“Awesome Ride”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009
Text: Acts 2:1-21
You can't judge a book by its cover, but librarian and National Public Radio commentator Nancy Pearl thinks the first line can tell you a lot. "I think when you read a good first line it's like falling in love with somebody; your heart starts pounding… it opens up all the possibilities."
Consider Charles Dickens, from A TALE OF TWO CITIES, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . .” And from Tolstoy, ANNA KARENINA, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Nancy Pearl cites this opening line from L.P. Hartley’s, THE GO BETWEEN: “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.”
It seem to me that one of the best opening lines of all time comes from the history of the Church, as recorded in the Book of Acts: “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of violent wind . . . .” And there is more. “Divided tongues of fire rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
Of course, these are not the opening lines of the Acts of the Apostles, but they should have been! Luke, consensus author of Acts, missed his chance in chapter one, but after some repetition and some organizational issues, the story he has to tell takes flight in chapter two. “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of violent wind . . . .” Now we are hooked. Now our hearts start pounding. Now the possibilities are opening up, and there are no limitations. Hang on; this book is going to give us an awesome ride!
As his narrative continues Luke reports that a crowd quickly gathers, people from every nation. They are amazed and astonished to hear the gospel proclaimed in their own native tongues. Well beyond our passage today, Luke says this first celebration of Pentecost culminates in the conversion of about 3,000 people.
In the intervening centuries, events in the life of the church have calmed considerably. All across the nation, Presbyterians will be celebrating Pentecost today. If true to form God’s “frozen chosen” will have not a single hair out-of-place and not a single button unbuttoned. The only wind blowing will come from pipe organs; the only flame, from non-drip candles. But, you gotta admit, we’ve have had an awesome ride.
Huston Smith, author of the classic RELIGIONS OF MAN, now revised as WORLD RELIGIONS, writes: Regardless of what one believes about Easter,
. . . no one can doubt that (at Pentecost) (the Spirit of Jesus) jumped dramatically to life, transforming a dozen or so disconsolate followers of a slain and discredited leader into one of the most creative groups in human history. We read that tongues of fire descended upon them. It was a fire destined to set the whole Mediterranean world aflame. Men who were not speakers became passionately eloquent. They exploded across the Greco-Roman world, preaching what has come to be called . . .the Good News. Starting in an upper room in Jerusalem, they spread their message with such ardor that in the very generation in which Jesus lived, it took root in all of the leading cities of the region. 1
From the Emperor Constantine to the vast Holy Roman Empire from the construction of the great cathedrals of Europe to the Reformation; from the great revivals on the American frontier to the mega-churches of today, the Spirit has given Christendom in the western world an awesome ride.
Now “the wind and the flame” are blowing and burning with remarkable intensity just to the south of us.
Over the past century, Christian populations in the West have either been holding steady or declining, while in Africa, Asia, and Latin America-- the ‘global South’ in current geopolitical coinage--the numbers have been rising significantly, and in some cases dramatically. Today there are more Christians living in the global South than in Europe, North American, Russia, and Japan. Roughly two-thirds of all Protestants live outside Europe and North America. 2
According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Africa is leading the charge with 390 million Christians, more than three times the number 35 years ago. In 1965 the Christian population of Africa was around 25 percent; today it is almost 50 percent.
Right in the thick of this burgeoning growth is the Presbyterian Church of East Africa--the PCEA--founded by Scottish Missionaries 118 years ago. One of the PCEA’s most dynamic leaders is Dr. Alphonse Kanga who spent eight years here in Birmingham, earning four degrees in preparation for a return to his homeland where trained pastors are in short supply. The PCEA has 4 million members—but only 500 clergy persons, That is one pastor for every 8,000 members. By comparison, our PCUSA has just 2.3 million members but 16,400 ordained and active ministers, or one pastor for every 140 parishioners. Dr. Kanga serves as pastor of the largest Presbyterian church in the capital city of Nairobi, preaching every Sunday for up to 7,000 people.
Sara Miller, writing in CHRISTIAN CENTURY, says, “Observers of Christian growth have been suggesting over the last few decades that the faith is experiencing a significant migratory moment, not unlike the first explosive venture outside the tribe of the Jews into the unfamiliar world of the gentiles.” That movement--begun at first Pentecost-- “internationalized Christianity.” Then, with missionary work of St. Paul, Christianity was ‘Hellenized,’ incorporating Greek thought and converting the Roman world. Eventually, our faith spread across the continent of Europe. “The point historians of religion make is that Christian expansion was not just a matter of adding more people but of adding other people and other cultures to its family.” Miller concludes, “This is how a religion with a Palestinian homeland came to be associated with a European heartland.” 3
Concedes one Roman Catholic church leader: “We are seeing a shift from a Eurocentric base (the Vatican, Geneva, and Canterbury) to a more worldwide base, including Africa and South America. The center of gravity of Christianity is shifting to the south.” 4
O give us ears to listen, (we sang in our opening hymn today)
. . . .
O give us ears to listen,
And tongues aflame with praise,
So folk of every nation
Glad songs of joy shall raise. 5
Tongues aflame with praise . . . ! It is happening all over Africa, South America, and Asia. We in the West had quite a ride-- an awesome ride with the Spirit for more than 2000 years. We cannot begrudge sisters and brothers to the South their own Pentecost-- their own exciting experience of riding the Holy Spirit’s waves of wind and flame.
As for us, as for the Christian Church in this part of the world, the wind may have subsided a bit; the fires of yesteryear, grown smaller; and our speech, more subdued. Even so, we join the poet of Israel praising God
31May the glory of the LORD endure for ever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works— (Ps. 104)
We are a piece of God’s work. This little congregation, and our 97 years of faithful ministry on this street corner--we are a piece of God’s work, begun at Pentecost and going forward even now. In the book of Acts the gift of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing gift, not just a onetime event. The Church, even this Church is constantly changing, according to the Spirit’s leading.
Finally, Pentecost has something very important to say to those who feel discouraged, disillusioned, even excluded by the Church. From the very beginning, Christ calls individuals into community to form the Church-- individuals of every nation, every language, every race and culture, male and female, old and young, gay and straight . . . . From the many, the Spirit binds us together to form the Body of the Risen Christ.
In the last days, and in these days God declares,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh--
(even upon you, dearly beloved)
and (you) and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and (you) and your young people shall see visions,
and (you) and your old folks shall dream (sweet) dreams (see Acts
2.17).
21 (And) everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall . . .
shall have relationship with God, now and forever.
Now to the One
who by the power at work within us
is able to do far more abundantly
than all we ask or imagine,
to God be the glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Ephesians
3:20, 21
1 Smith, Huston, THE RELIGIONS OF MAN, 1958; Perennial
Library edition, 1965, p. 313.
2 Miller, Sara, “Global gospel: Christianity is alive and
well in the Southern Hemisphere, CHRISTIAN CENTURY, July 17, 2002.
3 Ibid.
4 “Fastest Growth in Christianity in Africa,”
www.christianpost.com, Feb. 28, 2005.
5 “On Pentecost They Gathered,” Jane Parker Huber, from
“A Singing Faith.” Text: © 1981 Used by permission of Westminster
John Knox Press.