om SHE DIVINE DISTURBANCE MAY 28, 1972
RCTS 221-13 COMMUNEON MEDITATION

Did you ever have a tremendous experience that touched you so deeply ad moved
you emotionally? Has anything ever happened to you about which you could say, “This
is important: this is what life is about: this is a rare and beautiful moment of
truth, cdarity and divine inspiration’? And then have you ever tried to communicate
the essence cf that experience te someone else? It is a frustrating project, because
in a very real sense it can never be done.

When t go beck East and play the game of “one-upmanship" with my old friends, I
try to convey to then something of what happens in Mackey Arena prior to a Purduc
basketball game. I tell them about 14,060 people standing up cheering and the band
playing: about soctors and lawyers and well-to-do matrons clapping and joining in
an expertaice of communal hope a ecstacy. But ay explanation never really conveys
the essence of the experiance ~ because you have to Le there. and in fact, to try
to raduce that expierience to ideas and words, is sometimes to sound a little strange,
unreal, or worse.

Hell, that's part of the problem the writers of the New Testament had with
Pentécost. As they thougit atwut it later, and turned their Titerary skill to the
task of describiny it they had a major probla. Because you had to have been there,

Weeks had gone by since the crucifixion and the resurrection appearences of
JESUS Christ. The disciples, and other followers of Jesus were stil] in Jerusalem.
waiting, I can emagine them spending abt of time nlamiing their next move, strate-
gizing about the right time and place to begin the job their Lord had given them.

But always there were good, sound reasons to wait. And then Pentecost, the great
Jewish festival, and the city filled with pilgrims. They were there too, mingling with
tue crowds: and saddenly the uement they had been waiting fer arrived. Peter was

no orator: but midway tarouga the day of Peritecost Peter got up and in unmistakably
clear Tanguage delivered himself of a powerful articulation of the Gospel. The

peopte who neard it were moved and responded, The other disciples somehow shared tn
the experience: men of all nations and races sensed themselves drawn together and

suddenly able to cojwaunicate with :each other, It was an inspired moment. A

woment that had to be shared.

And Tater. when they wrote it down they described it in terms of wind and tongues
of fire. Everytiwe I read that account or think about it I know their problem -
you had to have been there.

As tne Church looks back at its histery, it has always pofnted to that experience
as tne beginning because of two things which happened. First, tne early Christians
sensed on Pentecost that the Srfrit of God was drawing them together in a relationship
that transcended barricrs of nationality, race, language: they sensed, on that day,
that they were indeed one - one body. Second, the early Christians sensed on Pente-
cost that the same Spirit that was drawing theri together as individuals - was push-
ing and prodding tnen corporately out inte the world, That is the essence of the
Pentecost exnericnce: the divine disturbence that pulled togetaer a qreup of unre-
Jated people and after 7£ had made them into a new comunity pusied then out into
the rough and tumble world of the first century in the name of Jesus Christ. Their
testimony - which cones through the symbois of rushing wind and tongues of #ire - is
that the power benind this expertence came from outside: it was not something they
generated such as th: spirit generased by cheerleaders at a ball gawe. It literally
happened to theri. They called that power Holy Spirit: the same spirit which in the
Old Testavient #s the eneray - the vitalizing, life ceiving presence of God. The
early Christians felt it, and knew it was the sare phenominum they had experienced
in the presence of Jesus Carist. For them, this is most jimporftant of a11, the phrase
“The Holy Spirit" was not a theological proposition, but a fect of experience. It
pointed, not to an idea, but to something that had happened.

