King Duncan
It happened back in 1983. Only eight minutes and thirty-four seconds remained in a game between the University of Nevada-Reno Wolf Pack and the Fresno State Bulldogs. Suddenly Wolf Pack running back, Otto Kelly, broke loose on an eighty-nine yard scamper and a touchdown, giving his team a 22-21 lead. During Kelly's run his coach, Chris Ault of the Wolf Pack, got so caught up in the excitement that he began racing down the sideline alongside Kelly. When Ault reached the Fresno State twenty-yard line, he realized he had gone beyond the marked-off area in which coaches are allowed to roam. He risked having his team penalized fifteen yards. So he just kept right on running. He dashed through the end zone, up a ramp, and out of the stadium. He was found hiding behind a truck. A fan asked, "Say, aren't you the coach for Reno?" Without a moment's hesitation, Ault replied, "I'm just looking for a hot dog stand."
When the chagrined coach made it back to the bench, he learned that in spite of his attempt to elude the referees, his team had been penalized fifteen yards on the subsequent kickoff because he had run afoul of the rules. This gave good field position to Fresno State, which went on to kick a last-second field goal for a 24-22 victory. (1)
Getting carried away cost this football coach a win. Still, we love his enthusiasm. Have you ever gotten that excited about something? If you're a sports fan, you have. It's exhilarating, isn't it? I realize that not everyone gets excited, and they're suspicious of those who do. Some people are what we might call excitement-challenged.
A book came out sometime back titled For Your Own Good. This book tells about child-rearing practices in Germany in the nineteenth century. It's not as dull as it might sound. The author notes that around 1850 there was a word that came to have bad connotations among child-rearing experts in Germany. The word was "exuberance." Some child-rearing books spoke of exuberance in children as if it were potentially evil. The books would say, "Now when your child gets to be two or two and a half years old, you'll notice a lot of exuberance appearing. This is your test as a parent. If you fail this test the child will end in prison or drug addiction."
Not all child psychologists of the time thought in this way, but many did, and their thought affected the lives of millions of children. One way of curing exuberance, they said, was to keep the severity of punishments unrelated to the offense. If the child spills milk, for example, don't speak to the child for three days. (2) That seems a little severe to me, but these authorities did not want children getting excited in any way.
There is much difference of opinion among Christians with regard to how much excitement we ought to show in worship. Those who give free rein to emotional outbursts in worship are often lumped together as "Pentecostals." So-called mainline churches are usually more reserved.
One thing we can all agree on is that the first Pentecost celebration was an exciting event. Pentecost was actually a Jewish festival. To the Hebrews it was known as the Festival of Weeks. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek word meaning "fifty." The festival began fifty days after Passover. This festival was always celebrated in Jerusalem, and Jews poured in from all over the known world for the festivities.
The Scriptures tell us how the Festival of Weeks was to be celebrated. In Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 we learn that each person was to bring to God a special gift in proportion to the blessing the Lord had given to him. All daily work was to be set aside. The people were to gather and worship and rejoice before the Lord. Who was invited? "You, your sons and daughters, your men servants and maid servants, the Levites in your towns, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you." (3)
In other words, just about everyone was invited. No wonder Jerusalem was crowded on that first Pentecost. No wonder so many different languages were being spoken. This was as much diversity as you were apt to get at one time in one place. In other words, the time was absolutely perfect for the Spirit of God to descend on the church. It was also the perfect time to bring in a completely new era in the history of humankind. It would be an era like no other. It would transcend national borders. It would transcend every known language. It would ultimately draw all people together without regard to gender, color, economic status, or any of the other variables that have served to divide people through the ages. The Spirit of God was descending to build up the church, which is a stepping stone to the coming of the kingdom of God, when God will reign in every heart. The symbolism is so rich--a violent wind, tongues of fire, people hearing and understanding in their own language, observers utterly amazed. This is what happens when the Spirit comes. Our world is shaken. Our senses come alive. We know we stand on holy ground.
Over the centuries, many symbols have been used to illustrate the mystery and power of the Holy Spirit. However, Dr. Mickey Anders of Pikeville, Kentucky has discovered what may be the most unusual symbol of all, the wild goose. In a sermon published on the Internet, Dr. Anders says he made this discovery when he was studying Celtic Christianity, the name for that unique brand of Christianity found in Ireland. Part of Irish Christianity's uniqueness and vitality, says Dr. Anders, came from its geographical isolation. It was robust, creation-loving, Christ-loving and adventurous.
Perhaps you have heard one of Celtic Christianity's famous prayers of blessing:
May the road rise up and welcome thee, May the wind always be upon thy back,
May the sun always warm thy face, And may the rain fall softly on thy fields.
