When Pentecost happened, when the Spirit of God touched Peter’s life in a special way, what Jesus had said and done began to make sense to Peter as never before. Peter had been a disciple for at least three years and he more or less understood what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, but on Pentecost Peter moved to a deeper understanding and new level of commitment.

And as Pentecost happens in our lives, as the Spirit of God is at work in us, something special begins to happen to us. We begin to understand in a more comprehensive and profound way what we have heard folks in the church saying for years—even all our lives. Persons who have more or less tried to honor the vows they made when they joined the church begin to understand those vows in a new light and to struggle with those vows in a new way. They have a fresh and more profound understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Their priorities are significantly modified and they begin making time in their schedules to do what they have always said they did not have time to do.

In the last eleven years, I have seen this happen to many of you. Perhaps some of you have noticed these changes.

Pentecost really does happen. The Spirit of God does blow into our lives, and when it does, we see life in a new light, and we find ourselves saying what we never thought we would say and doing what we never thought we would do. For some, Pentecost has happened on an Emmaus Walk. For others, it was in a Disciple Bible Study, or on a mission trip, or while participating in a spiritual formation group, or perhaps it was while receiving training to be a Stephen’s Minister. For some, it happens in our services of worship.

What happens when Pentecost happens is not anything we can brag about, any more than we can brag about any gift we have been given. It is a marvelous gift, and for this gift what we feel is gratitude, not some sort of pride in accomplishment. We received a gift, and our lives changed.

What I am talking about is what the second chapter of the Book of Acts is talking about. The Spirit of God was at work among the people, and their lives were changed. One of the most dramatic ways was that in their heightened sensitivity to the grace of God, they were more aware of the needs of those around them. Their increased faith and deepened compassion led them to try a noble experiment. Everything would belong to everyone, and no one would be in need.

I am tempted to deal with this passage like a capitalist rather than as a Christian. I am tempted to gloat in pointing out that first century communism did not work either. Both in the first century and in the twentieth century, the sinfulness of human beings undid the idealism of each contributing according to ability and each receiving according to need. But when this is the way I treat this passage, I miss the major message this passage has to offer me—and perhaps you also.

The Spirit of God was at work in the lives of those first Christians, and it had a major impact on the way they lived. The love of God revealed in Jesus Christ invaded their souls, and compassion became a driving force in their lives. They could not reconcile having more than they needed while others did not have enough to live on. That did not fit with their understanding of God who gave his only son.

The first solution they came up with may not have worked, but at least they tried to reconcile their lives and their personal economies with the meaning and implications of God’s love for the real world with all its real needs. Their first attempt at a solution may not have worked, but at least they tried—with all they had, they tried.

We who may criticize their solution would do well to ask ourselves what difference the Gospel of God’s love is making in our living? How has our awareness of God’s grace influenced the way we are living our lives? The first Christians may have made a mistake by underestimating the sinfulness of persons, but they made a wholehearted—not a half-hearted—effort to have the Gospel of God’s love shape all aspects of their living.

The question that is raised by the Pentecost story is, "What difference does Christ make in our living?" Pentecost has to do with our lives being changed because of the activity of the Spirit of God in our lives.

One of my role models of faithful living is Mrs. Baker. (Some of you have heard this before.) Mrs. Baker is dead now. But when I was a very young pastor in Mathis, she was one of the active older women. Now, Mrs. Baker—like all faithful persons—was not a perfect person. She could be very stubborn and manipulative. For example, she was deaf and she had learned how to use her deafness to manipulate people. She would come ask me to do something, and then she would quickly turn and walk away so that she was unable to read my lips objecting to her request.

One day she had asked what I could not do. I had to move fast to stop her and get in front of her so she could read my lips telling her I could not do what she wanted. A couple of days later Mrs. Baker was on my front porch with a marvelous chocolate pie. "Are you still mad at me?" she asked. I am not sure if the wonderful pie was an act of genuine penance on her part or an attempt to hook my guilt.

But for all her faults, Mrs. Baker was a person who was aware of the love of God, and it made a difference in her living. It was especially evident in her concern for persons who were poor, and in Mathis there were many who lived in terrible poverty. With regularity, Mrs. Baker was finding persons who needed food or clothing or medical help. And she used her tenacity and all her manipulative skills to get those needs met. Everyone in that small community knew, loved and respected Mrs. Baker. I suppose most of the people there had either been helped by her or enlisted by her to help others.

My favorite story about her happened about one year after a bitter political blowup in the community. The Hispanics in Mathis discovered that they could vote the Anglos out of office, and they did. Within less than a month, almost all the positions on both the city council and the school board were held by newly elected Hispanics. All that the Anglo power structure had been doing to the Hispanic community for years, the new Hispanic power structure began doing to the Anglo community. There was bitterness and anger on both sides and also the very real possibility of violence.

The situation broke Mrs. Baker’s heart. She had helped raise most of the men and women on both sides. But what can one elderly, deaf woman with severe arthritis do?

Mrs. Baker cried and prayed and cried and prayed. After some time, in the spring of the year, she went to the city council and asked if she could plant some flowers in a long neglected city park. Of course they said yes; who could say no to flowers, and who could say no to Mrs. Baker? Then she quietly went from man to man among the leaders in both the Hispanic community and in the Anglo community. One by one, she asked each of them to come next Saturday to help her dig the flower garden and plant flowers.

You can imagine their surprise that next Saturday when the men from both sides saw one another. But that day, men who were so angry they had not said a civil word to one another in months, and who had not worked together in years—if ever—were working side by side digging flower beds and planting flowers.

When their work was almost done, Mrs. Baker said to them, "See? You boys can work together if you just will."

I would like to say there was great repentance and genuine reconciliation, but that is not what happened. However, from then on much of the steam was taken out of their rhetoric.

We may smile at Mrs. Baker’s naiveté, but it is evident from what she did that the love of God at work in her life made a real difference in the way she lived. We may smile at the naiveté of those first Christians, but from their effort to reconcile the reality of God’s love with the reality of need they saw, it is evident that the Spirit of God was shaping the way they tried to live their lives.

This is what happens when the Spirit of God blows into our lives and Pentecost happens to us. The love of God becomes a vital reality in our lives, actively influencing what we say and do.

 

God, may Pentecost happen in our lives. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, on this Pentecost Sunday we are grateful for the working of your Holy Spirit in our lives. We thank you for the gift of your Spirit that transforms our living with the power of your love, for the gift of your Spirit that brings healing to our broken hearts and wounded souls, that lifts us up when we have fallen, that calls us back when we are going in the wrong direction, and that works in us and among us to show us your purpose and the direction you want us to go. For your Spirit giving us a new vision when our old dreams have died and moving us toward being the persons you intend us to be, we are grateful.

God, keep us from turning our back on your Holy Spirit. Rescue us from arrogance of heart or mind that causes us reject what you are offering. Give us the humility of faith to receive your gifts so that we will be able to live as you intend us to live.

Remembering how Jesus was always open to your guidance, we pray as he taught us to pray: "Our Father . . ."