PENTECOST B
June 4, 2006
SCRIPTURES
-When we pray we talk to somebody who is not somebody else, but who is nearer to us than we ourselves are. Tillich
- It is God Himself who prayers through us, when we pray to Him. God Himself in us: that is what Spirit means. Spirit is another word for "God present," Tillich
- Is prayer a steering wheel or a spare tire?
-Sometimes I pray and sometimes I say my prayers
-When we pray, we do something that is humanly impossible.
-What we are speaks so loudly, God cannot hear what we are saying. Emerson
-Paraclete: While the literal meaning of the related verb ("parakaleo") means "to call to one's side" -- usually asking the other for help, the noun took on a legal meaning as "helper in court". Thus we have translations like "counselor," "advocate," or "one who speaks for another" Brian P. Stoffregen
-Perhaps the paradoxical statement, "I believe that I can't believe," can lead us from being people of the world (I can do it myself, I understand it all myself) to people of God (God does for me what I can't do for myself Brian Stoffregen
-"A happening" An unplanned, unexpected, unorganized, yet vivid and exciting.
-The day of Pentecost, a day when Jews celebrated the gift of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, that is the words of God given to humanity through the Bible, Jews from every nation were gathered in one place.
-Fire is a metaphor for enthusiasm and spirit.
-"What’s gotten into you?”
-Today we pray, “Come Holy Spirit.” Watch out! Your prayer may be answered. Rev. Anthony Clavier
-Well, happy birthday to us! Traditionally, today, Pentecost, marks the beginning of the church. Many decorate with red helium balloons. Some have birthday cake at coffee hour. It is a day of celebration, and a little awe that after the resurrection and ascension God finds this new way to be manifest among Dr.Sally Sedgwick
-Tower of Babel (God comes to us, not the other way around)
-If you stand on six inches of rubber, 5,000 volts will refuse to go through you. Spirit is like that...won't work unless it can go through you.
-Do we spiritualize the material or materialize the spiritual. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
-A scientist walked through the jungle and saw piles of wood as if someone was going to start a fire. He discovered that the apes, mimicking man, laid the pieces of wood down. The only trouble was the apes were missing the spark needed to finish the act.
-Appropriate the spirit!
-John Macintyre, Pentecost is, “wholehearted expression of the almost unlimited imagination of God.”
-Take the Holy Spirit out of the church and 95% of what we are doing will go on. Are we willing to hand over our religiosity to the Holy Spirit within us?
-"The spirit remains in the humdrum of our daily lives, hidden and mostly unnoticed by us." Paul
-The river that never runs dry.
-I find it odd that churches that observe Pentecost don't like the word "Pentecostal," and churches that like to be called "Pentecostal" don't observe Pentecost! Anders
-The Nicene Creed, adopted in A.D. 451, says, "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets."
-In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible uses the word "wind" interchangeably with the term "Holy Spirit." The Hebrew word for wind and spirit is "ruach." The Greek word for wind and spirit is "pneuma." Spirit is wind; wind is spirit.
-Another word associated with the Holy Spirit is "freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The New Testament says that the Spirit liberates us from bondage and frees us to serve God.
-Symbols of the Holy Spirit: fire, wind, water, seal, oil and dove. Fire speaks of the Spirit's consuming power to purify the soul. Water fills the believer with spiritual life. The seal of the Holy Spirit is the promise of salvation. Oil speaks of the anointing power to serve the Lord. The dove represents the peaceful nature of the Holy Spirit. Anders
-Celtic Christians chose the wild goose as a symbol representing the Holy Spirit. A wild goose is one noisy, bothersome bird. It jars us out of our complacency.
- The results of Babel were reversed at Pentecost
- Peter's sermon had a powerful result...three thousand of those who heard him were baptized and added to the role of believers.
-Communication with all people is possible when the Holy Spirit takes control.
-Perhaps the paradoxical statement, "I believe that I can't believe," can lead us from being people of the world (I can do it myself, I understand it all myself) to people of God (God does for me what I can't do for myself.) Stoffregen
QUOTES
- “Nothing but fire kindles fire.”
- “If you want to set someone on fire, you have to buuurn a little bit yourself.”
- “A
burning heart will soon find for itself a flaming tongue.”
- Spirit is another word for "God Present" (Tillich)
- "Inspired"....God breathed
- "Mystical moxie"
HUMOR
-Someone has said the church is somewhat like a football huddle, the huddle that players go into at a football game. “You know that something important is being said there, but you can’t understand a word of it, and all you can see is their rear-ends.” Willimon
- The Paraclete is not a little yellow bird. Paracletes are not those things on the bottom of football and baseball shoes.
- If you hold your hands up-side-down, you get the opposite of what you prayed for.
-Little fish asks his Mother, "Where is the ocean?" Mother replies, "It's all around you, it fills your holes."
ILLUSTRATIONS
-There are several lessons that we can learn from the behavior of wild geese that apply well to the Spirit's work in the church. Wild geese fly in flocks, feed in groups, nest near each other and migrate together. The naturalists call this trait their "colonial" nature.
-Have you ever bought something that needed to be assembled? After struggling to get the huge package into the house, and further struggling to open the wretched thing, the instructions are tucked right at the bottom.The instruction booklet is in a number of languages, the English translation -- for that is obviously what it is -- tucked amidst other languages and alphabets.There’s a list of all sorts of nuts and bolts, a few odd-looking tools, which look much too fragile for the job, and then the assembling parts, heavy and awkward to manipulate. One feels lost, confused, and even helpless. “If only Josh (or whoever) were here,” we think. He knows how to do this sort of stuff. It’s even worse when he ordered this thing and then left us to it, assuring us that we would have the skill to get the task finished. Like receiving the Holy Spirit Rev. Anthony Clavier
CHILDREN'S
-Is Pentecost anything like the Pentagon? Well, not exactly. But there's a clue in that first part. Pentagon - a five-sided military building in Washington. Pentecost - five times 10, that is, 50 days after Easter. But that's really the end of the similarity. Pentagon (5-sided figure) Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). Pentathlon (competitor takes place in five different sports.)
-Have birthday cake for birthday of the church. Church will not be extinguished. (Use candles that will not blow out.
- Read Happy Birthday, church. (last part of following sermon) “Under the Influence” by Rev. Elizabeth D. McLean, First ...
-Use the color red in any ways you can imagine. Balloons, crepe paper, clothes, etc. Find all the red you can in the congregation:(ties, hats, clothes )
PRAYER PHRASES
-Come, Holy Spirit. Come as mighty wind or
gentle breath. Blow on the embers of our faith. Empower us to speak and to act
so that there might come a day when there is not a needy person among us. Amen.
The Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad