"The Church You Can't Control" a sermon on Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-21
“The Church You Can’t Control”
Preached June 8, 2025 

It is the day of Pentecost. The day we celebrate the movement of the Spirit, coming as a violent wind and tongues of fire. The day we celebrate the expansion of the Church, the spreading of the Gospel - across barriers of language, nationality, race, gender, and age. The one day a year I get to dawn my red stole, first worn at my Ordination, and our altar is beautifully decked out in red…Although there has been a movement to see Pentecost as a season, not just a day - and to leave the red up a little longer. Let it breathe a little - as the Spirit breathes among us.

It is the day of Pentecost. Last week we celebrated the end of the Easter season, 50 days after his Resurrection, celebrating that we are an Easter people. Forever changed by the Good News that Life wins over Death. Also, a day we did not observe in worship, but fell on May 29th on the liturgical calendar, 40 days after the day of Easter, was the Ascension. Jesus ascended into heaven, marking a time when Jesus was no longer physically with his disciples, no longer present bodily in this world.

So to re-cap: 50 days ago we met in this space and we flowered the cross, we sang Alleluia, and we rejoiced in the resurrection. That joy and Good News has been living with us for 50 days. And then, 10 days ago (liturgically speaking), Jesus ascended into heaven and the Disciples were left staring up at the clouds. We like the disciples, often find ourselves staring up, looking at the clouds, waiting for Jesus to return. But the message of the Ascension is not to look idly up in the clouds but to look around at our world and get to work. The Ascension should fill us with conviction to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. As Jesus ascends, he passes off the baton to his disciples, to the Church, to us. It is a recognition that WE, the CHURCH, are now the only body Christ has in this world. Christ has ascended but Christ is still physically present IF we choose to embody his love. The Church is in our hands. The world will only know Christ as we embody him.

Which brings us back once more to today. It is the day of Pentecost.

Jesus rose. Jesus ascended. And now….and now what? The disciples were asking themselves this question on that day of Pentecost following the resurrection and ascension. Now what? For so long Jesus was with them, they had purpose in following him and being his disciples. Then he died and the despair and grief nearly ripped them apart - but Jesus came back! There was joy beyond any joy they had ever known…but now, now he left them again. Now they had a mission…but they didn’t have Jesus with them. How were they going to do this? How were they going to lead? How in the world would things work out for them?

It is the day of Pentecost, and we, along with the disciples, are called to wrestle with what the reality of being the body of Christ, of being the Church, in this World means.

It is the day of Pentecost and the Good News of Pentecost is that God sends us a little help! That God did not abandon us. That God is still with us.

This is such Good News…because can you imagine what The Church, big C Church, the whole body of Christ in this world…can you imagine what The Church would look like if God left it all to us without any help? If human beings were solely in charge of the Church? Personally, I think we would be a whole lot less kind, less diverse, less beautiful, less open - less of all the things that Jesus calls us to be.

Human beings make up the Church but we are not in CHARGE of the church - not even pastors or Bishops or the Pope if you’re Catholic. That designation, for all churches and denominations, belongs to the Spirit. Thank God. But a lot of us have a hard time accepting this, because we like to control things.

Now me? I used to think I was this laidback person, Type B with a come what may attitude… I have no clue why in the world I ever thought that about myself. Every week I make 5 categorized to-do lists. I live by my calendar. I have a color coded family calendar on the fridge. I meal plan for every day of the week. When things don’t go the way I want them to go, I can get very frustrated.

One thing I have had to work hard on as a pastor is not doing everything myself. I can’t do everything myself. I fight against the “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” mentality. Because to be clear, that’s not a healthy way to live as an individual or as a pastor or as a church community. No one individual is called to carry the weight of the church on their shoulders…together, we make up the body of Christ, this is a team project, and the One in charge is not any of us.

This desire to control things, to be in charge, to have things in their “right” and “proper” order is not just one I have - it seems to be a pretty prolific human trait and we especially see it in the institutionalized church.

And, well, in a lot of ways, I don’t think this innately a bad desire. God knows that people with good administration skills are often a huge blessing to the Church! Sometimes managing things and taking charge helps things get done - even succeed.

And…here’s the but. When we try and control things, and specifically when we try and control people through laws or rules - when we try and control the Church and the direction she will take based on human measures of successes and proprietary - we limit the possibilities. Because all we have is our own experience, our own biases, our own intended outcomes to influence us. And our Churches begin to look like us - and only us. It begins to only be our way…or the highway. When we try to control the Church, we end up excluding who and what the Spirit wants us to include. Christian author and thinker Anne Lamott famously said that we know we have made God in our image when God hates who we hate. I would add that we know we have had too firm a grasp, trying to control the Church, when we can only imagine it our way, only imagine the Church looking like what we expect it to look like, and when the church excludes those who we exclude.

Let’s put a pin in this for a moment before we return to it.

The other thing that happens when we try and control things is, we get EXHAUSTED. A ministry that is controlled by only one or a few people very tightly may be successful in some measurable way for some time…but for how long? We get burnt out. We get exhausted. We can’t do everything, forever. Think of the daunting task of being the body of Christ in this world. The only body Christ has is you and me. The only way people know who God is, that God cares for them, loves them, and is full of mercy and grace is if we show and tell them – with our words, our actions, our hands, our feet – and even our ears as we listen to the needs of our neighbors.

