5/25/58

Scripture: Acts 2: 1-21

Today, in many communities, is baccalaureate Sunday. It is so here, in our city, for all the young folk who will be graduated this week from Lincoln High School. It is so at the college in South Dakota from which I was graduated, and I would like to have been there for the commencement observing the 75th anniversary of Huron College, had it not been that I have a greater preference for being here this week.

On the church calendar, today is also known as Pentecost. Some of you may raise the question, "What is Pentecost, anyway?" We know what Christmas is; and Thanksgiving Day; and Good Friday and Easter. Our celebration of birthdays in our families makes Christmas -- the birthday of our Lord -- quite understandable to us. We understand that He died on Good Friday on a cross for our salvation. And we mark Easter as the day of his resurrection. But Pentecost? Does that have something to do with the cost of penance? Or does it suggest the five-sided geometrical figure called a pentagon? The latter is not so far-fetched as it might seem. For Pentecost does have reference to the word "fifty." Among devout Jews, Pentecost is a solemn festival on the 50th day (7 weeks) from, and after, the second day of the Passover. For Christians, Pentecost is the 50th day from, and after, Easter Sunday.

Well, so much for the meaning of a word. Another word for the same occasion is "Whitsunday" -- a contraction of the words white and Sunday. Interesting, but not yet particularly illuminating! A further definition of the word Pentecost is that it is the day commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. That throws a little more light upon the matter, and draws our attention to the Book of Acts and the account which we noted this morning in the Scripture lesson.

Only the writer of Acts recounts this incident; it is not found in the Gospels or the epistles, but it is a remarkable occurrence. The followers of Jesus, so eager while he led and taught them, so crushed by his crucifixion, so reassured by his resurrected presence with them, were nevertheless not yet ready to do what must be done. They were not "going into all the world" preaching Christ and baptizing believers, as they had been commanded to do. They continued, for some time, meeting together as a small band of followers -- a dozen or so.

This went on until that day -- the 50th day from Easter, when, as they were all together in one place, there came to them an exciting experience. Their inspiration is not an easy thing to describe. And so the writer uses some picturesque language in telling of it. He says that those apostles heard a sound like a mighty, rushing wind. The inspiration that came to them was as vivid as tongues of flame -- not fire to burn or injure them, but the spirit that set them on fire for their Lord -- on fire for the Gospel -- on fire for the people to whom He had come and to whom He was sending them.

We read in the Book of Acts that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they could not only speak, but could speak understandably and persuasively to people of differing countries and a variety of languages. They were so worked up that some few onlookers remarked that they must be full of new wine -- drunken, in other words.

But Peter was ready with the answer to that. It was still morning time. And no group of people, he reminded them, would have the occasion, or desire, to have imbibed so freely of wine as to be drunken at such an hour of the day.

Peter had more to say -- much more! He commented that this was the kind of thing that the prophet, Joel, had described. And he quoted that prophet at some length. Then he went on to preach a sermon to the great crowd that gathered around.

It was a great day! Peter and the other apostles were remarkably inspired. Peter’s words were deeply convincing. He spoke so vividly about Jesus of Nazareth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his saving presence, that earnest people were asking what they could do. "Repent and be baptized," said Peter. Well, the conclusion of the story is that some 3,000 souls were added to the company of believers that day. The story concludes: "And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved." It was a time of great excitement and fervor.

And so we would like to know more of the meaning of this occasion, this event, called "Pentecost." Probably the key to further understanding is the word "spirit." The writer says that these people were "filled with the Holy Spirit." Spirit is a common word, familiar to everyone. But how shall it be defined? What does it mean when used as it occurs here?

Not so long ago I heard a series of lectures by a competent Biblical scholar whose ability is recognized by the fact that he was a dean of a theological school. He told his audience that this word spirit as used in the Bible, often means simply breath. Now of course the Biblical writers were not thinking of breath as some quantity of air full of oxygen on the intake, and laden with carbon dioxide when expelled from the nose or mouth. These writers thought of breath as that which gives life to the body. One can warm his cold hands with his breath. One can see one’s breath on a cold morning. When breath leaves the body, one dies. Breath, then, means life in the understanding of the Biblical writers. This understanding of what breath means to Bible writers gives us some light on the meaning of the word spirit. Spirit means breath, and breath means life.

