Rooted in the Spirit: Joy

This morning we continue into our second Sunday

of our summer sermon series, Rooted in the Spirit,

where we're looking at the fruits of the Spirit

and how we may learn how to live them out. So

we start looking again at Galatians chapter 5,

Galatians 5:22

verses 22, and I'm going to read through verse

26. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self -control. There is no law

against such things. And those who belong to

Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its

passions and desires. For if we live by the Spirit,

let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not

become conceited, competing against one another

or envying one another. In our second reading,

the Pentecost story coming from Acts 2. When

the day of Pentecost had come, they were all

together in one place. And suddenly from heaven

there came a sound like the rush of a violent

wind, and it filled the entire house where they

were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire

appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each

of them. And all of them in that space were filled

with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other

languages as the Spirit gave them ability. Now

there were devout Jews from every nation under

heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound,

the crowd gathered and was bewildered because

each one heard them speaking in the native language

of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, Are

not all of these who are speaking Galileans?

And how is it that we hear each of us in our

own native language, Parthians, Medes, Elamites,

and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,

Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt

and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors

from Rome, both Jews and proselytates? Cretans

and Arabs in our own languages, we hear them

speaking of God's deeds and power. And all were

amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,

what does this mean? But others, they sneered

and they said, they are filled with the new wine.

But Peter, standing with the eleven, he raised

his voice and he addressed them, Men of Judea

and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known

to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these

men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is

only nine o 'clock in the morning. No, this is

what was spoken through the prophet Joel. In

the last days it will be, God declares. that

I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions, and your

old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves,

both men and women, in those days I will pour

out my spirit, and they too shall prophesy. And

I will show portents in the heaven above and

on signs on the earth below, blood and fire and

smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood before the coming of the

Lord's great and glorious day. And then everyone,

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall

be saved. Friends, this is the word of God for

us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Will

you join me in prayer? Let us pray. Good and

holy God, you have called each of us into this

place. From wherever we were, it was your voice,

your spirit that was a wind at our back and brought

us here together. May that same spirit fill this

room. maybe with the sound of a violent rushing

wind, that our own spirits and hearts might be

transformed by your word, that we might be sent

out a new people, renewed in our mission for

the world. May the words of my mouth and the

meditations of all our hearts gathered here in

this place be pleasing to you, O God, our rock

and our redeemer. Amen. So last summer, I had

the joy of taking a group of our youth on a mission

trip to Cedar Kirk Camp and Conference Center,

which is in Lithia, Florida, just outside Tampa.

Some of you may have heard about this trip, in

particular, the bus AC breaking on the way down

to Florida in the second week of June. And if

you know anything about Florida, the second week

of June is not an ideal time to have your AC

break down. But other than that being a memorable

moment of the trip, this trip was significant

for me because it was an opportunity to share

a place that I love and hold dear with the youth

that I've been called to serve. Cedar Kirk, it

stands for the church among the cedar trees.

And I trace my call to ministry back to my lone

summer there as a camp counselor. It was that

summer that God called to me again as he had

many times before. But there, that summer, I

finally listened. And what a gift it was to share

the holiness of that place with those youth.

Now there's a tradition on the last night of

camp where everyone who has been present gathers

around a large campfire, a bonfire really, and

after the counselors take time to share dances

and skits or stories and songs, Mark Orendorf,

who is the assistant director of Cedar Kirk,

he approaches the campfire and he walks around

it slowly. Very intentionally. And he talks about

the power of the relationships and the bonds

of community that have been built during the

week, no matter if you are in the kindergarten

camp or senior high leadership or like us in

the Challenge to Change mission program. And

as the fire there flickers and it crackles, Mark

goes on to share that we as a community are like

this fire. We are strong and we are fueled by

one another. And we are able to withstand almost

anything when we are together, when we are united.

And it's then that Mark takes some sort of other

stick and he knocks a coal from out of the flames.

And he goes on, sometimes, sometimes a coal is

thrown out from the fire. And what happens if

this coal stays out of the flames too long? And

a child shouts, it'll go out. It won't be on

fire anymore. And Mark responds, that's right.

And like this coal, if someone in our community

strays or is even excluded from the group, not

only do they eventually lose their light, But

our collective fire, our light grows weaker and

weaker. Mark takes that stick again and he scoots

or knocks that coal back into the flames. And

he says, it's our call that we must bring these

coals back into the fold so that our fire, our

flame can continue shining bright. Strong once

again and united. That all may know they belong

here. That everyone, everyone may know the love

of God because everyone deserves, deserves to

feel the joy that we feel here in community.

Everyone. is included here. In Pentecost, we

read and we hear that no one, even in this mysterious

circumstance, no one is left without understanding.

With the flames of the Spirit resting there on

the heads of the disciples, everyone hears of

God's power and God's love in their native language.

Peter speaks the words of the prophet Joel, I

will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your

sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young

shall see visions, and your old shall dream dreams.

The message of the Spirit's descent in this way

is that there is no joy in division. There's

no joy. In exclusion. And how powerful. How powerful

that like Pentecost, the fruits of the Spirit

are for everyone. They're all inclusive. Everybody

understands the fruits of the Spirit when they're

presented in one's own language. Love and joy,

peace, patience. kindness, generosity, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self -control. No one is excluded

from these. No one is excluded from understanding

the deep truths and powers of these fruits. Now,

these fruits, they may look or sound or smell

or even feel different in different cultures,

different societies, different moments of life.

