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In a way, that might be considered surprising. As you Bible
scholars know, Pentecost was not originally a Christian
observance. Ancient Jews celebrated the day as a spring harvest
festival, the 50th day after Passover. When the holiday was
centuries old, a religious "spin" was put on it, and Pentecost
came to be the time to remember the giving of the Law to Moses on
Mt. Sinai, but from Canaanite days this season of the year was
the time to celebrate the spring harvest. The festival was one
considered so important that all Jewish men within traveling
distance were supposed to worship in Jerusalem at the temple.
And they WANTED to - it was like a Christian celebrating
Christmas in Bethlehem. And, yes, it was PARTY TIME!
Pentecost was similar to our Thanksgiving, but one crucial
difference between the Hebrew Pentecost and our American
Christian Thanksgiving is that the pilgrims did not grow grapes!
Pentecost was a festival of new bread and new wine! And while we
do not want to make the forebears of our faith sound as though
they were irresponsible, it is true that this festival was
immensely popular and very well attended, not just because it was
the religious "thing to do," but because this was the only day
that a faithful Jew was allowed to drink to excess. In fact,
some rabbis of the period taught that all of the Jewish men had
to drink to the point of intoxication on this day as a sign of
their gratitude to God for the gift of the fruit of the vine!(2)
Hmm. Now do you see why I am surprised that modern commerce has
missed this golden opportunity?
Our lesson from Acts, chapter 2, recalls the first Pentecost
after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Just
before he was taken up out of their sight, the Lord had
instructed his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait, which they
had done. For ten days, off and on, they had been having a
prayer meeting. No doubt, they reminisced. They talked about
the three incredible years they had traveled the countryside with
this most amazing man any of them had ever known. Then, just
seven weeks ago, they had experienced the emotional roller
coaster ride of all time, first seeing their hopes dashed in the
horrifying crucifixion of their teacher, only then to be shocked
by his resurrection from the dead. Then, for 40 days, there were
occasional visits from their risen savior, but those visits ended
when he bid them farewell and disappeared from their sight one
final time.
To be painfully honest, up to this point, scripture portrays
the disciples as pretty much clueless...bumbling fellows who
never seem to understand the Lord's teachings and who appear
hopelessly taken with themselves and their private concerns.
Even in the account of the Lord's ascension into heaven, they
were still asking Jesus if he was about to throw out the Romans
and give Israel back to the Israelites! The apostles do not seem
to understand much at all. To their credit, they knew enough to
do what they had been told: Go to Jerusalem and wait. Now, it
was about to pay off.
Pentecost. It began at daybreak with the sound of the ram's
horn being blown and a priest standing on the city wall waving a
loaf of bread in each hand. The city was full of the sounds of
laughter and celebration, and everywhere you could see the
reunions of old friends and families meeting for the festival.
No doubt, there was a sense of anticipation in the Upper
Room. After all, it was a holiday. But I doubt that any of our
friends envisioned what they were about to experience. Suddenly,
the room was filled with the sound of a mighty wind... tongues of
flame danced over their heads...wind and fire, ancient signs of
the presence of God. It was the coming of the Holy Spirit among
them that Jesus had promised. In their excitement, they all
began to speak at once creating a cacophony of sound such as
would be heard at a United Nations celebration. Their gathering
looked like a fiesta - no problem - remember, this was Pentecost!
No wonder some passers-by thought it was some hearty party.
Not so, said Peter. He defended the group's honor by
protesting that it was still only 9:00 in the morning, and even
on Pentecost they had not had time to get drunk. He stood and
preached from the window of the upper room to the people gathered
in the streets below him:
Visions and dreams. Interesting that Peter should hark back
to Joel on Pentecost, of all days. After all, Joel's prophetic
ministry came in response to a terrible plague of locusts that
had come over his country, devouring and devastating everything
in its path - there would have been no harvest to celebrate.
Then again, perhaps Peter is wiser than we give him credit
for. He and the people who hear him preach know very well that
Joel's message was that the coming of the locusts was God's wake-up call to a disobedient nation. Joel's theme was the coming
"Day of the Lord," and the judgment that would ensue. Now Peter
was issuing another wake-up call in Jerusalem.
For what it is worth, Joel's call worked. The locust plague
did indeed get Israel's attention. The people repented, changed
their way of living and began anew. The locusts were finally
driven off, and the people experienced a time of fruitfulness and
abundance. And on Pentecost, people responded to Peter as well -
3,000 souls answered the call of the Gospel that day. Powerful
preaching. Powerful message. Powerful God.
Both Joel's and Peter's sermon noted that there would come a
time when God's Spirit would come upon the people in a special
way. For Joel, it was sometime in the future. For Peter, it was
right then. At such a moment, incredible things occur. And they
start with visions and dreams.
