THE RISE AND FALL

SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT

Acts 2:1-4

What clues do we have that

the Spirit is in the house?

A sermon pr= eached by

Dr. William= O. (Bud) Reeves

First Unite= d Methodist Church

Hot Springs, Arkansas

May 31, 200= 9

One of = the things I like to do on vacation is to read fiction. Most of the time, I have too much work-related reading to do, and I don’t have time for fiction, but on vacation, I never read anything serious; I try to work in a few novels just= for fun.

One of = the novels I read on this last vacation was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, which is now playing at theatres everywhere. It’s a classic mystery novel involving a plot against the Catholic Church, and like most mystery novels, the plot involves discovering a number of clues to the mystery. The hero who unravels the mystery = is a professor of religious symbology named Robert Langdon, played in the movie = by Tom Hanks. Without giving any= of the plot away, I can tell you that the clues are hidden in plain sight. They are on public view and have b= een for hundreds of years. But it= takes a moment of crisis and the discerning eye of Robert Langdon to see the clues and solve the mystery. Connec= ting the clues, Langdon follows the Path of Illumination to the climactic resolu= tion of the conflict.

If you = think about it, our faith involves an element of mystery as well. There are some things about God an= d the world that we never will figure out. There are forces aligned against the well-being of the faithful, and= we spend our spiritual journey looking for clues to understand the mysteries of God, faith, and life. Our que= stion is the same question the disciples asked of Jesus, the night he told them he was going away. Thomas the di= sciple asked Jesus, “Lord, we do not= know where you are going. How can we know the way?”[1]<= /i> How can we know the way?

Jesus r= esponds by promising to send the Holy Spirit to be with the disciples as a Comforte= r, an Advocate, a spiritual Presence of power and courage. Then Jesus died and rose again and appeared to his disciples for forty days before he was raised up again into heaven. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, on the Jewish festival of Pentecost, the disciples we= re waiting and praying for the Spirit to come. Suddenly a mighty wind began to blow. Tongues of fire populat= ed the room and came to rest on each disciple.&nb= sp; Each of them was given the ability to speak in languages they had not learned. The Spirit was in the house, and the clues were there in plain sight. The Spirit of God had been in the = world since the day of creation, but on Pentecost, the Spirit was manifest in a dramatic way. The disciples received power, and the Church was born.&n= bsp; Before the morning was over, three thousand people confessed faith in Jesus Christ. From that point onward, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to all= the world, it was as Paul said, “= the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages … has now been revea= led to his saints.”[2] Let’s look at these manifest clues today and see if we can= find our path of illumination.

The fir= st clue to the presence of the Holy Spirit is FIRE. On Pentecost, tongues of fire = danced on the heads of each disciple in that upper room. I don’t know exactly what th= at means, but I know that fire is an experience of intensity. Fire is intense and hot and powerful. When we want to des= cribe an intense experience, we often talk about fire: a burning desire, a “fire in the gut.” Centuries before Pentecost, the prophet Jere= miah described the Spirit within him, inspiring him to speak the Word of the Lor= d: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding = it in, and I cannot.”[3] When the Holy Spirit is within us,= when the Holy Spirit is within a church, there is an intensity of relationship t= hat has to be expressed in a visible way. Intensity of relationship—that’s the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Bishop = Kenneth Hicks told a story in an ordination sermon from this pulpit that I have nev= er forgotten. He was observing a= group of children playing in his back yard, and he was pleased to see that they w= ere playing church. One of the bo= ys was the preacher, and the other kids were listening to the sermon. Then they sang a song and prayed.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It was very sweet.

Then th= e boy said, “Let’s play Jesus.” That’s when things started t= o go downhill. He pretended to be = Jesus for a minute, then the other kids turned on him. They began to push the boy around = and tell him they were going to crucify him.&n= bsp; The scene got more and more heated until one of the children slapped Jesus and spit on him. The boy Jesus yelled, “Stop! Let’s go back to playing church!”

Playing= church is a lot safer than following a crucified Lord. If you want to play church, Pentec= ost is not for you. If you just want= an occasional whiff of spirituality, Pentecost is not for you. If you want to be just religious e= nough to feel good about yourself, then what is described here in the Bible is way too intense for you. If you w= ait and pray and open yourself to experience the Holy Spirit, there will be a burning in your bones, a fire on your head, an intense experience of relationship with the living God, and your life will never be the same again. This is the first clue= that the Spirit is in your house.

The sec= ond clue that the Spirit is in the house is WIND. The Spirit is often described = as wind. In fact, in both Hebrew and Greek, the word for wind and spirit is the same word. When Jesus was try= ing to explain to the Pharisee Nicodemus what it was like to be born again, he sai= d, “The wind blows where it choo= ses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or wh= ere it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”= = [4] The wind of the Spirit is the power of God’s invisible support. When we are down or troubled, = when we experience afflictions, when we need encouragement, people of faith rece= ive the assurance of the Spirit that God is with us. We are not alone. God loves us. God cares for us. We have a spiritual foundation tha= t we can stand on to defeat any enemy or withstand any trial. He is the wind beneath our wings.
This is= how Isaiah the prophet experienced the Spirit: “He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be wear= y, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord will renew t= heir strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not = be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”[5]

I still= wonder every time I take off in an airplane—how does that work? I know the scientific explanation = of aerodynamics, but it’s air that holds a plane up. Air canR= 17;t hold anything. It seems like = you would just hurtle to the end of the runway and then crash in a burning heap. But at some point on the runway, the conditions are right, and you lift up into the air. It still amazes me every time that happens.

