June 8, 2003

Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-6

 “See What Happens When We Let the Spirit Out?”

     Did you ever have a insect collection?  When I was a kid, bug collections were all the rage.  I especially liked butterflies and would catch them in the field beside our house, put them in a jar filled with cotton and moth balls and when they were good and dead, mount them in a box with a carefully placed straight pin through the center of their thorax.  My collection covered the spectrum from ugly little weird and clumsy beetles to delicate and beautiful butterflies and moths.  One of my favorites was a big, iridescent orange and black Monarch butterfly.

     I don’t remember showing my collection to very many people, except the kid next door, some family members and maybe one trip to school for show and tell.  Mostly, my box of dead bugs lived under my bed.  Eventually, after being forgotten for a few years, I found the dusty critters had dried out so much a lot of them lost their legs and wings.  They weren’t very interesting anymore, so I tossed them out.

     No big deal - they were just dead bugs - but a few years later, when I learned a little more about Monarch butterflies in biology class, I felt a strange little twinge of guilt for trapping one.

     Did you know Monarch butterflies can migrate all the way to Mexico?  The one I had didn’t get any farther than my backyard, but I wonder if it would have visited other backyards, if other people would have enjoyed its bright colors?  It probably would have just been squished in the grill of someone’s car or eaten somewhere along the way, but maybe…just maybe…it could have made that trip to Mexico.

     People often keep their faith boxed up.  Sometimes, those boxes are called “churches”.  They can be dusty old places without much life in them.  They can also hold so much beauty, but hold it so dearly, that precious few people outside get to enjoy it.

     Jesus gave his followers the best news the world has ever known.  We call it the Gospel or the Good News.  This news is about God’s endless, unconditional love.  This news is about God’s personal compassion for each person.  It is about Jesus bringing God’s love to the world in human form and his going so far as to give his life on a cross for those he loves.  We speak of this love in our churches and worship the God who so freely gives it to us today.  This love is our hope and strength and the blessed assurance that we are accepted and forgiven and forever held in God’s loving embrace, no matter what.

     But did you know the first Christians did the very same thing with the Good News that we often do?  They kept it to themselves.  Maybe they were unsure of themselves.  Maybe they had their doubts.  Maybe they were just too busy.  For whatever reason, they kept it boxed up.  That is, until that day, that Pentecost Day, that day when the Holy Spirit came down upon them like the rush of a mighty wind, like tongues of fire.  Their spirits were ignited that day and they began to speak in foreign languages and went out into the streets of the city of Jerusalem and communicated the Good News.  They let the Spirit fly. 

     What a great day to be in church!  Special music and a presentation by the Sunday School children, baptisms, Confirmation, Holy Communion - we might not get out of here until this afternoon and we might not even care!  What a beautiful day.  The Good News fills every moment of worship.  We celebrate the love of God we know in Jesus Christ.  We are accepted.  We are forgiven.  We are given the hope of eternal life.  We share this Good News in word and song and sacrament and we pass it on to our children.  The Holy Spirit is among us.

     Lord knows, we’re not supposed to keep it boxed up here.  Let it out.  Let it fly.  Take it with you when you go and speak the language of God’s incredible love to the people and the circumstances of your life.

     This Good News is your news.  It is about God touching your life today.  It is about the new start you can make right now.  It is about the sustaining power and presence of God in your life day after day.  But it isn’t just about you or just about this church.  The Spirit moves among us and then beyond us.