5/17/64

Scripture: Read Acts 2: 1-4; 12-17.

On the calendar of the United Church of Christ Plan Book (which lies open on my desk), today, May 17th is marked as “Pentecost.” It comes seven weeks after Easter. The original Day of Pentecost is described in the Book of Acts. It is frequently referred to as the birthday of the Christian Church. And that is proper; for, in a real spiritual sense, it is so.

On this day, May 17, 1964, we may well observe another anniversary. For it was exactly 10 years ago that the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision on desegregation, ruling that separate educational facilities for the races in our country are inherently unequal. I propose that we pay some attention to this day as the anniversary both of Pentecost and of the beginning of a present-day struggle for racial justice. First -- some observations about Pentecost. I want to follow the lead of the late Dr. Carl Patton, minister for some years of a great Congregational church in Los Angeles, in attempting to shed some light on one or two items in the story of what happened on the first Day of Pentecost.

There are a couple of things in this story from the Book of Acts that may be difficult for some people, or at least that cause them to wonder about it. One is the reference to “tongues like as of fire.” The apostles were gathered, apparently with some others, in a house in Jerusalem. It might have been in somebody’s private house, or it might have been in the porch of Solomon’s temple where they sometimes met. Anyway it was somewhere indoors. Suddenly they heard a sound like a sudden blast of wind. The author is careful not to say it was a wind; it only sounded like it. In both the Greek and Semitic languages, the word for wind and the word for spirit are one and the same word. We may assume, therefore, that the author means that they heard something appropriate to, and suggestive of, the coming down of the spirit that was about to occur. He means that he has no doubt about the spirit’s coming to them; indeed it came to them with such power that they could hear it, says he.

You could not only hear it; you could see it! There were tongues like flame. Again, he is careful not to say they were of actual fire. They only looked like it. John the Baptist had said the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It was a sort of symbol for the spirit, enlightening, purifying, like the spirit. And the writer thinks of them as resting on the heads of the apostles for a minute and then disappearing --- we may suppose into the apostles.

Did those people actually hear something like a wind? I do not know. People have heard many startling and curious things. Joan of Arc heard angels. Did the people actually see something like tongues of fire? I do not know. People have seen many curious things. Martin Luther saw the devil and threw an ink bottle at him! Paul saw the Lord on his way to Damascus. Anyway the writer was not a modern realist. He spoke in the imaginative Oriental way -- often in picture language. And what he surely says is that, when the apostles received the spirit on that Day of Pentecost, the experience was so real that you could both see it and hear it. We don’t need to make it any more difficult than that!

Another item that may be a little bit puzzling is the author’s reference to speaking in tongues, as if the apostles could suddenly talk foreign languages which they never knew before. Did they do that? It seems not very likely.

When William Carey went to India, if God had seen fit to give him a sudden knowledge of the languages that are spoken there, it would have saved a lot of time and trouble over language study that Carey had to go through. It would seem that David Livingstone could have saved a lot of the Lord’s time if he had started his life-long work in Africa with a sudden knowledge of the many dialects spoken there.

Now here was a gathering of Jews. There was no point in the apostles hearing a lot of languages that were foreign to the people around them. All present could understand the Hebrew tongue. God is not likely to waste one of his miracles.

The story itself makes it unlikely that they really spoke foreign languages fluently and accurately. Some of the people who heard, listened and then said, “These men are drunk.” That was a flippant explanation. It did not fit. As Peter said, it was impossible to suppose that anyone should be drunk so early in the day -- nine o’clock. What is important is that some people said the apostles were drunk. If they had been speaking foreign languages fluently and well, it would hardly have occurred to anyone to think they were intoxicated. When a man gets drunk, he may say words that are unintelligible, and that do not go together or make any sense. But one thing that the drunken man does not do is to break forth into some language he has not known or spoken before.

On the other hand, if, in their excitement, these people talked too fast, or broke out in some ecstatic utterance that their hearers could not understand, they might have been suspected of being drunk. And this is what could have happened. We know from the letters of Paul that many of his converts, in moments of religious excitement, had a tendency to “speak with tongues,” as he called it. He himself could do it upon occasion, he said. But he didn’t think much of it. He wrote to the Corinthians at some length about it, and said, among other things, “If at a gathering of the church everybody speaks in tongues, and if outsiders or unbelievers come in, will they not say you are insane?” [I Corinthians 14: 23].

This may be an explanation of what happened at Pentecost. Anyway, the author wrote it down the way it appeared to him. Now let us examine the real significance of the story, and its permanent historical value. It is simple this: that the Christian Church was born out of a great enthusiasm. A new hope had dawned. A new understanding of life and death had come with Jesus Christ. A new breath of the spirit was blowing upon the world. A new fire burned in the hearts of people. And out of this enthusiasm, the church was born. That was a real Pentecost!

Now for a few further reflections. One is this: you may hear the story of Pentecost referred to in terms that are neither healthy nor hopeful. Some people are always harking back to it, and to other scenes like it, with a longing to see it reproduced (according to their understanding of it) in our time, and with an implied rebuke upon us that we do not reproduce it. They think that something happened at Pentecost the like of which has never happened since -- and so, “woe is we.” Somehow they manage to imply that it is our own fault that they don’t see it happen nowadays. If we were only ready; if our hearts were only pure and right; if our souls were clean; if we would only lean upon God (so the implication seems to run) he would pour out on us the spirit in the same wonderful way as it came to the apostles in that story.

Well, it doesn’t exactly happen that way. Nor is it fair to expect it to happen that way. We do better to look around for the way that the spirit does come to people! God’s spirit was poured out upon William Booth when he founded the Salvation Army. His spirit moved Pilgrims to come to a new country in 1620 in order to establish freedom and responsibility in worship. His spirit stirred up Wesley to preach in fields around the English coal mines. His spirit certainly got into those young fellows who took refuge under a hay stack during a shower and vowed to take the Christian message to people of other lands who hadn’t heard it. That was a real and lasting fire!

