Sermon May 24th 2015

Well, another week has come and gone here in Lake City.  Thursday morning the High School will wrap up their year and honestly, we'll be sad to see them go.  It's been great to have so much excitement in the building.

This past Sunday was of course a combined day of recognition of both Memorial Day and of course for all of us Christians it was also Pentecost.  I addressed the occasion of Memorial Day in the opening announcements and prayers, then I focused on Pentecost in the sermon.

I've attached the manuscript for the sermon, though I did ad-lib quite a bit in this sermon.  Gail recorded it, but it's on her phone and I won't be able to start trying to download it and clean it up until this weekend.  Until then, here's the manuscript.

God's Grace Upon You,

Roy

Sermon - Lake City, Iowa - May 24th, 2015:

Well, I have to tell you that given the weather the last couple of Sundays, it is with no small amount of reluctance that I come to you today to talk about a mighty wind blowing.  Of course it is Pentecost Sunday and not only are we going to be talking about wind but flames as well.  So, let's get started and and I guess we'll just have to hope for the best.

But before we go any further let's go before God in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, Abba, we ask for you to be with us here today, to once more let us be in your Holy presence.  Father, please work within our hearts and our minds to let us draw closer to you. Creator God, open our ears and soften our souls that we might hear your word and come to know you more fully.  Ancient Lord, lead us on the path towards a deeper and fuller relationship with You.  For these blessings, we pray in your Holy and Grace filled name.  AMEN

Today's scripture comes to us of course from the Book of Acts, Acts 2:1-21.  The Book of Acts also know as The Acts of The Apostles is overwhelmingly believed to have been written by the same author as the Gospel of Luke.  The most likely date for the writing is sometime near to the writing of Luke's Gospel, which is believed to be somewhere around 85 ad.

As I believe I've told you all before I have long thought of the author of Luke & Acts as a peace maker.  When one compares conflicts between the Apostles in the Book of Acts, particularly between James and Paul, with what appears to be the same incidents in Paul's letters, Acts always makes these events seem less dramatic.  In the case of the Jerusalem Council, Acts presents the problem as being resolved when it appears in Paul's letter to the Galatians that it is anything but settled.

Both Acts and Luke are addressed to 'Theophilus' a name which means “God's Friend”, Theo means God and as we discussed a couple Sundays ago Philos means friend.  Whether this is the actual name of a Patron that financed the author in his writings, or if it's a honorary title given to this patron, or... if this is a letter addressed to anyone who might consider themselves a 'friend of God' we just don't know.  Personally, I like the later... these are writings to all of us, all who are seeking a relationship with God.

Who wrote these books, we again do not know.  Church lore has assigned these pages to the physician Luke who traveled with Paul.  The sections of Acts that are known as the “we sections” might seem to bolster this claim but certainly not sufficiently to erase all doubt.  The writings are done in very good Greek and this is one of the reasons that it has long been suspected that these books were written by a gentile convert.  

And after all of that history, let's now look at our scripture verses for today:

Acts 2:1-21  Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The Coming of the Holy Spirit

2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.2 And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?9 Par′thians and Medes and E′lamites and residents of Mesopota′mia, Judea and Cappado′cia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phryg′ia and Pamphyl′ia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyre′ne, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day; 16 but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

17 ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth beneath,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned into darkness
and the moon into blood,
before the day of the Lord comes,
the great and manifest day.
21 And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Above me here we have a beautiful banner hanging.  As I sat in the pews the other morning praying, I noticed the dove and the flame.  The dove of course represents the 'spirit' that we have in our scripture verses today, but here in Acts there is no mention of a dove.  The spirit is portrayed here as like a mighty wind.  But these verses are not the first time that the author of Luke and Acts has mentioned the Holy Spirit.

Luke 3:21-22 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The Baptism of Jesus

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

It is from these verses that we get our imagery of the Holy Spirit as a dove, and of course it is also the first occurrence of the Holy Spirit in the writings of the author of Luke & Acts.

Let's look closer at our verses for today. 

2 And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 

The wind is reminiscent of the spirit of God moving over the waters of creation. 

Genesis 1:1 & 2  New International Version (NIV)

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And actually, the word translated here as spirit can also be translated as wind.  God has breathed life into His creation.

