Introduction
Renowned Disciples of Christ minister and preaching professor, Rev. Fred Craddock, who died in 2015, tells about a time he was confronted with a question that baffled him. He writes, “Several years ago I spoke at a seminary, and just before the first lecture, a student stood up and said, ‘Before you speak, I need to know if you are Pentecostal.’ The room grew silent. The student quizzed me in front of everybody. I was taken aback. I looked around for the dean! So I said, ‘Are you asking if I belong to the Pentecostal church?
“He said, ‘No, I mean are you Pentecostal?’
“I said, ‘Are you asking if I am charismatic?’
“He said, ‘I am asking if you are Pentecostal.’
“I said, ‘Do you want to know if I speak in tongues?’
“He said, ‘I want to know if you are Pentecostal.’
“I said, ‘I don’t know what your question is.’
“He said, ‘Obviously, you are not Pentecostal.’ He then left.”
Craddock’s story about the young man’s question makes me wonder… How would we have responded to his question? Are we Pentecostal? Admittedly, my initial reaction to the word Pentecostal conjures up images of stereotypical “holy rollers”, speaking in tongues and performing other oddities associated with charismatic worship. It’s fine for others, but it’s just not how we roll.
The Holy Spirit is the facet of God that gives us the most trouble, which is why of all the major Christian holidays, Pentecost is our least celebrated and certainly least understood. Pentecost reminds us of what we don’t need reminded of—God is invisible. We can’t put our finger on God. We can’t lay our eyes upon God because God is Spirit. We must believe without proof; have faith without seeing; hope without knowing for sure.
I’ve spent many a staff and worship team meeting trying to figure out ways to make the Holy Spirit visible and palatable to the senses so that we might have some experience of it. There were wind chimes, mobiles, red geraniums, balloons—one time Ron Neaffer and I experimented with throwing red Cray paper streamers from the balcony to try to make the Spirit’s “tongues of fire” somehow understandable and visible.
And while we have had some beautiful displays, it is really difficult to convey what it means to encounter the Holy Spirit. Even the biblical writers had a difficult time talking about the Holy Spirit, and whenever they did they had to use metaphors around fire, wind or dove; or they described it as power or energy. It’s not easy to make the intangible, tangible.
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But let’s go back to our question—who, other than Pentecostals, are Pentecostal? But maybe a better question is: Who has ever had an experience with the Holy Spirit? And the answer is, of course—we all have!
So on this day of Pentecost, let’s talk about how we are all Pentecostal.
Move 1
What’s critical to understand about Pentecost is that Pentecost reminds us what we don’t see has more impact upon us than what we do see.
We may not realize it but our encounters with the Holy Spirit happen on a regular basis. In fact, we actually define the most important aspects of our lives by our experience with the invisible Holy Spirit.
Case in point, to the eyes of many anthropologists there is no difference between a human being and an animal. Our internal organs, our nervous systems, our digestive systems, our brain functions are all very similar. And yet Christians believe our visible organs, our systems, even our brain matter does not define human life—human life is determined by what is invisible—the Spirit in us.
Humans have the capacity to love, create, forgive, hope, and believe. We alone can make commitments; know justice from injustice; be moral or immoral. We alone are made in the image of God because into each life God breathed God’s breath of life—God’s Holy Spirit. We are who we are because of the invisible Holy Spirit within us. And it is the Holy Spirit that came at Pentecost that makes us Pentecostal.
Move 2
Now, believe it or not, there are some tangible aspects to being Pentecostal. For instance, baptism—which ten students in Pastor’s Class are all looking forward to in the coming weeks.
If when we were immersed into the waters of baptism, or when we had water sprinkled over us as an infant, if all there is to our life is the visible, then nothing more happened to us than the fact that we got wet. There would be no difference between our baptism and a bath or shower. But what does make those tangible waters different is the Holy Spirit.
When the waters of baptism came over us the Holy Spirit descended upon us, and we became more than just a human being. We became forever marked as a child of God; empowered to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ. That Spirit made us clean in a way visible water could not. But in seeing the water we see the Spirit take away the internal dirt of sin, scrub our souls, lay down in death our old rebellious self, and raise us up to new life. We don’t see that happen—but it happens in those waters we do see—which is an encounter with the Holy Spirit.
Move 3
Another encounter with the Holy Spirit happened if you and your partner in life stood before others and vowed your love and loyalty in a marriage ceremony. Your witnesses saw with their eyes and heard with their ears two people making crazy promises that neither had any real idea what was meant, but there was real power and meaning and transformation happening. It was the miracle of two separate lives becoming— in a central and spiritual way— one life. It was the plunging of a relationship—still on the surface—into the depths of intimacy and commitment the couple had never yet experienced.
And all of it was done by the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit that brought you together and it is the Spirit that binds you together.
