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Let us talk about spiritual growth and our spiritual journeys. Pentecost was not just about a one-time event, 2,000 years ago. That first Pentecost (as described in the 2nd chapter of Acts) was an amazing day. Fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead, just after he ascended – the disciples are now on their own – they were waiting and praying and something happened. Later, they would speak of color and sound and communication with people from many nations.
The metaphor I would like to use to talk about that Pentecost experience and our spiritual lives is the metaphor of birth. Pentecost is called the birthday of the church. Paul in Romans speaks of Creation groaning in labor.
Do you remember the story, in John’s Gospel, when Nicodemus – a well-educated man, successful, a spiritual seeker – came to Jesus because he sensed that, spiritually, Jesus was on to something. He asked Jesus to explain spirituality, to lay it out logically and analytically.
Jesus responded first by talking about the wind. We don’t control the wind. We don’t know where it comes from or when it will blow. But when it blows, you know.
Then Jesus suggested that what Nicodemus was seeking and needing spiritually was to be born again, born from above, born anew. At first, Nicodemus protested – it didn’t make sense. The conversation trailed off from there. Nicodemus had a lot to ponder.
Birth is not a transition from nothing to something. It is a transition from something to something more. Regardless of when you start the clock on “human personhood”, as human life develops in a womb, it comes to be felt, cherished, awaited, and if tragically lost, then grieved. Life in a womb is relatively quiet, dark, secure and isolated except from the mother, whom the baby cannot see.
Then at birth the child enters a new world which is not quiet but loud – sounds at first like a rushing wind? A world which is not dark but bright – with colors like flames. There is diversity and movement – like divided tongues. There are people, community – sharing experiences, talking and understanding one another.
At times our spiritual and personal lives can be womb-like: secure, quiet, stable. And then for reasons we may not understand or expect, we come to see in new ways, to recognize new things, new dimensions of life. That can be exciting, even overwhelming. And sometimes we may resist – close our eyes or ears – or sneer, like at that first Pentecost when critics said the disciples were only drunk with wine.
Sometimes Pentecost can be a renewal or re-birth, a fresh recognition of mystery, of beauty, of love. It can be the renewal of a relationship you have been in for a long time, or a vocation, such that you come to recognize anew the importance or depth or love that has been developing or present all along. Or, it can be to recognize new dimensions and meaning in life beyond what you expected or had become familiar with and even bored with.
A key part of Pentecost and spiritual growth is community – in both cases becoming less isolated as in one’s own womb; able to recognize others and hear one another. Christian community was born through this Holy Spirit experience as the disciples – seekers that they were – prayed and waited on the Lord together.
Like with the wind, we don’t know why the Spirit moved then and the Church was born, or what tips or breaks open our spiritual lives. But lives were changed then and now, and people live differently. Those early disciples met together to pray and encourage one another – it was the natural way to live now. They shared the Lord’s Supper week by week, and spent time together exploring the Scriptures.
They also handled their resources differently, according to their new perspective on being with others in the world. Rather than hold on to their own accounts in isolation, they gave generously for the needs of others and to support the new community.
Their focus as persons was no longer on themselves. (Now they didn’t lose their personal identities – remember that the flames were distributed, a unique tongue on each one.) But together they focused on God’s mighty acts and God’s presence and mystery among them. That is what they spoke about across all the diversity of languages and experiences, and they understood one another!
This is a reversal of the Tower of Babel experience (Genesis 11) where the people – who still had one language – wanted to build a tower to the heavens to be like God and to establish their own legacy and significance. God scattered the people and their languages over such arrogance. Now by humbly recognizing God’s love and mystery, spiritual growth develops, and community and true welcome are renewed.
Pentecost and birth and renewal are all beginnings. They are gifts of grace in that we cannot make spiritual growth or birth or Pentecost happen. (The disciples did not make Pentecost happen – they received it as a gift.) We can wait and watch and clear away obstacles. We can be attentive, and not try too hard. We can be patient and open. That we can do. And then let us see – in our own lives and relationships, and in this parish and in the Episcopal Church (which is certainly groaning with some kind of labor) – where the Spirit will lead us.
Amen. | 
