“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire” a Pentecost sermon on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39

Acts 2:1-21
John 7:37-39
“Flowing Water & Tongues of Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 24, 2026 (Pentecost) 

Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit - a fitting day and time to do so, as we observe the day of Pentecost in the church where we remember and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit - to the disciples on the day of Pentecost and to all of us through the ages.

The Holy Spirit is God. God who gave us God’s self in Jesus, also gave us God’s self in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the remaining presence of God within and around us, at work in our lives and in the world.

A note about my use of pronouns for God’s Spirit. The Greek word sophia and the Hebrew word ruach used for the Holy Spirit in the Bible are feminine words. We know that God does not have a gender as we talk about and understand gender and sex today. Jesus came in the form of a man - yes. And God and the Spirit both encompass all gender expressions and transcend above and beyond them. And yet we often use “he” or “him” to talk about the Godhead, especially as God as Father is a metaphor for God that Jesus used and finds great resonance with many followers of Christ. And yet, that can often contribute to the idea that God is male and can separate women from connecting to the Divine or seeing the Divine in themselves. All that being said, I will use the pronouns she/her when talking about the Holy Spirit in my sermon today.

And so let’s talk about the metaphors used to try and understand the Holy Spirit:

We’ll start with fire, as that is where the day of Pentecost normally takes us - the color red and tongues of flame. So let’s talk about fire.

Fire brings warmth, heat, and light.
Fire cooks food.
Fire can also be dangerous. While we have found ways to try and control fire we also know how it can readily get out of control - from a leaping spark, fires started among dry brush, and small flames turned into raging blazes.
Fires can be destructive forces - all of us know someone or know of someone who has lost their home due to a fire. All of us have watched forest fires on the news, praying for those in harm's way and those courageous people who fight them. We should pray specifically as states move into wildfire season this summer with drastic cuts to the forest service who fight those fires. We should also always pray for our local firefighters who respond and help many in our community.
Fires can also be beneficial to the environment - sometimes forests need controlled or small fires to clear out underbrush and even are a part of many native species' necessary life cycle. Sometimes we even do controlled burns for the health of a forest.
A fire can also be cleansing in order to start anew.
In a metaphorical sense, fire is our passion. It spurs us on. It motivates us.

The Holy Spirit is like fire.

Our Acts passage also describes the Holy Spirit coming like a great gust of wind. And in the beginning, in Genesis, we first encounter the Holy Spirit as ruach, this word that means wind, air, breath. So let’s talk about breath and wind.

Breath keeps us alive. We breathe without consciously thinking of it. In, and out, in and out.

Clean air is so important - for our health and the health of our planet.
We can focus on our breathing to regulate our nervous systems, calm our hearts and minds. Our breath is connected to so much more than just our lungs.
The wind offers a cooling breeze, it moves weather patterns, disperses seeds, carries birds through the air.
The wind can also come as a gale, a storm, a tornado - destructive and strong, uprooting trees and causing immense damage.
Wind, breath, air - unseen and yet so necessary and powerful.
Metaphorically wind is the unseen, powerful force that affects our lives.

The Holy Spirit is like breath and wind.

Another metaphor for the Holy Spirit that comes to us from John this morning is water. So let’s talk about water.

Water is necessary for life - our own personal lives and the life of our planet.
Our bodies are about 60% water and our planet is about 70%.
Water teems with life, water is where life started - in the evolution of life on our planet and in the water of a womb.
Water cleans, water renews, water causes growth.
Water is worth protecting and has often been in the news when drinking water is unsafe, Native lands are threatened, and new technology raises concerns of drying up reservoirs.
Water can also be a powerful force - dams generate massive amounts of energy. Water made the Grand Canyon through the natural process of erosion. Water shapes the very world we live in.
So too, floods and hurricanes are a concern - we pray for all those who have experienced loss due to their destructive forces.
Water can be the rain that waters the plants or the flood that wipes away homes and lives.
In a metaphorical sense, water is the very essence of life, it renews and restores, it parches our thirst - literal and spiritual.

