June 4, 2017 - Pentecost Sunday

Inspired to Call

Listen here.

            Inspiration is an interesting thing to think about. Where does it come from? How does it work? For the Greeks, they attributed inspiration to nine goddesses called the Muses and they dealt with things like poetry, music, drama, and comedy – along with history and astronomy – both of which, as far as the Greeks were concerned told stories that impacted their lives and their values.

            When you look at the word inspiration, though, it literally means, “breathed into.” And now we find ourselves dealing with some biblical imagery. God breathed into Adam and he became a living being. Jesus breathed on the disciples after the resurrection and gave them authority to forgive and retain sins. And as we think about God breathing; the word for Spirit in the Hebrew is “ruach” and in Greek is “pneuma” and both mean breath, wind, and, of course, spirit.

            Breath is important. If you don’t breathe, you die. So when I was younger and I learned how to do CPR I learned to do it with a series of compressions and then breathing into the person. Now, they teach most people to just do compressions … and for the record, if you’ve ever heard the song “Staying Alive” by the BeeGees, that’s the rhythm you’re supposed to do compressions at. “Ah, ah, ah, ah, stain’ alive, stain’ alive….” However, EMT’s and ER workers are trained to breathe into the person still. And why do they do this? To help the person live!

            Pentecost is a kind of spiritual CPR. God pours out his Spirit – that is his breath – on the disciples.

            Yes, be amazed by the tongues of fire that we read hovered over the disciples’ heads. Wonder at the loud rushing wind. Be in awe of the ability to speak in unstudied languages. But the real miracle of Pentecost is that God breathed upon the disciples so they could breathe upon the crows and they might come to believe in Jesus. So they would call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved from sin and death. And that day 3000 people came to faith!

            This faith that we cling to is more than a compelling idea that caught a bunch of people’s attention. It is more than a very fine moral guide for our lives or a profound philosophy of how to conduct ourselves as we deal with others. This faith is God breathing his Spirit upon us to make and keep us alive in Jesus.

            In the 3^rd Article of the Creed we confess the Holy Spirit and we talk about what he has done. We Lutherans tend to explain his work this way, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel (the message of Christ crucified for us!) enlightened me with His gifts (the Word, the Sacraments, his presence), sanctified (made us holy!) and kept me in the true faith.” And he continues to do that calling, gather, enlightening, sanctifying and keeping all of God’s people – all who come to believe in Jesus – in the Church – forgiving our sins and, one day, he will raise us all from the dead.

            The same way that God breathed into Adam when he created him, he breathes into those who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and makes them alive. That’s what he has done for us.

            The Holy Spirit is not some kind of mystical mumbo jumbo. He is God, with the Father and the Son. And he is the presence of God among and in us. He often goes by the name the Paraklete (not parakeet!) – which means the comforter, the encourage, and the advocate. The Spirit is life.

            He is God’s life in us. He delivers what Jesus has done to us and makes us alive in faith. Our sin is removed from us because Jesus atoned for our sin with his blood on the cross. The Spirit gives us that atonement. Death was defeated in Jesus resurrection. The Spirit gives us Jesus’ new life. The Spirit makes us alive in faith.

            Another way we could talk about this is, that since you were dead in sin, the Spirit did spiritual CPR on you – he breathed into you and gave you a new heart – something we’ll talk about another time! – and he inspired you to call upon Jesus as your God and Savior.

            Now that breath is within us. It’s in us, making us alive and so here we are to praise God, to worship Him, and live in forgiveness together. Good stuff, right? But there’s more. The Spirit is in us to breathe on others.

            Now, I get that sounds a little weird, right? It’s a strange mental image: a bunch of people (hahhh!) breathing on other people. (Please be sure you brush your teeth!) But remember that speech is breathing … breathing across our vocal chords in such a way as to form sounds and words to communicate. And we have the Spirit in us so that we can speak of Jesus in this world. To breathe the Spirit upon them so they too might live in Christ by faith!

            Friends, the Spirit is on all of us – young, old, male, female – it doesn’t matter. This is not like the Old Testament when the people were to expect the prophets or the priests to speak God’s Word. As your pastor, I am not the one with the Holy Spirit in the room. I am not the one who goes out to tell our community about Jesus – to evangelize the community. My work is more preaching and proclaiming forgiveness of sins to you so you can go out share Jesus with the people you breathe on.

            (Did I just say that I don’t evangelize? No! As a father, a neighbor, a citizen, a friend – I evangelize! Just like you!)

            But the Spirit is on you to make you alive with the forgiveness Jesus bled to win for you. He is also on you to enable you to talk to friends and neighbors, to speak biblical truth and hope in the language of this time and this place in the midst of your relationships.

            The Spirit is on your words to reach out to the people in your life. And he will inspire yet others to call upon Jesus. And all – ALL – who call on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.

            So here we are “Gathering People to Christ,” right? We are inspired to call. Inspired to call upon the Lord Jesus and to be saved from sin and death ourselves. But also inspired to breathe upon others – to call them to believe in Jesus and receive the forgiveness and new life that we have through the Spirit’s work in us. As a congregation, we’ll be doing that as a congregation this week in our Vacation Bible School program. Please keep that ministry in your prayers! But we also do this individually as we go out. We drive down the drive way and we see the sign that says, “You are now entering the Mission Field.” Pray for your neighbors, and when He gives you the opportunity breathe deeply and speak Jesus to them. Amen.