Celtic monks lived in conspicuous poverty; they were unworldly and practiced humility. They often chose their places of prayer in the remotest places in nature. These same Celtic Christians chose the wild goose as a symbol representing the Holy Spirit. It sounds strange to us, but it has a long tradition in Ireland. Dr. Anders contrasts the image of the Holy Spirit as a wild goose with the image of the Holy Spirit as a dove. "When you hear of the Spirit descending like a heavenly dove on you, you hear harps and strings softly playing and get a peaceful feeling. The image of the Holy Spirit as dove has become so familiar and domesticated an image we pay little attention. The image of a wild goose descending upon you is a different matter altogether. A wild goose is one noisy, bothersome bird, jarring us out of our complacency."
A wild goose stirs up feelings that are quite extraordinary. I wonder if it isn't time for a wild goose kind of Christianity? We in the church need to be shaken out of our complacency.
We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets. It's so easy to use church as a retreat. Perhaps the image of the Spirit as a wild goose will do that for us. We need such an image, says Dr. Anders, to correct our overly safe and overly sweet image of the Spirit. He quotes one preacher friend who asked, "How many times can you sing 멦here's a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in This Place' without your blood sugar reaching diabetes levels?" (4)
And it's true. We can be so comfortable here in this sweet, sweet place that we forget our real mission is to the world outside.
A few years ago, AT&T had a major snafu in New York City. They had an agreement with the city that, when electrical demand peaked, AT&T would switch to their backup generators. One day they did that, and something went wrong. When they switched over, the resulting power surge blew a number of rectifiers. Not only did that knock out phone service in the area, it also disrupted communications for air controllers at Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark airports. Over a thousand flights were affected.
Usually, technicians would fix that kind of blackout quickly. However, they didn't respond quickly on that particular occasion. While alarm bells rang unheard, the technicians were--believe it or not--attending a training session on how to handle an emergency. (5)
I worry that something like that often happens in the church. Christ has called us to serve the world for which he died. Worship is that time when we strengthen our spirits for service to the world. When worship becomes an end in itself, we are not being what Christ has called us to be. We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets.
We need to be shaken from our safe relationships and into contact with people who need Christ. One of the reasons people come to church is to develop friendships. And that's good--that allows us to build one another up. But what happens if we restrict our friendships only to people at church? How can we be salt? How can we be leaven? In order for us to have an impact on our world, we need to have contact with people who are in the world.
Rev. Daniel Meyer tells about a boy named Mark who was walking home from school one winter day, when he saw that a kid ahead of him had tripped in the snow and dropped all of his books, two sweaters, a soccer ball, and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down, helped the kid pick up his articles, and--since they were going the same way--offered to help him carry his burden. Mark discovered that the boy's name was Bill. He loved video games and history, but was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and had just broken up with his girlfriend. Mark said: "Gosh, that must be really hard. If you ever need somebody to talk to, you can always talk with me. You can even come to church with me if you like." Moments later, the two of them arrived at Bill's home. Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some T.V. The afternoon passed quite pleasantly but, after that day, the two boys only occasionally saw one another.
Years went by until, a few days before high school graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could have a few words together. "Mark," he asked, "did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that winter afternoon? You see, I was cleaning out my locker so I wouldn't leave any mess for anyone else to clean up. I'd been storing up my mom's sleeping pills, and I was going home that day to kill myself. My insides were broken up into a million pieces, but that afternoon you helped me believe that maybe they might come together. And, you know, if the offer still stands, I think I'd like to go with you to that church of yours." (6)
There are people around us with all kinds of needs, but how will we know those needs if we do not know them? We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets. We need to be shaken from our safe relationships and into contact with people who need Christ.
We need to be shaken from a nominal faith to one that has a real impact in the world. Here is where a wild goose Pentecost can help us most of all. Many of us are in a rut spiritually. Our faith has become routine or, perhaps, even quite anemic. We're going through the motions, but our heart is not really in it. We need to reclaim the fire of that first Pentecost.
When the Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Christ in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost, they were totally shaken out of their complacency and apathy. Suddenly they understood their mission and they embraced it. They became a force to be reckoned with. They became a fellowship unlike any the world had known before, and they became determined above all things to raise high the banner of Christ for their generation. And that's what we need as well. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will come over us like a wild goose. I believe I hear it honking now.
______________________
1. Don Martin, Team Think (New York: Penguin Books Ltd: 1993), p. 54.
2. Robert Bly, A Little Book on the Human Shadow (Sam Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988), pp. 32-33.
3. "The Day Heaven Burst Open," The Rev. Grace Imathiu. http://www.day1.net/index.php5?view=transcripts&tid=281
4. http://www.pikevillefirstchristianchurch.org/Sermons/Sermon20020519.html.
5. "Biggest Business Goofs of 1991," Fortune, Jan. 13, 1992, page 79.
