Acts 2:1-21; I Corinthians 12:4-11; Galatians 5: 22-23; John 14:15-17; Ezekiel 37:1-14

A month ago, the worship team came up with the ideas for this Pentecost service and asked me to preach on the fruits and gifts of the Spirit. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but this week I’ve been a little overwhelmed by the challenge. Do you realize that Paul listed 9 gifts of the Spirit and that many so-called fruits as well! That’s 18 things! Holy mackerel. I can’t talk about 18 things in one sermon — according to all homiletic wisdom, no good sermon has more than 3 points. And frankly, each of the things on the two lists deserve at least one sermon all to itself. I was more than a bit overwhelmed and could hardly decide how or where to begin…

I thought, well, I could start off with talking about this being the day that Bridgeport celebrates its birthday as a church. I mean, it’s a little off because we had our first worship service in May 5 years ago, but the very next year we started going to Oaks Park in June for our birthday celebration. But wait, it really is ok because 3 years ago on Pentecost we had our very first official service in this building. And that event was very timely because Pentecost is, after all, the official birthday of the whole Christian church. Well, that’s all very interesting I’m sure, but it doesn’t come close to getting to The Lists.

Hmmm. Next I thought I could start off talking about the cultural context of the story. That’s always a good place to start. Great. I could tell you that Pentecost was originally the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the day that is celebrated both as the celebration of the 1^st harvest of the year and as the day that Moses was given the Torah. 50 days after Passover (hence in Greek “Pentecost”). It’s one of the 3 holy days that all Jews were required to celebrate in the temple in Jerusalem. Ok. Fine. That could explain why the 120 disciples were still hanging around town after Jesus died instead of going back to their homes throughout Israel. And it also explains the observer’s rude dig about them being drunk, since Shavuot was also the celebration of new wine.

Ok. That would be a good place to start, but it didn’t help me begin to preach about all spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, let alone the results, the fruit, as Paul says, of those gifts.

So I’ve been fretting about it. Fret fret fret.

Then I thought, rather than try to speak about what the gifts & fruit of the Holy Spirit are, how about I try to preach about what the world would look like if the Holy Spirit disappeared. Disappeared. And then, in one of the Spirit’s wonderful grace moves, someone on my internet preacher list from up in British Columbia posted this little story.

The Rev. Dr. Sally Harris wrote:

Once upon a time there was a great land, with many people. This land had many things, like TVs and video games, and in this land you could do many things, like rollerblading and skiing, playing soccer and baseball. Not only that, there were many pretty things, like flowers and birds, mountains and ocean.

And this land gave many things for the people to eat. There was fruit and hamburgers, fish and salads, ice cream and cake anything you liked to eat you could find in this land of plenty. In this land you were never cold. There were plenty of homes with warm furnaces and fireplaces that kept you warm and dry even on cold rainy days.

Everyone seemed happy not noticing what or who gave all that made them happy. They seemed to take it all for granted. The sun would greet them, the rain would nourish them, the wind would carry good news and life would be full of good things. Always!

But one day, hardly anyone noticed the silence in the air. It was still and quiet and even a bit cold. The next day some people started to notice the difference, nothing seemed to keep them warm, they still had the same things but some thing was missing. It was like something had left.

A few more days went by and people started to gather together to talk about the problem. No one could really say what was missing but they knew something had been lost. They just couldn't describe it – but it was like life, joy, love - all that made life wonderful had escaped and left a very cold and quiet place.

A group of people decided they needed to pray to the Great Spirit about this change in things. (Though nothing seemed to have really changed – everything had changed.)

And so these people, some young, some old and some in between went away from the city. One group went to the ocean and another went to the mountains another to the desert. Each group was going to find and listen to the winds that carried the wisdom of the Great Spirit.

After many sunsets these scouts came back and the people gathered to hear what they had to say. It was a little girl that first spoke. "I waited and waited on a rock by the ocean. I saw nothing - there was no ripple on the water, no birds soared in the sky - but I waited and I talked to the Great Spirit. Finally a very gentle breeze touched my left ear and whispered 'People have forgotten me. I have always been there. I wondered if I would be missed.' And then it was gone."

An old man then spoke: "I climbed to the top of the mountain. It was very cold and very still, nothing seemed to move up there. Like every thing was holding its breath. I climbed till I reached the blue sky and I stood on this great mountain and I started to sing ever so softly. Hoping that somehow in my song the world would begin singing again. Everything was silent until a great gust of wind came and in the wind the Spirit sang back to me: 'I am here. I have always been here but you never returned my song.' And then it was gone."

This same story came from many people, moms and dads, grandparents and teens all came back and said: "We have forgotten the Spirit and how much we depend upon it to bring to us what we treasure most about life: love and joy and faith."

Someone shouted: "What are we to do? How can we find the Spirit again?" Another cried: "It's too cold standing out here. Let's go home and talk about it when it's warmer." But someone said: "No we cannot leave. Let us build a great fire and gather around and hear these stories and maybe sing a song.” And so they did.

