"Wind Power"

I must admit, I’ve always been impressed with the part of the Pentecost story about the sound of the mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire that rested on each disciples head. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who insist on focusing their attention on the sound of the wind and the fire of Pentecost. They put so much emphasis on the rushing mighty wind and the tongues of fire; you might think that those things were the real power of Pentecost.

But let’s look at it another way. Our military technology, as you know, is amazing. We’ve got night vision goggles, laser-guided missiles, smart bombs, and a host of ways to kill people. But perhaps one of the most amazing pieces of technology ever to come out of the military is called the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber. If you’ve ever had the privilege of seeing one of these planes fly, you know immediately why it’s called a stealth bomber. If you expect to see the plane when you hear the sound of it, you won’t see anything. The B-2 bomber flies miles ahead of its sound. To become fixated on the sound means you completely miss the plane.

The sound on that first Pentecost day may have been to get people’s attention. We read many accounts in the Old Testament where fire and/or wind were a part of the story. If the sound was to get peoples’ attention, it worked, because a crowd was soon gathered.

Perhaps we might view the Holy Spirit as a "stealth" Spirit because He really isn’t interested in calling attention to himself. Jesus told us, "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me." Pentecost is not so much about the sound of the wind or the fire, but about the Word, both spoken and incarnate. Pentecost is about the power of the Holy Spirit and how he works through God’s saving Word.

So let’s look at that first Pentecost and see what we can learn from that day and how we can apply it to us. Let’s see if we can harness the power of the Holy Spirit and put it to work as we glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

With so much talk these days about being "green," wind is one of the most promising forms of renewable energy, but it can be notoriously difficult to catch. One of the problems is that the best winds don’t tend to move at ground level. Instead, they do their blowing six miles up in the air, at the height of the jet stream. At that level, the winds are stronger and blow more consistently, carrying up to a hundred times more energy.

But how can humans harness this power? Conventional turbines on towers won’t get us close enough — the tallest to date is just over 200 meters in height.

According to The Economist magazine (June 9, 2007), a company called Sky WindPower has developed a flying generator, a contraption that looks like a cross between a kite and a helicopter. Picture an H-shaped frame with rotors at the ends of the four points, tethered to the ground by a long cable. The rotors provide lift, like the surface of a kite, and as they lift the frame they also turn dynamos that generate electricity. This electricity is then transmitted to the ground through aluminum cables.

But what happens if the wind stops blowing? Here’s the cool part: The dynamos can be used in reverse as electric motors. If the wind slows down, the dynamos turn the rotors to keep the generator in the air.

It seems that if you want to catch the wind, you have to put yourself where the wind is blowing. Let’s say that one more time: If you want to catch the wind, you have to put yourself where the wind is blowing.

The same principle applies to the church. You might call it the Pentecost paradigm, because if the Christian community is going to tap the limitless energy of the Holy Spirit’s power, then it has to position itself correctly. Fortunately, the book of Acts provides us with a blueprint for building a church that can catch this wind. It suggests that there are four points to put in place, kind of like the four points of a flying generator: Community, Communication, Courage and Clarity. With these four points in the right place, we can feel "a mighty rushing wind" (Acts 2:2), and capture the energy of the Holy Spirit.

Acts tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the apostles of Jesus "were all together in one place" (v. 1). They were all there. They were all together. They were all in one place. They were together, gathered in community. They were not in different places, but were in the same spot. They were probably still in the upper room where they had spent so much time since Jesus’ crucifixion.

Community is critically important, because when the Holy Spirit came with a sound "like a mighty rushing wind," he came to one group in one house. "Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared to them, and rested on each one of them" (v. 3). If Peter had been in Capernaum, John in Nazareth, James on the Sea of Galilee, Andrew in Cana and the other eight scattered across the country, there would not have been such a dramatic catching of the Holy Spirit’s wind.

I’m not saying the Holy Spirit would not have come if the disciples had been scattered. It just might not have been as dramatic an event. But Pentecost was a communal experience. Since they were together "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (v. 4).