Move 4
Another Holy Spirit encounter happens whenever we pray. When we pray all that is visible and knowable are mumbled words and scattered thoughts about what we want— words that are often wearisome even to our own ears. There is no audible answer; no assurance the words went any further than the walls and ceiling of the room.
But underneath the mumbled words and scattered thoughts, God’s Spirit is reaching into the inner thoughts and deepest longings—understanding us better than we understand ourselves. It’s just as the Apostle Paul said, “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” It is the cries of the Holy Spirit within us that reaches the heart of God.
Through the Holy Spirit we find and experience the blessings of prayer. We find comfort for our sorrows; healing for our broken hearts, hope for the unknown future. We define our prayer life and find the power to live through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Move 5
And then there’s communion. The meal that sits upon this communion table is the most ridiculous meal any people ever ate. This is one meal that will never make it on the Food Network. Not even the Pioneer Woman (who I love by the way) can assuage the meagerness of a stale cracker and a thimble full of juice. There’s no chance of filling up a small child let alone a hungry Texas rancher.
But there is one thing this meal can do that not even the Pioneer Woman can make happen. In the meagerness of this meal, the Holy Spirit is present—the very presence of the living, resurrected Jesus among us—making this meager meal able to satisfy our deepest hungers for fellowship, forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, and love because there is more here than our taste buds can ever detect.
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In truth, nothing of eternal significance and importance that happens in worship is visible to the eye. All of it is invisible. It is not the words I speak, the songs we sing, the prayers that touch our lives, or the communion we take. What is of eternal significance and importance is what the Holy Spirit does in us through worship.
That’s why you sometimes think I’m speaking directly to you—but I’m not—the Holy Spirit is! It is the Holy Spirit each Sunday that changes us from individuals in a room or online, into the body of Jesus Christ.
It’s the same power at work when we see people suffering and our hearts break; when we feel the irresistible urge to give our money and/or our time to do something about it. That is the Holy Spirit of justice and compassion moving in us to act on behalf of God’s heart.
When we stand at the graveside of a loved one if there is no Spirit all we see with our eyes is a casket, dirt and a hole in the ground— the final resting place for the person buried there. But because of the Holy Spirit, Christians stand beside that hole in the ground and know it’s a launching pad wherein our loved one takes off into eternal life through the power of the Spirit that comes like a mighty wind to reach across the boundaries our bodies cannot enter and raise us up into a spiritual body that will see God face to face. These tangibles, and more, are all encounters with the intangible Holy Spirit. And they are what make us Pentecostal.
Conclusion
Whether we realize it or not, we are Pentecostal because being Pentecostal means having to do with the day of Pentecost—when God’s Spirit is given to God’s people. That is what we celebrate today.
Being Pentecostal is not about stereotypical holy rollers, speaking in strange tongues, or performing acts we think odd associated with charismatic worship. Being Pentecostal is about recognizing and celebrating the very deeds of power God does in our lives that make our lives worth living. Being Pentecostal is about knowing and embracing the countless encounters with the Holy Spirit we have had and that we are who we are because there is more to us than meets the eye, we are more than flesh and bones—we are spiritual beings, given life by the breath of God, saved by Jesus Christ, and sustained by the Holy Spirit.
Which means then, if ever asked “Are you Pentecostal?” your answer can be an unequivocal “Yes. I am Pentecostal.” Now if you are asked if you are charismatic or speak in tongues—well, that one is on you.
So may this day of Pentecost, instill in us, that yes, we are all Pentecostal. And thank God we are—because being Pentecostal means God’s Holy Spirit is within us all. Happy Pentecost. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, May 23, 2021 Pentecost Sunday
Holy God, we come to worship thankful for our church and our families, and for our church family. We pray your call upon our lives becomes clearer, through your word and your church, that may we know hope and meaning, that may we know our call and the vision you cast. May we be the church you want us to be so that we can have the lasting impact of showing others the power of your Holy Spirit. For that is the premise, and the promise, of Pentecost—an ongoing, everlasting display and source of your grace and love.
So on this day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of your Holy Spirit, and the birth of the church, keep us ever aware of this precious and powerful gift. Help us to always know that…We are gifted with the power of the Holy Spirt to be peacemakers in a world torn by violence. We are gifted with the power of the Holy Spirt to receive forgiveness to our own sin and are equipped to offer forgiveness to others. We are gifted with the power of the Holy Spirt to be courageous in the face of descent and rejection due to false assumption about the church, or those who are church in unfaithful ways. We are gifted with the power of the Holy Spirt to share the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, in understandable, clear, and engaging ways.
So we pray you embolden us to testify to your presence in the world, to exemplify your love for all humanity by sharing with all the hope and joy we have come to know because of your church—the church of that first Pentecost, and the church we are family to today.
We ask that you would listen now to the prayers of our hearts as we offer them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”