6. http://cc-ob.org/sermons/2003/03sermons.htm
It happened back in 1983. Only eight minutes and thirty-four seconds remained in a game between the University of Nevada-Reno Wolf Pack and the Fresno State Bulldogs. Suddenly Wolf Pack running back, Otto Kelly, broke loose on an eighty-nine yard scamper and a touchdown, giving his team a 22-21 lead. During Kelly's run his coach, Chris Ault of the Wolf Pack, got so caught up in the excitement that he began racing down the sideline alongside Kelly. When Ault reached the Fresno State twenty-yard line, he realized he had gone beyond the marked-off area in which coaches are allowed to roam. He risked having his team penalized fifteen yards. So he just kept right on running. He dashed through the end zone, up a ramp, and out of the stadium. He was found hiding behind a truck. A fan asked, "Say, aren't you the coach for Reno?" Without a moment's hesitation, Ault replied, "I'm just looking for a hot dog stand."
When the chagrined coach made it back to the bench, he learned that in spite of his attempt to elude the referees, his team had been penalized fifteen yards on the subsequent kickoff because he had run afoul of the rules. This gave good field position to Fresno State, which went on to kick a last-second field goal for a 24-22 victory. (1)
Getting carried away cost this football coach a win. Still, we love his enthusiasm. Have you ever gotten that excited about something? If you're a sports fan, you have. It's exhilarating, isn't it? I realize that not everyone gets excited, and they're suspicious of those who do. Some people are what we might call excitement-challenged.
A book came out sometime back titled For Your Own Good. This book tells about child-rearing practices in Germany in the nineteenth century. It's not as dull as it might sound. The author notes that around 1850 there was a word that came to have bad connotations among child-rearing experts in Germany. The word was "exuberance." Some child-rearing books spoke of exuberance in children as if it were potentially evil. The books would say, "Now when your child gets to be two or two and a half years old, you'll notice a lot of exuberance appearing. This is your test as a parent. If you fail this test the child will end in prison or drug addiction."
Not all child psychologists of the time thought in this way, but many did, and their thought affected the lives of millions of children. One way of curing exuberance, they said, was to keep the severity of punishments unrelated to the offense. If the child spills milk, for example, don't speak to the child for three days. (2) That seems a little severe to me, but these authorities did not want children getting excited in any way.
There is much difference of opinion among Christians with regard to how much excitement we ought to show in worship. Those who give free rein to emotional outbursts in worship are often lumped together as "Pentecostals." So-called mainline churches are usually more reserved.
One thing we can all agree on is that the first Pentecost celebration was an exciting event. Pentecost was actually a Jewish festival. To the Hebrews it was known as the Festival of Weeks. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek word meaning "fifty." The festival began fifty days after Passover. This festival was always celebrated in Jerusalem, and Jews poured in from all over the known world for the festivities.
The Scriptures tell us how the Festival of Weeks was to be celebrated. In Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 we learn that each person was to bring to God a special gift in proportion to the blessing the Lord had given to him. All daily work was to be set aside. The people were to gather and worship and rejoice before the Lord. Who was invited? "You, your sons and daughters, your men servants and maid servants, the Levites in your towns, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you." (3)
In other words, just about everyone was invited. No wonder Jerusalem was crowded on that first Pentecost. No wonder so many different languages were being spoken. This was as much diversity as you were apt to get at one time in one place. In other words, the time was absolutely perfect for the Spirit of God to descend on the church. It was also the perfect time to bring in a completely new era in the history of humankind. It would be an era like no other. It would transcend national borders. It would transcend every known language. It would ultimately draw all people together without regard to gender, color, economic status, or any of the other variables that have served to divide people through the ages. The Spirit of God was descending to build up the church, which is a stepping stone to the coming of the kingdom of God, when God will reign in every heart. The symbolism is so rich--a violent wind, tongues of fire, people hearing and understanding in their own language, observers utterly amazed. This is what happens when the Spirit comes. Our world is shaken. Our senses come alive. We know we stand on holy ground.
Over the centuries, many symbols have been used to illustrate the mystery and power of the Holy Spirit. However, Dr. Mickey Anders of Pikeville, Kentucky has discovered what may be the most unusual symbol of all, the wild goose. In a sermon published on the Internet, Dr. Anders says he made this discovery when he was studying Celtic Christianity, the name for that unique brand of Christianity found in Ireland. Part of Irish Christianity's uniqueness and vitality, says Dr. Anders, came from its geographical isolation. It was robust, creation-loving, Christ-loving and adventurous.
Perhaps you have heard one of Celtic Christianity's famous prayers of blessing:
May the road rise up and welcome thee, May the wind always be upon thy back,
May the sun always warm thy face, And may the rain fall softly on thy fields.
