Acts 2:1-21
2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2:2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
2:6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
2:7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
2:8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
2:11 Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
2:12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
2:13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
2:14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
2:15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
2:16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
2:17 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
2:19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
2:21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
A couple of years ago, we were visiting with our daughter’s family and the grandchildren wanted to take in a movie that was just debuting that weekend. Called “Encanto,” the film wound up winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. Musical numbers for “Encanto” were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the genius who took a slice of American history and turned it into the mega-hit, “Hamilton.” The story features a magical Colombian family called the Madrigals, and their daughter, Mirabel, the only member of the family not given a magical gift, or so she thought. When the family is in danger of losing their magical gifts, Mirabel stumbles across her uncle, BRUNO, who had put himself into exile, because the family saw his gift as “too dangerous.” His gift was that of precognition, or seeing things that might happen in the future, including the crisis that Mirabel is now trying to help evade. One of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s best songs is, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” One of its lyrics goes:
We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no!
We don’t talk about Bruno!
Grew to live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling,
I could always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling,
I associate him with the sound of falling sand.
It’s a heavy lift, with a gift so humbling.
Always left Abuela and the family fumbling
Grappling with prophecies they couldn’t understand.
Do YOU understand?
No, we don’t talk about Bruno…
Today, as we yet again come to Pentecost in the church year, a time when we “celebrate” the Holy Spirit, we are kind of faced with the BRUNO of the Godhead. We talk a lot about “God the Father,” or “Creator God, and as Christians, we blabber on and on about Jesus, even praying in his name, just like he said we could. But where does the Holy Spirit fit into all of this? As “trinitarians,” we believe in the great “Three-in-one, One-in-Three” understanding of God. I have often referred to the Trinity as “God the Community,” as this theology postulates a deity that is WITHIN Godself, a community—a “family,” if you will, just like Mirabel’s, full of love, and magic, and empowerment. But somehow, BRUNO just doesn’t fit.
Think about how we “imagine” God. Thanks to Michelangelo and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, we have a “picture” of God the Creator, don’t we? And thanks to a wide variety of artists, from classical to abstract, ancient to modern, and a narrative or two from questionable ancient sources, we have myriad “images” of Jesus, not the least of which is Sallman’s “Head of Christ,” which is probably the one burned into our brains. Tell me, what do you “imagine” when the Holy Spirit is mentioned?
The Bible isn’t much help here. In the Hebrew Bible, the Spirit is described as a “wind” or “breath” (ruach), both of which are a kind of force or action. In the New Testament, the word is pneuma, which likewise has to do with moving air. Neither of these give us much of an image of a “person” of the Godhead, do they? The New Testament gives us two symbols for the Holy Spirit—the “tongues of flames” that danced over the heads of the followers of Jesus at Pentecost, and the descending dove at Jesus’ baptism, often depicted in art and stained-glass looking more like a Peregrine Falcon diving on its prey. The “Cross and Flame” logo of The United Methodist Church has the flames symbolizing the Holy Spirit, as well as the two denominations that came together in 1968 to form the UMC. I guess now, after the disaffiliation, we need to keep the two flames, don’t we? Or turn it into a single “tongue of flame.” At least our pilot light is still lit…
Some of you who have sat under—or slept under—my preaching previously, know that I always tried to pitch the Holy Spirit as the “feminine” person of the Trinity, given that we are all made in God’s image, and our depictions of the other two people of the Trinity are traditionally male. Of course, with an enlightened understanding of human sexuality as something on a “spectrum” or continuum, maybe we should go with different pronouns for the Holy Spirit—They and Them. It really makes good theological sense, don’t you think? If God in Godself is a community, and we humans are made in this “image,” why NOT include all of us on the human “spectrum”? I always liked Rev. Chad Bogdewic’s benedictions: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Mother of us all…”
Need an image of the Holy Spirit as a person? Imagine the Spirit as the woman who has had the greatest influence in your life—or still does!
