May 23, 2010
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Everywhere we went, we met large crowds of pilgrims in the Holy Land. We waited for almost an hour at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to touch the rock that is thought to be where Jesus was born. At Mt. Tabor, great crowds queued up to board mini-busses to climb the winding road to see where Jesus was transfigured with Moses and Elijah. At the Garden of Gethsemane filled with ancient olive trees and pilgrims from around the world, we saw the place where Jesus prayed while his disciples fell asleep. When we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was buried, we didn’t even bother to line up and was satisfied just to be near the place. We lined up under the warm sun to visit the Temple Mount to see where Solomon’s Temple once stood but is now the Dome of the Rock, only the second most visited holy places for Muslims next to traveling to Mecca. We went to the Western Wall, the only remnant of what was once Solomon’s Temple to see how Jews come to leave a prayer in the crevices of the old stones, how Orthodox Jews study the Talmud and young boys celebrate their bar mitzvah with great fanfare. Crowds of pilgrims and worshipers and tourists were everywhere!
After a little while, we stopped thinking that we were conspicuous—pilgrims from San Francisco Bay Area. We became just one group of many. What we may have thought to be uniquely Californian or Chinese-American became less noticeable. We were one of thousands of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The Holy Land brought diverse people together and we were all known as “pilgrims.”
Day of Pentecost
In the Old Testament, Pentecost or “Shavuot” was an agricultural festival during which the first fruits of the harvest were brought to the Temple. The name Pentecost comes from the fact that there are seven full weeks, 49 days, from which the second day of Passover to the day before Shavuot. The 50th day is Pentecost (fiftieth). The festival came to be associated with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. That was its primary meaning during Jesus’ days.
In our passage for this morning, Acts 2, Luke is using the occasion to speak about the giving of the Holy Spirit. Whereas for Jews Pentecost meant the birth of Judaism, for Christians it would mean the birth of the Church.
Acts begins with Jesus promising, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). That promise is soon fulfill. But power to do and be what?
Unlike the transfiguration (Mk 9:2-13) where the deep mystery at the heart of God is shown only to a couple of disciples or only to Moses when he received the law on Mt. Sinai, Pentecost in Acts is a revelation to a whole crowd of people. No one is excluded from the glory of the Holy Spirit. The tongues of fire rest upon “each” (Acts 2:3) of those present. Every single person hears the disciples speaking in his or her native tongue (2:6). Just about every corner of the Greco-Roman empire is listed in the roll call of places named (2:9). What happens at Pentecost gathers a crowd from all over the earth and touches every single one in the crowd.
The crowd in the street about 3000 people reacts to this multi-cultural outpouring of the Spirit with mocking and sneering. They thought the disciples were filled with new wine. But Peter interprets the descent of the Holy Spirit as a sure sign that God is working God’s promised signs and wonders in reconstituting and gathering Israel as a nation of prophets.
The divisions in humankind are being healed. A new family is being born, the lost are being found, a great harvest is happening called the “church.”
When any group of pilgrims visits the Holy Land, there’s an instant camaraderie that develops. Waiting in long lines, we undoubtedly will detect a familiar accent or notice a common slang and begin to inquire where we are from. At the hotel buffets, we see other pilgrims from other countries or other parts of the States and can’t help notice that they are there for the same reasons we are there. The Holy Spirit gathers diverse groups of pilgrims from all over the world to the Holy Land and touches every single person in the crowd.
FCBC Pentecost
The Holy Spirit is present with us this morning. How do you think we can be here today? With our differing opinions, conflicting doctrines, and opposing ideas of how to truly be a church, there is no way that we can do this for ourselves.
Human beings are diverse. Differences among people, even Christian people, particularly Christian people, are thoroughly understandable. The Bible is complex, an often conflicting, multi-vocal book. No wonder, there are disagreements over biblical interpretation. Not how we came by car or BART to church this morning? But, how did we all get here together at this common table? How did this motley crew, called “God’s people,” all get here today, here in this congregation, or for that matter, any other congregation of Christians?
We had all been scattered to the four winds. We began as one family, all descended from one common ancestor. But then we scattered. We took up different ways of talking and different ways of living. We were separated by race and tongue and culture.
Then, on Pentecost we were all gathered in one place. We were not much more than a conglomeration of strangers. We couldn’t understand one another. We had little in common with one another. We could hardly be called much more than a gathering of strangers.
Then, without warning, without being requested, the Holy Spirit descended. And what happened? People began to talk in our different languages and wonder of wonders, people began to hear one another. We who were strangers were made into one family. It was the birthday of the church.
Now do you see how we got here? We are here, all together, not because we share the same opinion. Not because we are all of the same socioeconomic level, or are born in the same country or speak the same language or have the same backgrounds. We are here as a miraculous, unexpected work of God’s Holy Spirit.
You’re here gathered as you are—our church is but one of the many miracles of the risen Christ.
Because we are all so different, maybe there are things that I don’t like about you, and as you have been listening to me in the last few minutes you are reminded that there are things that you don’t like about me. But that is quite beside the point. Jesus has called us to be his disciples, that is, Jesus has put us here in church, together.
