Arden Haug is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Representative in Europe. He visited the LCiGB in the days leading up to Pentecost, and preached at St Anne’s on the Sunday morning.
Filled With New Wine
Dear friends in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
For most Christians, “Merry Christmas” flows from the lips fairly easily, as does the greeting, “Happy Easter.” But can you imagine clasping a friend’s hand and joyfully offering, “Peppy Pentecost, or “Have a Spirited Day.” This morning, I would like to challenge you with this thought. If there was no Day of Pentecost, if there was no wind or tongues of fire, if there was no power of the Holy Spirit, there would be no celebration of Easter or Christmas. Why, you may ask? Well, that’s what we’re here to discover.
Have you ever been in a room with drunken men? Loud boisterous laughter, animated conversation, a free flowing stream of thought from one theme to another. Have you ever been in such a room? Well, I haven’t. I can only imagine. Obviously, this is the difference in our Scandinavian pietism. In my home congregation, we would never have admitted publicly that we had been in such a setting. I can still remember our Director of Christian Education stating that there was one aspect that disappointed her in the life of Jesus. When she arrived in heaven she would question him, why he had turned the water into wine.
And yet, as the Pentecost celebration unfolds before us in the Acts of the Apostles, we are reminded that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was not a peaceful, Sunday morning worship service, but rather it was an earthy celebration of the free flowing of new wine. There was no longer a sense of gentle decorum or stately dignity. The upper room in Jerusalem, which once had housed the 120 followers of Jesus in prayer, hymns and meditations, had become a boisterous mob flowing out onto the street. The bystanders from all over the city were drawn to the commotion like bees to a hive. They were bewildered, perplexed and amazed. Some sneered, “They are filled with new wine.” But at the end of that first day of Pentecost, something even more dramatic had taken place. When the poor, uneducated fisherman, named Peter had delivered his first sermon, all musings of drunkenness had disappeared. Three thousand men and women were baptized into the Church.
I must confess, I have struggled with the celebration of Pentecost. I have wondered how I could proclaim the good news of rushing wind and flames of fire resting on the heads of the twelve apostles without the message of Pentecost sounding like a biblical, history lesson. Pentecost you see isn’t simply about the wind, the tongues of fire, nor even speaking in tongues, but Pentecost is about change and the celebration of the gift of courage, strength and power which Jesus offers his Church through the Holy Spirit. It is a power which is as effervescent and intoxicating as new wine.
We can all read the Pentecost narrative again, but what I believe is most important in the story remains unwritten. Pentecost is truly the story of Peter and the eleven apostles. In spite of the scrutiny of educated pilgrims and Pharisees around him, the lowly man from Galilee, a fisherman turned apostle, opened his mouth that Pentecost morning and preached. Seven weeks earlier when a woman questioned him at a fire, the cowardly disciple was frightened and scared. Peter lied to save his own skin, and denied Jesus. When Jesus was taken from his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane by the Roman soldiers, the others scattered like sheep. But now when they are surrounded by a crowd over three thousand curious and some scoffing onlookers, the disciples have a strength which they have never known before. Peter has the courage to proclaim the good news. Yes, for the very first time, the disciples were acting on their own. Before they had stood under the shadow of Jesus, but now the Holy Spirit had come to guide them. They had been disciples, learning and observing. But now that time was over. By the intoxicating power of the new wine of the Holy Spirit they had become apostles. The work of establishing the church of Jesus Christ in the world had begun.
Although the Protestant Reformation was 15 hundred years in the making, there were obviously Lutherans in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost. As the crowds were scoffing at the joy of the disciples, chiding, “They must be filled with new wine,” the Lutherans were raising the important theological question, “What does this mean?” Yes, confirmation would never be the same again. But it’s a good question for this Day of Pentecost. “What does the Holy Spirit mean for you and me?”
Let me suggest three ways in which the Holy Spirit dramatically changed the lives of Peter and the other Apostles and how the Spirit is seeking to change yours.
First of all, the disciples discovered that in being filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit, they were being challenged in new and marvelous ways. Several years ago, I was invited by home Church in Austin to translate the early records of our Norwegian speaking congregation. It was heartening to read of the early struggles with pastors and parishioners. But I was struck in one report with the loss of vision and Pentecostal challenge. The Church record included this paragraph. St. Olaf Church, 125 souls and three Swedes. It wasn’t that the early Norwegian pioneers considered their Swedish neighbors, as less than divine or human. They merely felt that the Swedes weren’t their responsibility.
My friends, when you allow yourself to be filled and changed by the Holy Spirit, you will discover the sense of challenge that the disciples experienced. There was no barrier, no border, no social institution, no hardship that would prevent them from opening their mouths and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. There was no distinction between Jew, nor Greek, male nor female, youth nor elder, Swede, Norwegian, German, Bohemian, Lithuanian nor Russian, nor American, in the wondrous body of Christ.
Second, when the disciples were filled by the new wine of the Holy Spirit, they discovered that in the darkest hours of faith, the Holy Spirit was present to comfort them. For many Christians, this has been a difficult. Yes, the global, economic crises is great, but they have been experiencing loss in a more personal way. Surgery, illness, divorce, depression, death, unemployment, drought, winds and in moments utter despair. It is a humbling task to offer your prayers to God.
As the disciples gathered with their followers, they were no doubt struck by the daily trials of their faithful as well. Life would be so much easier, if choosing faith eliminated all of life’s struggles. It doesn’t. But in those dark nights of the soul, the disciples discovered that when they allowed the Holy Spirit to fill them with the new wine of courage, hope and strength, they were changed. They grew in a deeper understanding and awareness that that very Spirit helped them in their weakness. In those moments when they could not find the words to pray as they ought, the Spirit would intercede with sighs too deep for words. Have you discovered that my friend? When you are struggling, emotionally and spiritually, have you trusted in the amazing strength, grace and healing power of the Holy Spirit?
And finally, when the disciples were filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit, they discovered that they were nurtured and strengthened in the community of believers. The Second Chapter of Apostles records that the disciples devoted themselves to the teaching, fellowship and breaking of bread. The disciples knew that there is no such thing as the Robinson Crusoe Christian. We need the company of believers, for it is there the Holy Spirit moves in numerous ways. The dramatic events of that first Pentecost morning, Peter’s preaching and the baptism of three thousand new believers couldn’t sustain their faith. The disciples needed to drink time and again from the new wine of the Holy Spirit. They needed the community of the church. And so do we.
Pentecost will never rival Christmas or Easter any more than the Holy Spirit will crowd Jesus out of the center stage of Christianity. Our simplest confessions is still “Jesus is Lord.” But my friends it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to Christ. Martin Luther probably understood this best when he wrote his explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. It could just as well be his explanation to power of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. What does this mean? “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel.”
Has the Holy Spirit changed you and your life? Has God’s new wine filled you with power and exuberance. Are you open to the promise? Let this be your prayer this Pentecost, Come Holy Spirit, let me drink of your new wine that I may believe and be changed, and be an instrument of change. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