The Holy Spirit is like water.

There are many, many other metaphors used to describe the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. Today, we are focusing on these three - and what do they have in common? They are all necessary for life and also impossible to pin down and control. While we may have “tamed” aspects of wind, fire, and water - humans will never control them entirely, we will never fully pin them down. They will do what they will.

These metaphors are so apt for understanding the Spirit of God - for she is impossible to pin down. We will never fully understand her. We will never “tame” her so that the Spirit of God does just what we please, when we please, as we please. No, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is always trailblazing, expanding, and even destroying our notions of who God is and who God includes.

Both of our Scriptures we read today highlight that.

In the story of Pentecost, the Spirit comes like wind and fire and immediately expands the Gospel message to people of many different nations, ethnicities, languages, cultures. It is an explosion of inclusion. Much of the rest of the book of Acts and many of Paul’s letters deal with the cultural differences and misunderstandings that this act caused as Christians of Jewish and Gentile descents (and Gentile here is a very broad term for anyone who wasn’t Jewish - 14 different countries/areas were mentioned in Acts). This was unheard of, unthought of - and yet like a wind that knocks down barriers and a fire that cannot be controlled, the Spirit breaks down walls and sparks a fire that makes the followers of the Jesus movement so much more diverse, and beautiful.

In the Gospel of John today, it’s important to look at what Jesus was saying right before the verses we read. He is verbally sparring with the Pharisees and they ask, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?”

“The Greeks” here is used like Gentiles - anyone who wasn’t Jewish, anyone who wasn’t “like them.”

And then Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

So basically Jesus is saying - it doesn’t matter who you are - Jew or Greek or Gentile - an us or a them - if you are thirsty, come to me and drink.

He doesn’t end there - Jesus says come to me and drink - AND the Spirit will cause water to flow out from YOUR hearts, out of the hearts of the followers of Jesus, a living stream, that will provide water for all who are thirsty.

This is the Holy Spirit working within our hearts and flowing out of our hearts. There are so, so many thirsty people in this world. People who are longing for community, for belonging, for acceptance, for peace, for love. The Holy Spirit, which is the very breath within us, can light a fire within our hearts, and flow out of us like a river, giving living water to those who are thirsty. Through us - through you - each and every one of you - you can be a river of living water to quench the thirst of those who are longing to know God. To know they are beloved children. To know they can have a community. To know that they are cared for by God and can walk through this world surrounded by people who share that unconditional, generous love of God with one another.

My prayer is that not only that the river of living water would flow out of each of our hearts, but that it would be a powerful river, a surge of power forming new paths, a wave that overcomes any barriers we have put up - that it would honor the wall-breaking Spirit of Pentecost and the every expanding energy of the Holy Spirit - that through us and the Spirit’s presence within us - everyone, and I mean, everyone would come to drink deeply of living water. Barriers of language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, and more would cease to exist - would burn away, would be blown away, would be washed away - that through the Spirit, all, truly all, would drink deeply.

How can we do this?

It’s as simple and as difficult as this:

1. Love God. Worship, pray, spend time in the Word.

2. Pray for God to offer opportunities for you to love your neighbor. Pray that God gives you eyes to view all people through the eyes of God, to see people as God sees them. You can practice this too. You can meditate on a stranger at the coffee shop, a figure on the news, someone you know who you have a strained relationship with, or even a person you harbor ill will against or an enemy. Meditate on them being a beloved child of God, ask God to help you see them as God sees them.

3. Listen to and learn from people who are different from you - in any category. Read books, listen to podcasts, have conversations - whatever it may be - with people who come from a different background or school of thought - all those barriers I mentioned before: language, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, creed, etc. This will help each of us better show love when we encounter one another. For there is no us or them, there are only people created and loved by God.

As simple and difficult as this.