But that diversity of lived experience, of knowing

joy and love, that is representative of who God

is. There's no division in joy. There's only

celebration. And I want to admit that by no means

am I the best read pastor. I can read, but I'm

not the best read pastor. And I'm often not able

to regularly recall countless theologians or

scripture verses for the perfect circumstances.

It's just not my gift. However, every now and

then, lightning strikes in a bottle. And as I

reflected on the Pentecost story this week through

the lens of joy for our sermon series, Richard

Foster's book, The Celebration of Discipline,

popped into my mind. Now in this book, Foster,

related to you? No. Foster in this book, he lays

out the importance. of inward and outward spiritual

disciplines that we can lean on that will lead

us to a faithful life, that will lead us as close

as we can get to being like Christ. And it's

in the last chapter that Foster writes about

celebration. And he notes that this is an intentional

move because he believes that living into the

spiritual disciplines that he's laid out before

this, or I might say even the fruits of the Spirit,

that living into these, it's meaningless, meaningless

if we don't live with joy. He calls at one point

joy the motor or the energy of our faith. But

it's this quote that stands out to me above the

rest. Joy begets joy. Laughter begets laughter.

It's one of those few things in life that we

multiply by giving. Joy begets joy. And it multiplies

by us giving it. Joy is a gift. And it's not

like other gifts that we may receive that we

are to hoard or hide for ourselves. No, joy is

meant to be shared, given, and expressed repeatedly.

We are called to live with celebration. at this

gospel that we've received. It's in Pentecost

that the disciples are given the Holy Spirit

and they are sent to give as they too have received.

And to share that joy of God's love in Christ's

saving grace so that all may know, that all may

understand, that all may be led into a life of

the fruits of God's Spirit. Friends, the story,

it begins here in Jerusalem. But the next chapters,

they're still being written. We are writing them.

And those chapters, this story, it expands from

Jerusalem to the very ends of the earth. Now,

Pentecost occurs in the Jewish tradition 50 days

after the Passover meal. Fifty days after the

meal where Jesus sits at a table with his closest

friends, looking at them, even the one who is

to betray him that night, and it's there at that

table that he gives them a gift. The gift of

his body and the bread broken. The gift of his

blood in the cup that is poured. The sacrament

of communion which to this day we participate

in every time that we come down and we gather

at this table together. Now for 50 days and seven

weeks, seven Sundays of Easter, we have, like

the disciples, lived in a sort of limbo. We've

known. We've understood. We've had the joy and

the hope and the resurrection fill our spirits

and our hearts, our very beings. But at times,

I wonder, have we still been awestruck or confused?

Have we been sitting here wondering, what do

we do with this? What do I do with this new reality,

with the news of resurrection, of death, which

has been defeated with this gift of joy? What

do I do with this? And in Pentecost, the Holy

Spirit fills us once again with joy as our motor

to share the good news. It is in Pentecost that

we too are ordained to prophesy, to vision. to

dream dreams, to imagine and wonder, and to proclaim

the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that

he will come again. Pentecost says that everyone,

everyone, not only needs but deserves this joy.

After our 50 days of waiting, of getting to this

moment, I wonder what would it look like for

us as individuals and as the collective, what

would it look like for us to take these next

50 days and to focus our lives on joy with a

holy intentionality? To take 50 days, starting

right now, 50 days. And to be led by the Spirit

of God that's filled us with joy. To go out like

rivers from a spring, spreading that joy as it

continues to flow in and through us. As Alan

noted, Pentecost marks the beginning for us of

ordinary time. But I want to say, forget ordinary

time. What does it look like for us to see this

as a time of joy? and for joy itself to become

extraordinary. I wonder. Friends, our world is

torn apart. It's torn apart by war, by political

divisions, by economic disparities, by injustices,

and by fear. So what would it require of us to

lead with joy in a world like that? I believe

that it quite simply would require for us to

be the church. To be the church of Jesus Christ.

To be the church of Pentecost. Because in our

very birth, we are called as the church to be

a river of joy in the world. That in joy, people

might find hope. That in celebration, which is

the holy chaos of joy lived out, that the world

may know peace and belonging and the love of

God who called all things into being. What would

that look like? 50 days of joy. And once we complete

that, once we've met our goal of 50 days, let's

go for 50 more. And then how about 50 more from

there? And then we just keep going. Keep going

until the joy of the Spirit is the motor of our

faith, that the joy that God has given us is

the driving energy in the world around us, able

to transform anything. Let's be rooted in that.

The Spirit of Pentecost. The Spirit of joy. 50

days. 50 days. Let us pray. Lord, on this Pentecost

Sunday, may your spirit fill us, we who have

been waiting for our sending. May it fill us

with love and joy, with the motivation to go

out. knowing that we do not go alone. May you

give us the strength and the courage to keep

at it when we feel like we've reached a dead

end. For we know that together, as we point to

your Spirit, to your good news, to your Son,

Christ, anything is possible. We pray this all

in the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy Spirit. Amen.