Father John McGinn, Rector

Saint John’s Episcopal Church

Sandwich, Massachusetts  02563

 

                    May 27, 2007                                                                                                          1st Day of Pentecost

 

The sermon today is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verses 1-21:

 

Almighty God, we thank you for having renewed your church at various times and in various ways by rekindling the fire of love for you through the work of your holy spirit.  Rekindle your love in our hearts and renew us to fulfill the great commission which your Son committed to us, so that individually and collectively as members of your church, we may help many to know Jesus as their friend and savior.  Empower us by your Holy Spirit to share with our neighbors and friends our human stories and the context of our divine story.  Enable us to pray more and love more and serve Jesus and our community more.  Amen.

 

Eleven-and-a-half years ago when I came to St. John’s as your Rector, one of the first people I met was a woman named Betty Sweeney.  And I know that many of you remember her well and maybe many of you have known her for many years.  Betty, like all human beings, had her pluses and minuses, but she was a very, very special person, as far as; at least I think, being inspired by the Holy Spirit.  She had a particular feeling about the people of Haiti and also those people going through difficulties in Northern Ireland; and she spent a great deal of her time trying to reach out beyond herself. 

 

The other thing I want to tell you is that when Betty died a couple of years ago,  I received a notice in the mail that she had left a gift from her estate of thirty-seven thousand dollars to St. John’s Church, again leaving a legacy.  This was Betty’s final legacy to humanity; what she left to our church and other charities in the world. 

 

And I want to talk this morning about legacies for a moment.  This Memorial Day weekend we remember those who died in our nation’s service.  Regardless of how we feel about war in general, or war in particular, it is only right that we should pay homage to those men and women who have laid down their lives for our country.  This is the legacy that they bequeath to us.  A free and prosperous land.

 

When Jesus of Nazareth left this earth, he bequeathed a legacy for his followers.  He left his Holy Spirit to comfort, to guide, to empower them to be all that God had called them to be.  Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the church.

 

When Jesus of Nazareth left this earth, he was not understood by many people.  But when the Holy Spirit came, it changed things.  And you know the story well.  It was the day of Pentecost; the disciples were together in one place.  And suddenly a sound like a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house.  And the disciples saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages. (I’d like to say to Phyllis: good job in getting all those names down this morning from the book of Acts.)

 

Also gathered in Jerusalem from that Pentecost celebration were devout Jews from many nations.  And when they heard the commotion, a crowd of them came together in bewilderment, because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language.  Utterly amazed, they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how is that each of us hears them in his own native tongue?”  Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 

 

Some, however, made fun of the disciples and said, “They have had too much wine.”

At this point, Simon Peter addresses they crowd, “These people are not drunk as you suppose,” he says.  “It is only nine in the morning.  No, this is what was spoken by the prophet, Joel.”  On the last day God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesied, your young men and women will see visions, your old people will dream dreams.”

 

Pentecost is the birthday of the church.  Before Pentecost the disciples had been a rag-tag crew of well-meaning but ineffectual followers.  After Pentecost these same disciples became such powerful witnesses that it was said of one of the disciples, Simon Peter, that his mere shadow passing over a physically distressed person, could bring about healing.

 

Before Pentecost the disciples were fearful and fickle followers who could not be depended upon to even stay awake while Jesus was praying in the garden of Getsemity.  And after Pentecost, they were willing to face persecution, and even surrender themselves to torture and death in order to testify that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

 

Before Pentecost, they were pathetic, listless, introverted.  After Pentecost, they were filled with power, spirit power; and they went on to win the world.  This was Jesus’ legacy to the world:  a spirit-filled church.  And that, of course, is who we are intended to be today.  A power-filled, a purpose-driven community of faith making a dramatic difference in the world.

 

Pentecost is a good day for us, I think, to take account of our discipleship, both individually and corporately.  Are the kind of  force in the world that Jesus has called us to be?  There is a story told about an employee who did so little work that he was fired.  A friend came to the boss and said, “I want to apply for the vacancy that Joe left.”  The boss replied, “Joe didn’t leave a vacancy.”  

 

That could be said today of some churches.  If they disappeared, they wouldn’t leave a vacancy.  That could also be said of many followers of Jesus.  And the question is, could it be said of you?  If something were to happen to you tonight, would the community feel a vacancy where your life had been?  How about our church:  would it make a difference in our world?

 

I know some of you are football fans and may know about the twelfth-man tradition at Texas A&M University.  Texas A&M students are known as “Agies.”  And the twelfth-man tradition is one of the great legends of sports.  Non-Agies are often amazed to see the entire Texas A&M student body stand throughout an entire football game, except during half-time.  This unique Texas tradition is based on something that happened in 1922 during the Dixie classic football game.  The game was played in Dallas, and Texas A&M was facing Central College in a hard-fought contest.  The Texas A&M team was depleted by injuries to the point that coach, Dana Bible (I love his last name!), wasn’t sure he had enough players to compete in the game.  Then coach Bible remembered seeing a former player, E. King Gill, sitting in the stands.  The coach had released Gill from football to play basketball earlier in the season.  And coach Bible had Gill brought back down from the stands, and suited up on the sidelines so that he would be available to play should the Agie team need him.  Gill became what was know as the team’s twelfth man.  The Agies went on to win without Gill’s help, but on that day, a tradition was born.