Take heart - the Spirit of God is fire, wind, and water. She moves through us, within us and - this is Good News - despite us. The Spirit of God will continue to move, continue to expand, continue to share the Gospel with more and more people - whether we get on board or not. And, God desires us to not only drink deeply of the living water, but allow the living water, allow the Spirit, to flow out of us.

This Pentecost, let us - as individuals, as a community, as a church - be a part of God’s expanding, uncontrollable, powerful, wonderful, beautiful work in this world.

May it be so. Amen.

Call to Worship for Pentecost based on Acts 2:1-21 & John 7:37-39

Leader: As we begin worship today, we cry out:
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Within us, we ask the Spirit to touch us with holy fire.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: For those who are thirsty, in the pews and outside the walls, we pray:
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
L: Holy Spirit, fill us with fire and make living water flow from our hearts.
P: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
All: Amen.

"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.

Pentecost Call to Worship based on Acts 2:1-21

Leader: On this day of Pentecost, we come together to declare:
People: Pour out your Spirit on us!
L: On sons, on daughters, on all your children:
P: Pour out your Spirit on us!
L: On the young and the old:
P: Pour out your Spirit on us!
L: On the free and the imprisoned:
P: Pour out your Spirit on us!
L: On your Church:
P: Pour out your Spirit on us!
L: On our worship this morning:
All: Pour out your Spirit on us! Amen. 

"Living Into Pentecost" a sermon on Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-21
“Living Into Pentecost”
Preached Sunday, May 19, 2024

Today is a big deal! Today is Pentecost, a major celebration in the church year! And yet, we don’t always know that much about this day as it is only 1 day, one Sunday of the year, and it isn’t a Hallmark holiday. There are not any Pentecost sales, greeting cards, or made-for-TV Pentecost movies.

And yet, Pentecost is a very important day for Christians. Pentecost is more than the one day of the Christian year that we wear red and bring out the red vestments. Pentecost is often described as the Birthday of Church - as it was the start of the church, of something new. For this reason we often do confirmations, baptisms, and the acceptance of new members in the church on Pentecost - to celebrate that the Spirit is still moving in and around us and calling new disciples to Christ.

And, Pentecost, really, is the culmination of Easter. It brings us from marveling at the miraculous power of the empty tomb to being launched out into the world to be and do church and to live out the Easter message - as we live into Pentecost.

Theologian and pastor Dannielle Shroyer says this about this day, “Without Pentecost, we’d just be people who tell Jesus’ story. With Pentecost, we’re people who live into Jesus’ story.”

This day, this major holiday and celebration in the church, this day is what makes us BE disciples of Christ, BE the church - living it out in ALL that we say and do, in who we are. This is the day that marks our empowerment to live out the Christian life. As I said, today is a big deal.

So let’s just take a brief moment to understand better some of the background and context for this holiday. Our celebration of Pentecost is rooted in the Jewish celebration of Shavuot. It is one of the three major festivals in Judaism and is celebrated 50 days or 7 weeks after Passover. And so Pentecost is 50 days or 7 weeks after Easter for Christians. Look to the root of the word to help remember that “Pente” means 50.

The celebration of Shavuot is two-fold: first, a celebration of the harvest where Jews were instructed to bring their wheat offering before God AND a celebration of receiving the gift of the Torah. It was also a holiday where ALL members of the household and of the community were to celebrate, no one was left out. So here we see some amazing connections with our celebration of Pentecost. At Pentecost, we celebrate receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. Both the Torah and the Spirit, respectively, are gifts given to ALL, the whole community, no one excluded, to give us what we need to daily live out our faiths. Both holidays, Shavuot and Pentecost are inclusive celebrations of blessings, gifts, from God - given not just to those in the past but to us here today.

And so, it was Shavuot that the disciples were gathered together to celebrate. The Scripture says, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

On that day of Pentecost, that first Pentecost as we think about it as Christians, the disciples were given an amazing gift: the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised to send us the Spirit and on the day of Pentecost, made good on his actions.