One of my cyberfriends reminded me this week of a National
Geographic special that aired within the past year or two which
featured a man (whose name I cannot remember) - a senior citizen,
in his 70's or 80's - who climbed a mountain in Antarctica. When
he made it to the top and was asked if he had anything to say to
those watching, he replied, "Dream big, and dare to fail."(3) That
will preach. You do not often hear Richard Nixon quoted from
pulpits, but he once said our people need "the lift of a driving
dream."(4) That will preach, too. If God's Pentecost gift to the
church is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to new visions and
dreams, we ought to get on with it.
Does the church have enough dreamers? We do have lots of
wonderful things - great facilities, wonderful programs, gifted,
dedicated people. But do we have that "lift of a driving dream?"
I look around at the American church, and it certainly
appears that the congregations where great things are happening
are those which are not afraid to dream...filled with folks who
know that dreaming is not a waste of time but at the very heart
of who we are and what we need to thrive. Dreamers do not focus
just on what is, but imagine what can be. Dreamers do not say,
"We've never done it that way before," they say, "So what? Let's
give it a try." Dreamers do not squash creativity or quench the
Spirit when someone shares a new idea by first naming every
reason why it will not work. Instead, they say, "Well, let's see
what we can do!" Dreamers are never satisfied with just staying
in the harbor, they are always pointing to and longing for the
horizon.
It has always been that way. It happened in the days of
Zwingli and Luther and Calvin. They dreamed. It was called the
Protestant Reformation. And the church was changed. It happened
here in America...twice. Big camp meetings and long sermons and
people getting emotional. It was called the Great Awakening and
the Second Great Awakening. People dreamed...and the church was
changed. It is happening today in the church in third world
countries. Where the Holy Spirit of God has been let out of the
attic, the winds of God are blowing. People come by thousands to
worship in Africa. In Korea there exists the largest church in
the world, with hundreds of thousands of people in one
congregation. They cannot build churches fast enough. People
sit in trees in Africa, and in Korea they worship in shifts.
People dream...and the church is being changed.(5) What is YOUR
dream, YOUR vision?
Leaders in the church do well to spend more time dreaming,
seeking the vision God has for us here in this place at this time
in history. Concerned to serve rather than BE served, to
minister to rather than BE ministered to, to feed rather than BE
fed. Then we share that vision with our people, leading them to
more prayer, to seeing the vision, adding to it, and all of us
coming together to work to see it become a reality. What is YOUR
dream, YOUR vision?
There is nothing quite like the "lift of a driving dream."
When we have a vision, when we know who we are and where we want
to go, it guides and sustain us. It keeps us going when the
going gets tough. Without it, we drift without an anchor, we
wander in the wilderness. As the writer of Proverbs has it,
"Where there is no vision (or dream), the people run amok."(6)
What is YOUR dream, YOUR vision?
Martin Luther King, Jr, spoke so powerfully of dreams. "I
have a dream..." he said.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed --- "We hold
these truths to be self evident, that all men are
created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia
the sons of former slaves and the sons of former
slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the
table of brotherhood...
I have a dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of their
character -- I have a dream today.(7) And that dream lifted him, lifted his people, lifted us all.
His dream changed our world. What is YOUR dream, YOUR vision?
Another dreamer who was a powerful influence on King also
had a dream. He could envision a whole world of faithful
followers: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of
the age."(8) They murdered the dreamer, but not his dream. He
lives on in us, empowers us. And what a lift it is when HIS
dream truly becomes OUR dream. What IS YOUR dream, YOUR vision?
Recently there was another National Geographic TV Special,
this one about eagles living on cliffs. It is always windy there
and all the eagles have to do is stretch out their wings and the
wind lifts them. They could stay like that all day. On
Pentecost we are reminded of the Spirit, who comes like a mighty
wind, to empower us with VISIONS AND DREAMS. What are yours?
Amen!
1. Plant Encyclopedia, via Internet, http://homearts.com/affil/gardb/plants/pentlanc.htm 2. Roger L. Ray, Sermon via Internet, "The Church Aflame," Lectionary Homiletics 3. Brian Mangan, via Ecunet, "Bottom Drawer," #1175, 5/14/97 4. Bass Mitchell, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1997 05 18," #90, 5/13/97. Much of the "dream" allusion comes from Bass' insightful note. 5. Janice W. Hearn, Sermon via Internet, "Messiness Is Next to Godliness," Lectionary Homiletics 6. Proverbs 29:18 7. Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968 8. Matt. 28:19-20
Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be
known to you, and listen to what I say...this is what
was spoken through the prophet Joel: '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.
You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say:
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with
deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through
him among you, as you yourselves know - this man,
handed over to you according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up,
having freed him from death, because it was impossible
for him to be held in its power...This Jesus God raised
up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being
therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and
hear.
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