Sermon June 4, 2017
“Where The Spirit of The Lord Is…”
Emory Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Brady Radford
Acts 2: 1-21 (NRSV) The Coming of the Holy Spirit
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven
there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were
sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All
of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them
ability.
5
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this
sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native
language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking
Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes,
Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and
Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and
proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of
power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others
sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
Peter Addresses the Crowd
14
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who
live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you
suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet
Joel:
17
‘In the last days it will 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 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they
shall prophesy.
19
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and
glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
INTRODUCTION:
Thomas Long, the acclaimed preaching professor over at Emory, tells of a very small confirmation
group that he once led; it had just three girls. In one session they were talking about the festivals and
seasons of the Christian year. He asked if any of them knew what Pentecost was, and none of them did.
So, to quote, “I proceeded to tell them that Pentecost was when the church was sitting around in a
group and the Holy Spirit landed on them like tongues of fire. They spoke the gospel in all the
languages of the world. Two of the girls took this information in their stride, but the third looked
1
completely astonished, eyes wide open. She said, ‘Gosh Mr. Long! I must have been away that
Sunday.’”
Now think about that for a moment, because the real significance is not in the girl’s
misunderstanding. In fact the real significance is in the insight that the girl had in her understanding.
For Pentecost is not just about what happened back there — ablaze with enthusiasm, responding to
new initiatives for the gospel beyond the narrow confines of what they had understood — but
Pentecost is something that must happen to the church now. It must happen in our generation and
every generation. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Those were the words Kirk
Franklin wrote back in the early 90’s.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is There is liberty
Where the Spirit of the Lord is The captives are set free
The wounded are made whole,
There is rest for my soul
Where the Spirit is There is liberty”
- Kirk Franklin
And so it is that kind of liberty and freedom and wholeness and rest that we speak of this morning. On
the heels of Jesus’ departure and in keeping with the gift he promised, we enter today’s text to
celebrate Pentecost, to find the disciples and their community searching for an appropriate response to
the in breaking of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s like the gift that you knew was coming but you were not quite
sure how it was going to show up. When it shows up you are excitedly overwhelmed and just a wee-bit
afraid because this is all brand new.
And, that’s a great place to start; all of this is brand new. In fact, this is the Church’s birth story.
The first Pentecost found in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, but it might as well be referred to as
the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, because everything that happens from here is because of the
Spirit. The book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but why don’t we hear very much about the Holy Spirit
except for days like this? Admit it, who gets a little bit nervous when we talk about he Holy Spirit in the
church? C’mon raise your hands.
One day a seminary student was having lunch with his dean and appreciating the uninterrupted
time with his mentor, the young seminarian asked her a question and received an answer he wasn’t
quite ready for. He asked, “Dean, Why don’t you ever talk about the Holy Spirit?” In a very sarcastic
way she responded: “The risks of working with the Holy Spirit are so great that it is better when you
preach to just leave the Spirit out of it. She said, in my dealings with the Spirit, I’ve come to recognize
2
the Spirit can be pushy, assertive and intrusive. It’s the nature of the Holy Spirit to want to take over
wherever the Spirit shows up.
She continued, saying, “One of the reasons we are so fond of liturgy in our church is to limit the
opportunity for the Holy Spirit to intrude upon our worship services. If we didn’t have a tight liturgy, she
told him, “it would be difficult to predict if we could get out by noon. Finally, she told the young
student, You know those congregations who invite the presence of the Holy Spirit can be a bit unruly: “I
have seen them on TV and heard stories about them. They tend to get loose and even begin to shout,
stomp their feet, and throw their hands up in the air all at the instigation of the Holy Spirit… The Holy
Spirit likes nothing better than to take a good and decent liturgy and turn it into a freely flowing
worship service. The Holy Spirit is so unpredictable and when it shows up it wants to change things and
that makes us both nervous and afraid. The student sat quietly and finished his lunch, not knowing how
to respond.
I’m guessing by now you get the point of this story. We like a certain measure of control in the
church. Often we are like the community members in this morning’s passage. When the Spirit shows
up in ways that don’t fit into our regular expectations or common practices, it is easy to misinterpret
God’s agenda. Now, let me be clear, I believe the Holy Spirit is every bit as present in a well-ordered
liturgy, as is possible in a free-flowing service with no liturgy, but the Dean’s sarcasm and words cause
me to think.
-
How often are we entering those doors expecting, waiting, that the Holy Spirit would show up
and move us with a holy disruption, to guide us closer and closer to being the faithful few that
God calls us to be? Let’s be honest, how often?
-
How would we respond if we were the disciples and the spirit broke into our prayer service?
