Jim Gill June 4, 2006
“Waiting World”
Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-12
INTRODUCTION TO OLD TESTAMENT READING
The reading from the prophet Ezekiel comes from the early period of Israel’s exile. It records the well-known "dry bones" vision and its interpretation. The vision itself, with its reference to body and breath, reminds us of the creation story from Genesis 2. If the interpretation is any indication, the death here is a figurative reference to the sorry plight of Israel, so that the vision speaks not to resurrection in the specific sense, but to God's power to breathe life into even hopeless causes. Hear the word of God from Ezekiel 37:1-14.
Let us pray. Life-breathing God, you fashioned dead clay into the first humans and promised that new life could come even to something as hopeless as a valley full of dry bones. Bring vitality to us and our world: that, being given the new possibilities that only you can offer, we may experience the abundant life that you promise through Jesus our Lord. Amen
INTRODUCTION TO NEW TESTAMENT READING.
Did any of you catch the Daytona 500 this year? Recognizable names like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett all had accidents, so this year’s winner was a new name: .Kasey Kahne (Maybe he’ll be on the soft drink cups at Exxon someday). It was crazy. But nothing tops what happened at Daytona in 1985. On February 2, 1985, the race had just started when, on the beginning of the third lap, the $250,000 machine, driven by professional driver Donny Allison, rolled to a stop on the infield side of the track. When it was checked, it was found that no one had filled it with gas. (1) That pit crew was the pits!
You can have the best car in the race, but you cannot even finish much less win without fuel.
Ten days ago, I was standing in front of a library in Aix, (pronounced X) France. For those of you who haven’t heard by now, I was there to officiate at the wedding of the daughter of a dear friend who flew me there so she could have a French/Texas wedding. She and her husband, who was born in Italy, but whose parents are French, have lived all over the world in their various jobs before marriage, and so had friends from Italy, Germany, Japan, Australia, and Pearland in attendance. To cover the bases they even had two of their friends who make their living singing in pubs in Paris sing a special song in Spanish—Entre Mi Vida. The couple currently lives in New Caledonia and it took them 30 hours in flight to get to Provence. It was a marvelous gathering of about 160 people who came together to celebrate the wedding of two wonderful young people.
Anyway, there I was in front of a library trying to decipher a flyer taped to the wrought iron gates. I don’t know French, but from my knowledge of Spanish and the help of a new friend that knew a little more French than I knew plus my vast theological knowledge I was able to determine the reason that it was a national holiday and the library and all the banks were closed. Can you imagine what the occasion was? Let me give you a hint….What happened ten days before Pentecost? It was Ascension Day. In France, they take a day off to celebrate the day that Jesus ascended into heaven.
On the original Ascension Day, the banks were open but so were the jaws of the disciples. As the disciples watched Jesus do something they had never seen him do before, ascend into heaven, two men dressed in white whom we might assume to be angels came and stood by the disciples as they were staring into the sky. (As would I have been had I seen what they had seen.) The men in white asked, “What are you doing looking up into the sky?”
The men in white’s question shook the disciples out of their shock and they went back into the city as Jesus had told them to do, and went to the upper room. They decided to take some time off. After all, it was Ascension Day.
For the next ten days that’s what the disciples did. They took time off to pray. The rest of chapter 1 of Acts tells about them meeting and praying. There were about 120 people gathered there, and after a few days they had a congregational meeting to act on a report from the Nominating Committee. It seems that there was a vacancy in the class of 00. To fill the vacancy left by Judas after his death, the nominating committee brought forth the names of two men, one named Joseph who was also called Barsabbas, and the other man was named Matthias.
They prayed to the Lord to guide them and then they did something that to us seems rather unusual. They prayed and then they cast lots. Matthias won the toss and was selected to join the eleven disciples. I think that is amazing. It shows a lot of faith. It shows that they trusted the Lord to show them his will through a coin toss!
How much simpler would our decisions be if we trusted the Lord like that.
