The Divine Disturbance John M. Buchanan
Acts 2:1-13 Broad Street Presbyterian Church
May 18, 1975 Golumbus, Ohio

“What is the wind?", a little boy asked his grandfather, a wise

and hardy sailor.\ v1 don't know, my boy," answered the old man, “but
re eter rere nas aera aiariabaraba

I can hoist a sail,"
ee

So it is with Chris tians and the Spirit of cod. Unable to
Sime rin ae al ea —,
. dhe Hol, aide
define it, categorize it, even comprehend it, We is an éxperience

felt and known more by its results than by the conclusions of deduct-
Meta, re “we

ive togie.\ In fact, the Hebrew word for spirit may be translated
breath or wind. | And when we attempt to talk rationally about the

Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, we must borrow symbols, metaphors ,

or like the old sailor, simply bear witness to observable results.
ee pt
eh pot inte Werks Ananake | Person Saperi ene oF
It is often difficult to talk experientially.]} Has anything

ever happened in your life that touched you very eeply | something
about. which you could say, (ens is important: | cnis is a rare and
Llane — ~——a.
beautiful moment of euch") Of course it has happened to all of us,
een, —————— [ed
and we know what it means to be unable to communicate the essance of

nmieiiiieme —

i 7 - Beremaly - iwhiveele
that experience to anyone else, T+ was ours P oat vw ran

When I talk with friends from out of town or out of state, and the
toonte at leker we get

conversation focuses on life in Columbus, Ohio,
gr

afovns ke

§ what happens here on Saturday afternoons in the fall,

¢
I teli them about eighty thousand people, and g@ band making a dramatic
men
about Physicians, lawyers, sedate business/and proper matrons,

entra nok:
—

clapping and stomping their feet and embracing and suffering, sharing

nn, a,

an experience of intense communal hope and ecstacy. | But my explanations,

regardless of their eloquence

——

never really convey the essence of the
deo fee\ Pon spies _

experience, [ You have to be there, In fact, to try to reduce that

— ern i

experience to ideas and words is to risk sounding strange, unreal or worse
= —— yu tee

re

to the wninitiated,

That, I would submit, is the dilemma of Pentecost. \ ze is an important

einen,

event in the life of the Ghurch: | known as the birthday of the Chureh. \ But

er

we don't know what to do with it today,partly because you had to have been

—— —

there.

Weeks had gone by since the cmcifixion and resurrection appearances

of Jesus Christ. | me disciples and other followers of Jesus were still in

Jerusalen, waiting. \T can imagine them spending a lot of time talking about

what to do next, making plans about the right time and right place to begin

nee were

the work they knew thay had to do. \ put always there/sound reasons to wait

a little longer. |The dead weight of inertia was beginning to_take its toll.

—-

And they, Pentecost, the great Jewish festival, and the city began to fill

With pilgrims as it had for Passover,\| They were there too, mingling with

ne
Pe aT

the erovds: and suddenly the moment they had been waiting for arrived.

Simon Peter was certainly no orator: \ but during the morning of Pentecost
a——————E——E—

a

something came over Peter - and to all who would listen he fairly shouted an

articulate and unmistakably clear testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The people who heard it were moved and responded. | the other disciples

& somehow shared the experience: | Men of all nations and races sensed them-
——— a ae eters
he Wee Uk iad

yalhicthy e pperionet
soak Yate wwe transcended all the old animosities and divisions. \ ana later when Luke

selves drawn together and able to communicate with each other in a way that

yoked 's* Un

Dasaaed ant wrote it down he described it_in rich symbolism: ithe rush of a mighty
diserges WT®

«bot emt > wind, tongues as of fire."

W

Yow - PAV Aw
eve
As the Church looks back on its history it has always pointed to that

experience as the beginning because of two things which happened, both of
an el ee —a

—

BoA?
Crea a
Css he WA

le
Coes {wr
pe aa rst .
woe wre

go

We
x

ra

ven een the normal cultural barriers of class, race
a — —

them new, |First, the early Christians sensed on Pentecost that God him-

self was drawing them together in a unique relationship that transcended
an ne rT

nationality and language .j On

a
Pentecost they sensed that they were indeed one in Christ, one &,.

Second,

the early Christians sensed that the same Spirit that was drawing them to-

gether on Pentecost was pushing and prodding them corporately out into the
seam Miner

vorla.\ That is the essence of Pentecost: \a divine disturbance that pulled

together a group of unrelated people and after it had made them into a new

community of faith pushed them out into the rough and brutal world of the

¥ pushe u n Ww

first century in the name of Jesus Christ, \ net testimony, expressed in
ee, eal

the symbols of wind and fire is that the power behind this experience came
cee

from outside,
ee

it literally happened to them | they called that power Holy Spirit \ ene

It was not something they conjured up or generated themselves.

same spirit which, in the Old Testament is the energy - the vitalizing,
a ie

life-giving presence of cod. | the same breath that God breathed into man
in the beginning: | the sang fire through which God confronted Moses in the
i OO ialidinel Peverciny

it was a fact of
Ba

desert .\ It was not a philesophic proposition for them: \

experience,

Let us admit it.

| we Presbyterians

experience severe discomfort whenever we stray very far from our cerebral
a inal oa