The tongues of fire are reminiscent of the spirit of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush.  It also reminds us of the 'Pillar of Fire' leading the Israelite's in the wilderness.  Paul also speaks of fire as a refining and even saving element.

Much has been made about the many languages being spoken and understood as a reversal of the Tower of Babel.  And this was actually a dream of the ancient world, to discover a universal language supposedly from the ancient past.  Interestingly enough there is some merit to this idea, as most languages from the old world are thought to be related to the hypothesized 'Indo-european' language which is estimated to have originated 10,000 years ago.

One of the more interesting points about the whole many languages being spoken is that we all know that if you have a room full of people speaking in different dialects, you won't be able to understand any of them.  The whole thing will just be one big unintelligible mess.  It would seem that here the miracle is in those that are hearing, each is able to understand the Gospel on their own terms.  Whether you want to take the story literally or not, this metaphor of all being capable of hearing the words of our Lord is a beautiful thing.

And if we go further into the metaphor, we see that not only are all these different cultures and languages able to hear the word of God, but that ultimately this word was taken out to them by these humble Galilean's.  These rough men, largely uneducated, men who worked with their hands in their livelihoods, men from this backwards and looked down upon region know as Galilee are the ones that God has given charge to take his message to all the world.  These individuals have truly spoken the word of God to all these languages.

The Book of Acts was as I mentioned earlier, likely was written approximately 50 years after the Crucifixion of Christ.  And whether we want to believe this story is or isn't history remembered, it stands as a tribute to what had indeed happened by that time, the preaching of the Good News to all these various people.

And interestingly enough, the Good News is still amazing and perplexing people today.  Even though 2,000 years have nearly passed since this incident at Pentecost, the work is far from done.  We cannot sit back on our haunches and rest, we must still take the Good News out into this wanting and wandering world.  Like the disciples at Pentecost we must be able to speak the Gospel to individuals in terms and on a level which they can understand and appreciate.

Here in Lake City, we'd be hard pressed likely to find someone who has no understanding of the message of Christ.  But it is certain that we will and do encounter those whose view of Christianity and Christians has been skewed by the Christians they've known in their lives.  Far too often we as Christians come off as high and mighty and condemn those who sin, all the while we ourselves are sinning in plain view.  It is no wonder that the world thinks Christians are hypocrites... because we are.  Many of you have already heard me say that we are all hypocrites, we just all find different things to be hypocrites about.

What we cannot do is project to the world that we are better than they are because we are striving to have a closer relationship with our Creator.  We cannot come across as judging and condemning others, we are all just as lost as the worst sinner among us, for there is no hierarchy of sin.  James tells us that if we've committed one sin it is as if we committed them all.  Let us not judge or hate another just because they sin differently than we do.

As I've preached before, the best witness we can have in my opinion in a small community like Lake City and the surrounding region is to witness silently.  We must live a life of love and grace that stands as a testament to all that encounter us, this is the Bible in one verse.  And as I've said before it's the verse you'll find on the backside of my cards.  “live a life of love”

Having witnessed the clean up after the tornado, I can say that this town understands this message and I'm impressed how many are living it. While Ryan and Emily and I were walking along during the clean up we had two different ladies stop and offer us sandwiches, water and homemade bars or cookies.  Now, I don't remember either woman's name but Ryan and Emily know who they are.  These women were witnessing for a loving and caring Creator even if they aren't known as Christians.

You all are doing a wonderful job as witnesses here in Iowa.  But, we all have areas in which we can improve as individuals and as an organization.  Let all of us here at Woodlawn work together to round off these few rough edges and to continue to project our Lord's message of love and grace to this community. Together we can speak to all those very different minds, hearts and life experiences that we will encounter day by day.

Someday I'll preach to you all about my Grandfather Fletcher, the man who I am named after.  Grandfather stands in my memory as the example that I try to live up to.  An individual that was widely loved and admired because he loved and admired and appreciated all he came in contact with.

When we leave here today, let's all be a living testimony to the love of our God.

Even though we already said it once today, let's end this sermon with the Lord's Prayer and let's think strongly about the words as we pray them together.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who have sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.