What would it be like for Heather and I to show up one Tuesday morning to find the men,
praying ceaselessly under the spirit?
-
Would you welcome the Spirit or would you be tempted to resist the urging and prodding of the
spirit?
-
You know the biggest challenge Spirit presents?
o
The Spirit does not let us rest quietly into the status quo
o
The Spirit makes us consider ways that God might be at work in and through and
among us that we may never imagine.
Lets see how God was at work through the disciples: Sisters and Brothers, Where the Spirit of the
Lord is…there is a Promise, Power, and Plans for your future.
WAIT 4 THE PROMISE: God’s promise is revealed in the Holy Spirit.
3
In our text this morning we meet the disciples in an upper room. They are there because Jesus had
instructed them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the blessing God would send. I can only imagine being
a disciple and Jesus tells me to go and wait. My first response is, dang Lord, can I do something else.
I’m good at a lot of stuff but waiting is not one of them. When I have to wait, I also begin to worry.
Imagine it the disciples are all waiting in anticipation of the blessing God would send, I can see
them probably praying and eager to receive the next clear signal. They likely encountered tons of
fleeting thoughts, crickets are chirping, is that the spirit; I just saw a humming bird, I never see
humming birds, is that the spirit? Am I the only one who knows what it is like when you’re waiting on a
sign from the Lord and while you’re waiting you end up evaluating every little event that occurs. That’s
where I imagine the disciples to be. They are waiting and while they wait they have nothing else to hold
onto except God’s promise through Jesus Christ. I will send a comforter and an advocate to you.
Friends how many of you know this morning that there will be times when God calls us to wait, but
while we wait there is no need to worry, God’s promises are true. If God says it you can count on it.
You may have to wait for the promise but you don’t have to wonder if it’s coming. Over and over
God has shown us that God’s promises are true.
FROM WAITING TO WONDERING:
Next the text records in verse 4 that after God’s promise showed up, the people began to wonder about
this unknown manifestation of Power. There were no language institutes back then, Rosetta Stone was
not available and still people who had never spoken any other language than their own began to tell the
stories of God in foreign tongues so that all who gathered could understand.
This is a mighty image; I wonder what it would look like in today’s time for us. Maybe we would be just
as blown away as the disciples were back then, if congress members and senators receiving the Power
the Holy Spirit and beginning to speak in the tongues of poor folk and immigrants so that they could rewrite policies and legislation that fits the all people not just the rich and the wealthy. It would look like
sisters standing bare-chest in the middle of San Francisco streets demanding you will #SAYHERNAME
so that the black women who are killed by violence don’t go unnoted. It might look like a Create
Community gathering here in Decatur, where we challenge this city to remember all of its citizens in its
policy and policing practices.
The text records that everyone could hear in a language familiar to them. This is good news.
And yet there were others, as there always is, who looked at the powerful work of God and instead of
thinking yes, God at work, they instead took a page form the book of Jamie Foxx, they said blame it on
the alcohol. They confused the Holy Spirit with the bottled spirits. When the spirit got loose they
confused it with Gin and Juice because they were incapable of seeing the Power of God.
4
Sisters and Brothers, scripture records that those who have eyes to see will see and those with
ears to hear will hear, and how will they see and hear? Because we will tell them and show them. So
Peter, being the newly reformed leader he was, stood up and did what the church does best. He helped
people who didn’t have ears to hear and eyes to see, he helped them interpret the movement of God.
This was the church’s first mission, and if all things are well, you and I are still doing it today. Helping
people to know, the promises of God are true, the power of God is real.
Sometimes we misinterpret and misunderstand what God is up to. That’s why God has
given us the gift of the Spirit to comfort and guide us along the way. One of the ways we
often misinterpret God’s activity in our midst is to think that things that are different are
somehow deficient. Consider the story of Dan and Cheryl, it shows what happens when
God shifts the dynamics of power and when God chooses to use those whom we have
deemed to be insignificant and unsuspecting. Dan was a drug attic Cheryl was a suburban
in socialite. And yet in the midst of God’s divine diversity, he helped these two to
experience a deeper and more meaningful relationship. Soon you will hear more about the
plans for celebrating diversity here at Emory as we partner with local friends in a mural
project. I hope it is something we can all support. I pray it will lead us to deeper
relationships and liberate us from our fears and worries.
Christ has promised the coming help of the Holy Spirit who serves as an advocate to lead us in mission
as the people of God. As we welcome in the power and presence of God in our lives, may we deepen
our sense of meaning and purpose. For where the Spirit of the Lord is there is fuel for us to be filled and
ignited for God’s transformative works of love.
5