Greg Carey of Lancaster Theological Seminary, “is every preacher’s fantasy. The miracle resides not with the speaking of the disciples but in the hearing of the crowd. They hear the gospel in their own languages. This is what we all want: through the work of the Spirit to communicate with every person in a language particular to that individual.”3
That was the job of the church in it’s infant moments and it is still the job of the church now. Our job is too present the gospel in such a way that it is interesting to people, moves people, engages people. This is especially important now, more than ever, because Tim Alberta reminds us in his wonderful new book, The Kingdom, The Power, And the Glory, of something we all know.
In 1991, according to the Pew Research Center, 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian, while just 5 percent called themselves religiously unaffiliated. Thirty years later, the collapse was staggering: 63 percent of Americans identified as Christian and 29 percent called themselves unaffiliated.4
In a recent Christian Century article, reflecting on the goings on in the United Methodist Church, Dr. William H. Willimon former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and Bishop of the Alabama Conference wrote: “Too scary to mention were the massive church attendance decline and the rapid greying of the denomination. United Methodists are 90 percent white, and 62 percent of them are over age 50.”5
It is more than likely that same can be said for the ELCA.
That is not good news but it presents a challenge.
“Our challenge is to make friends with {the Holy} Spirit – to listen for that voice ... in our midst” and help others to hear it too. To tell about Jesus in such a winsome and winning way that others will look at us and our churches as say to themselves, “something is happening here.”
[T]hat is our challenge—to be friends with that spirit—to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit—to allow that spirit to challenge our human spirit—to live believing that that Spirit can change our lives—transform our lives—as individuals and as a congregation. Our charge is this. . . to live as if anything is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit—to believe it and to live it—to live in full anticipation and confidence that Pentecost is a moment of the past and of the present and of the future.6
Like the disciples, every day you and I stand on the edge of something. And today, Pentecost, is the day that we collectively stand on the edge of all we can do and be as the church in the world. It will be painful. We do not know now what we will know in another two years, or 2000 years, but be bold we must. The dream of healing, hope, justice, peace, beloved community is too important to shrink back to the familiar.
In other words: it’s Pentecost. The wind is blowing; the fire is burning...”7
Once again “something is happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. Stop, children, what’s that sound?”
It just might be the Holy Spirit.
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1. Amy Butler Bass, “If We Knew Then...,” A Sermon for Every Sunday, May 12, 2024, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/.
2. Timothy Jon Nelson, Every Time I Feel the Spirit: Religious Experience and Ritual in an African American Church (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2005), 145
3. Greg Carey, “Commentary on Acts 2:1-21,” Working Preacher, November 11, 2020, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/day-of-pentecost-2/commentary-on-acts-21-21-12.
4, Tim Alberta, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (New York, NY: Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2024), 96.
5. William H Willimon, “Missed Opportunities at the UMC General Conference,” The Christian Century, May 16, 2024, https://www.christiancentury.org/features/missed-opportunities-umc-general-conference.
6. Dana Ferguson, “Past, Present, and Future.” Sermon preached at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, May 23, 1999.
7. Bass, loc.cit.
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