The Holy Spirit, however, is the most enigmatic person of the Trinity - the hardest of us to understand and to wrap our heads around. So let’s briefly fly through just some of what our Scripture tells us about the Holy Spirit.

In John 14 - Jesus promises that God the Father will send us another Advocate once Jesus is no longer with us on this Earth. That Advocate will abide with us and in us and will be with us always - never abandoning or orphaning us. That passage continues to say that the Holy Spirit will teach us and remind us about Jesus and his words.

John 15 and 16 continue in this similar vein - Jesus tells his disciples that the Holy Spirit will testify on Jesus’s behalf. That through the Spirit - we will hear and know Jesus. That the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and will guide us all.

Our passage from Romans 8 today told us that through the Spirit God hears our prayers and even that which we can’t put into words. That the Spirit knows us intimately and deeply, helps us in our weakness, and intercedes for us.

The Holy Spirit is also widely referred to as a sanctifying force in our lives. Matthew 13, 1 Peter 1, 1 Corinthians 6, Romans 8 & 15, and so many other places in Scripture talk about being refined or sanctified by the Holy Spirit. What we mean by sanctifying force is that through which we are made more Holy, that through which we are made more like Jesus, that through which we come to better love God and better love neighbor as self.

Galatians 5 says that when the Holy Spirit abides in us and us in the Spirit, it will be obvious as we will bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And there is so much more about the Holy Spirit… There is how the Hebrew word ruach used in the creation narrative is that Spirit that hovers over the waters of creation. How that same ruach, is the very breath that God breathed into us in the creation of humanity. There is how the Greek word sophia meaning Wisdom is often thought to be the personification of the Spirit. There is how the Spirit is always on the move and hard to pin down and so we use metaphors like wind, breath, and fire…

But I did say we’d just talk about the Holy Spirit briefly so I’ll end there. We could do a whole sermon series on aspects of the Holy Spirit. Today, however, I wanted to highlight some of the primary work of the Holy Spirit to emphasize what an amazing gift the giving of the Holy Spirit to us was.

Our Pastor Bible study that meets on Wednesdays has been focusing for the last 6 weeks on Simon Peter and the culmination of our study which will be next week focuses on the story of Pentecost and the post-Pentecost Peter. The stories we have of the disciple Peter, especially during Jesus’s ministry, are just so…human. Peter is a mix of courage and cowardliness, faithfulness and failures. He thinks before he speaks but his heart is in the right place.

But after Pentecost, Peter truly becomes the rock on which Jesus builds his Church. Cowardly, failing, bumbling along Peter…changes. Because he received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit gives Peter exactly what the Holy Spirit gives us:

Courage and strength in weakness.
Guidance.
Words of truth - words of testimony - words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Wisdom and breath and life…

Through the Spirit, Peter becomes the Rock, the foundation upon which Christ would build his Church.

As Christians, every year on this important day of Pentecost, we recount Peter’s testimony. We remember the three thousand some people who said yes to the Good News of Jesus Christ on that day, we remember how the Holy Spirit was poured out on Peter and the disciples gathered there.

So here’s my question - do we truly believe that that same Spirit that was given as a gift to Peter and the disciples on Pentecost, do we truly believe that same Spirit has been poured out, given as a gift to us? Do you truly believe that YOU have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit? And have you truly opened yourself up to receiving that gift?

There are some Christian traditions that place a large emphasis on receiving the Holy Spirit. Some talk about being slain in the Spirit, about speaking in tongues, about being moved to dance and to sing… And well, I think that makes a lot of us very uncomfortable. We’re Methodists! We sit and stand when told to and don’t mess around with that other stuff… But just because we don’t highlight the Holy Spirit in that way, doesn’t mean we too haven’t received this amazing and great gift.

