When we last saw the disciples, they were staring up into the sky, marveling at the glorious ascension of Jesus into heaven. As they were marveling at this sight, two men appeared among them, who said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” And then their attention returned to the earth and to each other. The verse following last week’s reading, Acts 1, verse twelve, “then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet… When they had entered the city, they went to a room upstairs where they were staying.” That is where we find them this morning. “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”
Last week we talked about how Luke/Acts is a two-volume set. Luke tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ, while Acts recounts how the church grew after Christ ascended into heaven. So as we start into the second part of the story, it bears remembering that the first half was a pretty wild ride for the disciples. Remember they started out as fishermen, casting their nets in the Sea of Galilee, when suddenly this Jesus appeared among them and called them to follow him and fish for people. And the ministry of Jesus that had been one, became four, and then twelve, and then thirty, until crowds followed everywhere they went, until people pushed and shoved and prodded to get near to Jesus. Until he had to escape to mountaintops and across the sea to pray, and even then the crowds followed him.
And then, even faster than it had gathered, the crowds dispersed. With a word from Judas to the Romans, on a Thursday evening into Friday, the crowds dwindled to the disciples, to a handful of followers standing at the foot of the cross, to Joseph of Ariamthea, to no one. Even Peter, who promised to stand by Jesus until the end, even Peter was gone when the stone rolled across the tomb. When Jesus died, so too did the movement.
Or so it had seemed. But when the women came with spices to pay their final respects, they were met not with death but with a stone rolled away and the surprising discovery that Christ was not there, for he had been raised. Since that point, the resurrected Christ had been a whirlwind for the disciples. Christ appeared to them along the road, opening the scriptures to them, breaking bread with them. He appeared to them in the locked room, holding out his nail-pierced hands and proclaiming “Peace be with you.” He promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit and then ascended into heaven, leaving them to marvel in his wake.
And now, the day of Pentecost had come, and the disciples were all together in one place. All together in one place, because not much had changed since the ascension, or even since Christ’s death and resurrection. The disciples themselves couldn’t generate the sort of movement that Jesus in the flesh had been able to create. They couldn’t preach, couldn’t teach, couldn’t heal with his authority. It’s not to say they’d done nothing since he left. In Acts one they vote to replace Judas with Matthius, so they’re at least up to a full twelve again. But twelve was not the multitudes that had followed Jesus.
You have to wonder what the disciples were thinking, as they sat together in that room. Did they wonder about the thing that had happened? Did they reflect on the old days, when Jesus was with them and people flocked to be near him? Did they wonder what had gone wrong? Lament that things were not the same? Wish they could bring that same kind of energy and devotion to the movement again?
So the day of Pentecost had come, and the disciples were all together in one place, when suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind. And the wind filled the house where they were sitting. And at once tongues of fire appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability… And those who heard them were amazed and perplexed, saying, “what does this mean?” But others said, “they are filled with new wine.”
The Holy Spirit came, and people thought the disciples were drunk. So amazing, so overwhelming, so incredible was the power of the Holy Spirit that filled the disciples, that the only explanation the crowds could come up with was they were filled with a mind-altering substance. Which, let’s be honest, the disciples were. But the substance wasn’t alcohol, it was the glory of God that transformed their very lives, was about to transform the very world.
Then Peter, standing among them, addressed the crowd, “People of Judea, let this be known. They, we, are not drunk, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: In the last days, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams… and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The day of Pentecost has come and we, too, are all together in one place. And like the disciples, there are less of us than there used to be. A new study by the Pew Research Center announced that Christianity, religious faith in general, is on the decline in the United States. In just the last seven years, the number of Americans who claim to be Christian has dropped eight percent, while those who claim no religious affiliation at all has jumped almost seven percent. Even closer to home, right here at Trinity, there are not very many of us these days. And we wonder, as a community, and as a faith, what happened? How did we get here? How can we get back to the way we were?
But the day of Pentecost has come, and we are all together in one place. Which means the Holy Spirit is here among us. The Holy Spirit is here, blowing and moving through our church, through our world, and the Holy Spirit is ready to change us in ways we never thought possible. This moment in time, brothers and sisters, this moment in time that seems so foreign and unfamiliar, this moment is our Pentecost. Quite honestly, what I take from the Pew Research Study is that God is getting ready to do a new thing in this world, and that thing will not look like what went before it. The church will look different in the light of this new thing, but one thing remains constant. The church is struggling, but faith is not. Our world in changing, but God is not. We are caught up in God’s great unveiling of this new birth of God’s promise to God’s people. Like the disciples, being in the center of this change is scary, and like the disciples, to those looking in at us, it looks a little crazy, but what we know from our history, and from this Pentecost story, is that this is the way new life breaks into the world.
When Peter got up before the crowd on Pentecost, he quoted the prophet Joel, that in these days the young would see visions and the old would dream dreams. As your young pastor, I suppose then Joel would say it is my job to cast a vision for what this new future will look like. My vision for us is this, that Trinity Lutheran Church in Battle Creek, Michigan is a place where people experience the transformative power of God in their lives. That everyone who comes through these doors comes to know God, who loves us exactly as we are and for who we are, and that the experience of God’s grace drives us out again to bring that grace to others. A few weeks ago I talked about how Peter was able to open baptism to all, because he had experienced for himself God’s radical welcome in his life, that is the kind of transformative experience with the Gospel I see God bringing among us. The vision I have for us is that we, and everyone else who comes through these doors, knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that no matter what doubts they bring or questions they have or stuff they carry, that the God of the universe loves them unconditionally, and that love transforms our very lives.
That is the vision God gave me when I interviewed in this place over a year ago, and it is a vision that has only grown and deepened as I’ve lived in this place and gotten to know you. It’s not, honestly, all that inventive of a vision. Being a place where God’s transformational power changes lives is in your DNA. While this latest version of it may look different from what it was like in the past, it is who you are, it is who you have always been, the length and dedication of you all and the effects you have had on the Post neighborhood in your history proves that this new thing God is doing really isn’t so new after all. What I don’t know is the shape this is going to take as it unfolds. I have ideas, I’m wondering if more faith formation is part of it, how we might translate what we’ve come to know about God to people who don’t speak the same language of faith we do, but I don’t have any clear image. I was called here by you and by the synod to be a Redevelopment pastor, tasked with uncovering the work God is about in this place. What I wish had come with that call is a description of what this is going to look like, a checklist of how this is to unfold. Unfortunately, unless one of you knows where the checklist has been stashed, no such document exists. But here’s what I do believe. The day of Pentecost has come, this is Acts chapter two of our story together, and like Peter and the disciples, we have no idea what will unfold over the next twenty-six chapters. But the promise we have from the experience of the disciples is that the Holy Spirit keeps moving even when we cannot see the path clearly. And we do this visioning and dreaming together. Peter said that the young would see visions and the old would dream dreams. In a congregation full of ninety-year olds who can run circles around your thirty-year old pastor, I wouldn’t worry too much about the young/old distinction, whether Joel would say you are supposed to be a visioner or a dreamer. Instead, I think we are all to both dream and vision about what God is up to in this place, about where the Holy Spirit is blowing through this church, this community, and through our world.
The day of Pentecost has come and we are all together in one place. But not for long, because the Holy Spirit is here too, and the Holy Spirit never stays in one space for very long. The Holy Spirit has been poured out before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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