St. Paul’s United
Church Sunday,
May 23, 2010
Pentecost
Sunday
Spirit-blown
Christians – Rev.
David Mundy
Acts
2:1-21 John
14:8-17, 25-27
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Before moving to Bowmanville
we lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a truly wonderful Canadian city. We loved
living so close to the ocean and in a match made in heaven, one of the members
of the congregation was a semi-retired orthopaedic surgeon, a very bright,
funny, and somewhat quirky guy who owned a sailboat. I would ask how many of
you are sailors but of course all the sailors are away sailing on this long
weekend!
Doug would invite us to go sailing
with him from time to time, and it was always an interesting outing. Those of
you who have been on a sailboat out on the ocean can appreciate that the stakes
are a little different when you head away from land toward the open water –
next stop Ireland!
On one occasion he asked me to take
the tiller while he attended to a couple of tasks below. He pointed out a headland on the way out of
the harbour and told me to aim for it – and everything would be okay. Well, it
was working out fairly well, and I was enjoying that strange and wonderful
sensation of being pushed forward by nothing more than the wind. Except that
Halifax harbour and beyond is busy with oceangoing traffic, ships of all shapes
and sizes including very big. I looked up at one point to see a naval frigate
bearing down on us at what seemed to me to be breakneck speed. It also felt that it was very close, although
it was probably a mile or two away.
I held my course, knowing that a
smaller vessel under wind power had the right of way, but that knowledge became
less and less comforting as we came closer and closer to one another. I called
down to the skipper, as calmly as I could, and he peeked
his head up to pronounce that I was doing a good job, only to disappear again.
It was a brisk day but I could feel the sweat forming on my neck, and I may have
said a prayer or three. This wasn’t fun anymore! Finally he came up top, took
the tiller and smiled at me saying ``my brother-in-law would have
panicked a long time ago – nice going.`` He knew
exactly what he was doing and was getting his jollies from my discomfort.
Strangely enough, this wasn’t the last
time we went sailing with Doug. It is an exhilarating experience, even when
there is uncertainty, as well as just a touch of out-and-out fear!
This morning we heard two passages of
scripture which are Holy Spirit passages because this is the day of Pentecost
and today we celebrate the wonderful, unpredictable, powerful work of God`s
Spirit in our lives as individuals and in the life of the Christian church. I
find it ironic that the birthday of the church often falls on this holiday
weekend when there are very few people at worship–“there’s the church, and
there’s the steeple, go to the cottage to find the people!”
We listened to the exciting story of
Pentecost from the Acts of the Apostles. The followers of Jesus are in
Jerusalem after his death and resurrection but they really don’t have a clue
about what to do next. They are gathered
for a Jewish festival called Pentecost which celebrated God’s mighty deeds in
the past. While they are tucked away in a house, they have an experience which
enlivens them and leads them toward a challenging but promising future. First of all it is chaotic, as though a
tornado or waterspout has struck and they pour out onto the streets in
confusion. The locals wonder if this gang of Jesus followers are actually drunk
as sailors.
Then Peter, the ex-fisherman, takes
charge and offers what is sometimes called the first Christian sermon. He takes
advantage of the curious crowd and tells them about Jesus the Risen Christ who
rescues the perishing. And even though the city of Jerusalem is dry as dry can
be for a good part of the year, and landlocked to boot, this is a story about
the church of Jesus Christ setting sail in the most improbable way.
You might think that a sailing ship is
an usual image to use on Pentecost Sunday it really
isn’t that outlandish (please excuse the pun.) Did you know that before the
cross became the universal symbol for the church of Christ a boat was often
used? And remember that the first disciples’ Jesus called gave up their life on
the water to become fishers of men and women. What could be a more appropriate
metaphor than moving forward under sail.
Do we truly believe we are
Spirit-blown Christians, that the Holy Spirit is still the “wind in our sails”
taking us to new and adventurous places?
I’m going to suggest that we might not be all that adept at answering
that question in the United Church because we spend a lot of time trying to
earnestly steer ourselves rather than letting the Spirit take the helm.
A few years ago St. Paul’s was being
auditioned in a way by a retired minister. She was from another denomination
but liked it at St. Paul’s after a couple of Sunday morning services. We
arranged to meet and she wanted to know how important the Holy Spirit was in
our life together. Being a trinitarian Christian I
said that the Spirit was very important, but the truth is that we don’t give
much attention to how the Spirit moves us.
