| Today, on the rush of the wind of the Holy Spirit, we Christians reach the climax of our special celebration of Christ’s resurrection—the 50-day period we call Eastertide. Today, new life is breathed into the world on the wings of God’s free-blowing Spirit, and we are energized and empowered to proclaim and serve the Risen Christ! It’s Pentecost, the day God gives us the wind of the Spirit in our sails and also the fire of the Spirit in our hearts—the fire of divine presence. For on Pentecost, amidst wind and tumbling tongues of fire, the Church, as the people of Christ, was born and continues regularly to be reborn! And on this Day of Pentecost I want to teach you a song that celebrates the Church as a People. It’s a song I learned one summer when I was away at a sleep-over camp. You see, boys and girls, the Church is not a building. No, no, no, no! And the Church is not a steeple. No, no, no! Rather, the Church is a people! Yes! The Church is us. It’s you and me and everyone else, together. So here’s how the song goes, and follow my hand motions, too! George, give me the pitch! Mmm. OK: “I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we’re the Church together.” And grab onto each other’s hand. OK, let’s do it again, and this time you sing with me: “I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we’re the Church together.” Now, let’s ask the grown ups to join us: “I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we’re the Church together.” All right!! Now there are some verses that go with that refrain, so I’m going to ask a couple of the members of the choir to come join me down here, and they’re going to sing the first two verses. Then I’m going to ask the congregation to sing the last 2 verses. And in between every verse, we’ll all sing the refrain together. You’ll find this song on p. 14 of your order of service! Let’s start with verse 1. [Sing the song all the way through] "We Are the Church" (verses only) Words and Music by Richard K. Avery and Donald S. Marsh, 1972 The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is a people. We're many kinds of people, with many kinds of faces, all colors and all ages, too, from all times and places. And when the people gather, there's singing and there's praying, there's laughing and there's crying sometimes, all of it saying: At Pentecost some people received the Holy Spirit and told the Good News through the world to all who would hear it. Now, did you hear the words of that last verse: “At Pentecost some people received the Holy Spirit and told the Good News through the world to all who would hear it.” So on this Day of Pentecost, what all of us need to do is to receive what God wants to give us, namely, the gift of the Holy Spirit floating freely on the wings of the wind, attended by those tongues of energizing fire. Now a long time ago, the Day of Pentecost was one of Christians’ favorite festivals. Today, Pentecost has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle most places, but we here at Rutgers are trying to change all of that. Back in the old days, people really knew how to throw a party to celebrate the birth of the Church as the people of Christ, and we want to do the same here today. In the old days, when you entered the church on Pentecost, you found all the decorations colored a bright, vivid red, and we’ve done the same here today—the flowers, the hangings, our stoles! Does anybody know why the color of the day is red? That’s right, to symbolize the tongues of fire that the Book of Acts links with the events that took place on the very first Day of Pentecost. And in the old days when people entered their church to celebrate Pentecost, the choir and organ players and bellows operators were ready, willing, and able to produce sounds that were like the great rush of Pentecost wind spoken of in our Second Lesson. And our choir and organ player are ready to do that for us again today! [Choir and organ make 5 to 10 seconds of wind noise!] Now let’s see if we can all do it. Everybody join in! [People, choir, and organ make more wind noise!] But one of the really special things about the way Pentecost was celebrated in some churches way back when was this: holes were opened up in the ceiling of the churches, Holy Spirit holes, to point people skyward and outward to the wind-rush of God and to provide an opening so that symbols of the Holy Spirit could come into the main part of the church from above and come down physically upon the people—symbols of the Spirit like real live flying doves, sailing on the wind and descending downward, and like red rose petals, flickering and fluttering and coming down on the people like tongues of fire. Well, as you can see, we have the red decorations we need, and we also have a congregation, choir, and organ ready to make wind-like noises. And as those of you who were here the last two years already know, we also have the Holy Spirit holes we need. You bet we do! And if you don’t see them now, just wait a couple of minutes! So, it seems we have everything we need to celebrate a wonderfully old-fashioned, thousand-year-old kind of Pentecost, one that none of us will ever forget! Now, come Holy Spirit! Descend upon us, and enter into us on this happy Day of Pentecost, when the Church, as the people of Christ, was born! Everybody, we’re going to sing to the Holy Spirit, and we’re going to ask the Spirit to come right here among us. We’re going to sing. And at the end of the first line, you and the choir and the organ are going to provide us with some wind-sound. We’re going to go: Ffffffffooo! Oooooo! (inhale) Whoosh! Swoosh! and all that kind of stuff, while you look up at the ceiling and see what happens up there! And then at the end of the second line of our song I’ll make sure that something like tongues of fire will come down from that ceiling. And then at the end of the third line I’ll make sure that something will come down from the ceiling that will stir your hearts and really make it seem like a birthday party in here! OK! George please play once through the hymn so we can learn the melody and get ready to make our wind sounds! [George plays once through St. Kevin.] All right. We’re ready to sing, and remember that at the end of the first line, we’re all going to make wind sounds. Let’s go! Come, O Spirit (Tune: St. Kevin, in the key of G) 1. Come, O Spirit, with Your sound like a wind quick rushing; (wind noises) 2. Come, O Spirit, with your flame; send down tongues of fire! (rose petals) 3. Come from heav’n and stir our hearts, each disciple touching; (balloons) 4. Come, O Spirit, fill Your church; all our lives inspire! (sing Happy Birthday Dear Church...) |
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