“Pentecost” Acts 2:1- 4; Galatians 4:1-7

 Happy Birthday! Have you ever been a restaurant when the waiters come out bearing some sort of tasty desert, and start to sing a rendition of “Happy Birthday!” It seems like all heads in the restaurant snap towards the table where the action is taking place. We know what the song Happy Birthday means - that there is someone who is celebrating!

Today is our day of such celebration in the local church. We are celebrating the day, over 2,00 years ago, when the church was born. We tell anew the story of rushing winds and tongues of fire. We tell the story of how the Good News went far and wide all for the sake of this new things that God was doing. Or rather this ancient thing, redeeming the people of God, in a new way. 

Over the past year I have heard folks bemoan the fact that we could not gather in person to worship together. And I get it. It is good when the people of God gather together. But what I didn’t agree with as much was that it would kill the church. Friends, the pandemic may hinder local churches - making them examine if they are raising up faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. It may have made them examine their own giving practices and what God’s Words says about tithing. It may have even led to some local churches to close their doors, but hear me - part of what we celebrate on the day of Pentecost is that the church will not die. The church of God continues on with the same mission as the day that it was formed - to proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and to see hearts and lives being changed. That is unstoppable. The Holy Spirit is unstoppable. The real question is if we are willing to follow.

Which is part of the trouble with the day of Pentecost is it not? We want the cake to celebrate the birthday of the church - to sing the songs, but we don’t remember the story of the church’s birth. At least not in entirety.

For where were the disciples on this day? Hiding out behind locked doors. They were afraid. Afraid because of what had happened not all that long ago when they watched Jesus be arrested and ultimately crucified. Afraid because their were rumors going around that one of them had stolen Jesus’s body to make it appear like he had risen. And probably a little afraid because they had watched Jesus ascend back into heaven, leaving them alone again. 

But out of this crucible of fear, when they were all gathered together in one place, the Spirit of God came upon them and proclaimed that this is the day when I am doing a new thing. We try to make this like a gentle wind, but friends that is not what God’s word says. It says that the Holy Spirit came upon them like a violent wind that filled the whole house. You couldn’t miss it. Just like you can’t miss the pains and cries that accompany a child being born into this world. It was unmistakable. And it was unstoppable.

Just when the disciples are probably looking around trying to figure out who left the window open and what storm was coming upon the land that would cause such wind, tongues of fire appear over their head. Now, I grew up with Sunday school papers up until 3rd grade. And there are some where I can still remember the covers of them - this is one of those. People had little bits of fire over their head and they were smiling. 

Friends, I doubt that the disciples were serenely smiling when they saw these tongues of fire. No, they were probably even more afraid. Then they started to speak in different languages. Languages that were not their native tongue, but which equipped them to go and tell other people, some far away ads one right outside of their door, about the power of Jesus Christ.

What broke loose that day of Pentecost was a holy moment, a moment where God created of the chaos. Where God took the fear that cause folks to hide and declared that I’m sending you out to do new a thing. If only you would follow me.

So what does that story have to do with Paul and his letter to the Galatians? Everything, my friends. Paul did not have the Gospels written down for him to carry from place to place as he was preaching the Good News. He certainly didn’t have the book of Acts, the companion to the Gospel of Luke, because he was living it. 

This day of Pentecost and God’s declaring a new thing made it possible for Paul to be covered and for his to be sent by God to the Gentiles with the Good News that this message and mission of Jesus Christ was for them, too. That God took the old way of the law and said that this - this was only a boundary that you could not even live into. But now, I have sent at just the right time, my very Son, to give his life up for the Jews and for you. In fact, he has given his life up for whoever may believe. And through this new thing - redemption has come. Grace is real. And grace came in the flesh in Jesus. 

Because of Pentecost, Paul was sent out to these people who thought they needed to be part of a religion before in order to be a child of God. And it is to these particular folks that Paul says, no God’s grace knows no bounds. We are now living into the reality of the fullness of the redemption of God.

Now was everyone on board with the new thing? No. We’ve heard over the last few weeks how well meaning Jews tried to tell the Gentiles that Paul was wrong and how Paul was’t having any of that - because all it did was sell short the grace and redemption of the Savior. 

The day of Pentecost came, and with the brith of the Church and all that follow, we were able to say that our primary identify was begin a follower of the Savior. 

So, friends, I do not believe that the church will ever die. I believe that we are part of the plan of God for the salvation of the world. Now, the day may come when there are fewer of us, just a rementant, but I will say it again - God will never let the church die. For we are the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood, with a purpose to tell of the grace of God.

The uncontainable grace of God.

The unstoppable grace of God.

The grace of God that has worked throughout thousands of years. 

The grace of God that isn’t stopped by church doors being shuttered or by a pandemic.

The grace of God that once again said, I am doing a new thing, and people came to know Jesus because we were outside of our buildings, living into what it means to be a follower of Christ.

So this day of Pentecost, is not just a day to sing “Happy Birthday” to the church. It is a day to proclaim the faithfulness of God, who did a  new thing so that we can be here today. I wonder what new thing God will continue to do to make people aware of the gift of grace and call them to respond? And are we willing to do whatever it takes to be part of the movement of the Holy Spirit? Amen.