Reflecting on the change we see in Peter but not always in ourselves, when we consider receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, United Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton wrote this, “This is how I think many of us live the Christian life. We fail to invite the Holy Spirit to empower us. We don’t pursue the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, Scripture reading, silence, and others that open us to the Spirit’s power. We are living Spirit-anemic Christian lives…Without the Spirit's work, we lead powerless, impotent, and sometimes even cowardly Christian lives. But with the Spirit we have power, beyond anything we could imagine, to spread the gospel, help make new disciples, and transform the world for Christ.”

That phrase “Spirit-anemic Christian lives” has been tugging at me ever since I read it. Because I sometimes think that we don’t really believe that we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit is OUR Advocate. That the Holy Spirit is OUR guide. That the Holy Spirit strengthens US. That the Holy Spirit is with you and me and all of us always and forever and will never abandon us and is giving us the potential for amazing things in the Kingdom of God.

Friends, on this day of Pentecost, I want to emphasize that you all have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. So open yourself up to all that gift brings. Dream dreams of the future - of God’s Kingdom - of building up the Church. Testify to the amazing things that God is doing in your life, in the Church, and the world. Do not be afraid for the Spirit will help you in your weakness and guide you and comfort you and be with you always.

What would you be like as a person, what would our church be like, what would our world be like… if we all truly lived into Pentecost? If we all truly lived into the gift of the Spirit that was given to us? If we all truly let the Spirit fill our hearts and lead us into the Kingdom of God.

This Pentecost, today, and every day - may it be so. Amen.

Call to Worship for Pentecost based on Acts 2:1-21 & Romans 8:22-27

Leader: Holy God, on the day of Pentecost, you poured out your Spirit on your disciples:
People: So that they could share your Good News, so that divisions would cease, so that the young would prophesy and the old would dream dreams.
L: You poured out your Spirit on the disciples:
P: So that all of creation would be redeemed.
L: Holy God, pour out your Spirit on US.
P: So that we would share your Good News, so that our divisions would cease, so that we would prophesy and dream.
L: Holy God, pour out your Spirit on US.
P: So that all of creation would be redeemed.
All: Pour out your Spirit! Amen.

"Water & Fire" a sermon on John 7:37-39 and Acts 2:1-21

John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-21
“Water & Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 28, 2023

This morning I want to tell you three stories.

The first story goes back to the very beginning, Genesis 1:1-2: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was in complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

That wind from God that hovered over the deep at the beginning of creation was God’s ruach. A Hebrew word meaning breath and wind. The breath of God that hovered over the deep at the beginning of our creation story, is the Holy Spirit, one of the three persons in our Triune God. And the world ruach, that first reference to the Holy Spirit, right at the beginning of our Scriptures, is a feminine word, as are other words used to refer to the Holy Spirit in our Scripture, such as the Greek sophia for wisdom. So as I am telling you stories this morning and talking about the Holy Spirit, you’ll hear me use she to refer to the Holy Spirit. So as the Holy Spirit hovered over the deep, the chaos, the primordial waters of creation, she had a direct role in the creation of the universe, and it’s the start of a long-standing connection between the Holy Spirit and the gift of water.

She was present in the waters of creation. She was present as the flood waters receded and a rainbow, a sign or promise and covenant, appeared in the sky to Noah and his family. She was present in the parting of the Red Sea, when God led the Hebrew people out of slavery, out of Egypt. She was present as the next generations crossed the Jordan River and into the promised land.

And then, she was present with Jesus in the water of the womb, for when one member of the Trinity is found, they all are. She was present in Jesus’s baptisms, in both the water of the Jordan and the dove descending. She was present in the water that gushed from Jesus’s side during his crucifixion and then subsequent resurrection.

The story of our faith, from the beginning of creation to the wider story of Jesus - to today, can be traced through water and traced through the Holy Spirit.