We have difficulty with the idea. |

perception of the cospet. | the story is told of a Presbyterian congregation
eat plone = eer rr —— EE
in worship, very traditional, staid, dignisid.\ 1 man strayed into the service,

took a seat in the back pew and began to respond to the minister's statements
al

ed ae ciliate einen

with a series of increasingly audible rangas." \ Finally, an usher appreached

nerve

him and asked if there were anything wrong. “Why no,' the man said, "I've

got the seieies| to which the usher responded, (iret, I hope you didn't eet Cadel,
haste mention] CE
it here,"

We are not very comfortable with feelings and religious experiences,
en

—

-3-

We are not comfortable laughing or crying in Church.| When we sing our great

5
greet
hymns of joy and praise it sounds for all the world as if we have gathered

a ‘

for communal mourning.
ee | Part + fhe eresen fs Cure neg ative feactim. te
initeitinantiibiditdyeies the excesses of Pentecostalism: le will not

peal aay

and should not %v-{<+4 our rational faculties in order te create another
rere

Od named

Pentecost experience everytime we are together.

a

Both approaches - the induced passion gf neo - pentecostalism, and the

ice cold veneer of too much Presbyterianism - wiss, I believe, the importance
CO ennai ime EE.

of Pentecost.) Both miss the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ is a

| ieneebnanabal nae one
es

drawing together of God's people in a new community of understanding and
Wee FANE

forgiveness and love;fand a moving out of that same community into the

dr

world in the name of Jesus Christ - to be to the world what he was:ja Light

—. _

in the darkness, |a bearer of hope,| a healer of wounds, \s feeder of the hungry,
reel aie and C saeiiesaamnameimeidin)

—_—

a liberator of the oppressed,

a

My assumption is that the Holy Spirit is present in the church: | that

the presence of the Spirit is no more debatable than is the presence of the

i L,

sun in the sky.\ My assumption is that it makes no sense whatever to try to
ere eer

prove the Spirit, but - as is the case with the wind - simply hoist a sail and

Dn ne |
watch it £i11 and billow and propel.| My assumption is that the Spirit of God

is working whenever we feel ourselves drawn together - in conyersation - in
ed Sa aia

ove lt” . -. . - . :
prayer - cw coffee - even in a committee noeting. | My assumption is that

the Spirit of God is at work when people reach out to each other in kindness
ae | hii |

and sympathy. \ ana my assumption is that it is the Spirit of God that makes

us impatient with an imperfect worla,| that makes us weep at man's inhumanity
inl

to man, that makes us burn with anger at injustice and oppression.\ My
Wri limite (NTN

assumption is that God's spirit keeps pushing the Church inte new and sometimes
ieee amass]

——— reir

difficult avenues of nission.|Pentecost was a very disturbing day. \re brought

-4-

together men and women who had nothing in counon. | and it sent them into the
Sede aimee!

world to do things they wouldn't have imagined they would be doing. | ut it

meant one thing nore.\ the Pentecost experience indicated that God is the

——

power behind the Church.
pabeoead

Elton Trueblood, the great Quaker theologian, has written that the

~— Ca,

major heresy of the Comtemporary Church is that we no Longer seem to be-
Sa ae pment Pe erie cr

lieve that our effort will succeed. \ (See The Incendiary Fellowship, p 111)

That is to say, we lose our vision and settle for the mediocre:\we lose our
in, er

hope and settle for making the budget.

Ss el

Our Lord had in mind the transformation of the entire human enterprise.

He had in mind a new humanity - free, forgiven, forgiving, hoyful, reconciled

with God and nan. \ and he had in mind that his Church would be the model,

Ce

ah

show the way, \lemongtrate a new reality for all the nations - a new and
tie! — eee

better way of peace and love and hope,

The world, I would submit, needs that rather desparately today - this
eel

aay. | that is the vision that opens up on Pentecost.
—, a el

So let us come to the table together, prepared to be sageurbeds| prepared

to be drawn together and then sent out with new faith, new courage, new hope.
ie
Let us come to table singing - with some feeling
atid

Spirit of God, Descend upon my heart
I ask no dream, no prophet ecstacies,
Wo sudden vending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies;

But take the dimmess of my soul away." Amen

“5

Father, we are grateful for the moving of your spirit in the Church
across the centuries. As we come to your table this morning, may we be

alive to that same spirit in our midst. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Cer ~ \ € Od

-6-

\WWe Gfe & Co way ®K fad . Th oe ALDI O proate MHA oy

wr come b Te Aeble of ovr Lord lesus Cent, thik we cet
Lor mewlers of ove aaa: whe dred shee lest Uy lorave

read kceldtipomesieczzuzcn!

St. Paul wrote:

—

I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor
Principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to

separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So in the assurance of God's continuing love for them, and in

gratitude for their lives, we remember those of our number who have died:

Forrest W. Sutton who joined the Church of January 8, 1939 and died March 21, 1975

Katherine A, Van Fossen March 19, 1911 April 25, 1975

LET US PRAY: (unison)

O God: you have designed this wonderful world and know all things
good for us. Give us such faith that, by day and by night, in all times
and all places, we may without fear trust those who are dear to us to your
never-failing love, in this life and in the life to come; through Jesus

Christ our Lord, Amen,

CHOIR: For all the Saints - one stanza