One of the greatest challenges about following Jesus is being with other people who are following Jesus! We didn’t very much like all those other crowds of pilgrims pushing and shoving to go to the front of the lines in Jerusalem. When people decide to leave the church, it’s not that they are fed up with Jesus or that they have had enough of Jesus. They don’t say, “His way is too difficult. We are not up to it.” No, what they are more typical to say is, “We love Jesus and all that, but this group of people at such and such church is a pain in the neck. They’re back-biting, there are arguments at board meetings, and squabbles over the budget. They fight over the smallest things. We’re leaving for a place where people are more spiritual!”
But in Acts, we see the lesson that one of the most “spiritual” conglomerations of people gathered and imagined is the church!
This year’s group of 34 pilgrims to the Holy Land was such a conglomeration. We were not all from FCBC but from at least 5-6 other churches. We were not all Chinese-Americans. We didn’t all live in San Francisco. Some of us wanted the biblical context of what we were seeing while others just wanted to sense the moment. We were female and male, younger and older, richer or poorer. But for 14 days, we became the church only made possible by the miraculous, unexpected work of God’s Holy Spirit.
But our crowd of pilgrims didn’t stop with just with the 34. The power of the Holy Spirit led us to worship with Palestinian Christians at the Christian Alliance Church in the Old City even though we couldn’t understand one word of Arabic. We shopped at Palestinian stores knowing the importance of supporting Palestinian Christians who are struggling economically in having their products and goods sold in larger markets. We met Mr. Gabrielle who is the owner of the travel agency and he gave to each one of us a metal cross that he designed for pilgrims. We heard and wept over the stories that Jack and Ruby, our guides told about the struggles they have to endure in exchange for peaceful coexistence in the Middle East. It’s only the power of the Holy Spirit that descends and gathers a crowd, makes a family out of anybody and everybody to become the church!
Earlier Jesus told a parable that portrayed the reign of God like a great banquet. The first, the “big and important” people are invited to the feast. But they found other things to do. And so in desperation the master of the banquet goes out and invites anybody and everybody—the maimed, the lame, and the blind, the broken-hearted, the failures, the Palestinians, the pilgrims from San Francisco Bay Area, the people who have not been invited to join the country club or black-tie events to come.
Pentecost when the power of the Holy Spirit descends and gathers a crowd, makes a family out of anybody and everybody to be the church!
When the 34 pilgrims begin to share their pictures and stories, collected souvenirs and tokens of their pilgrimage, some of you may say, “They are filled with new wine.” But like Peter who in the past denied Jesus, never preached a sermon before, was able to stand with the disciples, raising 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” (Acts 2:14). You will hear from these pilgrims because they have received the power of the Holy Spirit, a miraculous, unexpected gift from God.
Christ Takes Us
When you travel to any point of interests in the world, you always end up at the gift shop. Visiting the places in the Holy Land is no exception. There are angels and nativity sets carved out of ancient olive wood. There is nearly unbreakable frosted glassware made in Hebron. You can purchase ceramics with the mosaic of the loaves and fishes from the church at Tabgha. Street vendors would come up to you to sell you bracelets, glass beads, and a whole strip of postcards for one dollar. “Don’t you want to take a little souvenir of Jesus with you, mister?” they ask.
No, we don’t take Christ with us; he takes us places. When the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost when the 120 were in the Upper Room, the disciples didn’t just confined themselves there. Peter standing with the other disciples proclaimed Good News to the crowds. Those who welcomed the message believed and 3000 people were added.
As a miracle of the power of the Holy Spirit, we in this church are called to share our faith because there are a lot of people out there, in this age that is now described as post-Christian, who are desperately in need of what we have to say.
On that first Pentecost, the disciples knew what God had done and was still doing in Jesus Christ that everyone needed to hear. This good news changed their lives and they now wanted to change others’ lives too. We are here because of them. We are able to stand and confess the faith we share because those disciples, those ordinary men and women, were turned into apostles and sent out into the world by the Holy Spirit. We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.
I know that the 34 pilgrims can’t keep from speaking about what they have seen and heard visiting the Holy Land. They won’t just take home a little bit of Jesus with them and keep it for themselves. They can’t because it’s the same Holy Spirit that descended upon the disciples in the Upper Room that have descended on them.
It’s the same Holy Spirit that descends on this church, not because we asked for it but out of God’s gracious plan in Jesus Christ to save everyone and everybody to become the church that we preach,
“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.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the haven above
and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Let us pray.
Almighty and ever-loving God, we give you thanks, on this Day of Pentecost, that you did not leave us alone but came to us, in the power of your Holy Spirit, and breathed your life-giving power into every life gathered here this day. You found a way to get to each person here, even when we had no idea of how to get to you. Furthermore, you refused to let us be alone, all locked up in ourselves. You found a way to thrust us into the church, to empower us into the fellowship with a group of people whom we would probably never have joined if you left us to our own devices. By your Spirit you put us into a new, diverse family that stretches from one end of the earth to the other. In all this we give thanks that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, you saved us from ourselves. Amen.