This morning we continue into our second Sunday
of our summer sermon series, Rooted in the Spirit,
where we're looking at the fruits of the Spirit
and how we may learn how to live them out. So
we start looking again at Galatians chapter 5,
verses 22, and I'm going to read through verse
26. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self -control. There is no law
against such things. And those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires. For if we live by the Spirit,
let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not
become conceited, competing against one another
or envying one another. In our second reading,
the Pentecost story coming 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. And divided tongues as of fire
appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each
of them. And all of them in that space 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 of these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear each of us in our
own native language, Parthians, Medes, Elamites,
and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt
and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors
from Rome, both Jews and proselytates? Cretans
and Arabs in our own languages, we hear them
speaking of God's deeds and power. And all were
amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,
what does this mean? But others, they sneered
and they said, they are filled with the new wine.
But Peter, standing with the eleven, he raised
his voice and he addressed them, Men of Judea
and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known
to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these
men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is
only nine o 'clock in the morning. No, this is
what was spoken through the prophet Joel. 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 too shall prophesy. And
I will show portents in the heaven above and
on 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. And then everyone,
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Friends, this is the word of God for
us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Will
you join me in prayer? Let us pray. Good and
holy God, you have called each of us into this
place. From wherever we were, it was your voice,
your spirit that was a wind at our back and brought
us here together. May that same spirit fill this
room. maybe with the sound of a violent rushing
wind, that our own spirits and hearts might be
transformed by your word, that we might be sent
out a new people, renewed in our mission for
the world. May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of all our hearts gathered here in
this place be pleasing to you, O God, our rock
and our redeemer. Amen. So last summer, I had
the joy of taking a group of our youth on a mission
trip to Cedar Kirk Camp and Conference Center,
which is in Lithia, Florida, just outside Tampa.
Some of you may have heard about this trip, in
particular, the bus AC breaking on the way down
to Florida in the second week of June. And if
you know anything about Florida, the second week
of June is not an ideal time to have your AC
break down. But other than that being a memorable
moment of the trip, this trip was significant
for me because it was an opportunity to share
a place that I love and hold dear with the youth
that I've been called to serve. Cedar Kirk, it
stands for the church among the cedar trees.
And I trace my call to ministry back to my lone
summer there as a camp counselor. It was that
summer that God called to me again as he had
many times before. But there, that summer, I
finally listened. And what a gift it was to share
the holiness of that place with those youth.
Now there's a tradition on the last night of
camp where everyone who has been present gathers
around a large campfire, a bonfire really, and
after the counselors take time to share dances
and skits or stories and songs, Mark Orendorf,
who is the assistant director of Cedar Kirk,
he approaches the campfire and he walks around
it slowly. Very intentionally. And he talks about
the power of the relationships and the bonds
of community that have been built during the
week, no matter if you are in the kindergarten
camp or senior high leadership or like us in
the Challenge to Change mission program. And
as the fire there flickers and it crackles, Mark
goes on to share that we as a community are like
this fire. We are strong and we are fueled by
one another. And we are able to withstand almost
anything when we are together, when we are united.
And it's then that Mark takes some sort of other
stick and he knocks a coal from out of the flames.
And he goes on, sometimes, sometimes a coal is
thrown out from the fire. And what happens if
this coal stays out of the flames too long? And
a child shouts, it'll go out. It won't be on
fire anymore. And Mark responds, that's right.
And like this coal, if someone in our community
strays or is even excluded from the group, not
only do they eventually lose their light, But
our collective fire, our light grows weaker and
weaker. Mark takes that stick again and he scoots
or knocks that coal back into the flames. And
he says, it's our call that we must bring these
coals back into the fold so that our fire, our
flame can continue shining bright. Strong once
again and united. That all may know they belong
here. That everyone, everyone may know the love
of God because everyone deserves, deserves to
feel the joy that we feel here in community.
Everyone. is included here. In Pentecost, we
read and we hear that no one, even in this mysterious
circumstance, no one is left without understanding.
With the flames of the Spirit resting there on
the heads of the disciples, everyone hears of
God's power and God's love in their native language.
Peter speaks the words of the prophet Joel, I
will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your
sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young
shall see visions, and your old shall dream dreams.
The message of the Spirit's descent in this way
is that there is no joy in division. There's
no joy. In exclusion. And how powerful. How powerful
that like Pentecost, the fruits of the Spirit
are for everyone. They're all inclusive. Everybody
understands the fruits of the Spirit when they're
presented in one's own language. Love and joy,
peace, patience. kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self -control. No one is excluded
from these. No one is excluded from understanding
the deep truths and powers of these fruits. Now,
these fruits, they may look or sound or smell
or even feel different in different cultures,
different societies, different moments of life.
