Date:
May 23, 2010, Confirmation
Author: Pastor Robyn Eddy
Pray: Holy Spirit, Advocate, Teacher, and Whisperer of God’s Word, speak to us this morning in words we can truly understand. May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you, our Rock and Redeemer.
Sermon: (Speaking in Op Talk, say “When I was in 6th grade, I learned to speak in Op Talk while on a summer trip with my family”, then translate) boy, was I annoying to my parents and especially to my little brother. Op talk was my first experience learning another language. It’s one of those silly languages, like pig latin, except here you put an “op” in front of any vowel sound. It was all the rage among the 6th grade girls, and it was great for talking with my friends so my annoying little brother couldn’t understand us. And here it’s stuck with me all these years. Some day I hope to teach it to Eleanor, you know, mother daughter bonding.
I love learning languages. I fell in love with Spanish during high school and went on to major in Spanish during college. Later in Seminary, I have to say that I actually enjoyed learning Hebrew and Greek, although I promptly forgot most of it after graduating. Somehow I have a lot more opportunity to use my Spanish than I do ancient Hebrew and Greek. And now I am fluent in Jasper-ese—my son Jasper’s personal dialect of the English Language. In a couple years, I’ll be translating Eleanorsh as our youngest daughter learns to speak.
If I could pick any superpower, like flying or x-ray vision, I’d want to be able to speak and understand all the languages in the world. And so the story of Pentecost in the book of Acts has always resonated with me in a special way. In our Bibles, the book of Acts is officially titled “The Acts of the Apostles,” but in seminary we learned that it also used to be called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” since the Holy Spirit is one of the main characters in its pages. And here, one of the most famous Holy Spirit episodes includes my very favorite super power, as dozens of people miraculously begin speaking in other languages, telling about God’s deeds of power.
Two weeks ago I spent the day with a bunch of wonderful 8th graders, preparing to be confirmed this morning. And we were talking about why we hold Confirmation Sunday on Pentecost Sunday. So I told them the story of the Holy Spirit coming on Pentecost, with all that roaring wind, and tongues of flame, and speaking other languages. We concluded that one of the great truths in the story is that the Holy Spirit give us a superpower, the ability to go public with our faith. The Spirit can give us the right words to speak about God in our own context, not just in church, but also in the hall between classes, at a slumber party, or on Facebook, with words that others can genuinely take to heart because we’re speaking their own personal language of the heart.
But as we talked, I sensed a fair amount of confusion over this whole doctrine or belief in the Holy Spirit. Among us Lutherans, it tends to be a rather neglected topic, even though it’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit that any of us can even claim Christ as our Lord and share our faith in Christ with others. Today’s scriptures give us some clues about this mysterious side of God. John 14 tells us the Holy Spirit is an Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, abiding in us and with us, teaching us everything and reminding us of what we’ve learned from Christ, all in order to empower us to do the word of Jesus in the world. In Acts 1, Jesus tells the disciples, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” and then whamo, a whirlwind, flaming lights, and the ability to speak the truth of God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, whatever their context with words and deeds that their audience could take to heart. The Holy Spirit is all about spreading the grace of God through the people of God.
Pr Kegel mentioned a couple weeks ago how we don’t talk very often about our own supernatural Holy Spirit experiences, like visions or dreams. And I have to say that’s really too bad. We unwittingly censor each other and diminish our understanding of the powerful ways that God’s Spirit continues to act. I know the Holy Spirit is still speaking through people today, in language that is accessible and can be taken to heart.
Remember my annoying little brother? Now Russ has grown up, after a few years of rough living, sort of a prodigal son kinda guy, he’s now a great Christian, a leader in his church. A couple months ago he had a series of dreams where he sensed God calling him to, of all places, Fargo, ND. These dreams even included certain dates to be there, and when he told his pastor about the dreams, they decided to trust the Holy Spirit and bought tickets to Fargo. On their first day, they walked around the city, and spoke with some local pastors there. That afternoon, Russ stopped in a beautiful park to rest and pray. The next day, they walked through the local mall, praying with people and sharing their faith. Russ returned to that lovely park that afternoon to rest and pray again. This time, he fell asleep, in broad daylight, on a park bench. An hour or so later, he was awakened with a gun pointed at his head as four armed men told him to empty his pockets, which he did.