By that I don’t mean that we choose to
get into the sometimes “over the top” worship style of the more conservative
congregations, and honestly I just don’t look in the Hawaiian shirts some of
those pastors wear. But, openly, prayerfully, and joyfully seeking God’s
direction with the conviction that Christ is present with us through the work
of the Holy Spirit is what we need so much in our denomination is what we need
right now, even if it means making some mistakes along the way.
Sailing ships don’t get from point A
to point B in a straight line, at least not most of the time. Usually they must
zig and zag to take
advantage of the wind and this process is called tacking – watch out for that
boom!
Our national church is realizing that
we must “take a new tack” to use a well-known expression to get us out of the
doldrums of our current situation. Again, the “doldrums” are a nautical term
referring to areas along the equator of the different oceans where there is
often no wind, and in the days of sailing ships they were stuck in the
doldrums.
A recent consultation of our General
Council executive has set forth the proposal to use a million dollars of
reserve funds to do things differently, including establishing new ministries
without “bricks and mortar,” in storefronts and other less conventional
settings. There are also proposals to
establish French-speaking congregations and to reach out to groups in our
culture other than the WASP’s who have been the
mainstay of the United Church. This may be a bit risky, but perhaps it is the
sort of bold new direction we need.
In changing times we often hope that
the church can be a refuge of calm and familiarity, and our traditions can be
very meaningful. But we are seeing and feeling that our conventional way of
being the church is not working. We must learn how to recognize the winds of
the Holy Spirit for the day we are living in and for the future, not for the
past.
In the past I have mentioned the
Beaufort Wind Scale which is a handy way for mariners to gauge how the wind
is blowing and its effects with using complicated equipment. The idea is that
sailors pay attention to their surroundings as the way of measuring the effects
of the wind.
I wonder if we
could actually develop a Holy Spirit Scale to get a sense of how the
winds of spiritual life, including change, will blow.
Holy Spirit Scale
Church Type Effects
1. Rest in
Peace –The only
members are in the cemetery
2. Last Stages – Only those
with grey, white or blue hair attend
3. Congregation Hanging On –
Squabbling over every decision
4. House Proud – Love the
building more than God
5. Nostalgia Central – The
Good Ol’ Days matter more than this moment
6. Social Christians – Plenty
of good will but not much talk about Jesus
7. Desire for Ministry &
Mission -- Signs of life but more
talk than action
8. Thriving Through
the Generations – Christ at the centre, flexible at the edges
9. Mature and Vibrant Faith –
Joyful worship and commitment to justice
10. Praise Gone Wild --
Entertainment rather than worship
11. Too Religious for Their Own
Good -- Members figure they are Jesus’ body guards
12. Welcome to our Cult!
The good news is that St. Paul’s is
not at either of the extremes, because we don’t want to be there. What we can
hope for is that we will be eight and nine on this Holy Spirit Scale, thriving
through the generations and mature and vibrant in our faith and we often live
out those two in our life together. Yes, we indulge a bit in five, six, and
seven as well, but if we are open and aware we don’t have to get stuck there.
I have one more thought for you
today. When Peter preached that first Pentecost sermon, he quoted from the book
of the prophet Joel he reminded his confounded but curious listeners that when
the Holy Spirit opens us to Christ we will dream dreams and see visions – that
is God’s intention for a living church, not battening down the hatches against
the storm.
And Peter proclaims that these dreams
and visions will be experienced by young and old, elder and sons and daughters.
So we will do everything possible to not only empower our young people but to
get out of the way so that the Holy Spirit will empower them.
Did you see last week that a
sixteen-year-old Australian girl successfully completed her solo
circumnavigation of the planet in a sailboat. It took
seven months and involved lots of storms but she prevailed. Some people said it
should never have happened because she was too young, but she completed the
journey. Perhaps God will surprise us with who will step forward to lead the
way for us into the future. We can only hope and pray that a new generation of
Spirit-blown Christians will set sail for our United Church.
I will give the last word to the 19th
century theologian Soren Kiekegaard:
To be joyful out on
70,000 fathoms of water,
many, many miles from
all human help – yes,
that is something great!
To swim in the shallows
in the company of waders
is not the religious.
Amen!