Watch Out for that Holy Spirit

For Pentecost, we read Acts 2:1-21 as the primary reading and after the list of places that the crowd was from we add additional languages that people speak in our congregation and listen to John 3:16 in each language.  So we had John 3:16 read English, Akkadian, German, Japanese, Finnish, Portuguese, Swedish, Spanish, Sumerian, Russian and French individually before hearing them all spoken together, which is just awesome to hear.  


Yesterday was also the baptism of two brothers, Aidan and Dylan, which made for a great celebration for both the family and the congregation.  And a celebration of the church as Pentecost is the birthday of the church.  


However, the more I preach, the more comfortable I get with completely  not relying on my manuscript and preaching more extemporaneously.  Yesterday especially was one of those days.  So below is the sermon I wrote.  It is similar to the one I preached but not quite the same. 


Enjoy!

I read a wonderful quote this week “The Holy Spirit doesn’t come to solve our problems but to create them.” 

That may seem backward to many of us but think about it.  In our reading from Acts today, Peter and the other disciples were hanging out, waiting as Jesus had instructed for the promise from God the Father.  It had already been 10 days.  10 days of prayer and picking a new apostle to replace Judas and thus far there had been no signs from God.  You have to think how much longer they would have waited around for this sign from God.  Maybe a few more days, maybe even a few months or a year.  But slowly, without the Holy Spirit, the group would have dispersed.  The apostles would have returned safely back to their own homes, to their own lives.  And as they grew older, as they became fathers and grandfathers, they would have talked about those crazy three years when they followed that preacher from Nazareth.  And they would have lived to old age as fishermen, and tax collectors.

But instead the Holy Spirit came to them and in doing so caused the first bit of trouble.  People thought they were drunk, though it was only 9 o clock in the morning, because they were speaking, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, in languages that were not their own.  And then the Holy Spirit sends them out, out from Jerusalem, from this city where they had gathered for 50 days after the death and resurrection of Jesus, into the wilderness.  They didn’t go into the wilderness as we think about it, into the woods or dessert but to places far and wide to proclaim Jesus.  They traveled throughout the Middle East, to south east Europe, to Rome, to places as far as India.  And wherever they went they did tell others about those crazy three years as they followed that preacher from Nazareth who they knew to be the Lord and Savior, the one sent by God to save all humans from our sins. 

And of course this calling by the Holy Spirit became their problem.  All but one of these 12 apostles were martyred, often in gruesome ways.  And so the Holy Spirit did not come to make the apostles lives easy, to immediately take them up to heaven, to end any frustration they may have.  Instead because of the Holy Spirit, these 12 men, and many others were killed because they told others because of Jesus.

And our lives are not made easier because of the Holy Spirit.  Because of the Holy Spirit we are called to go out into this world to tell others about Christ through our words and deeds.  Because of the Holy Spirit we are called to do crazy things like give up a portion of our income so that the poor may be fed, clothed, and cared for.  Because of the Holy Spirit, we are called to do crazy things like preach a sermon even though we are only 15.  Because of the Holy Spirit, we are called to do crazy things like give up sleeping in on a Sunday, in order to build a community with people we might not otherwise know, or even otherwise like, as we worship God together.  Because of the Holy Spirit, we do things like tell others about how we have seen God.  Because of the Holy Spirit, we do things like risk financial security as a congregation to call some 20 something year old, in-experienced pastor in order to hope that in the long run, God’s love might be more fully proclaimed to more people. 

And just because the Holy Spirit is with us, doesn’t mean that these problems that are created are free of failure.  We as humans are going to fail.  We will fail as children to our parents.  Aidan, Dylan, I am sure you have never done something your parents have told you not to do?  We will fail as parents.  We will fail as spouses, as employees and employers.  We will even fail as children of God. 

Today Aidan and Dylan will be marked with the cross of Christ as they are baptized into the Lord’s family.  But they, like everyone else in this room will at times fail as God’s children.  They will question their faith, just like all of us have.  They will doubt, just like all of us have.  They will sin against God, against others and as brothers against each other. 

But when we fail, the Holy Spirit forgives us.  Because the Holy Spirit invites us to fail.  The Holy Spirit invites to try new things, to look outside ourselves for problems in this world, to find new ways to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord through our words and deeds.  And occasionally that means failure.  Occasionally we will do wrong, sometimes intentionally, sometimes with the best of intentions, sometimes we won’t even realize that we have failed. 

But after we have failed, the Spirit invites us to innovate, invent, and then fail yet again.  But we need not worry about failure, because our failures have been drown in the waters of baptism.  Our failures have washed clean from us.  There is no need to worry about failure as long as we don’t keep failing the same way over and over.