Date: May 27, 2007
Festival of Pentecost
Text: Acts 2:1-21
I got an invitation to a confirmation party a couple of weeks ago. But it had more to say than the date, time, and place of the celebration. It had a little piece of poetry that went like this:No more memorizing…
Here’s some background to the invitation: at the 10:45 service today we have eight eighth-graders affirming their faith as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know it
No more Sermon Listening sheets…
We did them
No more acolyting...
We’ve been there
Now we move on to bigger and better things.
They’ve been hard at work for three years. Especially memorizing the Ten Commandments and Luther’s lively and short meanings to them. Along with studying the Old and New Testaments. They’ve done 45 sermon listening sheets. These are filled with questions about the sermon of the day. (I read them all, and I’ve got to tell you that the development of each confirmand’s listening skills over the three years is amazing.) Our acolyte corps—those folks who stand ready to assist the ministers, light and extinguish candles, and serve at the altar—is made up of confirmation students. All these tasks, and many others, are now complete. Thanks, by the way, for doing these so thoroughly and faithfully.
Good enough. But then they tell us they are on to bigger and better things. I wonder what they mean by that?
We get some help from Peter, who was present at Pentecost. He lets folks know that what was going on—rushing wind and speaking in tongues—wasn’t a surprise. Someone had seen this day coming. His name was Joel and he was a fifth-century B.C. prophet of Judah. What Joel pointed to was certainly bigger and better than his troubled time.
Joel says:In the last days it will be, God declares
So, maybe a bigger and better thing for you to pursue would be to become a prophet. As I’ve told you before, a prophet is one who is sent from God with God’s word to the people. They are not so much in the predicting business as they are in the pointing-out business. They point out the difference between the covenant God made with Israel and the way it was being kept. The core of that covenant is the commandments. And, as you point out in your invitation, you know them well.
That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
And your sons and daughters shall prophesy.
So maybe bigger and better for you is to be a prophet. Going around and pointing out that people don’t keep the first commandment and put all kinds of gods before God. You know, point out the way we worship sports, cars, houses, and electronics? Are you ready to tell your friends that we’ve kind of got sex messed up? You know as well as I do that the sixth commandment calls us to understand our sexuality in the intimacy of marriage and not on the streets or on the internet? Are you going to point out the problem with commandment number eight? That gossip, half truths, and lies are no good. If you do, you will be a prophet.
Then Joel says,…and your young men shall see visions
So, are you going to think big? Going to dream and then make those dreams happen? Are you going to be Christians who change the world? It can happen, you know. Never underestimate the power of one person.
And your old men shall dream dreams
The other day I was reading about Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank. He’s an economist from Bangladesh, a country near India. He won the Nobel Peace prize because of microeconomics. He suggests to end poverty you persuade banks and individuals like you and me to loan money, without interest, to the poor. They in turn develop businesses that help them get out of poverty. You see, people don’t loan money to the poor because they have no collateral, or something the bank can take if they don’t pay back their loan. This man figured out that getting out of poverty takes economic development on a small scale. It is working.
Bigger and better things? Can you dream about a world in which you as a follower of Jesus Christ make a difference?
Then Joel said,Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
Bigger and better things. Maybe that means trust. Maybe that means that while it is important to think, get a good education, and mature, trusting God is at the heart of life. You’re at an age when it’s not unusual to feel invincible, that you can handle it all yourself.
Shall be saved.
You are going to face a lot of tough decisions as you grow older. And some you’ll get right and some you’ll get wrong. But in all of that, is Christ Jesus in the center? Or is God on the edge of your life? Someone, something that you plan to get around to?
Don’t ever forget, whatever the problem or issue, call on the name of Christ. Or someone who represents him in the church.
Bigger and better things. Are you ready to do that? Is the church ready to do that?
Amen.