May 11th, 2008
197 Browning Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3K 0L1
REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS
Acts 2, Matthew 12
Pentecost Sunday
Today is Pentecost - the day that we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit - the day that the followers of Jesus went from being a scared group of followers hiding in an upper room - and became a brave and passionate movement.
Today is Christian Family Sunday - also known as Mother's Day. A day to among other things celebrate the gift of family and the gift of mothers.
Now the question that every minister has been asking themselves over the last couple of weeks is - How do am I going to put those two things together? Both are important both are worth marking - and they fall on the same day. So by the end of this morning's sermon you can decide how successful I have been at putting the two together. - Because I am not prepared to ignore one or the other - they both matter, they both are important.
Jesus had been doing his thing - preaching, teaching, healing - getting in arguments with the religious leaders - all that stuff One day he was inside a house teaching his followers - who were seated on the ground listening to him - when a messenger came to him and said - "Your mother and brothers are standing outside - and they want to talk to you."
And Jesus said words that may sound harsh to us - he said, "Who are my mother and brothers? My brothers and sisters and mother are those who obey the will of my Father in heaven."
Now we could hear Jesus as rejecting his family - or we could hear Jesus as defining a new family - an expanded family. I think he is defining a new family - but anytime something gets re-defined we get uncomfortable - anytime we are invited to see the world through a different set of eyes - there is a part of us that gets very nervous. So Jesus' re-definition of family makes us uncertain.
But let's go deeper into what he is saying. It is worth noting the stance of those inside the house - they are sitting listening - they are letting their lives be formed under the teaching of Jesus. They are sitting at his feet (both literally and figuratively) discovering what is His will - discovering what He is calling them to live like - so that they might obey. That they might live under His leadership.
The group outside are standing. You know how it is - there is a speaker and there are some people close to the front - sitting completely absorbed in what is being said. They are not going anywhere. Then at the back of the space there are people standing some of them even have their arms folded across their chests - they are not sure what to do - they are still making up their minds - are they simply going to walk away -- or are they going to move forward and find a seat and become engaged in what is being said. The question Jesus is raising is this - what are these people going to do - they have not yet come into the inner circle - they have not joined the committed followers - they are not yet part of the family that Jesus is building.
For Jesus is building a family - the Christian family - and we catch a glimpse of that family on the day of Pentecost.
Pentecost is not a standalone event - Pentecost is the promise of Easter being fulfilled - the promise that if Jesus goes away he will send a Comforter who will remind them of all things.
At Pentecost - the followers of Jesus - the disciples and the others - about 120 in all are gathered -- and there is a sound of rushing wind - a wind storm banging things around - and then what looked like tongues of fire come down on each of them. And they are speaking in languages they have never studied - glorifying and praising God. This is a joyful scene of celebration - this is no quiet, introspective arrival of the Spirit - this is power and celebration and noise and joy.
Acts 2 tells us that people from all different countries in the known world heard the glory of God proclaimed - heard the good news of Jesus declared. And there is that long list of countries and places - and we go through it - and because we don't know the history and geography of that part of the world they are just names to us. But the list starts with Parthians and Medes - Parthia and Media had not been nations for more than 400 years. They had ceased to be in anything but footnotes in history books for a couple of hundred years. So what is going on here?
This new family that Jesus is building - this new family that the Holy Spirit is drawing to the start of Jesus - this new family is not limited by time. All who have obeyed the will of Jesus' Father - God our Father - all who have obeyed that voice throughout time are brothers and sisters with us in the family that the Holy Spirit is building. Time is irrelevant to this family.
And so is geography - the list covers the known world. People of any time, of any place, who have obeyed the will of God the Father - they are brothers and sisters with Jesus. They are family with us.
The Holy Spirit comes in wind and fire - and transforms the followers of Jesus from a small group of people who talked the same language and shared the same worldview into a group who had nothing in common except that they were all people who had been invited to become part of the family that Jesus was creating, a family of people who obeyed the will of Jesus' Father in heaven.
We must not notice the outward thrust of this movement - the public nature of this transformation. The Spirit did not come to just change the inside lives of people although that is part of what the Spirit does - the Spirit also pushes us out - to live this Christian faith publicly - pushes us out to be those who extend an invitation to all the world to become part of this family - the Christian family - the family that hears and obeys the will of the Father. All are welcome in this family - are welcome to move from being outsiders to becoming insiders. We can never assume that someone is from too far away a place, from too different a culture, from too difficult a worldview to not be welcome.
It took a rush of mighty wind and tongues of fire to get the first followers of Jesus to understand that the limits they placed on the family were too limiting. And the Spirit is in the business of continuing to blowout the limitations that the church through time has placed on who is welcome into the family. The only criteria as Jesus said was, "Those who obey the will of my Father in heaven."
A friend of mine in university told me that every day that he went out the front door of his house on his way to school -- his mother would say to him, "Remember who you are." When my friend told me that - I thought it sounded like a threat. But now as I reflect on it - I think his mother was very wise. Wise because her son would meet each day who would try to define him, try to make him be and do certain things, and she was saying - "You don't need to be those things, remember who you are."
Each day that we wake the Holy Spirit says to us, "Remember who you are." And who are we - we are brother and sisters and mothers of Jesus - as we choose to obey the will of Jesus' Father in heaven. As we remember who we are, the Spirit invites us to open the doors of the family to let others in, to welcome others. As a mother might say - "We can always set another place at the table - there is always room for one more."
This Pentecost - this Christian family Sunday - let us remember who we are. This Pentecost - this Christian Family Sunday -let us welcome all who obey the will of Jesus' Father, regardless of their race, or language, or history, or background.
