Sermon: The Wind in Your Sails

Text: Acts 2: 1-21

Date: May 11, 2008 - Pentecost Sunday

(Slide: “Shavuot”) The holiday that we observe today has deep roots in Old Testament traditions. To appreciate the New Testament’s use of and excitement for Pentecost, remembering its history is helpful. On this day, the Jewish holiday is Shavuot. Shavuot is celebrated fifty days after Passover. On Passover, God’s deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh’s yoke is recalled. On Shavuot, God’s gift of the law given to Moses is remembered and celebrated. This celebration also became intertwined with another celebration, namely (Slide: wheat) the harvest festival. The solemnity of Passover was broken by several weeks of harvest ingathering, bringing in the crops of barley and wheat. At the end of the harvest, the old worship commandment was observed to bring the first fruits of the harvest to the temple. Deuteronomy 26: 2. We continue to read as our OT text for Thanksgiving worship in November, “And you shall gather the first fruits of the land and bring them to the priest….”

(Pentecost) Christians have used the name Pentecost for this holiday. Pente is the Greek word for “fifty”. Shavuot comes fifty days after Passover. The OT Passover became the NT Maundy Thursday. A part of the Passover tradition was to sprinkle sacrificial blood on the door post so that the angel of the lord flying over Egypt would spare the oldest son residing in the marked house. A lot of Egyptian overlords came to deep grief on the first Passover, when their homes were not spared from this curse. In the NT, blood is associated with the disciples and Jesus gathering in Jerusalem for the Lord’s Supper. But now, the blood is the blood of Christ offered as the mark of a new covenant with God.

(Slide: fire) There are many other OT connections. The text recalls the tongues of fire that descended up on the disciples. This fire is connected to the fire of the burning bush in the story of Moses and the fire is an indication of the presence of the holy and awesome God on these occasions.

Sometimes there is confusion about what was happening at Pentecost. The Apostle Paul writes about speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, as a gift of the spirit that can assist one in prayer. But this is not what Pentecost is all about. At Pentecost, people speaking in different languages who were in Jerusalem, understood each other and most importantly understood the message of the Gospel as the disciples shared it with them. (Slide: tower of Babel) The OT connection here is the story of the Tower of Babel. In that ancient legend found in Genesis, there was only one human language as the tower was started. God, however, disapproved of the human pride in building a tower to reach heaven. The work was stopped one morning when all the workers arose to discover they couldn’t understand each other. They were speaking in different languages. The story was a way of explaining the origin of languages to children. Theologically, the story explained the origin of deep divisions between races and cultural groups. The Tower of Babel is about division. Pentecost is about unification and bringing together. That story continues to be the story of the church’s work today.

(Slide: a sailboat) There are deep linguistic connections between the words, “Breathe”, “Breath”, “wind”, and “spirit”. Here is where my sailing theme enters today. There isn’t anyplace where I enjoy being more than on the water - more specifically under sail. For the past ten years, I have managed to spend at least a few hours a year sailing on either the Pacific or the Atlantic, and have left those moments counting the days until the next opportunity. I invite you to come along on an imaginary sail this morning, and along the way reflect on the spirit, the wind, the breathe of God.

(Slide: Harbor shot) It’s a quiet morning at the harbor as we prepare to leave. Many boats are bobbing back and forth at anchor as a gentle swell lifts them on its strong watery back. You can hear the floating docks gently rub against the piers and gangways as the tide pushes them up or drops them down. As you approach the dock you start to hear the ropes and lines of the boats pull and tug like horses straining to be set loose.

(Slide: leaving the harbor) Once all are aboard, the captain and his mate start up the engine, untie the lines, and pull away from the docks. You and your fellow passengers are slathering on the sunscreen and checking out that great big boom which the captain has warned can take your head off or knock you overboard if we should suddenly come about later out on the bay. The small engine is used to guide the boat out of the harbor. Harbors are often crowded and small. A sailboat takes room to maneuver, so sails are kept in store until we are safely away.

(Slide: empty sails) As we near open water, the sails are hoisted. We are still under motor power, so the sails are not trimmed. They gently flap in the breeze and with the movement of the boat. They seem to be shaking with excitement for what is about to come. The water gets a little choppier as we near the harbor entrance and more open water. The presence of a wind, hidden in the harbor’s protection, is now very much noticed. You sense that things are about to happen.

(Slide: wind filled sail) Then the magic moment: The captain cuts the motor. The mate trims the sails to position them to catch wind. There is a wondrous life filled silence as the motor is turned off. Then you start to feel the silent, awesome power of the wind as it fills the sails. The sailboat literally comes alive as it jumps forward having found its natural source of power. What was a few moments ago an inanimate object made of paint, wood, bolts, canvass and rope suddenly becomes a living creature delighting to dance in its own element. Sailors for centuries have referred to their boats as “she” not “it” for good reason.

(Slide: sailboat) A sailboat and a sailing excursion are wondrous metaphors for Pentecost. The spirit breathed upon the disciples and they came alive as a boat comes to life by the filling of its sails with wind. The boat wouldn’t get anywhere without the wind and the church is stuck in the spiritual doldrums without the spirit. As Jesus told Nicodemus, the spirit like the wind blows where it wills. You can have a good sailing day with a bountiful amount of wind to drive you anywhere on the bay or you can have a bad sailing day, when the sails sink into stillness and the tide moves you faster than any breeze.

Pentecost celebrates that it is the spirit of God that fills the churches sails. Sometimes that wind can be wild and seemingly out of control. When it comes to the spirit, we are out of control. And that is the point. We are out of control and whatever control we ever had was an illusion, but God is not, and through God’s spirit we are pushed and tugged and moved along to be a part of the Pentecost Story. So hoist your sails and let God’s spirit fill them today.

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