Are you beginning to see why we don’t talk about Bruno? The popularity of the King James Bible version among many Christian believers may be partly responsible for our “fear” or misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit, given that it dubs the Spirit as the “Holy Ghost.” I don’t know about you, but beyond Casper, ghosts were not my friends, especially when I was a kid.
It gets even more interesting. Jesus promised that when he “went to the Father,” he would send the Holy Spirit, who would “lead us into all truth.” He also said:
“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
Jesus also said the Holy Spirit would be a “comforter.” These SOUND like “person things,” and are nurturing, caring things, at that. Then along comes Paul, with his lists of gifts the Holy Spirit would dole out to the followers of Christ, thus “empowering” the church to carry out our responsibilities as the “Body of Christ.” This all makes sense until we read a little further into Paul’s letters and see the chaos often resulting from infighting over the “gifts of the Spirit”--who gets what gift, and which ones are the most important. Infighting over gifts—not THAT starts to sound like a family! The gifts of “speaking in tongues” and “interpretation of tongues” is a divisive thing, even into the present time. We don’t talk about BRUNO, just like Mirabel’s family, possibly because we: a. don’t understand; and b. we are afraid of the gifts.
So, today, as we “celebrate” Pentecost, or the “birth” of the Holy Spirit fully into the world, the church, and our souls, how can we “visualize” and/or reclaim the Holy Spirit as more than a “function” sent forth by God, and as a “relatable” person of the Holy Trinity? This is the challenge, isn’t it?
Today’s text is the classic description from the Book of Acts about how the Holy Spirit descended upon those first Christ followers waiting in the upper room in Jerusalem. The three prevalent signs of the Holy Spirit’s arrival were the “violent” wind, the “divided tongues of fire” resting on the believers, and the “speaking in tongues,” which here means they were witnessing to the gospel in the native languages of those who were eavesdropping on the occasion. (This “gift of tongues,” while a miraculous event, clearly was also a practical one, initiating the first “evangelism crusade” of the newborn church, unlike the “gift of tongues” typically practiced by Pentecostal and/or charismatic Christian assemblies. This latter “glossolalia” is an ecstatic “gift” that is touted to be a kind of private “prayer language” between the person and God.) But I suppose the REAL evidence of the arrival of the Holy Spirit was how she prepared the hearts of the gathered “audience” to hear Peter’s simple sermon and respond to it in droves. For me, this latter happening is still the big miracle—that in a day of multi-media, the Internet, smartphones, streaming, and social media surrounding us like an artificial skin, people still LISTENT TO and RESPOND to the Christian sermon given from the ancient “soap boxes” we know as the pulpit. If that isn’t the working of the Holy Spirit, I don’t know what is!
So, let’s talk about BRUNO. In the movie, Bruno not only becomes a key to healing all that ails the Madrigal family and little Mirabel, but he is re-woven into his family. May it be so with the Holy Spirit in the church on this Pentecost Day! So as we seek to go a little more mainstream with the Spirit, let me share a few things to help us see her “practical” side.
I spent some time re-reading “The Spirit of Life” by a great theologian of the Christian Church, Jurgen Moltmann. In this volume, Moltmann did something that not many top-flight theologians and scholars have ever tackled—explain and elucidate on the Holy Spirit! Moltmann reminds us that the Holy Spirit IS the third PERSON of the Trinity, and that as such, shares ALL of the attributes of God the Father (Creator) and God the Son (Jesus/Redeemer). It is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that “feeds” and sustains the church, and even the individual believer such as you and me. And while the Day of Pentecost saw lots of special effects, the work of God the Holy Spirit is often quiet, even unnoticed, yet essential AND practical.
The Holy Spirit lavishes God’s grace upon humanity.
The Holy Spirit provides the wisdom EVERY believer needs to grow and serve in faith.
The Holy Spirit comes alongside us when we’re troubled or grieving.
The Holy Spirit inoculates us against hate and is a carrier of God’s steadfast love.
