The
wind of Pentecost. Children, how do
you think it might have sounded? Something
like this? Ffffffffooo! Oooooo! (inhale) Whoosh!
Swoosh!
On
the rush of the wind of the Holy Spirit, Easter comes to its fulfillment.
New life is breathed into the world on the wings of God’s free-blowing
Spirit, and that dispirited band of Jesus’s first followers is energized and
empowered to proclaim and serve the Risen Christ!
On the rush of the wind the church is born, and a prophetic witness to
God is renewed.
It’s
Pentecost, the day of God’s gift to us of the energizing wind of the Spirit,
and also the day of God’s gift to us of the fire of the Spirit—the same fire
that appeared to Moses of old in the burning bush and blazed forth later when
God gave Moses the ten commandments, the same fire that always attends God’s
gift of prophetic speech. Amidst
wind and tumbling tongues of fire, the church is born, and prophetic witness to
God is renewed in the visions and dreams of sons and daughters, of women and men
alike.
The
task for all of us—both children and grownups—on this Day of Pentecost is to
be open enough to receive what God wants to give, the gift of the Spirit
floating freely on the wings of the wind, attended by tongues of prophetic fire.
Journey
with me back in time some one thousand years, to Europe’s Middle Ages, halfway
between Jesus’s day and our own, centuries before even the time shown in the
current movie A Knight’s Tale, with
Geoffrey Chaucer as one of its characters.
Have any of you seen that movie?
Well,
in those days very few persons could read, but then there weren’t any
mass-produced books to look at anyway, since the printing press hadn’t yet
been invented.
So
the only places where followers of Christ encountered the stories of the Bible
were their churches, where these stories were depicted in paintings and murals,
in sculptures and icons, in stained-glass windows, and in the drama and
pageantry of services of worship.
Medieval
people loved the great festivals of the liturgical calendar, when stories from
the Bible were re-enacted. And the
Day of Pentecost was one of their favorite festivals, for back then people
really knew how to throw a party fit for celebrating the birthday of the church,
fit for celebrating God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to all people—old and
young, male and female, rich and poor alike.
When
people entered their church to observe a medieval Pentecost, the decorations
they saw were colored a bright and vivid red, just like my robe and our flowers
and hangings and streamers today—red, to symbolize the tongues of fire that
the biblical account in the Book of Acts links with the first Day of Pentecost.
And
when people entered their church to celebrate a medieval Pentecost the choir and
organ players and bellows operators were standing ready to produce sounds that
simulated the great windrush of Pentecost that’s spoken of in the Bible, just
as our choir and organ player are ready to do for us today!
[Choir and organ give forth 5-10
seconds of wind noise!]
But
one of the really special things about the way Pentecost was celebrated in some
churches in Rome during the Middle Ages was this: holes were opened up in the
ceiling of the churches, Holy Spirit holes, to point people skyward and outward
to the windrush of God and to provide an access so that symbols of the
Holy Spirit could enter the church from above and descend physically upon the
people—symbols of the Spirit like real live flying doves, sailing on the wind
and then descending down, and also red rose petals, flickering and fluttering
and coming down upon the people like fire.
Well,
as you can see, we have red decorations like the Middle Ages, and we also have a
choir and organ ready to make wind-like noises.
But do we also have Holy Spirit holes in our ceiling?
You bet we do, as many of you already know because you sneaked a peek!
So,
it seems we have practically everything we need to celebrate a wonderfully
old-fashioned, thousand-year-old kind of Pentecost.
First,
let’s have some wind of the Holy Spirit from our choir and organ!
[The choir and organ begin and
continue making their wind-sound beneath my talking until the moment marked
below.]
And
now—since doves may prove a bit much, in light of our modern sensitivities
about sanitation and keeping the church clean—instead of doves, let there be
balloons coming down from above, [begin
releasing all of the balloons slowly and steadily] balloons sailing on the
wind of the Spirit and coming down upon us, red ones to symbolize Pentecost, and
white ones to remind us that on this day Easter is fulfilled!
And
now last, but not least, let there also be bright red rose petals, [begin
throwing down handfuls of rose petals slowly and steadily throughout as much as
possible of what follows] flickering and dancing down upon us like tumbling
tongues of fire, to bestow on us the gift of prophetic vision and speech!
Come
Holy Spirit! Descend upon us, and enter into us on this happy Day of
Pentecost, on this happy Birthday of the Church! (Now please, everyone except the choir, please shout out
after me:) Come, Holy Spirit!
(Come, Holy Spirit!) Descend
upon us, (Descend upon us,) and enter into us this day! (and enter into us this
day!) Come, Holy Spirit! (Come,
Holy Spirit!)
Feel
and experience the wind and fire of Pentecost, the energy of
new-life-in-the-Spirit released through the power of Easter, the energy of
new-life-in-the-Spirit symbolized by the white and red balloons that have
drifted down on the wafting wind, the energy of
prophetic-vision-and-speech-in-the-Spirit symbolized by the flaming red rose
petals that flickered and fluttered down upon us.
Happy
Day of Pentecost! Happy Birthday,
Church!(And won't you say it with me:) Happy
Day of Pentecost! (Happy Day of
Pentecost!) Happy Birthday, Church!
(Happy Birthday, Church!)[End of
the choir and organ’s wind-noise.]
Let
us pray:
O
Spirit of Wind and Fire, descend upon us now, we pray, and fill us with the
power we’ll need over the weeks and months and years ahead as we seek to offer
a true and prophetic witness to our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
Come, Holy Spirit, come! Amen.
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