Sermon 5-22-2016“Commencement”
Acts 2:1-17
Anthony Manousos; http://laquaker.blogspot.com/ http://laquaker.blogspot.com/
John Piper; http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/old-and-young-shall-dream-together
Pastor Ruthie Tippin; Indianapolis First Friends Meeting
Isn’t it strange that we end the school year, commencing? With commencement? With beginning? To commence means to start or begin; come or cause to come into being; from the Old French commencer. Endings are always beginnings. They always signify change. Something different. Something new. Something perhaps unexpected. Something possibly longed for. We end the school year, and start the rest of our lives.
We watch our kids graduate from pre-school. I remember that. Then, from elementary school, middle school, high school, college, grad school. Graduating means completion – finishing a course of study, receiving a diploma that states your accomplishment. This part of your life has ended, and there’s no purpose in repeating it. It’s time to begin – to move forward and learn something new. And there’s always something new to discover – about the world and about yourself.
God is all about this stuff – endings and beginnings – because God IS endings and beginnings. God is Alpha and Omega – the first and the last – from A to Z. God is there at our borning, at our leavetaking, and with us throughout the stretch of our lives. God schools us with Godself – teaching us with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what it is to be human, what it is to be created, what it is to be creative. There is no age or time when God says we cease to learn, or to be led. God expects us to continue to grow, to walk, to be. “And in the last days it shall 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.” Old and young, vital in the continuing circle of endings and beginnings in life, and especially in the life of the Spirit.
The opening of the Book of Acts is an ending. Life, as the followers of Christ has known it, had ended. Christ had died on the cross, his body had been taken to a tomb, and then was not to be found. He appeared physically to many who knew him, and it was known that he had risen to life again – just as Lazarus had, not too long before. Their teacher and Lord had promised this, and indeed, had kept his word. Christ told his followers they would not be left hopeless, but instead would be given the power of the Holy Spirit. They were to wait in Jerusalem, where this would happen.
What a great example of ‘ending well’. Christ completed his work, but he didn’t just disappear. He wrapped up his lesson plans – he turned everything into the Office. He told all his students where he’d be going next – where they could find him. He reminded them of what they’d been taught, what they had yet to accomplish, what this Teacher hoped for them. He left, satisfied that nothing had been left undone. And he told them to carry on. Christ returned to heaven - his incarnate ministry on earth ended - and his followers went on to Jerusalem.
And then, everything began again! Normal life. Christ’s followers worshipped at the temple. They prayed in the upper room. They conducted business, naming Matthias as a new disciple to take the place of Judas. They lived their daily lives. Until that Feast Day of Pentecost. 50 Days after Passover, a Harvest Festival was celebrated. The harvest that year? The Holy Spirit! Wind, fire, and flame swept over the people as they gathered. Everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in languages they had not known. A crowd gathered, and was amazed, because they heard their own language being spoken. Visitors from around the world, gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast, heard the wonders of God declared in their own languages! It wasn’t wine or strong drink – the followers of Christ were intoxicated with the power of God’s Spirit! An ending became a beginning… the start of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through all people:
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
Some people get the notion that prophets tell the future – that they are magicians of some sort. Friend Anthony Manousos writes: “Just to be clear about what prophets do: inspired by God, they challenge or warn their religious community to live up to its highest ideals (aka the "will of God") and 2) they challenge leaders to live up their highest ideals. (This is sometimes called “speaking truth to power.”) What does it mean to be “inspired by God”? It means that we have taken time to be silent, reflect deeply and listen to the “still, small voice” that is within each of us. We can do this both individually and corporately.”
No one is left out. No one is excluded. God’s spirit is poured out on all people. Young and old. Servants and those served. Men and women. Everyone receives the blessing of God’s spirit. Each person receives the gift of the Spirit for the good of all. [I Corinthians 12:7] We are all empowered for witness and ministry. Christ has left, but his work and witness has not. It has begun in a new way, through this beginning in the lives of his followers. It didn’t, and still doesn’t matter whether they’re young or old, graduates of high school, or the school of hard knocks. Whether they’ve completed a formal degree or a great degree of work and struggle. What matters is that they, that you, that I, have discovered the power of God through the Holy Spirit. It is this power that allows us to move through endings and to begin again. To say farewell to our youth, and to accept the challenge of maturity. To say goodbye to those we love, and move forward to loving others – including ourselves. It is this power that gives us freedom to love God in new ways, not holding our understanding of God in patterns that served us well at one time, but now inhibit our growth and experience of God.
How do we discover the power of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told his followers to go back to normal life – to live each day, waiting. We must do the same. Live each day, waiting expectantly. Ending, and beginning. Allowing things to fall away, leaving room for newness. Ending our own chatter, and allowing an empty space of quietness to be poured full of God. Ending our own answers, and allowing space for God’s questions. Ending our own insistence, and allowing God’s way to open within us. In our end is our beginning. Alpha. Omega. The beginning and the end and the beginning.
Amen.