The Holy Spirit empowers the church to be a witness, even when it is floundering and humanly ineffective, such as The United Methodist Church, leading up to and in the wake of the disaffiliation movement.
In all of this, though, we must remind ourselves that she is the very PRESENCE of the Living God, in our midst, in our institutions, and in our hearts. Like Peter, our message doesn’t have to be profound to touch the human heart—THAT will be the Spirit’s doing.
Jurgen Moltmann suggests that Reformed theology got so caught up in the intellectual rubric of understanding “The Word of God” and just how Christ redeems people that they pretty much ignored the Holy Spirit, or in some cases led to the generally shared “sin” of viewing the Spirit as a TOOL or “accessory” of God, rather than as God, Godself.
Moltmann also urged us to understand that it is the practical task of the Holy Spirit to BE GOD IN OUR MIDST, including living among us just like Jesus himself did. Moltmann stresses in his book the “experiential” nature of numinous experiences—the Holy Spirit is available to EVERYONE, is capable of using ANYONE to carry out the work of God in the world, and yet can be as personal as our own heartbeat. He questions why we rarely—if ever—address the Holy Spirit directly in our prayers. We often “pray to God,” and follow Jesus’ unction to “pray in my name”—in fact, how many of our prayers begin, “Dear Jesus”? But when was the last time you directly prayed to the Holy Spirit? We ask GOD to “send your Spirit,” or to “empower us by your Spirit,” but why not directly address her sometimes when we pray? I never really thought about it in this way, but my first thought when Moltmann mentioned “experience” was about John Wesley’s focus on it as a basic element of Christian action and discernment. After all, is not the Holy Spirit God’s “direct interface” with humanity in the here and now?
On this Pentecost weekend when we again remind ourselves of the “decent” of the Holy Spirit upon the church and humanity, let me share four things about the Holy Spirit from Moltmann’s book that I thought brilliant:
The Holy Spirit is UNIVERSAL—no one is shut out from being transformed by the “Spirit of Life.” In fact, the aim of the Holy Spirit is to bring every BRUNO back into the family! AND the Holy Spirit is working in “other” faiths, in people who don’t yet have ANY faith, and in ways we may never understand until we are “on the other side,” so to speak.
The Holy Spirit is TOTAL—everything we need about God and from God is available and present in the indwelling, surrounding, all-embracing Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit IS God, not a “tool” of God, a force FROM God, or an “accessory” to our faith in Christ Jesus. Without the Holy Spirit we could HAVE no faith in either God OR Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit is ENDURING—the Holy Spirit, as a person of the Trinity, and as God with us NOW—will ALWAYS be with humanity. Since her descending upon Planet Earth, the presence, power, and pardon of God are forever with us!
The Holy Spirit is DIRECT—no “mediator” is needed between the Holy Spirit and any of God’s children. Remember, the Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit is the Wild Goose, not the “gentle” dove. Why? Because like a Wild Goose, the Spirit will DO what the Spirit will DO. She cannot be tamed, and she goes where she will. While the Holy Spirit CAN be gentle when comforting us, she is a powerhouse, and quite capable of being all the God we need for now and forever. It is through her agency that we fulfill Jesus’ promise of “greater things you shall do because I go to the Father.” And we have!
I learned in seminary of the perichoresis or the “divine dance” as to how the three persons of the Holy Trinity share the fullness of God with us and each other. I really like this idea of the “divine dance.” Like all good musicals, the film “Encanto” ends with a “happily ever after” and a good song and dance. IMAGINE the Holy Spirit saying to YOU and the CHURCH, today in these lyrics:
Look at this home, we need a new foundation,
It may seem hopeless, but we’ll get by just fine.
Look at this family, a glowing constellation,
So full of stars, everybody wants to shine.
But the stars don’t shine, they burn,
And the constellations shift,
I think it’s time you learn.
You’re more than just your gift.
The miracle is not some magic that you’ve got.
The miracle is YOU, not some gift, just YOU!
The miracle is YOU—ALL of you!
Okay, so we gonna talk about Bruno?
Amen!
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