HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHURCH

In Jewish tradition, Pentecost was the 50th day after Passover. It was primarily significant as a harvest festival. When the holiday was centuries old a religious "spin" was imposed on it, but from Canaanite days this season of the year was the time for a spring harvest festival.

This festival was popular and well attended because this was the only day that a faithful Jew was allowed to drink to excess. In fact, some rabbis of the period taught that all of the Jewish men had to drink to the point of intoxication on this day as a sign of their gratitude to God for the gift of the fruit of the vine!

The day began at day break with the sound of shofars (a type of horn) being blown, and a priest stood on the city wall waving a loaf of bread in each hand, and then the festival began. The city was full of the sounds of laughter and celebration, and everywhere you could see the reunions of old friends and families meeting in the holy city for the holiday.

So, it’s easy to see why, in the midst of this celebration, the people would think that the apostles of Jesus were drunk! However, what was happening to the them was something much different than what was happening to others.

Jesus had promised that when he went away that he would send the Holy Spirit. The upper room where the apostles were gathered was filled with a mighty wind. Tongues of flame danced over their heads -- wind and fire -- the signs of the presence of God.

And the apostles began to speak all at once, in many languages so that all who heard them could understand.

Their excited gathering looked like a party, which is, after all, what Pentecost was all about. And so the people in the streets naturally assumed that it was a party, and that the apostles were drunk.

It wasn’t alcohol, however, that was causing their excitement or controlling their speech and actions. The Holy Spirit had come, as Jesus promised, and taken up residence in the apostles hearts. Nothing would ever be the same again – the Church of Jesus Christ was born!

Peter stood up and by the power of the Holy Spirit proclaimed the gospel and 3000 people responded to the call. These 11 apostles who had run away in fear at the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, now filled with the Holy Spirit, go forth to change human history and make the Christian faith the dominant spiritual force in the western world in a single lifetime!

Empires, Nations and ideologies have come and gone. Pollsters give their statistics, analysts make their predictions, the media report their bias but when all is said and done the Church still stood and will continue to stand — burning brightly for all to see.

I wonder if we truly see that the power of the Holy Spirit is in us ? We are the church. I wonder if we aren’t settling for much less than we ought to settle for. It is like swimming in the wading pool, in the pool for little children, instead of the Olympic-sized pool beside it. We say, "I will enjoy splashing around in this shallow place because I am afraid of what will happen if I get in that other pool.”

The witness of our faith is that great things often happen to people who venture out into the deeper water, who are willing to take the risk and surrender themselves more heartily to the Spirit of God.

I wonder if our witness hasn’t been diminished by our failure to be open to the Spirit of God, so that we never move out of our timid, restrained, comfortable places and permit ourselves to be carried beyond our traditional limits by a power and energy we can trust even though we cannot see it or understand it.

There is not now, nor will there ever will be any power on the earth to match the Spirit that is within you and me this day. Let’s own our faith. Let’s live up to our calling. Let’s celebrate our salvation in joy.

LET’S CELEBRATE THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST!

 See you Sunday!  Mitch