These things, and many others like them, were as blessed in their results as was that first Pentecost. We don’t have to hark back nineteen hundred and thirty years or so to know what Pentecost is. It has never done the church any good, nor us its members, to figure that if we were only all pious enough we could see tongues of fire, hear winds of the spirit, and speak with strange tongues. In the real spirit of Pentecost, this does happen; it has happened in impressive ways through the centuries whenever, and wherever, people will give themselves to God’s will and leading enough to let Him fire up their enthusiasm. It is true, that the church has had many “birthdays” since that first one. It is possible, even probable, that it will have better birthdays in the future.

For -- let us make this observation --- at the heart of all genuine religion there must be a great enthusiasm. If we are wise, this will not show itself, in our day, in a babble of tongues. It may not even show up in any spectacular way. Probably we are all too afraid of being thought “peculiar,” anyway. But the spirit can come in the enthusiasms that live far beyond the “Ooh’s” and “Ah’s” that exhaust themselves as soon as the fireworks are spent. And let no cynicism cause us to miss the spirit! Cynicism, the feeling that nothing can really be accomplished and that only a fool will try anything big, is the symptom of a sour spirit. It makes a person no good for any high purpose. It is like a brake scraping on the wheels of progress. Too many people never allow themselves to hear any wind of the spirit, never see any tongues of flame over anybody’s head. If such had been in the house at Pentecost, they could have seen -- nothing. Leave cynicism to the sick cynics!

Pentecost is for you! Let your enthusiasm show in (1) bursts of enthusiasm over the accumulated wrongs and injustices of the world; (2) in quiet devotion to great human projects; (3) in life-long pursuit of the ideals of which you seldom speak but which rouse a dawn of glory in you as long as you live; (4) in your patient, persistent confidence that the kingdom of God must keep coming in you and around you. Let your enthusiasm help to build the church in our lives and let it erect the house of the Lord here and now! For this is the way to truly live!

One more observation: Something does come to us from above --- (1) from the past with all its accomplishments; (2) from the future with all its hopes and visions; (3) from the hearts of our fellows, from God in whom we live. Each of us by himself may be little enough. But we are part of a wonderful spiritual organism that is the church. The seeing eye, the listening ear, the understanding heart, are keys that open the door of real life.

Keep your eye on the tongues of flame, purifying and enlightening. You may see it on many a head, glorifying that head with the image of God. Listen, for the winds of the spirit do blow through this old world now as always. And when you see it, and when you hear it, then do not be silly and say, like the bystanders at Pentecost, that they are drunk. But say with Peter (for it is the truth), “This is that which was spoken through the prophet, ‘I will pour out my spirit upon them.’” Keep your eyes and ears and heart open; for to all who see, hear and understand, the day of Pentecost is always here.

It is here right now, blowing through the lives of church members who with enthusiasm plan their giving for the building of the temple of worship. Let the breath come upon you, for it is great to be alive in this effort!

The spirit is breathing on the lives and conscience of hosts of people who believe in racial justice now in our country. Our nation has been celebrating the centennial of Civil War battles to keep the Union together and to advance the cause of liberty. These are causes that must still be advanced with enthusiasm. Our country has made great contributions to world society. The greatest contribution that this American nation has made is not from her wealth or weapons or ambitions, but from her ideas and ideals; from the moral sentiments of human liberty and human welfare embodied in the declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. We must cling to these truths, for they are everlasting and universal aspirations of all people.

A century ago, Abraham Lincoln reminded the nation that it was “the sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world.” He said, “It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.” Not all the weights have been lifted, as yet, from the shoulders of those whose ancestors were slaves in our country. The spirit breathes upon a good many folk in the conviction that justice demands now, as always, equal opportunity for all who are born under the flag of the free. Our testimony about liberty is muted in the world until we can demonstrate it at home.

We are locked in the struggle to bring full, fair, equal opportunity and good education for all; to open to all the vote, as a citizen’s right and responsibility; to make available to all the access to decent housing, travel, and means of livelihood. In this struggle, much of which is painful to all of us, there are some whose spirit of enthusiasm bears them to one kind of cross or another. Many of us are not minded to let them bear it alone.

Three weeks ago, Harvey Steinberg reminded us of the emphasis which the General Synod of the United Church of Christ put on Racial Justice at its meeting of last July. By this representative body, we of the local churches were challenged to pray and to give in this cause. That which we gave last October, and which we may give today, is used by our denomination’s committee for “Racial Justice Now” to:

1. Help provide bail bonds for those who are arrested as they demand social justice.

2. Provide legal defense for such persons.

3. Provide some economic aid to persons who lose their jobs because of their participation in activities in behalf of racial equality.

4. Provide financial aid for institutions whose support is threatened when they adopt an “open policy of service.”

5. Support and commend those church members who successfully begin the integration of their own neighborhoods.

6. Extend the program of voter registration.

7. Urge Christians to give all possible aid to small businesses in making the transition to non-segregation.

8. Mobilize the whole membership of the church to join with others, on a community basis, to meet the needs of the situation on a local level.

9. Mobilize the United Church of Christ, its individual members, congregations, associations and conferences to press for adoption of legislation to guarantee civil rights.

10. Provide other emergency or long-term help, to need for which only the future will reveal.

And so, with approval of our own Church Boards, we now have the opportunity to contribute again our financial support of the cause for “Racial Justice Now.” The ushers will receive the offering as we sit in silent meditation, ready to receive whatever the spirit says to each one of us, personally, in the congregation.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, May 17, 1964.