The problem today in talking about the Holy Sprit is that we Presbyterians
can't get away from our cerebral preception of the Gospel. We want to define ‘Holy
spirit” - tatk about him as a person separate from God, discuss his activity as we
mignt discuss the activities of a minister or scliool teacher. While on the otier
end of the spectruia tie Pentecostals put the Spirit in a tox and expect the expertence
of the first Pentecost to be repeated literally everytime they get together. Both

approaches, it seens to me, miss entirely the meaning of Pentecost - namely the

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drawing together of Gol's peaple into a new community, and the moving of that conmaunity
out into the world fn the nawe of Jesus Christ.

vy assumption is that tse Holy Spirit is present in his church: and that the
presence of the spirit is not really debatable: that it makes no more sense to say
that the Spirit is not in that Church or this group, than ft does to clain thet thera
is no sun In che sky because it is a cloudy day. My assumption is that the Srérit
of God is here wienever wo feel ourselves drawn together - in conversation - over a
cup of coffee - in a study orcun ~ duriao prayer - while we are singing - in a conmittee
meeting. “y assumption is that the Sprit of God moves here when people express impat-
fence with socfety andikeep pushing tae Church into sew avenues of service. Sty
assumption is tuat we live ig the spirit ~ ami thet it is unnecessary to keep trying
to define if, am! rarreduce magic moments. hy assumption is that the Holy Spirit
is at work everytime ths congregation gathers to vorsiip: and tuat if we do fee]
ourselves drawn together avs! then sent out with a job te do, it is because the Sprit
of God nas found us receptive that day.

Aj] of that becnmes clear for me whenever I am given the opporkunity to ocbaerve
the Church at work. Amd Tac week I had tiat opportunity at tie 154th meeting of the
General Assembly of the United PRESBYTEFTAY Church. Let me share with you, ar best
ican, tareé expressions of the Spirit of God at work dn the Church -as I expertenced
the. Tie assenbly met in a vast nev convention hall. behind the platform, against
a fifty foot blue drape was a sitlouette of the robed fori of Jesus and the words
“We are tne Body of thrist’. The unique tating about it was that this giant silottte
was made up of thousands of pictures of people. From a distance it Tooked Jike smal]
flecks of color. But to sit beneath that form for several days = and to know that the
body was people - anc te livar and see B Tacks, Browns, Indians, Orientals, poor people,
wealthy people, engaging in the work of the Church - was to sense again that we are
involved in aiqruat work ~ a work enabled by the unifying Spirit of God himself.

That was at the front of the hall, At the back were booths displaying the work
of the Church. And the one that spoke most eloquently to me contained two calves

and atank ofull of catfish. Theo calves were the product of a feeder Tot and ranch

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wh
Gperation owned and run by American Indians, made possible by the Preskyterian
Churca taroug: the Func for the Seif-Sevelopnient of People. The catfish - the
products of a Catfish farm on the Mississippi Delta, also made possible, by the
sain Tund.

That’s the aivine disturbance of lentecost - thea work of the Sprit tocay’ the
unifying Taw of Christ anc the movenent of our Church out into God's world to help
ad heal anc set free, And IT vant very vadly for the Presbyterians here to know that
we are a part of that.

AITO that was summarizes for me one wowing as the Assembly convened with worship.
Three Incian young people appcared on the platform. One played the guitar and sang
the Lord's prayer. The other two performed an inteporetive cance using the overents
ang expressions of their ancfens traditton. ¢nd the Asseubly broke inte applause al
Said - de are Oa: and we are in the world because bi. Sutrit of God will not allow us
to be clsewhere.

So uly assumptions and sy word te you this morning: that the Spirdt of od is
heave - Just as ia was here at Pantecost. That there is an enerey in our ofdst
drawing us togetier and then pushing us aut into our world in his name. W

We affirm and celubrace that Soirit tats morning ay taa table of aur Lord in
braad broken an! a cu snared. May if be, for us, - a dévine disturbance: an affirma-
tion of cur oneness - and a moving out tegether inte tae world our Lord calls us ta

serve. ALE

Father, wi are grateful for the history of your church ane for the moving of your
spirit down acorss the centuries. As wea come to your table this morning, help us to
be alive to the meving of tnac sexe spirit in our midst. Throujh Jesus Christ our

Lord, AMEN