Now backup, remember those dreams? In the last dream, Russ was in some sort of undefined dangerous situation, but in that dream, Russ felt surrounded by peace as he shared the gospel, protected by the Holy Spirit. So as those 4 men walked off with all of Russ’ valuables, Russ remembered that dream, took a deep breath, and said, “God loves you no matter what you do or how you act.” The men stopped, and turned around to face Russ, the man with the gun was now quite agitated. “What’d you say?!” and Russ repeated, “God loves you no matter what you do or how you act.” Well, now the men were getting angry and intimidating, saying, “Aren’t you scared?!” Well, yes, Russ was very scared! But he said, “I have God’s protection, and if something happens to me, I know where I’m going.”
So now the men started questioning Russ, “who is this God?...” and they got into a conversation, about faith and Christ and the gospel. Russ shared his own story of struggle with substance abuse and crime, and that got those men sharing their stories of struggle, into which Russ wove in the truth of God’s love and grace. He even had a little Bible with him and read them some scriptures. On and on they talked, everyone becoming calmer until several hours later, you might have mistaken them for a group of friends at the park, sitting around a picnic table together. Finally there was a lull in the conversation and Russ said he needed to go. As he stood up to leave he said, “I’ll be praying for you.” And before he could go, the men gave all of Russ’ belongings back to him.
Russ went straight to the Police and told them what happened, but to their amazement, he decided not to press charges, since after all, they didn’t actually steal anything, and as Russ says, he had the opportunity to share his faith. Russ was doing the work of Jesus, who also showed compassion and reached out to criminals. He gives all the credit to the Holy Spirit for giving him the words to say, a language that those men could take to heart.
And here’s one more Act of the Holy Spirit story; it may be a little less dramatic, but it’s no less powerful, and equally about sharing the love of God in word and deed. About 20 years ago, a couple immigrated to the US from China, they had two children and eventually settled in Eugene where they befriended some neighbors, whose daughter was the same age, went to the same elementary school and played on the same sports team as their daughter. In the 4th grade the neighbor girl invited the other to Midweek Ministry at Central Lutheran. Well, the parents from China had never been part of any religion, but they allowed their daughter to come to Central for the children’s program because they trusted their friends.
Over time, the Holy Spirit spoke to that girl through her friendship with the Christian family, through the Midweek Ministry, and for the past three years, through the Confirmation Ministry, speaking in a language that she could take to heart. And now, this very morning, we get to witness the baptism of Miss Elaine Fang, as the Mosman family and her 8th grade confirmation class stand with her as witnesses to this Act of the Holy Spirit among us! How cool is that!
Our passage this morning from Romans teaches us that when we claim God as our “Abba, Father” it is the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our own spirit that we are children of God. Even the most basic step of faith is an act of the Holy Spirit who is alive and well today, abiding in us, teaching, reminding, empowering, and speaking as many languages as there are people who need to hear. It is the Spirit’s joy to give us the words and the deeds that will communicate God’s love in whatever situation we find ourselves in, be it a frightening confrontation or a neighborly invitation.
During the Confirmation liturgy, our students will promise to do their best to “proclaim the good news of God in Christ, through word and deed” with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. And the Pentecost story teaches that the Holy Spirit dwelling in us can indeed empower us to speak and act the language of love and grace that so many people long to hear. In closing, our 8th grade confirmands would like to share a statement of faith that they wrote together, putting into words the faith that they have taken to heart. Listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through them:
We believe in one God who is loving, creating, forgiving; who deserves our respect, love, and honor; who loves us even when we don’t love ourselves.
We believe in Jesus, both really human and really God; who taught, performed miracles, and loved even the outcasts; who called and needed a community of disciples; who gave his life, suffering for people who hated him and for people he’d never even meet; who rose to life and lives in us today.
We believe in God’s Holy Spirit, who fills each of us with love, peace and joy; who gives us the ability to believe and live as Christ wants us to.
We believe God gives us gifts that we should use to love others. When we sin, God is faithful and forgives us. As we’re confirmed, we promise to live our lives to the fullest of God’s hopes for us, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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