Pentecost ~ The Gift of Courage

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days and during that time he not only assured them that he was indeed alive, he also promised to give them power from God. In Acts 1:8 we hear the final words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven. He said, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Jesus doesn’t just promise to give them power, he gives them power for a purpose. The power of God was going to come upon the disciples so that they could share the good news of God’s grace and love with others. They were going to be witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit they were going to call others to repent and believe that the transforming power of God could be work in their lives too. A week later, that is exactly what happened.

It was on the day of Pentecost, which was a Jewish festival that took place 50 days after Passover that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and filled them with power, and the power of the Holy Spirit is all over this story. They felt the power of the Holy Spirit as it came as a might rushing wind filling the whole house where they were sitting. They could see the power of the Holy Spirit when they look at each other and saw what appeared to be tongues of fire resting on each person and they could hear the power of the Holy Spirit as they being to talk about what is going on and realized that they don’t understand each other because they are all speaking in different languages. That’s power – they felt it in the wind, they saw it in the fire, and they heard it in the different languages, but it was power for a purpose because what they ended up talking about in all those different languages was the wonder and the work of God. Look at Acts 2:11.

What’s amazing to see here is how God has set this whole thing up. In Acts 1:4 Jesus told the disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift that would help them share the good news about Jesus, and the reason God wanted them to stay in the city was because on the day of Pentecost there were going to be people from all over Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth right there in the city. People from all over were going to be in the city of the festival of Pentecost and so the disciples could witness to them without even leaving the city. Of course the problem with this plan was that the disciples didn’t speak all the languages of the people, but the Holy Spirit took care of that by giving the disciples the power to speak in other languages. So God has the disciples stay in the city where people from all over the world were going to be and then He gives them the power to share with these people the work of God seen in Jesus. Not only that, God then gives Peter the power to teach and preach and call people to repent, and he is so effective that by the end of his first sermon 3,000 people have given their hearts and lives to God and entered into the life of the church. The power of God is all over this story & we see clearly that the power was given for a purpose.

As we look at the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the disciples that day, we might think that the real gift was in the ability to speak in other languages, or maybe Peter’s amazing ability to teach and preach to the people, or the gift of organization and administration that helped bring 3,000 people into the life of the church. As amazing as these gifts are – the real gift of the Holy Spirit given to the disciples that day, the gift that changed their lives and the world around them - was the gift of courage.

Look at where this story begins. At the beginning of Acts 2 the disciples are together sitting in a room. It says the Holy Spirit filled the house where they were sitting, so they are inside. Earlier in Acts it says the disciples were meeting in the upper room and other places it talked about them meeting behind locked doors. So we find them inside and the reason they are inside is because they are afraid. They are afraid of the religious and political climate of the day and they are afraid of saying too much about Jesus for fear that they might be arrested, tried or beaten for their faith in the risen Jesus. But as soon as the Holy Spirit comes upon them notice where they end up – they are outside on the street. They are in a public place where their speaking in different languages draws a crowd. People from 15 different nations and areas are drawn to the scene because they each hear someone talking in their own language. Now while this ability to speak in other languages is a miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit, and while Peter’s ability to then teach these people about Jesus and call people to repent and believe are also gifts of the Holy Spirit – if it were not for the courage of the disciples to leave the upper room and move out onto the streets and to stand up in front of thousands to speak, the other gifts would be no good. So the real gift of God which changes the world is the gift of courage.

I believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit most needed by the church today is the gift of courage. Courage to step out in faith and do what God is calling us to do. Courage to begin a journey of faith that will help us become all that God is calling us to be. Too often when we talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit we only focus on the gifts listed in the New Testament. We talk about wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, tongues and the interpretation of tongues, or we think about prophecy, pastoring, teaching, evangelism and service. While all of those are gifts given by the Holy Spirit – none of them means anything if we don’t have the courage to use them. The gift of the Holy Spirit which activates all the rest is the gift of courage, so let’s ask the spirit of God to fill us with courage today. Not courage to become powerful public figures, not even courage to become influential leaders, how about just asking God for the courage to become like children.

In Matthew 18:2, Jesus calls forward a little child and places him in the midst of all his disciples and he says, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The key to becoming the people God wants us to be is having the courage to become like a child. Think about the courage our children showed today. They stood up and shared their faith with us. They shared their gifts through music, songs and scriptures. They gave testimonies about what they have learned about God. They had the courage to welcome and greet people as the entered into worship. Think about the courage the children show us each week as they come forward for the children’s time. It’s hard to get adults to come forward and do anything, let alone talk and share about their faith and be involved in worship, but children are often eager to take part. We need to have the courage to step out like little children and embrace the simplicity of our faith, the joy of our faith, and like children we need to be fearless when people ask us to help out and be involved, like children, we can’t be afraid to fail.

