Pastor Micah preached this sermon at Life’s Journey United Church on Sunday, June 5.  Life’s Journey UCC is an open and affirming, God is still speaking congregation of the United Church of Christ in Burlington, NC.

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams.

18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

in those days I will pour out my Spirit,

and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show portents in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below,

blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

20 The sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood,

before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Psalm 104:25-34

25 There is the sea, great and wide;

creeping things innumerable are there,

living things both small and great.

26 There go the ships

and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

27 These all look to you

to give them their food in due season;

28 when you give to them, they gather it up;

when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;

when you take away their breath, they die

and return to their dust.

30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created,

and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;

may the Lord rejoice in his works—

32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,

who touches the mountains and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,

for I rejoice in the Lord.

Sermon People of Spirit, People of Life

It’s been a very tough two weeks in the hospice I serve.  As a colleague said in a recent staff meeting, “working healthcare now feels alot like trying to rebuild a room while the whole building around you is on fire”.  

When things are overwhelming, I return to the wonder and joy my work brings, of being with people at precious moments near the end of and beginning of life.

When I was a chaplain resident at UNC hospital, after a particularly grueling and inspiring all nighter at the hospital, I tried to encapsulate that joy and wonder in a poem I wrote:

‘At night I hear your soft feet dancing

hummingbird wings aflutter beneath

the echoes of footfalls on tile floor,

sharp voices crying out “breathe”,

the snip of scissors cutting cord,

and husky words echoing “its a boy”

‘I feel your wings overshadowing us

as I sit beside the bed-side

of a brown haired man,

tubed, wired, and worn beyond his years.

Your wings fall firm as a hand

joining mine on shoulders wet with tears

‘I see you dance O Sister Spirit

a-glitter with fluorescent hallway lights

twirling like flowers caught in spring wind

swirling in the many-hued patterns shining bright

upon monitors buzzing over patient bed sides

the dances which end where life begins’”

So much of what I witness as a chaplain centers on our breath.  The first breath a child takes.  The last breath that’s offered up.  When those sitting with one they love as they are born or broken by illness find themselves breathless in response. 

In the original language of the Bible, the same word is used for breath and  spirit.  In addition to Pentecost celebrating the birthday of the church, it also celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out, making God as close as our own breaths.   Psalm 104 reminds us that, just as it is air filling our lungs that makes us alive, so too the Holy Spirit is like God’s breath, filling our lives, so that wherever the Spirit comes, life begins or is renewed. Both Psalm 104 and our reading from Acts harken back to the beginning of creation.  In Genesis 2 it is when God breathes God’s breath or spirit into the first human that they come alive.   In Genesis 1, before humanity is even made or the first life formed, the world is described as chaos and darkness.  That is, until God’s Spirit or God’s breath blows over the waters like a mighty wind.  The Hebrew word for what the Spirit does there is also the same word for brood, what a mother hen does over her nest of eggs to help life grow and then hatch fresh and new.    When the Spirit, like a mother hen, broods over what is broken and empty, it comes alive.  What is dark and forbidding is covered in light..  When the Spirit flows through us, even when we have been broken our lives are renewed and we flourish.

This same imagery is used in our Acts reading to describe the birth of the first church on Pentecost Sunday.  That same wind that blew over creation, resting like a brooding mother bird over her nest, now rests on Jesus’ first followers, whose hope and community beforehand lay broken and on the verge of dying following his death.   The Spirit rested on them like candle flames lighting the way ahead breaking their darkness.  This is how, beyond all hope, the church was  born.   We too, have had this same Spirit poured out on us and so we are called to become people of Spirit, people of life.

What does it mean that you and I are filled with the Spirit who brings life and called to be people of Spirit and people of life?

First, it means we are called to fully embrace life.  Being filled with the Spirit means embracing being fully and radically alive.  

Some people who claim Christ as their own seem always dour, sad, or judgmental.  The message they send is that to be a person of faith means to be a buzz-kill, to never really be happy and enjoy life. They aren’t people you can imagine ever being accused of having too much fun like Jesus was in the Gospels when he was put down for going to parties and being a friend of wine bibbers and sinners. 

 But if the Spirit makes things come alive, that means you and I are called to embrace life, as Jesus did.   