According to the writer of one of the accounts of creation in the book of Genesis, God created man out of the dust of the earth and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He made man; and then He made man alive. [Genesis 2: 7].

Move a step further; this breath, this spirit, this life can be passed from one person to another. It seemed to those folk that one person can breathe life into another.

There is a fine Old Testament story about a Shunamite woman who had no child. She was getting along in life; her husband was old; it did not appear possible that there would every be a child born to them, though they had longed for a family.

They knew well the prophet, Elisha, who went up and down the country preaching the righteousness of God to the people. They fixed a cool place on the roof of their house where he would sleep whenever he came to their town, and to their home, to visit. He knew how much they wanted a child and he prayed God to send them a child. And the Lord did send a child, for the Shunamite woman, to her great joy, bore a son.

When the boy was old enough to do so, he went out into the harvest fields with his father. While working there he became ill with what appeared to be sunstroke and seemingly died. The prophet, coming by that day, went to the room on the roof and there found that they had carried in the boy, and laid him, apparently lifeless, on the bed. The Biblical account says that the prophet leaned over the boy, put his hands on the boy’s hands, his eyes over the boy’s eyes, his mouth upon the boy’s mouth and "breathed into him the breath of life." And the boy sat up and began to talk.

In recent years we know that this technique of resuscitation is now seriously urged for lifesaving in cases of drowning or electric shock or similar situations. It is recommended as more effective that resuscitation by chest pressure, or arm-raising techniques long taught in first aid!

Well, when the prophet used this method with that boy, it seemed to the thankful people who watched, that the prophet had really passed from himself to the boy the breath of life -- that is the spirit.

We think of this sort of thing as being done spiritually, too. Bruno Walter or Toscanini could "breathe life" into the members of an orchestra until the music from their instruments became a living, spiritual whole! From the eyes, the face, the finger tips of the maestro comes the spirit that enables the players to produce music they could not by themselves produce. A friend said of Toscanini, "He did not exercise power. He radiated it."

Jesus did this to a marvelous degree. He came across men with no particular preparation or training for the work he wanted done. And he could so stir their enthusiasm and imagination that they actually became greater men than they really were. He breathed into them something of his own life. This communicating of one person’s spirit to another is one of the miracles of creation.

Jesus, now and then, would come across someone who was a failure -- morally or physically. He could, and did, communicate to such a one the assurance, the will, the incentive to get on their feet, face the future, and get done something of great significance that God meant for them to do. He could breathe into them new life!

Then he died. The breath went out of his body and, like other lifeless bodies, it was put in a tomb for burial. After several days, and from time to time, his spirit, his presence, reappeared to some of his disciples. And they were reassured, even joyful over the feeling that death had not ended him. But they were like musicians without a conductor. They were no orchestra!

At this time, 50 days after Easter, when they met together, they were faithful believers; they remembered Jesus, and his teaching and his commands. Those had been glorious days when he had lived among them, taught them, healed and inspired them. They would not forget the past. It was too vivid to be forgotten.

But then something happened, something that was vitally needed. It wasn’t anything to be seen or photographed. But it was as if the breath of Jesus blew upon them like a mighty wind. His spirit took hold of them with the intensity of fire. It was his Holy Power which was to turn them loose on a needy world -- all of the world!

They were a little group of unsophisticated and even uneducated men. Most of them had nowhere near the schooling of these young folk who are this week being graduated from high school. They were slow to comprehend, they were apprehensive and fearful. They were being called upon to change the world in the face of crooked politicians, powerful kings and emperors; of efficient armies, or law courts and lions.

Since they would be preaching, teaching and practicing a religion that was not legally recognized in Palestine nor in the Roman Empire, they might be thrown in jail, they might be on trial for their lives. They would not know what to say, for they were not lawyers, nor were they even sufficiently educated.

