Pentecost

Everything is getting “smart” these days. Exxon Mobil has the Smart Card, which not only saves you six cents a gallon on gas, it also itemizes your monthly fuel costs for you and can be used as a credit card for cash advances at Cirrus ATM machines.

There are smart cars as well.  I am referring not to those teeny tiny two seaters, but to the technology offered by several automakers which gauges the distance between your vehicle and the car in front of you and automatically slows your car down when that distance narrows beyond safe limits. Implied in this technology is that tailgating is not too “smart.”

Yes, all sorts of things are getting smart nowadays.  Japanese manufacturer Matsushita has developed a smart toilet. Now this is no ordinary commode. It’s wi-fi connected and checks weight and body mass index when you sit down. After you’re finished, an optical laser beam measures the temperature and level of glucose in your urine. If you’re in the diabetes danger zone, your results will be electronically sent from the toilet to the central database and then to your company’s health insurer or your physician, or both.

Yes, everything, it seems, is becoming smarter with, perhaps, the exception of parents of teens. Surveys consistently show that, according to teens, parents are still clueless and dumber that dirt.

But just how did these cards, cars, and toilets get so smart?

The answer, of course, is the ubiquitous “chip” – that micro-thin wafer that renders this ordinary card, or gadget, more useful. The object is transformed, if you will, because now it possesses something – a chip – that it did not possess previously. And that brings us to this morning’s Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles.

The followers of Jesus were huddled in Jerusalem following his Ascension. They were waiting, but were not sure what they were waiting for. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem for “the promise of the Father,” that soon they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The apostles, then, were waiting to be “chipped” or smart-sized, to be transformed from something rather mundane into something a bit extraordinary.

The disciples were “all together in one place,” says Acts (v. 1). The King James Version says that they were “with one accord,” but this has nothing to do with the Honda Accord. They had come together to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, which was focused on God’s gift of the law to the Israelites.  This feast occurred 50 days after Passover.  It was called Pentecost.

Suddenly from heaven “there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (vv. 2-4).

The Holy Spirit danced with divided tongues, as of fire, like the burning bush that revealed God to Moses — a bush that “was blazing, yet it was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). The Spirit shows us that God is right in front of us, just as the fire of the burning bush told Moses that God was present in his life. On Pentecost, this fire was impossible to ignore, and it brilliantly showed that the power of God was with Jesus’ followers.

Such fire is found throughout Scripture. When God liberated his people from captivity in Egypt, the Lord went in front of them “in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21). Then, “the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel” (Exodus 24:17).

When the prophets Elijah and Elisha were walking along, “a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11).

The Lord “will come in fire,” promises the prophet Isaiah, “and his chariots like the whirlwind” (Isaiah 66:15). And in a vision in the book of Revelation, John says that the eyes of Christ will be “like a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14).

Pillar of fire. Devouring fire. A chariot of fire. A flame of fire. What unites these blazing sights? All are signs of the presence and power of God.

The disciples were “chipped” with gifts from the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It smartened them up and gave them the strength to come out of hiding and to start sharing the good news.

The Spirit is a creative force in our lives, just as the wind of God was a creative power in the making of the heavens and the earth. In Acts of the Apostles, the Spirit creates the Christian community, which is why Pentecost is sometimes called the “birthday” of the church.

But it’s not a one day deal. Again and again, God comes into the middle of human life and appears to us. Sometimes these appearances are brilliant, like tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost. Sometimes they are more subtle, like the squeeze of a hand, an encouraging word, an expression of forgiveness, a statement of love. But whether God comes in blazing fire or in warm words, God is present and powerful.

The promise of Pentecost is that God is with us, always with us, and this is true for all Christians, not just those labeled Pentecostal or charismatic. It echoes the promise made when Jesus was given the name Emmanuel, which means “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). God “chips” us, giving us the healing and help we need, in every time and place and situation.

The Holy Spirit remains a creative force in the world, one that is continuing to form the Christian community. The flame of God’s presence is always with us, working powerfully in our lives. And the Spirit pushes us to reach outward, sharing our gifts with others.

Each of us has been chipped in a different way, so uniformity is not to be expected.  In fact, if each of us were the same sliver of silicon, we would not be able to perform the multitudinous ministries required of a church in a complex and chaotic society.  Diversity can be valued, since each of our gifts comes from the same Spirit.  Every believer has a gift to offer the church, a gift that has a distinct and definite role to play in ministry.

            Looking around the church, you can see that we have wonderful variety, but the Spirit makes us one in Christ.  Each of us may look like a different sliver of silicon, but together we are linked by one divine network and activated by a single source of power.  And every one of us has been gifted, whether we realize it or not.

            While living in Oklahoma, time and again I heard the same story.  It was about a dirt farmer who lived during the great depression in the 1930s.  The dust bowl had turned his land into hardscrabble.  The farmer was forced to go on relief and wondered how he could make ends meet.

            Then a seismographic crew appeared on the scene and suggested there might be oil on his land.  The farmer allowed the crew to drill and, sure enough, they struck a gusher.  More wells were dug, revealing even greater quantities of black gold.  And the dirt farmer owned it all.  Here he was, living on relief.  He was a millionaire living in poverty.  Even though he had all that oil with its tremendous potential, he failed to realize that he owned it.

            Sometimes we live poor and helpless, unaware of the gifts the Holy Spirit has given us.  Yet each of us sits atop an enormous reserve.  There are gushers of gifts just waiting to be tapped.  Are you ‘standing on the promises’ or ‘sitting on the premises’?

On this glorious feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, may we remember that we are all connected together through that same Spirit, and that we have all been chipped with many different gifts.  So be smart: Claim your gifts – and use them.