For Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010

Dear friends: grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ

Let's pray:

It's the day of Pentecost – 50 days after Easter. (How can that be? We still have chocolate easter eggs at our house.) In our readings from the Bible, we have references to the Holy Spirit, the quiet member of the Trinity. From John's Gospel, we hear Jesus saying he will not leave his followers orphans, but that he would send the comforter, the Holy Spirit. Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, says it is the Holy Spirit which believers receive, which is the spirit of sonship. Now Paul is not being sexist here, although it sounds like it to our modern ears. Paul is referring to inheritance language. Followers of Jesus are all inheritors, as the eldest sons used to be the sole inheritors. This spirit of an inheritor is a gift from God – the Holy Spirit.

And in the Book of Acts, we have the description of what happened that day almost 2000 years ago. Pentecost is the Jewish feast of harvest, also commemorating Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. The followers of Jesus – about 120 of them - were gathered together because Jesus had said, “Don't leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father has promised.” It was 10 days after Jesus ascended to be with the Father. Finally, the day came, and the followers were together in one house. Suddenly like a mighty wind and fire, the Holy Spirit was through the house, and the timid followers were preaching in languages they hadn't learned. “Jeesus sanoi hänelle: "Minä olen tie ja totuus ja elämä; ei kukaan tule Isän tykö muutoin kuin minun kauttani.” “Jésus lui dit: Je suis le chemin, la vérité, et la vie. Nul ne vient au Père que par moi.” “Jesus spricht zu ihm: Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben; niemand kommt zum Vater denn durch mich.”

Drawn to the ruckus were people in Jerusalem for the festival. From all over the Roman world, wherever the jewish people had been scattered, wherever faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had reached, people had come to Jerusalem. “These people are drunk,” some said. And then Peter got up to speak. And the Holy Spirit moved again, hearts were changed, and three thousand people were added to the family.

The same Holy Spirit is given to us as a baptism present. The same Holy Spirit is prompting us, moving us, showing us, teaching us. A gift from God – God's the Holy Spirit - coming from outside – to guide, comfort, point out our sin, give us bravery and the words to say – that's Pentecost.

But there's trouble my friends, trouble right here in River City. The trouble – everyone in the world says “If you want to know what to do, Look within yourself. Don't think about God. Don't look to God. Be true to your self.” Anthony Robins said, Awaken the giant within. Look within. Listen to your heart.“ In most cartoons these days, Look within yourself. Be true to yourself and to your desires.

I googled “Look within yourself” and got 35 million results in .23 seconds. “Look within yourself for answers” says Daniel Negreanu on pokerpages.com. “Look For Peace Within Yourself,” says a creative writing page on studyworld.com, as well as the Dalai Lama, it turns out, in an article found on canada.com. (I didn't know the Dalai Lama was into creative writing...) Energy manifesting – a sort of mental magnetism site –a think-rich-and-therefore-be-rich sorta place says “Look within yourself. Focus on something for as little as 17 seconds, and that's what you attract!”

Look at the books – actually, don't bother looking at the books like The Secret or Eckart Tolle's The power of Now! and A New Earth. This is their secret - Look within your self, you have the power to attract good and wealth and health and happiness, you have the knowledge to handle any situation, you have to trust your feelings, follow your inner voice, and you have to pay me lots of money and I'll help you develop you inner self.

But – our hearts are deceitful above all things. Our hearts are selfish. As we saw back in the garden of eden, from the beginning our hearts want to be gods and goddesses. Our hearts are bent and not to be trusted. Listening to our hearts can lead us back to destructive behaviours and relationships, again and again and again. Maybe if I consume this – drink, this drug, this item for 19.99, this person, this relationship – life will be better. Maybe I will find myself if I try this person, or this experience, or this attitude, this garment, this car this house this family. I will define who I am and my place in the world, based on what's in me.

But the trouble is, this world-view, this philosophy, this way of dealing with the world ignores sin. It ignores my self-centred-ness. This ignores my tendency to do the wrong thing. Because nothing in me can choose the right thing. I consistently choose wrong, or choose right for the wrong motives. With Paul, if we are serious about our selves, if we look clearly at ourselves, we know we are in trouble. The good we wanna do, we don't do. The evil we don't wanna do is exactly what we end up doing. Who will deliver us from these bodies of death? Only God.

We need saving from the outside of us. Not within. There is no giant within us to awaken that is big enough or capable enough to solve this sin trouble. We can't manufacture in our psyches what is needed. We can't focus for 17 seconds and attract perfect holiness. We need Jesus, God-come-in-person. And Jesus did come and did die, taking on himself the punishment for our sins. And he did rise, bringing in new creation here and now.

And you and I, followers of Jesus? It's the Holy Spirit – from outside of us – who calls us, gathers us, enlightens us. It is the Holy Spirit who moves us to confess or sins, to receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. It is the Holy Spirit – God at work on us – who makes us new creation. And who makes us messengers and agents of new creation. And the ability to go and say and do? Does that come from within? Nope. Left to ourselves, we would be sitting on our dorts watching latvian curling all day. Or we'd be serving ourselves and our insatiable desires. We need help, and it's God the Holy Spirit – coming into us, working, directing us outward, away from ourselves, toward serving others and thereby serving God.

In a 2007 edition of Newsweek magazine, author and radio personality Garrison Keillor was asked to choose what he considered to be the five most important books. Some readers were probably surprised to find that he ranked the Book of Acts at the top of his list. When describing the Book of Acts, Keillor offered this concise but potent summation: "The flames lit on their little heads and bravely and dangerously went they onward."

Sisters and brothers, the flame has been lit on our little heads, and the Spirit calls us and prompts us and leads us, bravely and dangerously, onward.