 Everyone gathered in a great circle around the huge fire and all were warm and sang and talked. Suddenly a little boy stood up and then a teenage girl and then another and another and they began watching the flames. The flames seemed to dance in the wind. Yes the wind had returned! The wind was blowing over the people and the warmth of the fire grew and people began to dance and sing and say ‘thank you’ to the Great Spirit.

And they tell this story from generation to generation and they say: “Always remember what happened here. Tell your children and your children's children about the day the Spirit left and the wind no longer blew and the flames no longer danced. Remember all the gifts the Spirit brings so that our lives are full of joy and love.” The end.

And I read this story and I thought – that’s it. That’s how I should preach about Those Lists. If the Holy Spirit simply disappeared, in no time flat our world would begin to resemble the valley full of dry bones that Ezekiel described.

If the Holy Spirit did not bring the gifts of knowledge & wisdom, the gifts of faith, discernment & healing, prophecy & languages and interpretation of languages, we would no longer be able to generate the things in the Galatians’ list – the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, gentleness, and self-control that hold this world together. Without those fruits of the Spirit, all hope truly would be lost – we would dry up and be the living dead, cut off completely from one another and from God.

That was a great piece to get! Okay, I thought, so this sermon is going ok. Cool. At this point I figured I could tie it to the little doves you received this morning from the kids. So take a look at your dove. And figure out which is the gift & which is the fruit. It can be tricky sometimes… If you were to really believe that your gift, was prophecy—how would it affect you? Or if your gift was healing. Or wisdom… or… or…

And by the same token, if you could really take in the power of the fruit you received: peace, generosity, gentleness, whatever it is… How would that affect your behavior, your life?

That’s good. That’s really good. Ok, I’m on a roll now…

Ok so here’s how I figured I could wrap this up: I’ll read this thing I found by Leonard Sweet, who’s one of my favorite kind of conservative writers. He’s written something called a “Magna Charta of Trust by an Out-of-Control Disciple” (from Sweet's Soul Cafe (March 1996 Vol. 2, No. 1) – about what it’s like to give life over to the Holy Sprit. (I’ve edited it a little for length)

He says:

 I am part of the Church of the Out-of-Control.

I once was a control junkie, but now am an Out-of-Control Disciple. I've given up my control to God. I trust and obey the Spirit.

I've jumped off the fence, I've stepped over the line, I've pulled out all the stops, I'm holding nothing back. There's no turning back, looking around, slowing down, backing away, letting up, or shutting up. It's life Against the Odds, Outside the Box, Over the Wall, the game of life played Without Goal Lines other than "Thy Will Be Done..."

 I'm done lapdogging for the topdogs, the wonderdogs, the overdogs, or even the underdogs.

I'm done playing According to the Rules, whether it's Robert's Rules of Order or Miss Wanner's Rules of Etiquette or Martha Stewart's Rules of Living or Louis Farrakhan's Rules of America's Least Wanted or Merrill Lynch's Money-minding/Bottom-lining/Ladder-climbing Rules of America's Most Wanted.

I've stopped trying to make life work, and started trying to make life sing.  I'm finished with second-hand sensations, third-rate dreams, low-risk high-rise trades and goose-stepping, flag-waving crusades.

 I no longer live by and for anything but everything God-breathed, Christ-centered, and Spirit-driven.

 I can't be bought by any personalities or perks, positions or prizes.

I won't give up, though I will give in... to openness of mind, humbleness of heart, and generosity of spirit.

When short-handed and hard-pressed, I will never again hang in there. I will stand in there, I will run in there, I will pray in there, I will sacrifice in there, I will endure in there– in fact I will do everything in there but hang.

 I won't be seduced by popularity, traduced by criticism, by hypocrisy, or trivialized by mediocrity.

 I am organized religion's best friend, and worst nightmare. I won't back down, slow down, shut down, or let down until I'm preached out, teached out, healed out or hauled out of God's mission in the world entrusted to members of the Church of the Out-of-Control... to unbind the confined, whether they're the downtrodden or the upscale, the overlooked or the underrepresented.

My fundamental identity is as a disciple of Jesus–but even more, as a disciple of Jesus who lives in Christ, who doesn't walk through history simply "in his steps," but seeks to travel more deeply IN HIS SPIRIT.

Until he comes again or calls me home, you can find me filling not killing time so that one day he will pick me out in the lineup of the ages as one of his own. And then... it will be worth it all... to hear these words, the most precious words I can ever hear: "Well done, thou good and faithful... Out-of-Control Disciple."

You see, that’s it.

Pentecost is about God coming through for us, even after we saw to it that the most wonderful, loving O Come O come Emmanuel, God-with-us anointed one was executed.

God comes through for us again at Pentecost even when we can’t believe that somehow that the resurrection is a fact not a collective hallucination.

God comes through for us again at Pentecost with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Comforter, whatever you wanna call it.

God comes through for us again at Pentecost. Because God simply wants us all to become good and faithful, hair-on-fire, out-of-control disciples. May we tremble and rejoice like holy mountains. Like we’re crazy in love with God. Like we really believe that God is crazy in love with us. May we tremble and rejoice that these bones really can live.

God comes through for us again at Pentecost. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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