Children not only have the courage to step out in faith and share their gifts and knowledge and questions and answers, they also seem to know better than we do what the right priorities are in life. Many times children don’t care about the rules of the game, or winning the game – they are just happy to play. Children show us the value of sharing and giving. They remind us to find the simply joy in life. If we are willing to listen and observe, we might learn from children how to make the decisions that honor the values of God’s kingdom. Listen to this story told by Bill Harley on NPR’s all thing considered.

Last year, my young son played T-ball… Needless to say, I was delighted when Dylan wanted to play… Now on the other team there was a girl I will call Tracy. Tracy came each week. I know, since my son’s team always played her team. She was not very good. She had coke bottle glasses and hearing aids on each ear. She ran in a loping, carefree way with one leg pulling after the other, one arm windmilling wildly in the air.

Everyone in the bleachers cheered for her, regardless of what team their progeny played for. In all the games I saw, she never hit the ball, not even close. It sat there on the tee waiting to be hit and it never was. Sometimes after ten or eleven swings, Tracy hit the tee and the ball would fall off the tee and sit on the ground six inches from home plate. “Run! Run!” yelled Tracy’s coach and Tracy would lope off to first clutching the bat in both arms smiling. Someone usually woke up and ran her down with the ball before she reached first. Everyone applauded.

The last game of the season, Tracy came up and through some fluke, or simply in a nod toward the law of averages, she creamed the ball. She smoked it right up the middle through the legs of 17 players. Kids dodged it as it went by or looked absentmindedly at it as it rolled unstopped, seemingly gaining speed, hoping over second base, heading into center field. Have I told you that there are no outfielders in t-ball? There are for three minutes in the beginning of every inning, but then they move into the infield to be closer to the action, or, at lest, to their friends.

Tracy hit the ball and stood at home, delighted. “Run!” yelled her coach. “Run!” All the parents, all of us, stood and screamed, “Run Tracy run, run!” Tracy turned and smiled at us, and then, happy to please, galumphed off to first. The first base coach waved his arms ‘round and ‘round when Tracy stopped at first. “Keep going, Tracy keep going! Go!” Happy to please, she headed to second. By the time she was halfway to second; seven members of the opposition had reached the ball and were passing it among themselves. It’s a rule in T-ball – everyone on the defending team has to touch every ball.

The ball began to make its long circuitous route toward home plate, passing from one side of the field to the other. Tracy headed to third. Adults fell out of the bleachers, “Go Tracy Go!” Tracy reached third and stopped, but the parents were very close to her now and she got the message. Her coach stood at home plate calling her as the ball passed over the first basemen’s head and landed in the fielding team’s empty dugout. “Come on Tracy! Come on baby! Get a home run!”

Tracy started for home, and then it happened. During the pandemonium, no one noticed the twelve year old geriatric mutt that had lazily settled itself down in front of the bleachers five feet from the third base line. As Tracy rounded third, the dog, awakened by the screaming, sat up and wagged its tail at Tracy as she headed down the line. The tongue hung out, mouth pulled back in an unmistakable canine smile, and Tracy stopped, right there. Halfway home, thirty feet from a legitimate home run.

She looked at the dog. Her coach called, “Come on, Tracy. Come on home!” He went to his knees behind the plate pleading. The crowd cheered, “Go Tracy Go!” She looked at all the adults, at her own parents shrieking and catching it all on video. She looked at the dog. The dog wagged its tail. She looked at her coach. She looked at home. She looked at the dog. Everything went into slow motion. She went for the dog! It was a moment of complete and stunned silence. And then, perhaps not as loud, but deeper, longer and more heartfelt, we all applauded as Tracy fell to her knees to hung the dog. Two roads diverged on a third base line. Tracy went for the dog. (story from Michael Yaconelli’s book Dangerous Wonder – one of the best books I have ever read!!)

How many of us would have had the courage to choose love over winning? How many of us would have had the courage to let go of all that the world says is important so that we can embrace the values of God’s kingdom. Children often have the courage to set the right priorities and they often have the boldness to step out and do the right thing. That’s the kind of courage we need today & this courage does not come from within us – it comes from the Holy Spirit, so as we celebrate Pentecost and remember that God has given us His power for his purposes, and today as we give thanks for the children God has placed before us– let us ask God to give us the gift of courage, a gift that if we use, can change the world because it will change us.