This is a convicting task. It is an exciting one. It is one that can spur us out into the world in ministry and mission…but for how long can we do it all on our own? It’s a HUGE task. It’s a heavy one. It’s one if we try and do it on our own, if we try to do it all as one person, we will get exhausted, burn out, and fail.

God knows this. God knows our limitations. God knows that when we try and control things – we hold too tight and end up excluding instead of including – and God knows that when we try and do things on our own? We get burnt out. God knows this, and God responds in the best possible way: The sending of the Holy Spirit, coming in a violent wind and tongues of fire. Wind and fire – uncontrollable forces, just like the Spirit herself.

At first this may not seem like the gift we want, when you really consider what the Spirit can do: the Spirit breaks down barriers that we try and put up, barriers that are a construction of our own humanity, not God’s creation.The Spirit will take us places we may have never chosen to go ourselves. The Spirit is this all-consuming, unpredictable source. For people who like things our own way, who like to be in control…we may balk at the uncontrollable gift of the Spirit.

Yet we know that God gives good gifts to God’s children – and the Spirit is a good gift! The Spirit is a part of God just as much as Jesus is a part of God, indistinguishable from the Godhead, as much God as Jesus is God – Jesus ascends, but God loves us so much that God can’t leave us alone. God loves us so much that God comes down to be with us -- again, to fill our lungs with air, to light fires in our hearts, to fill the space between us that separates us and makes us one. This is the work of the Spirit; this is the work of God among us.

God created all of creation, forming us in God’s image with love.
God took on human form in Jesus to live and walk among us, love incarnate.
And then God came in the sending of The Spirit to move, empower, and refreshen us – to fill the Church and to break down barriers so that no one would be excluded from God’s love.

This is the work the Spirit, that uncontrollable force, takes on at Pentecost:

The Spirit allows those from Medes and Elamites and the residents of Mesopotamia, Judea…and all the place I can’t pronounce and that makes a Scripture like this a liturgist’s worst nightmare – but the point is, God allows ALL nations to have the Gospel, the Good News, presented to them in their own language. God meets people where they are. The Spirit breaks down borders of language, nation, and race.

And then as the Scripture continues, Peter says, that sons and daughters will prophecy – The Spirit breaks down barriers of sex and gender.
The young shall see visions and the old shall dream dreams – The Spirit’s message is for all ages.
Even upon slaves will God pour out the Spirit – for what is socioeconomic class to God?

Every single wall that we make as humans: The work of the Spirit is to tear them down. There is no barrier, no distinction, no force that can keep The Spirit from working to bring love to all of God’s children, all of God’s creation.

We hear this! We hear the Pentecost story and we marvel at who God is and what God can do! We celebrate this day with bright colors, red! Bold and audacious. It is also tradition to confirm youth or receive new members of the church on this day. Some churches celebrate this day with cake - calling it the Birthday of the Church. It is a day of celebration! And… if we take the message of Pentecost seriously, it may also scare us.

It is the day of Pentecost - which means we’re not in charge. We can try to exclude and the Spirit will intervene and work toward inviting all into the Church.
We can try and make the Church look the way we want it to look, and the Spirit will intervene and take the Church in the direction the Spirit chooses.
We can try and do it all and get exhausted and burnout or even cynical and bitter…and the Spirit will say, “Church, sweetie, breathe a little bit. Let go. Breathe me in, breathe everything else out. I’ve got this.”

Because that’s what makes The Spirit a really really good gift – we’re not in this alone. We are still the only Body Christ has in this world. We as the Church are still called out into ministry to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world… AND God doesn’t abandon us in this work. God calls us, equips us, sends us out, strengthens and renews us through The Spirit. Now that is something to celebrate! We are not alone in this.

As pastor of this church - I know the Spirit is at work in this place and through you as a congregation. And I know only a fraction of the work this Spirit is doing through and among us. How is the Spirit moving among you? Where is the Spirit trying to lead you? Where is the Spirit trying to lead us, where will the Spirit take us if we just loosen our grip a little and let God be in charge, calling us and sending us out into ministry?

We always have one foot in the church of the past and one in the church of the future. I love the Church – with a big C and with a little c – I love this church – and I also know that where the Church will go in the future is an unknown. I know that by the time I retire from ministry, the Church as a whole will look very different. And in future generations, the Church will continue to take on a different shape and form. Sometimes when I think about this – it freaks me out! It causes me anxiety. I want certainty. I want what I know. I like a ten year plan more than most.

But then I try and remember to breathe deeply. Because the Spirit is moving. Can you feel it? 2,000 years ago with a sound like a violent wind and today – God is not done breaking down barriers. God is not done spreading a message of love. God is not done raising up new leaders. God is not done with the Church. God is creating something new this Pentecost, and we, The Church, the Body of Christ, are invited to be a part of that.

It is the day of Pentecost. Some 2000 years after that day when the Spirit was first given to us…and The Spirit is still at work. The Spirit is still leading, to work every day to embody the love of Jesus in this world. It’s terrifying because I can’t control it – and it’s also exhilarating because I know the Spirit has plans for me, for you, for us, for the Church.

And so Church, this Pentecost I ask, will you join me in this uncontrollable, Spirit led journey of being the Church, of being the body of Christ in this world?

May it be so. Amen.