And if that story that I just told you sounds slightly familiar - it’s because you just heard that story retold in our Baptismal covenant as we baptized two young children of God. We trace the Holy Spirit’s presence above the water of creation to her presence in the water here today that we baptize with. Because when we baptize children of God, of any age, we are placing ourselves in the story of the Holy Spirit, in the story of our Triune God, in the story of creation, in the story of God’s salvific acts, in the story of our faith. When we baptize with water, we don’t just baptize with water, we baptize with water and the Spirit. What we are saying is that story that we just told, the story of the Holy Spirit’s presence in all of history, that is our story too. That God, through water and the Spirit, has incorporated us into the story, grafted us in, adopted us into the family as children of God. Thanks be to God for that!

The second story I want to tell you today is the story of Pentecost. In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter, following Jesus’s resurrection and his ascension to heaven. So, today! Pentecost was a Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Here this Scripture from Acts 2:

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?’”

The Scripture continues that the disciples, empowered and overcome by the Holy Spirit, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they tell of how God became human among us in Jesus, how he died and yet rose again, and how eternal life through Jesus is promised to us as well. And each person there understood them, heard them speaking in their native tongue, the language that they were born with, the language of their home countries and mothers, the language of their minds and hearts… And so on that day, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which is present in water and breath and wind, and on the day of Pentecost, fire, on that day, 3,000 people from every corner of their known world converted and were baptized in the name of The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Incorporated into the story of our faith, adopted as God’s children.

Many people call that first Christian Pentecost “the birthday of the Church.” Because on that day, God through the Spirit, through fire and water, gave birth to the Church, empowering new disciples of Christ, adopting so many into the family of God - and then those disciples, having been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, would then go out and continue to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and baptizing children of God.

And from that first Christian Pentecost on, which not only birthed the Church but immediately pushed that Church out, to reach new people, different people, reaching across borders and ethnicities and languages, reaching across any line of divisions…from that first Christian Pentecost on, the Holy Spirit continues to work within, through, and despite that Church. Within, through, and despite US, to birth new things, to ever reach outward, to expand to new people, to cross any line of division, to bring the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to ALL people. Thanks be to God for that!

And so now let me tell you a third story… But it’s a story that I can’t fully tell. Because it’s not just one story but all of your stories. The stories that belong to each and every one of you. The story of how that same Holy Spirit that was present at creation, that was there in the waters of your baptism, how that same Holy Spirit adopted you as a child of God. The story of how that same Holy Spirit that came down as tongues of flames at Pentecost and birthed the Church and crossed lines of divisions and empowered the disciples to spread the Gospel - the story of how that same Holy Spirit fills YOU and empowers you to spread the Gospel. The story of how YOU, yes, each and every one of you, is a beloved Child of God, claimed in baptism, and filled by the Holy Spirit to spread the love of God to all peoples.

Tell yourself your story now. Think about how the Spirit of Water and the Spirit of Fire is the Spirit that lives in you. How has God’s loving, empowering, and transforming Spirit been active in your life? Always, since the moment you came into being.

As Methodist we talk about how the Spirit is active in our lives as grace. That the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, is always being offered to us, always being given to us, even when we don’t realize it. That the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, transforms our lives and our hearts to be more like God’s. That God’s Grace, the Holy Spirit, redeems us by Love, for Love. And how God’s grace, the Holy Spirit, never gives up on us, that continues to work within and around us to sanctify us, to make us more like God, to make our Love more like God’s love, to always push and empower us to better love God and love neighbor.

As Christians, as baptized Christians, baptized by water and fire, baptized by the Holy Spirit in the name of Triune God, that is all of our stories. The details are different. The road to get there is different. And still, it is all our stories. Thanks be to God for that!

These stories are all connected. The story of our baptisms, the story of Pentecost, the story of our lives. I pray that in our being reminded of our stories today, we would remember that we are beloved children of God, remember that we are empowered to share the Gospel of Love with all people, and remember that the Holy Spirit is always active and present in our lives.

Thanks be to God for that! Amen.