Gathering together is a challenge for us today because we have become so individualistic in our practice of the faith. It used to be that people would routinely take their spiritual search to church, and look to their fellow worshipers, to people they knew were Christians, to their pastors, to their

Unfortunately, more and more people today are taking their quest for answers and insights directly to the Internet, surfing for religious insights and accepting Internet information as the gospel truth. Christianity is becoming more like Wikipedia and less like Encyclopedia Britannica, with people relying more on online opinions than on time-tested religious insights.

This is not to say that Christian bloggers are wrong to post their insights online. They have every right to do so — after all, we live in a nation based on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But where did those insights come from? Is their "enlightenment" powered by the Holy Spirit, or is it something they figured out for themselves or got from a self-help book?

Religious communities have a long history of drawing people together, and something precious is lost when people choose to practice their faith in isolation. It is only when we are "all together in one place" that we can catch the wind of the Holy Spirit, and begin to use the gifts that God wants to give us.

The apostles in Jerusalem "began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (v. 4). This amazed the devout Jews from every nation who were living in Jerusalem, because they knew that the apostles were Galileans — men not famous for their foreign language abilities.

You know the riddle: What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks one language? American.

Well, in the first century, the punch line would have been: Galilean. But on Pentecost, the apostles were chattering away in the native languages of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Romans, Cretans, Arabs and others — in these diverse languages, they were "telling about the mighty works of God" (v. 11). The apostles had been given a gift of communication by the Holy Spirit of God so that they could tell people about the good news of Jesus in a clear and compelling way.

Acts tells us that some of the residents of Jerusalem sneered at the apostles and said, "They are filled with new wine" (v. 13). They didn’t want to believe what they were hearing from these Galileans, so they tried to write it off as drunken babbling. But Peter raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day" (vv. 14-15).

It took guts for Peter to stand up to the sneering crowd. It took Spirit-powered courage. Remember that this was the very same Peter who — just a few weeks earlier — had slinked away from conflict by denying Jesus three times. He could have made a joke of the whole situation, like the students at a Lutheran college who had T-shirts printed up for their 9:00 class. The shirts simply said "Acts 2:15." Not many people knew the verse from memory, but when they looked it up they found the words, "For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day" (nine o’clock in the morning for those of you who don’t know how to tell time according to the ancient Romans)

Peter didn’t make a joke. He didn’t shy away from conflict. Instead, he stood up to his detractors and said that the speech of the apostles was a fulfillment of ancient prophecy. "But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel," said Peter: "and in the last days shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh’" (vv. 16-17). Peter made a strong stand for what God was doing in the world at that particular moment.

We are challenged to do the same, especially when people dismiss our practice of the faith. Our response to what God has done for us is to show a little courage as we describe what we see God doing in the world. We don’t have to engage in philosophical arguments with agnostics or refute the best-selling books of today’s neo-atheists. Our challenge is to point out what God is doing in our churches, communities, nation and world.

Our challenge is to spread the Good News of the Gospel - to tell others what God has done for us in Jesus’ perfect life, innocent death on the cross for the sins of the world, and his resurrection on Easter, assuring those who die in faith of their resurrection and eternal life. Our challenge is to show the world that Jesus is the source of living water, and that all who thirst can come to Jesus and drink.

When the apostle Peter spoke to the crowd, he didn’t invent a whole new set of Holy Scriptures. Instead, he clarified a passage from Joel that had been confusing before, but now made perfect sense. He provided a commentary on this Scripture lesson that awakened people to the power of the Holy Spirit and the significance of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Making the message of the Bible clear is one of the most important ways in which we position the church to catch the power of God. Peter did this well in his sermon to the people of Jerusalem, by showing that God’s promise to pour out his Spirit was coming true all around them, and the day was dawning in which "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (v. 21). This was the greatest clarification of all, because it made clear that the name of the Lord is Jesus, and everyone who calls on him shall be saved.

So these are the four points of a Holy-Spirit-harnessing church. A Community that Communicates with Courage and Clarity is going to be in a position to catch the power of God and put it to work in the world. Let’s see if we can harness a little wind power. Amen.