During my recent retreat in the mountains, I read a book by Catholic priest and LGBT rights activist James Martin, who put it this way “In our deepest longings we hear echoes of God’s longing for us. And the more we can follow these deep-down desires, those that God places within us for our happiness, the more joyful we will find ourselves.”

Howard Thurman, a black pastor who spoke up for and fought for equal rights for everyone in the early 20th century , argued in one of his sermons  that because God made us in God’s image, living the Christian life begins with accepting that, just as we are, we are worth something, saying that because we are made in God’s image and filled with God’s Spirit “The commonplace is shot through with new glory — old burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. A crown is placed over our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear.” Think of it! That’s what the Spirit being poured out upon you and me means. 

To be people of Spirit, people of life, we need to not squelch our joy, our passion, our gifts, our uniqueness, but be willing to let ourselves glorify God by living fully, letting ourselves grow into this crown God has placed over our heads through pouring  the Spirit on us, this crown placed so high it will take our whole lives to grow into it.

This also means we need to encourage others to see that, in them, God broke the mold.  That there is never a person — not a one! — whom God made who is garbage or dispensable, but over each of them God has also put this crown of worth so high that they must spend their whole life growing into it. 

Also, being filled with the Spirit means standing on the side of life.   

We see this in Psalm 104 especially.  Where the Spirit falls, life is restored.  More than that, it thrives and flourishes full flower.  To be people of Spirit, people of life, then means for us to be people who, led by the Spirit, strive to help make other people and other living things thrive.

The Spirit does more than just give people breath when the Spirit brings life.  In Scripture, when the Spirit brings life people and nature flourish.  When the Spirit brings life, people on the edges of life, hardly getting by, discover support, access to enough food and proper healthcare.  The Spirit bringing life inspires people to share what they have so none go without.  The Spirit is bringing life when people who have been oppressed and mistreated so they had to slink into the shadows are no longer mistreated, and now are finally feel free to step out, coming out of the dark and entering into life fully. This is why coming out is a holy act. 

Sadly, in our day, many people who claim Christ have missed the boat on this.   They loudly proclaim they are pro-life because they want to restrict healthcare choices for women, healthcare choices like abortion and birth control that our Bible say zero about, positive or negative.  They do this while not working toward the things the Bible tells us to do that actually promote life.  They say they are pro-life while they promote wielding guns in irresponsible ways which often end in the horrible bloodshed we’ve seen the last few weeks, even while Scripture tells us clearly people of God beat swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks.   They say they are pro-life all while they oppose working together as a community to provide access to healthcare and hand-ups to help those struggling get by and even thrive, slashing programs to the most at need, the very programs that will allow struggling children that are born and their families to get through.  They say they are pro-life while they put policies in place that harm racial minorities and immigrants  or push LGBT people back into painful closets. They claim to be pro-life while many of them fight tooth and nail against anything to clean up our polluted environment, even though if our earth is not healthy and well, none of us can be healthy and live either well or long upon it.

To be people of Spirit, people of life, according to Scripture, is to be something different than all this.  To be people  of Spirit, people of life, means that you and I will  work to build up our community and our world so there is more than enough for everyone to not just eke by, but to thrive and to flourish.  It means working not so much to build a world where women are forced to give birth whether they want to or not, but to build a world where we look out for mothers, for children, for all kinds of families, so every child that is born and every family can have enough to really spread their wings and soar.  It means for us to work to build a society beginning in this church here but also all around in our community where all people are embraced, where all have enough, and where none are pushed into the shadows for who they are ever again.  It means working to build a society in which guns, warfare, and violence are not necessary and rarely, if ever, used.   It means working to build a world where the beauty of life, of clean air and animals and nature, can flower and grow in all its varieties , unscarred by pollution and sustainable for all our children, our grandchildren, and all the generations to come.

May we be renewed by this same Spirit who gave birth to the church on Pentecost Sunday, set aflame to full life by the same Spirit who breathed life into the first people.  May we embrace the Spirit’s work by fully embracing our own lives, without fear or regret, and inviting others to do the same.  And may we continue the Spirit’s work of helping our world become a place where every person and all of life can flourish, without fear – not just today, on Pentecost, but every day.  Amen and Amen.