Today we give thanks for God’s living presence in the world.  Today, on this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the fact that God’s transforming Spirit shines among us, offering light in places of darkness, hope in times of despair, love where only fear and desolation seem to abide.  Today - together - we recognize that Christ not only extends merciful comfort to those in pain but also transforming salvation to all people that the world may be unified by God’s truth, hope, and love.  Yes, this is a day we rejoice in the eternal and yet very present power of God.

Pentecost.  For men and women living in ancient times this was a celebration of both Jewish and Christian importance.  Originally observed as an Old Testament festival, the feast occurred fifty days after the ceremonial cutting of the first grain offering after Passover - hence the Greek word, Pentecost, meaning a count of fifty.  Known in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy as the Feast of First Fruits this was a time to give thanks for early spring crops.

By the year seventy of the Common Era, however, this agricultural focus shifted as Jewish celebrations became centered around first fruits of another kind:  the fruits of their history with God.  From the time the temple fell in Jerusalem to this very day, Pentecost for the Jewish people marks their celebration of God’s gift of Torah to them at Mount Sinai and their unfolding story together.

To us these facts may seem to be just interesting bits of Biblical trivia, but to men and women living in ancient times they were a part of annual custom as so many of those first disciples were converted Jews.  Pentecost to them was a time already filled with great meaning, making the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on that day all the more significant.  Because of their historical understanding they recognized that yet another new beginning was being revealed; that it was a time of new first fruits shared by God with the people.  Pentecost - what we now think of as the birth of the Church on this seventh Sunday after Easter - was to those first disciples a continuation of their historical pilgrimage with God.

And so it’s within this context we hear again words from the story Ali read to us just a moment ago:  “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…and tongues of fire rested on them.”  We realize that this story is a drama like many others heard by those early converts, as when the people of Israel escaped from slavery into freedom, the sea parted to let them through, and when they received the Ten Commandments, Mount Sinai shook with earthquakes, the sky filled with fire and smoke.  Here in the account before us today God’s power is revealed in a way these men and women could understand as this text is shaped by the culture from which it comes as much as it lays the groundwork for a new tradition.  The story of Pentecost - in all its dazzling and miraculous power - made sense to those first believers.

It’s for similar reasons, I believe, that this passage can also make sense to us.  Even as we find ourselves living in this skeptical, technological age the power of Pentecost can be revealed.  For upon reflection we realize that this is a story that illustrates followers of Christ living with hope and faith.  This is a story describing not only personal transformation but also communal healing.  It’s a story that is, indeed, a kind of harvest festival even for us as Christians today as it gives witness to the ways God reconciles us to others in the world, sending us out, then, to share the good news with all of creation.  The power of Pentecost can be as real for us now as it was for those early disciples because it’s a testament to the living presence of God in this world.

And it all begins in that Upper Room.  Remember:  those disciples hovered in fear.  They didn’t know what to do next as Roman authorities threatened to end not only their new religion but also their very lives.  Tensions grew among them; arguments were breaking out.  And yet they waited as Jesus had asked them as it is written in the first chapter of the book before us today.  Jesus said, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for the promise of [God]…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 4; 8).  Those disciples held fast to the words of Jesus and they waited for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

This is the first great lesson for us here today.  Despite their fears those disciples turned to God in trust, filled with expectation and with hope.  Having witnessed the brutal crucifixion of Jesus and possessing experiences of the resurrected Christ these men and women faced yet another time of mysterious uncertainty - but they did not falter.  They held on to their faith, reminding us that in times of transition and change we must also slow down, be patient, turn to God.  As described by Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and author of “The Call to Conversion,” these disciples show us that it is such faith that, “opens us to the future by restoring our sight, softening our hearts, bringing light into our darkness.  Through faith we are converted to compassion, justice, and peace as we take our stand as citizens of Christ’s new order.”  Those disciples teach us to hold on, in faith, to the promises of God as revealed in the teachings and love of Jesus.