 

To this day, hard-core Texas A&M fans stand ready as a body to show their willingness to play if needed….to be the twelfth man.

 

I think it is a wonderful story, but I think it can have a misguided lesson for the church.  I sometimes wonder if many church folks don’t already view themselves as the twelfth man.  They come dressed up on Sunday morning, standing ready as a body to show their willingness to play if needed…to be the twelfth man, but they never seem to get on the field.  They never volunteer to teach Sunday school, or work on the stewardship campaign, or help with work in the thrift shop, or on one of the committees of the church, or invite friends to worship; and all the various ministries that help the church carry out its mission.  They have great intentions.  But you know about the road paved with good intentions.  Nobody can do everything that is required to move a church forward, but all of us can do something.  Pentecost is a good day to assess where we are as a congregation, and as individual members of a congregation.

 

Of course, sometimes the church itself is rather anemic in its witness.  Amazing things happen in churches.  An old seminary professor told us how he ministered in a church that had a major fight over two piles of wood.  This church had a wood stove in the center of the sanctuary that heated the building.  Two groups that didn’t get along with each other took turns stoking the fire and keeping it lit.  However, one group claimed that they were working harder than the other group to provide the wood.  As a result, both groups provided the wood, but in separate piles.

 

Now one child (and thank you for having children here this morning because they’re our great theologians).  One child, while reading the scripture one Sunday, used his own version of the well-known text from Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 5:  “One faith, one war, one baptism and two wood piles.”

 

Amazing things happen in churches.  We can be silly.  Sometimes we seem uncertain about who we are and what we are about.  That’s where many of us find ourselves on this Pentecost Sunday.  We look at the church at its birth, and we wonder:  Could we have that kind of joy, that kind of love, that kind of power in the world today?  And I believe the answer is “yes.”   Yes, we can, and how can it happen?  It will happen when we open ourselves to the same power that created the church in the first place.

 

God never intended for us to be timid in our witness; anemic in our discipleship.  God  intends rather for us to be bold and forthright and courageous.

 

I want to give you a good example:

 

 I am reading a book right now….I’ve been reading it for a few weeks….it’s entitled “Rabble-Rouser for Peace, Desmond Tutu.”  It’s by John Allen, and it’s a wonderful book!  It really kind of  buoys you up because, as you know, Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize.  He was one of the real instruments of change in South Africa, as South Africa worked, and finally overthrew, apartheid.  And I believe that he is one of the most powerful witnesses for Jesus today.  And he is a black man, and he is South African.  Most of you, I think, are familiar with Bishop Tutu.  He is now retired, and he sometimes comes to the United States giving sermons and talks.  He’s just an inspiring person.  I have had the pleasure of hearing him speak a number of times.  He’s not powerful because of his position as an archbishop; he’s powerful because of his faith in God.

 

You know, one of the incidents in the book describes an incident in St. George cathedral in South Africa during the days of apartheid when a sermon of Bishop Tutu was interrupted.  South African security police filed into the building with weapons and tape recorders and cameras.  Their mission was to somehow intimidate Bishop Tutu so that he would not speak boldly against the apartheid government.  Now Bishop Tutu stared them down.  Now if you could imagine this man:  I don‘t know what his actual height is but if he‘s five-six, he‘s tall.  But he is so powerful when he speaks.  He said to these security police, he said, “You are powerful, very powerful, but I serve a God who will not be mocked.” And then with a dazzling smile, he said to them, “Since you have already lost, I invite you today to join the winning side.”  And immediately the cowering congregation was transformed.  They began to dance, and they danced their way into the streets and where even more security forces waited there to intimidate them.  And the security forces end up standing aside, and they let the people dance.  And Bishop Tutu, I think in this incident, was presiding over a contemporary version of Pentecost. 

 

Now, I confess to you, that I look at my own life as a priest and think of the times when I could have been a bolder witness for Jesus.  I don’t like conflict…I don’t think any of us enjoys conflict.  I don’t like to make you or anyone else feel uncomfortable.  I want our church to be a happy place, a peaceful place.  But don’t you sense that we as a church are just sometimes scratching the surface of what we could be as a congregation if we yielded ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  There are people in our community who need what St. John’s has to offer.  I really believe that.  There are people in our community who need us. 

 

So I close and say,  “What is a human being worth anyway?”.  And I go back to Betty Sweeney.  And, you know,  she left her legacy to the church, and she left so much more in terms of her commitment to following the Holy Spirit, as she felt that spirit was guiding her.  And,  you know, as far as what is a human being worth, it all depends.  A disconnected human life is a waste.  Connected to an uplifting faith and a loving spirit that flows from the living and loving heart of Jesus, this simple person becomes a powerhouse of life-giving hope.  That is the answer to our lives, I think, as individuals and as a church.  We need to recover our connection to the Spirit of Jesus.  We need to depend on God’s power.

 

Amen

 

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