Power Surge - Page 2 of 3
And then it happened - the Holy Spirit came: wind and fire and Spirit. First there was the sound
like the rush of a violent wind filling the whole house, then divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among
us, then a tongue on each of us making us look like a bunch of trick birthday candles that even this wind
couldn’t blow out.
And then the fiery tongues expanded and became the gift of “other tongues” because all of us
were full of the Holy Spirit - the gift that Jesus had promised, the gift that enabled us to speak. (Didn’t I
say I would have to use some strange language to talk about what happened?)
So that was inside. Now let’s go outside, where all of this speaking was drawing a crowd of
Jews from every nation. Amazingly, each of the listeners could hear what we were saying in their own
language, even though they could tell from our accents that we were Galileans. They were bewildered,
amazed, and astonished. No one was excluded from hearing what we had to say. At least that was their
first reaction: what does it all mean?
But some didn’t want to know what it really was. The idea of God’s Spirit breaking in to
everyday life was too threatening and unsettling to the way they saw the world. They needed an
explanation to fit this into their world.
You know, I couldn’t help but remember another story Luke told in his gospel about the time
Jesus went to his home synagogue to preach. First he read from the Isaiah scroll:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
The congregation was delighted - until Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one they thought they knew,
reminded them that God’s powerful love had included foreigners and they got so angry that they drove
him out of town and tried to throw him over the cliff. I guess some folks just don’t like to have the Spirit
challenge the way they look at the world.
So, once again, here in Jerusalem, God’s powerful Spirit was breaking into a conventional
gathering of God’s people in an unconventional way - and some folks had to explain it away by claiming
we were drunk!
And that’s when I got up to speak. I doubt anyone there could have imagined that I could do it.
As it was, the community had a hard time hearing me the last time I spoke about the need to replace
Judas, another disciple who had betrayed Jesus. I had a hard time imagining I could do it. After all, it
only took a servant girl to get me to deny my Lord.
Which is why I know it had to be God’s Spirit that got me to get up in front of that crowd -
some of them honest seekers, but others deeply critical and mocking. You see, that’s the kind of thing
the Spirit does. Just like in Genesis 2:8 where it says “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being,” But this time the
Spirit breathed life into me and created a new person with the gift of bold speech.
It was a miracle. Not just my miracle - all of us had been given this powerful gift of the Spirit
that Jesus had promised before he left. God gave all of us the gift of proclaiming the good news of Jesus
- I was just the one to get up and speak.
 |
 |
 |