Acts 2:1-21
Today is Pentecost. One of the great holy days of the church. Pentecost is often informally referred to as the birthday of the church. On Pentecost we celebrate the church’s birth. Which begs the question: How is a church born? What event constituted the birth of the church?
Many organizations trace their birth or beginning to an organizational meeting of convention. A group of people want to establish an organization so they get together, elect officers, create a constitution and draft by-laws. And an organization is born.
Or, thinking of current events, a corporation might describe its birth as an initial public offering of stock, enabling people to purchase a share, to be a part of the corporation’s life and mission.
Or maybe a building is built. A church’s birth might be identified with the completion or dedication of a church building.
None of these, of course, describe the birth of the church that we remember on Pentecost. We heard the story from Acts. What event happened on that Pentecost? God acted. God acted. The disciples were huddled together waiting. Hoping and trusting in God, but uncertain and fearful. And God acted, sending the Spirit.
The Book of Acts tells us that the Spirit came with a sound like a rushing wind and tongues, as of fire, rested upon all who were assembled there. And the effect of the Spirit was instantaneous. It’s not so much that the Spirit came that’s important. It’s what the Spirit did that matters. The effect of the Spirit on the disciples is what we should focus on. And the effect of the Spirit was to bestow the gift of proclamation. Immediately, the disciples began to proclaim the Good News to all nations… Peter, inspired and empowered, stood up to preach… The Spirit bestowed the gift of proclamation, and the church was born.
William Willimon [in the Interpretation commentary] writes about the Pentecost story in Acts:
“To those in the church today who regard the Spirit as an exotic phenomenon of mainly interior and purely personal significance, the story of the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost offers a rebuke. Luke goes to great pains to insist that this outpouring of the Spirit is anything but interior. Everything is by wind and fire, loud talk, buzzing confusion, and public debate. The Spirit is the power which enables the church to “go public” with its good news, to attract a crowd and, as we shall see in the next section, to have something to say worth hearing…. Pentecost is a phenomenon of mainly evangelistic significance.”Pentecost lets loose the power of proclamation. The church was born through the gift of proclamation. Certainly a phenomenon of evangelistic significance.
In the verses following today’s reading Peter rises up to preach. Remember this is Peter who not so long ago turned his back, skulked away and said of Jesus, “I do not know the man.” But the Spirit gives Peter the gift of proclamation and Peter says to all of the people gathered there:
This Jesus, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders and signs…
This Jesus, God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses…
Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified…
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to then, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.Acts says that 3000 were baptized that day. The power of proclamation.
If we look at the Bible overall, descriptions of the Spirit are complex and manifold. The Spirit is described in different ways and does different things. We some of that in the epistle and Gospel for today. This sermon is not an academic treatise on the Spirit. My focus is on Pentecost, and Pentecost is about the Spirit’s gift of proclamation.
The gift of the Spirit, given at baptism, empowers, motivates, enables individuals with the power of proclamation. To be baptized means to become a proclaimer.
In a roundabout way, this leads me to think of a spiritual, I think it’s a Christmas spiritual; at least, I have it on a CD of Christmas spirituals by Odetta. I think I’ve quoted it before.
If anybody asks who you are, who you are, who you are… You tell them you’re a child of God.And then the pronouns get muddled, which is part of the song’s grace.
Anybody ask who I am, who I am, who I am… tell them I’m a child of God.It’s not clear whether I’m supposed to tell them or you’re supposed to tell them. Both are good. Then there’s a verse:
Anybody ask who he is… and he is Jesus… anybody ask who he is, tell them he’s the child of God. Anybody ask who he is, who you are, who I am… Anybody ask you tell them you’re the child of God.That’s a pretty good place to start proclamation. To proclaim yourself a child of God. To proclaim others children of God. To proclaim Jesus the child, the Son, of God. To let people know that you are a child God; to let others know that they are children of God; to let the world know that Jesus is the only Son of God.
Each of us can do that proclamation in our own voice, in our own way. Proclamation doesn’t have to be loud or eloquent or come from a pulpit. But it does have to be heard. Proclamation has to be shared with others. And each of us has some body to whom we are meant to be the proclaimer. Each of us has some opportunity into which we are meant to speak the Good News of God’s presence and love. Each of us, in some way is meant and empowered to be a proclaimer.
Just a little bit later in this service, we will baptize Ted. Among many other wondrous gifts, the Holy Spirit is bringing to Ted today his own power of proclamation. Ted’s powers of proclamation are as yet inarticulate, but the gift is given.
And we who are witnessing this baptism have at least two jobs going forward: One is to help Ted experience the truth of who he is, of who we are, and of who Jesus is. We all have a role in helping come to truly know himself a child of God, to see others as children of God and to know Jesus as God’s Son.
And we also have job to help him develop and find his own voice, his own particular calling of proclamation, a gift given him today by the Holy Spirit.