Celtic monks lived in conspicuous poverty; they were unworldly and practiced humility. They often chose their places of prayer in the remotest places in nature. These same Celtic Christians chose the wild goose as a symbol representing the Holy Spirit. It sounds strange to us, but it has a long tradition in Ireland. Dr. Anders contrasts the image of the Holy Spirit as a wild goose with the image of the Holy Spirit as a dove. "When you hear of the Spirit descending like a heavenly dove on you, you hear harps and strings softly playing and get a peaceful feeling. The image of the Holy Spirit as dove has become so familiar and domesticated an image we pay little attention. The image of a wild goose descending upon you is a different matter altogether. A wild goose is one noisy, bothersome bird, jarring us out of our complacency."
A wild goose stirs up feelings that are quite extraordinary. I wonder if it isn't time for a wild goose kind of Christianity? We in the church need to be shaken out of our complacency.
We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets. It's so easy to use church as a retreat. Perhaps the image of the Spirit as a wild goose will do that for us. We need such an image, says Dr. Anders, to correct our overly safe and overly sweet image of the Spirit. He quotes one preacher friend who asked, "How many times can you sing 멦here's a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in This Place' without your blood sugar reaching diabetes levels?" (4)
And it's true. We can be so comfortable here in this sweet, sweet place that we forget our real mission is to the world outside.
A few years ago, AT&T had a major snafu in New York City. They had an agreement with the city that, when electrical demand peaked, AT&T would switch to their backup generators. One day they did that, and something went wrong. When they switched over, the resulting power surge blew a number of rectifiers. Not only did that knock out phone service in the area, it also disrupted communications for air controllers at Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark airports. Over a thousand flights were affected.
Usually, technicians would fix that kind of blackout quickly. However, they didn't respond quickly on that particular occasion. While alarm bells rang unheard, the technicians were--believe it or not--attending a training session on how to handle an emergency. (5)
I worry that something like that often happens in the church. Christ has called us to serve the world for which he died. Worship is that time when we strengthen our spirits for service to the world. When worship becomes an end in itself, we are not being what Christ has called us to be. We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets.
We need to be shaken from our safe relationships and into contact with people who need Christ. One of the reasons people come to church is to develop friendships. And that's good--that allows us to build one another up. But what happens if we restrict our friendships only to people at church? How can we be salt? How can we be leaven? In order for us to have an impact on our world, we need to have contact with people who are in the world.
Rev. Daniel Meyer tells about a boy named Mark who was walking home from school one winter day, when he saw that a kid ahead of him had tripped in the snow and dropped all of his books, two sweaters, a soccer ball, and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down, helped the kid pick up his articles, and--since they were going the same way--offered to help him carry his burden. Mark discovered that the boy's name was Bill. He loved video games and history, but was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and had just broken up with his girlfriend. Mark said: "Gosh, that must be really hard. If you ever need somebody to talk to, you can always talk with me. You can even come to church with me if you like." Moments later, the two of them arrived at Bill's home. Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some T.V. The afternoon passed quite pleasantly but, after that day, the two boys only occasionally saw one another.
Years went by until, a few days before high school graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could have a few words together. "Mark," he asked, "did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that winter afternoon? You see, I was cleaning out my locker so I wouldn't leave any mess for anyone else to clean up. I'd been storing up my mom's sleeping pills, and I was going home that day to kill myself. My insides were broken up into a million pieces, but that afternoon you helped me believe that maybe they might come together. And, you know, if the offer still stands, I think I'd like to go with you to that church of yours." (6)
There are people around us with all kinds of needs, but how will we know those needs if we do not know them? We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets. We need to be shaken from our safe relationships and into contact with people who need Christ.
We need to be shaken from a nominal faith to one that has a real impact in the world. Here is where a wild goose Pentecost can help us most of all. Many of us are in a rut spiritually. Our faith has become routine or, perhaps, even quite anemic. We're going through the motions, but our heart is not really in it. We need to reclaim the fire of that first Pentecost.
When the Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Christ in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost, they were totally shaken out of their complacency and apathy. Suddenly they understood their mission and they embraced it. They became a force to be reckoned with. They became a fellowship unlike any the world had known before, and they became determined above all things to raise high the banner of Christ for their generation. And that's what we need as well. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will come over us like a wild goose. I believe I hear it honking now.
______________________
1. Don Martin, Team Think (New York: Penguin Books Ltd: 1993), p. 54.
2. Robert Bly, A Little Book on the Human Shadow (Sam Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988), pp. 32-33.
3. "The Day Heaven Burst Open," The Rev. Grace Imathiu. http://www.day1.net/index.php5?view=transcripts&tid=281
4. http://www.pikevillefirstchristianchurch.org/Sermons/Sermon20020519.html.
5. "Biggest Business Goofs of 1991," Fortune, Jan. 13, 1992, page 79.
6. http://cc-ob.org/sermons/2003/03sermons.htm
