This is a quiz:
Some of you may remember the illustration, and some may even remember the answer, but a few years ago on the Feast of Pentecost I asked our congregations what a light bulb and a sailboat have in common. I hate to say it, but the children all got it long before the adults. Any guesses? ……That’s exactly right: both are powered by an invisible source. I probably should have used a cell phone or a computer as part of that illustration since I am endlessly fascinated by the fact that when we had land lines for telephones I found it hard to believe that millions of conversations could all travel through this one tiny wire, but now that there are no wires how all of that information gets transmitted through cyberspace—and NEVER GETS LOST! It’s all just out there in some invisible memory bank, billions of trillions of e-mails and files and internet transactions, all safe and sound….somewhere! In any event, that’s what we’re celebrating today. Not light bulbs or sailboats or computers, but the Holy Spirit, our invisible power source that turns the light bulbs on in our minds and hearts and powers the direction of our lives to a safe harbor, albeit with exciting rides, and allows for communication and communion as if through a spiritual computer, a mainframe for all the ages.
That’s’ our celebration today, that when Christ was with his disciples after the Resurrection, he promised that his power, his life, his love, would be with them for ever. And it was on this day, fifty days after the Resurrection, that the Disciples realized what Jesus meant: tongues of fire and the sound of a rushing wind came upon them and they spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem speaking a language understood by all the nations of the world, speaking of the one who had been born, who had lived, and died, and was raised from the dead, and who could save them for God’s everlasting life.
This was incredibly dangerous stuff. Did you ever touch a 100W light bulb that’s been on for just a few minutes? Did you ever have your head in the way of the boom when you turn about in a sailboat? Annie Dillard gives us a taste of that when she wrote,
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the Catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke, or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats…we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers with signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake some day and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.
Some would say that we have domesticated God, made God comfortable and cozy. Annie Dillard warns us that all of this is life-changing to which I would add that if we find any of this boring, it’s not God’s fault.
In a few minutes we will be reciting the Baptismal Covenant. Listen to what we are actually saying. Listen to the promises we make. Imagine how different life can be if we, for instance, really, really, really “seek and serve Christ in all persons, strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every person, persevere in resisting evil.” All of that puts us on the front lines, puts us into dangerous places. David Webster suggested to me recently that we revive that great martial hymn, “Onward, Christian soldiers.” I’m not entirely sure this is the right political climate for that revival, but I understand what he means.
Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and wane,
But the Church of Jesus constant will remain;
Gates of hell can never ‘gainst that Church prevail;
We have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.
Moreover, that energy, that power, that promise is provided for us by virtue of our Baptism and is nourished Sunday by Sunday with the presence of Christ in word and sacrament. The Holy Spirit cannot be contained in the four walls of a church, but it is in these four walls that you and I have our switches flipped and sails unfurled so that we can “Go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