Dear Lord, show me which way to go. UT or A&M Amen (flip)
Dear Lord, show me which job to take, in Sugarland or Pearland Amen (flip)
Dear Lord, show me which church to join, Lakewood or Peace. Amen (flip)
So there the disciples were in the Upper Room praying and making decisions, but mostly they were being obedient to Jesus’ instructions that he gave them that are recorded in Luke 28:49. He told them to wait in the city until they were clothed with power from on high.
Ever since Christ's Ascension Day, the disciples and the women and the brothers of Jesus had been devoting themselves to prayer in the upper room. It was like a huge waiting room filled with 120 people waiting for the fuel, the power to be the witnesses Jesus had called them to be. Hear the answer to their prayers as recorded in Acts 2:1-12.
*****
When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. Suddenly, there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house. And they saw tongues of fire which seemed to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues. Wow! Be careful what you pray for. Right? Wow!
The wait was over. The Waiting room was on fire! What do you do when you’re inside a house and a fire breaks out? You go outside.
Because of the Festival there were Jews in Jerusalem from every nation on earth. When this sound of a mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire showed up, the disciples spilled out into the place called Solomon’s Porch. A large multitude came together, and they were bewildered because they were each one hearing the disciples speak in his own language. "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" they asked. "How is it that we each hear them in our own language? We hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God."
The disciple’s tanks were filled. They were running the Daytona 500 without cars! They now had the fuel to be able to fulfill their calling to be witnesses of Christ’s resurrection and dispensers of his grace to a waiting world.
This is the first thing we must notice about the church. The source of our power must be the Spirit of God. Jesus’ told his disciples to wait so they didn’t’ go off in their own power. He told them to wait so that when the Spirit did come they would know the difference. I think he also told them to wait so that those who were coming to Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost would have time to get there. Rather than go out into the world first thing on Ascension Day, Jesus told to wait till Pentecost and He would bring the world to them.
If we are going to have the joy and the energy and the enthusiasm of the early church, we need God's Spirit to fall afresh on us. Then, not only will Jesus bring the world to us, but he will bring us to the world. He will send us from the waiting room to the waiting world.
Without the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be like Donny Allison, sitting in the middle of the track behind the wheel of an expensive vehicle with no gas.
There is no substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit. Anytime we try to substitute any other kind of power for God's power, we will not succeed.
Have you seen the commercial about the guy who goes into a Burger joint and orders his burger? Things are just fine until he says, “I’d like to order a substitution and the whole burger joint goes silent? “ O No he’s going to ask for a substitution!” When it comes to having the power to be the witnesses Jesus has called us to be there are no substitutes.
Through the history of the church there have been folks that have tried substitutes for the power of the Spirit. Sometimes the church has tried to fill its tank with political power. Sometimes this has had beneficial results, sometimes not. Our laws regarding the separation of church and state are in some ways beneficial. They keep the state from meddling in church affairs and they help the church resist the temptation of political power. We may not get Ascension Day off, but political power is no substitute for spiritual power.
Sometimes the church has tried to fill its tank with celebrity power. Some churches bring in celebrities ” musicians, athletes, politicians ” to share their faith. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as we remember that these celebrities are just people who are sinners just like the rest of us. Any church that builds its faith on the power of “personality,” even and especially the personality of the pastor, is going to have problems.
Sometimes the church has tried to fill its tank with program power. Some churches focus on people's needs and develop programs to meet those needs. In many churches today you will find all kinds of 12-step groups and recovery groups and support groups, etc. All of these are good, and they are a vital part of the church's ministry. We are here to meet people's social and emotional and even their physical needs so long as we do not lose sight of our central reason for being. We can become so busy trying to be all things to all people that we lose sight of our central reason for being.
When it comes to finding the power to fuel our mission, we are to accept no substitutes! Nothing in the church can substitute for God's Spirit as the basic source of our power. If we ever become what God means for us to become, it will not be because of our politics, our personalities, or our programs, as effective as they may be. It will be because God's Spirit lifts us.
