What is going on?

stjohnstmarkchurchburySunday, May 20, 2018

Bible Text: Acts 2:1-21 | Preacher: Gill Barnett | Series: Pentecost

What is going on?  Put yourself into the place of someone on the first day of Pentecost:  a Jewish visitor, up for the festival, a Roman, a native of Jerusalem, a priest or Levite – whatever. Look around at all these drunkards in the city.  There are enough strangers already for the festival but this time it’s different.  They’re speaking your language.  What is going on?

You may be one of the disciples.  Jesus, who was with you for 3 years, lead you, taught you, prepared you for revolution, was tortured and died as a criminal, his body was taken.  He then appeared to you in the flesh and ate and drank and talked with you then was miraculously taken up into heaven before your very eyes.  And you were then told to hang around in this very city  – under the watchful eyes of the occupying forces and your own religion leaders – for whom there is no love lost in either direction.  But in the past few weeks you’ve turned from being leaderless, frightened underdogs to – well, look at you today.  So what is going on?
Do people ask of us, what is going on?
Bring that up to date.  Do people look at the church, look at us, look at you and say, what is going on?  Because they should.  Our message to the world is just as radical now as it was then.  So we should stand out a mile and people should be pointing at us and talking about us and asking, what is going on?

Peter brought the market place to attention by quoting the Jewish prophet Joel. God’s Spirit in that prophecy was experienced by people that day as wind and fire. These were well known symbols of God’s presence. Think of the burning bush and the breath, in Ezekiel, breathed into the valley of dry bones.  The very word for breath, Ruach, also means wind or spirit.  And yet they’re all there saying, what is going on?  I think we say it ourselves far too often.  This isn’t new – because the indwelling of the Spirit has been going on since that first Pentecost, almost 2000 years ago.
A new start
Think of some everyday phrases we use concerning wind that may help us to understand more clearly how the Holy Spirit works within us.

A breath of fresh air
Blowing the cobwebs away
Clearing the air

All these speak of a new start, new beginnings, a clearing out. So doesn’t this sound a bit like repentance – a getting rid of the old and making way for the new?
Power
And both wind and flame are forms of power.  We, the church, are already empowered by the Spirit to complete the work that Jesus has begun.  It means we should be going against the grain, battling the norms in society.  And it means we should be forcing people – individuals and governments alike to ask, what is going on? We should be making them feel uncomfortable with unjust issues in society and providing the answer.  Not in a spirit of drunkenness or selfishness but in the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit that brings fullness of life and joy and hope.

That Spirit of Truth has been given to us, the church.  The Spirit has been given to each one of us and we are therefore empowered to live life to the full and make waves in this world so that they will ask, what is going on?  And we are empowered to tell them the truth of our Saviour Jesus.

We finish with a poem: Jeu d’Esprit in Lewin, Seasons of Grace