And yet, as it turned out, at the very moment when some of them were to stand before the inquisitor with life-and-death questions coming at them, the words would come, the breath of Jesus would come, and they would know what to say. They did say it in bravery, in trust, in fearless faith. It was as though the spirit told them what to say.

This has happened over and over again through the history of the church and of Christian people. Not always intensely enough, for far too often the light of Christianity in the church burns low. But now and then a tongue like flame touches someone, or some church catches a new fire. And things begin to happen, which were thought impossible.

Something like this is what Pentecost means. And this meaning is what every church and each devoted Christian longs for.

When the great Toscanini retired and went back to Europe to spend his last days, his faithful musicians of the Symphony of the Air were left without a conductor. But it is said that they went on a though he were still standing before them. A man’s spirit can continue to inspire others, even when he is not longer present in the flesh!

Our Conductor is not visibly present. But his spirit dwells among us. He still tells us where to come in, how boldly or how softly to play. He draws out from us music that we can not produce by our unaided selves. He can get within us and use us for his own heroic purposes. Now and then he "uses one of his own" to remind others that Jesus is passing by.

For the Lord uses people of every sort -- some of us being very ordinary folk -- to witness His power and His righteousness.

And so as each one of these graduates, and each one of all the rest of us, puts himself, or herself, at the disposal of the leading Lord of life, let each hold to three simple principles:

(1) First, let us hold no knowledge cheap. We all have a common debt to the past. Before our Lord should come to the earth there had to be the prophets. Before we can face our tasks and opportunities, there has had to be the patient and persistent search and experiment and study of our fathers-in-knowledge before us. And we must preserve, and improve, and add to the knowledge that may be transmitted to those who follow us.

(2) Second, let no one be ashamed to learn from anyone. It has been a weakness of Christians in the church that new movements have such a hard time teaching us! We have looked down upon the lowly, or upon those who are "different," forgetting that God sometimes uses the "foolish things" of the world to confound the wise. It is foolish to live so much in the wisdom of the world that we laugh out of court those who take seriously the assurances of God. We can learn something of value from every situation and from every person, be he a

P-R-I-M-A-R-Y or a Ph.D. And sometimes God uses a very humble individual to speak the word we need to hear.

(3) Third, those of us who have attained some knowledge, or some achievement, must not scorn others. Religious experience can become a very selfish matter unless we assure that it is to be shared. The breath of life is to be given to others and not held in unto ourselves. In fact, true religion grows and increases in vitality only as it is shared with other folk.

The power of Pentecost was, for those who experienced it 7 weeks after the first Easter -- and is for us who look for it today, 1950-odd years later -- a fresh realization of what the past has done for us, and a new inspiration to share our wonderful experiences with others whom the Holy Spirit waits to touch.

[the rest seems to have been added when the sermon was repeated in 1966]

We are equipped with some education. We of this church are equipped with a new home for worship and learning. We are a people who have heard and continue to hear, a living gospel. We have a history to appreciate and a future to be made worthy. Let the Holy Spirit make us what we want to be in the service of goodness.

{Prayer} Lord, let us not forget those who have gone before us, giving and spending life for freedom and worthy accomplishment. Let us be grateful and able builders of a future that shall be Thy Kingdom of right. We would continue to be learners and doers of Thy will. Amen.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, May 25, 1958

Wisconsin Rapids, May 29, 1966

[this is an insert 1a, filed after p. 1; it is not clear where this fit.]

It is a time of remembrance for those who have gone on -- the dear ones of family and friends recently taken from our lives, or long since passed. In particular, it is a day of remembrance that many have spent their lives for our liberty in the wars of our nation. As a reminder of their valor and our privilege, graves will be decorated, public tributes will be paid. That is the reason for the holiday --- not that more will be killed on our highways and waterways, but that we shall be reminded of the greatness we ought to achieve and perpetuate. We note that a member of this church is to be speaker at tomorrow morning’s community remembrance in the Field House.