The second thing we learn from the birth of the church is that where God’s Spirit is there is unity. Even though there were Jews of differing backgrounds, differing social classes, differing skin colors, differing national origins present on that day of Pentecost, they each heard the Gospel in their own tongue. Rather than fragmenting into tiny self-serving groups, they were drawn into a cohesive whole. One day, we are going to see how petty we have been about all the barriers we have erected between people.
When Billy Graham held his historic crusade in Montgomery, Alabama, in the sixties, he insisted on an integrated choir. The newspaper editorialized that Graham had come to Alabama and set the church back a hundred years. Graham's answer was classic: "If that's the case, I failed in my mission," said Graham, "I intended to set it back two thousand years." (4)
One of the beautiful things about the wedding in Provence was that people had gathered there from all over the world for one purpose, to witness and join in celebrating the wedding of these two young people and these two families. Had we tried to come to a consensus on politics, or personalities or programs, we would still be there arguing back and forth, but that was not why we were there. We had a unity of purpose, to celebrate a wedding.
Where the Spirit of God is present, there is unity. No longer is there male or female, black or white, Jew or Gentile, French or Japanese or Australian or Italian or German or Pearlandian. There are only precious souls for whom Christ died.
There’s one more thing that the Spirit brings. Where the Spirit is there is outreach to others. Where the Spirit of God is, people concerned about sharing the good news of Christ with their family, their friends, their neighbors
Richard Lederer is a teacher and writer who has become nationally know by collecting what he calls ANGUISHED ENGLISH. Lederer collects such things as unintentionally funny headlines and signs, etc.
Here are some typical classified ads from one of his books: "Home. $199,500. Great Location. 2/3's of an acre with 4 bedrooms, 2-bath, brick Cape. Built the way they used to. Won't last."
"For sale: Bulldog. Will eat anything. Loves children."
And my favorite: "Extremely independent male. 17 years old, needs to rent room. Call his mother at..."
PEOPLE magazine did a story on Lederer. Their photographer asked Lederer to think about setting up a humorous, posed picture that would somehow summarize his work and lead into the article.
The solution immediately presented itself. On the outskirts of Lederer's town stands a telephone pole with the street sign ELECTRIC AVENUE. Sure enough, right below it is a yellow diamond traffic sign announcing NO OUTLET. (5)
This is the greatest danger for the church, that we will experience God's electricity but it stays within our walls--that we will experience God's power but will refuse to share that power with others--that we will experience God's unity among ourselves but shut out others--that we will have the joy of God's Spirit but not try to bring joy to the world. The danger is that we be like Donny Allison with a full tank and no race.
If we are serious about asking the Spirit to fall afresh on us, we have to know that it will involve being spilled from this waiting room outside to the waiting world. There are folks in our neighborhoods, in our offices, in our schools, in our parks and playgrounds that have not yet heard that they are loved by God. They haven’t heard the good news of the gospel in their own language.
In less than 100 years the fire of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was carried as far as Spain to the west, India to the east, and Ethiopia to the south. It subsequently took several hundred years for the Gospel to arrive in the northern reaches of Europe, but it did. Even though the churches of Europe are not as filled as they once were, they still take a day off for Ascension Day.
Down through the centuries the flames of the Fire burned brightly. The Christian faith gained and its ranks grew because people who were attracted to Christ had their lives changed.
When the Spirit fell upon the disciples, the Upper Room could no longer contain them. They spilled outside to where the world was waiting. You see the disciples weren’t the only ones who were waiting. When the Spirit fell upon them the Spirit moved them from the waiting room out to the waiting world.
Dry bones can come to life. From concrete slabs a church can spring. The Upper Room can be transformed from a Waiting Room to a Delivery Room for the birth of a church that is sent to a Waiting World.
Let’s pray.
Thank you Lord that it’s not a small world after all, that because of Jesus and because of the unity that comes from the sending of the Holy Spirit that we are a part of a Big, a Huge Worldwide family. Thank you that the barriers between races and nations, and languages have been crossed through the power of the Spirit. Thank you for this place from which we launch our witness into the part of the world you have us in. Thank you for the joy we experience inside these walls and for the joy of having an outlet for that joy as we are spilled from this waiting room to our waiting world.
