Sermon - Pentecost Sunday

Sermon – Pentecost Sunday
John 14:8-17, 25-27
May 23, 2010
“Under the influence”

Y’all must be drunk! What are y’all smokin’? I’ll have what they’re having. This was the implication in the comment “They are filled with new wine” uttered by those sneering onlookers of the Pentecost in the reading from Acts (Acts 2:1-21).
We see the disciples gathered and the HS comes like a rushing wind and filled the house and all of those inside. They were given the ability to speak in other languages and all understood the others. Imagine, no need to learn the language, no need for Rosetta Stone, all were given the ability to communicate with one another across language barriers. Imagine what it sounded like. It may have sounded like our reading which was done in multiple languages simultaneously.

So how did the crowd react? How would you react? All were amazed and perplexed. When some saw this they asked “What does this mean?” others: “They are filled with new wine!”
In other words: What, are they drunk? What are they on? Are they…fill in the blank…actually, no don’t fill in the blank. They thought it was a different type of spirit, of wine. But of course, it was the Holy Spirit.
Were they under the influence? Yes, but it was the Holy Spirit.

So, what type of spirit is this? Peter responded to them by saying: “They’re not drunk as you suppose, it’s only 9AM!” Peter says this is the Spirit of God that will be poured out on all flesh, and there will be prophesy, visions and dreams. About what? About the stuff of God, about what God is doing! Prophesy, visions and dreams don’t just refer to the future, and not something limited to certain people, but it is divine inspiration, both received and shared.
They are “under the influence” of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises (in today’s Gospel, John 14:8-17, 25-27) that the Spirit will abide with us and will be in us.

It is this Spirit that in the midst of our despair, fills us with visions of hope; to dream a dream of the world the way God see it
However the world is, under the influence of the Spirit, we are filled with a vision of the way that God sees the world, we are filled with God’s dream.
Remember all the fears the disciples had when Jesus died, and all the worries they had when he ascended into heaven. How are we ever going to do this? Will the Church survive? But then…Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes filling them with vision and dreams and then mobilizes, empowers, equips and sends them out into the world to love, serve and share the good news. This is what the Holy Spirit does throughout Acts, rushing like a wind, shaking foundations, filling the people, and they spoke the word of God with boldness, bringing people together past their prejudices and all shared and there was no needy.

That’s what happened under the influence of the Spirit, and that’s what happens under the influence of the Spirit today. The Spirit comes to us despite our fear and despair; fills us with words about God, with visions of hope and dreams … so we’d be empowered to go out and serve, love, share the good news.
So, “do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid,” we are under the influence, we have an Advocate, the Holy Spirit.
So then, may they say: “I’ll have what they’re having.” Amen.