But that diversity of lived experience, of knowing
joy and love, that is representative of who God
is. There's no division in joy. There's only
celebration. And I want to admit that by no means
am I the best read pastor. I can read, but I'm
not the best read pastor. And I'm often not able
to regularly recall countless theologians or
scripture verses for the perfect circumstances.
It's just not my gift. However, every now and
then, lightning strikes in a bottle. And as I
reflected on the Pentecost story this week through
the lens of joy for our sermon series, Richard
Foster's book, The Celebration of Discipline,
popped into my mind. Now in this book, Foster,
related to you? No. Foster in this book, he lays
out the importance. of inward and outward spiritual
disciplines that we can lean on that will lead
us to a faithful life, that will lead us as close
as we can get to being like Christ. And it's
in the last chapter that Foster writes about
celebration. And he notes that this is an intentional
move because he believes that living into the
spiritual disciplines that he's laid out before
this, or I might say even the fruits of the Spirit,
that living into these, it's meaningless, meaningless
if we don't live with joy. He calls at one point
joy the motor or the energy of our faith. But
it's this quote that stands out to me above the
rest. Joy begets joy. Laughter begets laughter.
It's one of those few things in life that we
multiply by giving. Joy begets joy. And it multiplies
by us giving it. Joy is a gift. And it's not
like other gifts that we may receive that we
are to hoard or hide for ourselves. No, joy is
meant to be shared, given, and expressed repeatedly.
We are called to live with celebration. at this
gospel that we've received. It's in Pentecost
that the disciples are given the Holy Spirit
and they are sent to give as they too have received.
And to share that joy of God's love in Christ's
saving grace so that all may know, that all may
understand, that all may be led into a life of
the fruits of God's Spirit. Friends, the story,
it begins here in Jerusalem. But the next chapters,
they're still being written. We are writing them.
And those chapters, this story, it expands from
Jerusalem to the very ends of the earth. Now,
Pentecost occurs in the Jewish tradition 50 days
after the Passover meal. Fifty days after the
meal where Jesus sits at a table with his closest
friends, looking at them, even the one who is
to betray him that night, and it's there at that
table that he gives them a gift. The gift of
his body and the bread broken. The gift of his
blood in the cup that is poured. The sacrament
of communion which to this day we participate
in every time that we come down and we gather
at this table together. Now for 50 days and seven
weeks, seven Sundays of Easter, we have, like
the disciples, lived in a sort of limbo. We've
known. We've understood. We've had the joy and
the hope and the resurrection fill our spirits
and our hearts, our very beings. But at times,
I wonder, have we still been awestruck or confused?
Have we been sitting here wondering, what do
we do with this? What do I do with this new reality,
with the news of resurrection, of death, which
has been defeated with this gift of joy? What
do I do with this? And in Pentecost, the Holy
Spirit fills us once again with joy as our motor
to share the good news. It is in Pentecost that
we too are ordained to prophesy, to vision. to
dream dreams, to imagine and wonder, and to proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that
he will come again. Pentecost says that everyone,
everyone, not only needs but deserves this joy.
After our 50 days of waiting, of getting to this
moment, I wonder what would it look like for
us as individuals and as the collective, what
would it look like for us to take these next
50 days and to focus our lives on joy with a
holy intentionality? To take 50 days, starting
right now, 50 days. And to be led by the Spirit
of God that's filled us with joy. To go out like
rivers from a spring, spreading that joy as it
continues to flow in and through us. As Alan
noted, Pentecost marks the beginning for us of
ordinary time. But I want to say, forget ordinary
time. What does it look like for us to see this
as a time of joy? and for joy itself to become
extraordinary. I wonder. Friends, our world is
torn apart. It's torn apart by war, by political
divisions, by economic disparities, by injustices,
and by fear. So what would it require of us to
lead with joy in a world like that? I believe
that it quite simply would require for us to
be the church. To be the church of Jesus Christ.
To be the church of Pentecost. Because in our
very birth, we are called as the church to be
a river of joy in the world. That in joy, people
might find hope. That in celebration, which is
the holy chaos of joy lived out, that the world
may know peace and belonging and the love of
God who called all things into being. What would
that look like? 50 days of joy. And once we complete
that, once we've met our goal of 50 days, let's
go for 50 more. And then how about 50 more from
there? And then we just keep going. Keep going
until the joy of the Spirit is the motor of our
faith, that the joy that God has given us is
the driving energy in the world around us, able
to transform anything. Let's be rooted in that.
The Spirit of Pentecost. The Spirit of joy. 50
days. 50 days. Let us pray. Lord, on this Pentecost
Sunday, may your spirit fill us, we who have
been waiting for our sending. May it fill us
with love and joy, with the motivation to go
out. knowing that we do not go alone. May you
give us the strength and the courage to keep
at it when we feel like we've reached a dead
end. For we know that together, as we point to
your Spirit, to your good news, to your Son,
Christ, anything is possible. We pray this all
in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.