It̵= 7;s also amazing how the Spirit can hold us up when we are hurtling through the difficulties of life. T= here was a story several years ago about a mother who took her two pre-school daughters out for a picnic in a park. The park was beside a river. The mother couldn’t swim at all, but they weren’t planni= ng to go near the water. While s= he was busy getting the picnic laid out, all of a sudden she heard her five-year-o= ld scream. She turned to see her standing by the river and pointing. Then to her horror, the mother then saw her three-year-old floating = away in the current.

There w= as nobody else around, so she had no choice but to jump in and try to save her daughter. She ran down the ri= ver bank to catch up with her child, praying all the way, “Dear God, let = me swim! Let me swim! Help me, please! Help me save my baby!”

Then sh= e jumped in and quickly felt the current carry her away. There was no bottom under her feet, nothing to hold on to. But she managed to get close enough to grab her daughter’s hand. As she grabb= ed hold of her baby’s hand, she said she felt another arm reaching out a= long with hers, an arm much stronger and much greater than hers. Together with t= hat arm, she reached out and pulled her daughter to the bank and saved her prec= ious life.
Later s= he said, “I discovered something out in the river that day that I had never kn= own before—a Power greater then me that came and supported me and gave me something I didn’t have myself.”[6]

The Spi= rit of God is like a wind that invisibly supports us in the crisis times of life.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We can depend on it. That’s the second clue.

The thi= rd clue that the Spirit is in the house is TONGUES. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were given the gift to speak languages they had not learned. This is not what we normally think= of as “speaking in tongues”—what the New Testament calls glossalalia. This was not a mystical or ecs= tatic prayer language that requires interpretation. It was the communication of t= he Gospel in the languages of the many nationalities that were present in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost. This i= s what drew the crowd. Acts says = 220;because each one heard them speaking i= n the native language of each.”[7] The tongues at Pentecost were the = clear and relevant communication of the Gospel in a way that brings understanding= .

This co= ntinues to be the mission of the Spirit-filled disciple and church today. We have to speak the word of Good = News to the various tribes that populate our city. We can’t just talk among ourselves. As the old hymn sa= ys, “We’ve a story to tell to the nations.” We have to share the story of salv= ation in Jesus Christ with a lost and broken world—in a way that makes sens= e to them.

It̵= 7;s not always easy for a church to do this. We get comfortable in our traditions and our ways of doing things, a= nd we fail to notice that the world around us has changed. We have to constantly be on the lo= okout for opportunities to communicate the Gospel in relevant ways to our culture. Just this month, the= United Methodist Church launched a new media camp= aign called “Rethink Church.” You may have already seen ads in p= rint or on television. It’s = an effort to build on the slogan “Open hearts, open minds, open doors.” It’s targ= eted at young adults ages 18-34—the age group that is missing from most Un= ited Methodist Churches. ThereR= 17;s a website that focuses on relevant ways to live out your faith. The intent is to change the percep= tion of “open” from an adjective to a verb. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we a= re called to open hearts, to open minds, to open doors. It’s a way to rethink church= .

It̵= 7;s a process the Spirit has led since the day of Pentecost. Almost three centuries ago, John W= esley rethought what church meant for his time.&= nbsp; Confronted with moral decay, poverty, and corruption in his society, Wesley first tried to reform the church from within. The church was too concerned about politics and privilege. Then = John Wesley had a personal experience of the Holy Spirit on Aldersgate Street in London, and the Methodist movement was born. When we visited Wesley’s chapel and home last week, I was struck by how simple it was. Compared to the great cathedrals of Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s, the mother church of Methodism is sma= ll and plain. That’s because W= esley and his Methodists didn’t spend their money building cathedrals. They fed and clothed the poor. They educated the children. They preached in the coal mines. They started Methodist societies at every crossroads in the country. And they saved England from a revolution.

We have= good news to share. If we share it= in a way that is relevant, it will change lives and communities, maybe even a na= tion. The Holy Spirit can give us the to= ngue to speak the word that brings understanding—and new life!

If the = Spirit is in the house, there is fire—an intensity of relationship. There is wind—the invisible = support of the Spirit. There are tongues—the clear and relevant communication of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My hope is that at le= ast some of you are saying to yourselves, “I want that in my life! I want to be a Spirit-filled Christian. I want our church = to be a Spirit-filled church. How d= o we receive these gifts?”

Here= 217;s the best news of all. You alr= eady have these gifts. If you have accepted Jesus Christ and enjoy a relationship with God through him, you already have the Holy Spirit living in your heart. The risen Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive = the Holy Spirit.”[8] He still says the same word to us today. Paul says, “All who are led by the Spirit of God a= re children of God. …When = we cry ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of G= od and joint heirs with Christ.”[9] If you do not know Christ personal= ly, then you will receive the Holy Spirit when you truly become a Christian. If you are already a disciple of J= esus, then you don’t have to do anything extraordinary to receive the Spirit. You pray, and you wai= t, and you grow in your relationship to God, and you will become more and more Spirit-filled. The fire will = burn hotter; the wind will blow stronger; and the tongue will speak more and more clearly.

On this Pentecost Sunday of 2009, here’s my hope for you. May the fire burn in your bones, n= ot to be content with playing church, but to follow and serve Jesus Christ. May the wind be power to support, = guide, strengthen and encourage your spiritual journey. May you be given the tongue to spe= ak the good news of God’s love, mercy, grace, and peace to a lost and broken world. Then you will know the mystery of Pentecost. Amen!

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