One of the gravest errors that we have made is to create a god that is just like us. Many of us grew up with a god who is an old man with a beard- a man who for some reason prefers white robes and floats in the clouds. We saw this in stained glass, in children’s books, on television, in movies and reinforced in church. Some of us cannot shake this anthropomorphized god and we still look up, point up and think up when we speak of our God. God is loving, but removed and distant enough that many of us were made to fear Him. To be sure, we are all entitled to image God in ways that invite us as individuals into the most intimate relationship we could possibly have, but we must be mindful of the danger that comes with crafting God in our image, rather than God crafting us in His or Her image. For years, God has been depicted in art as looking not just like a human being, but a white man. I think that the biggest problem with this image of God is that it limits our ability to imagine God acting any differently that we do. We have given to God all of the attributes of judgment and insecurity that we ourselves carry. In this limited human framework, God is confined; God is generally well behaved, but is mostly concerned with putting people in their places. God tends to side with the majority and tends not to upset the status quo. But as much as we might long for God to squeeze into our tiny box, I am not sure that God can fit any longer- or at least I am not sure that we can be the church of Jesus Christ if we continue to force God to conform to our vision rather than inviting God to transform us into God’s vision.
Because today is Pentecost, we simply cannot ignore what happens when God has His way. We cannot ignore what happens when God has Her vision realized. We cannot keep God in our small space where nothing is changed and we are safe. The story of Pentecost seems more like a frat party than a serious Sunday morning because the scene is chaotic. Jesus is long gone and his apostles are still finding their way without him. They never quite seemed to understand what he said, let alone what he imagined for God’s world. Jesus tended to confuse rather than inspire, since he often spoke in parables and for the most part the disciples seemed to be preoccupied with other things. They were focused on finding food or staying out of trouble or pondering whatever Jesus might have done or said on that particular day. So it wasn’t until after he was gone, until they didn’t have him to lean on, until they couldn’t run to him and ask him to heal someone or to preach to a crowd that they really had the chance to figure out what it would mean for them to continue on the path that Jesus walked.
The Book of Acts tells us that there were people of all different groups gathered, Parthians, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans and Cappadocians, Asians, Egyptians, Libyans, Romans, people of all kinds. They were probably chatting, eating, drinking and then a great wind comes over them. The Spirit arrives as a rushing wind, filling them, inspiring them, causing them to draw breath and speak, to take in the wind and to give it voice. They are pretty sure that what they are feeling is something holy because they begin to speak new languages, words that were not from their native tongue. They started to look around in shock at what was unfolding before them, “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” The group had been hanging together long enough to know that they had trouble figuring each other out. They wanted to love each other but they would frequently get under each other’s skin. There was that one guy who always talked really loud and that other one who insisted on taking time to let everyone speak, and there was another one who was never on time to their get-togethers and another one who just seemed to tick everyone off. But for some reason in this moment, when the Spirit came over them in a rush of a mighty wind, they could understand each other and not just in that superficial tolerance kind of way, even with all of the noise and laughter, they could really hear each other for the very first time, so they knew that it was God.
Now those leaning against the wall saw what was happening and accused the party of having consumed too much wine and getting too rowdy. Such chaotic joy, just couldn’t be Jesus’ business, it was just too loud.
But Peter, the same one who let Jesus down, the Peter who denied Jesus three times, this Peter who prefers a God who is generally well behaved, but is mostly concerned with putting people in their places, a God who tends to side with the majority and tends not to upset the status quo, this same Peter speaks out into the noisy, holy mess and reminds the crowd what was foretold by the prophet… that God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and our sons and our daughters shall prophesy, and our young men shall see visions, and our old men shall dream dreams.
Given Peter’s past, and his tendency to put a stop to things and his need to watch out for himself, given his history of getting in God’s way, for some reason Pentecost changed him. He knew that if he wanted to build the church of Jesus Christ, he could no longer force God to conform to his vision; instead he would have to invite God to form the church into God’s vision.
So today, on this holy day where we celebrate the birthday of the Church, I wonder if we will be changed by the Spirit. I wonder if we are trying to make God like us or if we are willing to let the Spirit make our church more like God? I wonder if we are taking to heart the story of the church’s birth- that we are to dream big dreams and cast our vision wide. Do we still believe in the same God who blasted on the scene and opened their ears to hear one another? Do we still believe in a God who blows through closed doors, who blasts right into the middle of our singing and living and sets our hearts on fire? Do we still believe in a God with power to transform us, both as individuals and as a people? Or have we come to an unspoken agreement that our God is an old and tired man who receives our prayers in the clouds, but not anyone we really expect to change our lives? The story of Pentecost, the story of today, the story of our God is not finished and so it is a call for each of us. Peter speaks out over our fears, and into our tiny boxes that can no longer contain the Spirit of our God, and reminds us of what was foretold by the prophet… that God will pour out Her Spirit upon all flesh, and our sons and our daughters shall prophesy, and our young men shall see visions, and our old men shall dream dreams.
And I have heard some of you begin to whisper these visions and dreams to life. I have heard our sons and daughters dream of a place to hang out after school. I have heard our young men’s visions of church school classrooms that are refinished and expanded. I have heard our old men dream of a bigger fellowship hall or a second service. I have heard visions of the possibilities God might have for us. But I wonder if you have shared them with each other. Many of you have begun to leave the tiny box where you have stored God behind. Many of you have looked the rush of Holy Spirit wind in the face and said yes. Many of you have begun to risk becoming the Church of Jesus Christ, which is a church full of dreamers, dreamers who cast visions so wide and vast, so deep and long that we can only find them with God. May we become the Pentecost church. Amen.
Inspired by Jan Richardson’s words about Pentecost
Barbara Brown Taylor. Home By Another Way. The Gospel of the Holy Spirit (Cowley Publications, 1999) Pp. 146.