Acts 2:1-21 May 31 2020 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 . 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? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, and , and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from , both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs— in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power. ” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised 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. Indeed, these 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 :

‘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 heaven 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.’

This is week two in a three week series, called living the text . We’ll keep this series going another week or two though, and in it we’ll be looking at some more unusual Christian holidays, that I just didn’t grow up celebrating, but are a part of our tradition, and can offer us treasures and practices for living the Christian life.

The premise of this series is that all these days, we celebrate, the whole liturgical calendar from advent to Christmas, lent and easter now Ascension and Pentecost, all these Christian holy days and seasons, are more than just an excuse to change the colors of the paraments. They are instructions… They are guides for understanding the Christian story, and for us today to be live our lives rooted in the life of Christ.

Because that’s why we're here… that’s why the church is still around for years and years… it’s why we celebrate any holy days… so that our life, and our sense of time, would be shaped by the life of .

Because time is a precious commodity. In some ways time is the great equalizer… we aren't all born wealthy, or poor, we’re not all born with the same advantages or privileges, we are all born loved by God, but we aren't all born loved by our parents. Or the society around us. Time than is one of the only constants… and even then not everyone is given the same amount.

Just about everyone I know when asked how are things going has one replies these days… busy. Young and old when asked “what’s new?”… will usually reply, “ oh you know, staying busy”. Busy is an epidemic in our country. We have so many factors shaping the precious little time were given. And most of us know that deep truth, that if you don’t order your time, it will order you. If you don’t set the pace, others with do it for you.

But what would it look like for us as a church, to give honor to god with that one precious gift we’re all given? What would it mean for us today to let God shape our time?

That’s why we come to church weekly, that’s why we have all the seasons and holy days, all of them are a chance for us to have our time shaped not by how busy we are, not by whatever culture surrounds us, not by our own agendas or someone else's, but to have our life shaped by the story of God.

This is what living the text means. To let the story of God told throughout the church year, reorient our lives. To let the story of Jesus change our story. In the Christmas season we see the humility of God who enters fully into human life, for us. God is with us: emmanuel, this truth happened in history but it is also a door for us to see our lives anew, To see that God has taken on flesh, taken on our nature,and is to be found here among us.

During the season of Epiphany we celebrate the light of God, and we too are called to be the light of the world. Christ is baptised in the jordan, and we are reminded of our own baptism, our own identities as beloved children of God. During lent and easter we walk with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, we mourn with him as he wept over lazarus, we feel his betrayal at the hands of judas and peter in all the ways and places we too have been betrayed, or misunderstood by our closest friends.

On the night he was betrayed he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it… even this year during our agape feast we got to see how Christ’s story, invites us to examine our own lives, where we are chosen, blessed, broken, and how we can be given to bless others…

On the cross and in the resurrection we too celebrate God’s victory of sin, and death, and know that the power of the resurrection, will not only give us hope for the future but hope for today, that the forces of evil will not prevail against us.

Every step of the way… These days and holy seasons, through the retelling of Christ story, can slowly over time retell our story. They can change the way we see time itself.

All these stories tell us something about Jesus, but also something about us, and who we are called to be as the church. Each story challenges us to live the text day to day .

And last weeks text about the Ascension and this week as we celebrate Pentecost are no different. The Ascension of Christ that we head read earlier, is an odd text that most of us honestly don’t think much about. If you were stuck in an elevator for three minutes and someone asked you to tell the Christian story, to witness to your faith… I don’t know if many of us would think to mention the ascension… you’ve got to cover the basics…

Jesus is God with us, came as a baby, lived and loved people, taught about the kingdom of God, that upset folks so they killed him on the cross, but he was raised three days later, so when we follow him and call on his name we can be saved and live the kingdom life now and hope that that eternal life we experience here on earth continues on into eternity…

Oh and he ascended 50 days after the resurrection… I mean it kind of feels like an afterthought right? But the truth is much more beautiful than just a last minute detail. It is the icing on the cake… It is the culmination of God’s work through Christ on earth… it is the crescendo of Christ Kingdom calling! It completes the story…

Christ takes up humanity, takes on nature itself in the incarnation, lives and teaches and embodies the kingdom message for all, and suffers and dies our death. Christ is raised up which gives us hope in the age to come. But the ascension though… The ascension is where God takes humanity into heaven. Today on the throne of paradise there is a human being. This Christ now fills the cosmos, and has completed the marriage of heaven and earth.

This is a promise for us. That in the midst of our busy lives, our painful and sorrowful lives, Christ is not only with us, but can raise us up . We too have a place in heaven, and it’s a place we can imagine, and touch now. When we are caught up in worship, when we open our hearts to our neighbors our small and busy lives become charged with meaning and purpose. The incarnation tells us that God is with us… the ascension tells us we, can be with God.

And what of Pentecost ? This day where we celebrate the birthday of the church. What lies for us here in the text, how does this reshape and reorient our lives? At the end of the first passage for the ascension Christ sends the disciples out telling them to carry the message of forgiveness of sins. We flip over and we find them in Jerusalem… and the spirit descends.

We can get a little distracted by the imagery here of flaming tongues and speaking in different languages, and this passage means many things to many different people, but the point of this event isn’t the fanfare and the speaking in tongues… the point of the passage is the fulfillment of their calling. They have been sent by Christ into all the world, to all kinds of people. And guess who shows up for pentecost, who got the invitation to the church's first birthday party? All the world… all kinds of people…

Romans, jews, arabs, egyptians and protestants, catholics, and even the members of your family who only show up for thanksgiving, The whole world shows up at the party… and the message is spoken to each of them in a way they can understand. That’s the miracle… translation .

That too is our calling. That’s how we live this text , when we show up out in the world, and proclaim the gospel in such a way that it can be heard. The spirit doesn’t descend and empower the church for the show of it… It’s not about the pyrotechnics, it’s about the mission. For the world to know the good news of God’s forgiveness and love…

So too, we are invited this week to live the text, by trusting our lives have been raised with Christ in the ascension, and our lives have meaning and purpose because of pentecost. We are called each one of us where we are with whatever time we’ve been given, to translate the gospel into our lives, so the world will see the story of Christ in us .

MAY 31 2020 - PRAYER GUIDE AND DISCUSSION

Opening Prayer Holy Spirit who blesses the church, call us to bless our neighbors anew. AMEN

Call to worship Make us new, make us free Make us brave, make us true Make us children of heaven, now and always

Song of Praise - Find a hymn you love or sing along with “We’ve a story to tell to the nations” on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1q-fDpiKng

Scripture Reading and Sermon

Acts 2:1-21

Questions for discussion

● What did you learn today from the sermon and scripture? Anything new or interesting? Did anything stand out? ● What is your favorite christian holiday? Why? ● Why is it so challenging to bring these stories into out lives? ● How can we today translate this good news into our lives in community?

Closing Prayer

Christ who loves all and fills all, fill us and send us to be your hope in the world AMEN