We’re also reminded today about the importance of community.  Gathered in Jerusalem these disciples wait together for the Holy Spirit to come, making this a unique time of communal restoration.  Thomas is not missing; Peter doesn’t run away; James and John aren’t asking for preferential treatment.  Together these men and women wait and together they are transformed, illustrating to us that the only way the church can carry on is if we stay united in faith, in purpose, in love.  The Holy Spirit comes on Pentecost to bring us that unifying power, for the Church, as described by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “is nothing but a section of humanity in which Christ has really taken form.”

We also realize this morning that such divinely inspired unity doesn’t stop in that Upper Room.  Moving from personal faith and communal restoration we see that Pentecost is about the extension of God’s grace to all people as with tongues of fire those disciples speak in languages other than their own.  It’s a scene that runs in stark contrast to the Tower of Babel, the story in Genesis depicting the chaos of broken community.  In Babel everyone’s speech became confused and indecipherable but here the disciples’ words are heard and received with grateful comprehension.  The miracle of Pentecost, we see from this perspective, is God’s reconciling power, as men and women of every nation are welcomed graciously into the community of Christ.  Class and creed and culture become irrelevant as the Holy Spirit breaks down such traditional divides.  As Paul states so clearly in his letter to the Galatians:  “There is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.”

Oh, “do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for the promise of [God]…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 4; 8).  With Christ’s command respected his prophecy is fulfilled.  The Church is born with over three thousand converts reportedly baptized in that very time.  Through the Book of Acts the Spirit’s power reveals itself through the teachings, the healings, the living witness of those first disciples, helping us to realize - as in the words of one pastor, that “When the world asks, ‘What is God like?’ we should be able to say, ‘Look at the church.’  As the body of Christ, we are to be like Jesus so that we, too, reveal God to the world.”

Pentecost:  it is indeed a time to give thanks for our history with God.  Appreciating how this liturgical season unfolds we realize that like our Jewish neighbors this is a day to be grateful for God’s abiding presence with all generations, a presence that offers not simply individual comfort but also universal healing and salvation.  It is a moment we recognize that the harvest of God’s salvation in Christ may always be personal but can never be private, for as Christians we are called into community - true community that works together, prays together, shares love and joy together, and that moves through uncertainty and conflict and change together.  Now history turns to us and challenges us to continue the story of God’s loving presence in this world.  Can we do it?  Dare we try?

In his latest hit comedy, “Bruce Almighty,” the actor Jim Carey is given a chance to be divine.  Cast as God, Morgan Freeman steps aside from his responsibilities and confers upon Carey transcendent powers.  As you might imagine, Carey’s character, Bruce, takes on the role with great confidence, determined to refashion his life and the world just as he would like it.

Of course, things don’t turn out as well as Bruce intends, and after a slew of amusing misfortunes he returns in frustration to God.  “I can’t do this any more!” he screams, and Freeman says calmly, “It’s not as easy as it seems, is it?  Why don’t you go back and try it again on a smaller scale.”  It’s then that Bruce, human once more, realizes it’s up to him as an individual to make miracles happen one-by-one, day-by-day.  “I get it!” Bruce shouts to the sky as he helps someone push an overheating car out of a traffic jam.  “I need to be the miracle!”

That is the story of Pentecost - half of it, at least.  Remembering today that it is up to us to give life to the love we know in God we also recognize that we are never alone in our efforts.  Hardly.  Our Christian faith shows us again and again that we’ve got a partner in process and it is God:  God through the teachings of Christ and God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Unlike Hollywood’s message that claims these can be individual attempts to make miracles happen we remember today that God is with us, giving us the strength and courage we need to work together to help make this world a better, more unified and loving place.  That is how the life of the Church - and how the life of this church - will endure forever and ever.

And so, today, on this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the fact that God’s transforming Spirit shines among us, offering light in places of darkness, hope in times of despair, love where only fear and uncertainty seem to abide.  Today - together - we recognize that Christ not only extends merciful comfort to those in pain but also transforming salvation to all people that the world may be unified by God’s truth, hope, and love.  Yes, this is the day we rejoice in the eternal and yet very present power of God.  Thanks be to God!
Amen and amen.

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 Cappodicia, 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?”  But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”