Calvary United Methodist Church

May 15, 2016

THE DAY OF PENTECOST

Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks

Children’s Sermon: Acts 2

It is our joy to be Children of God and to welcome those who are the

youngest among us to the front of this worship space. The children are

welcome. Let them come, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.

There is a phrase that you may have heard once or twice maybe before

in your life, maybe not: Go fly a kite. Have you heard that before?

Have you ever flown a kite? (Yeah. I have a Cinderella kite.) You

have a Cinderella kite? Excellent! (Well, I have a rainbow kite.) You

have a rainbow kite. (Child talks about kite at the beach.) So, your

kite fell into the ocean and it got all wet. You actually have anticipated

brilliantly where I want to go with this.

The best kite place that I know of is a place called The Rehoboth Kite

and Toy Company and they have several branches, but all of them are

at the beach.

Why are kite stores located at the beach? All the best ones I know are

at the beach. Go ahead. (Because at the beach there’s a lot of space.)

And… (You need wind.) And you need wind to fly a kite. There’s a

lot of space and you need wind to lift the kite

and because of a lot of cool meteorological stuff there is almost always

wind at the beach. It has to do with the heating of the land and the wa-

ter.

And there are if you go to the beach you’ll notice there are lots of cool

ways to use the wind to do all sorts of fun stuff. Here’s just a short

sampling:

There is kite boarding.

There is kite buggying. Never heard of that one before.

There’s sailing.

There’s parasailing.

There’s land sailing.

There’s ice yachting.

There’s wind surfing.

Wing boarding.

Wing skating.

Wing blading.

Hang gliding.

But, there may be something even cooler than all of those cool things.

And it’s something, believe it or not, that you and I can try.

Take a look: (Video)

Who’s up for it? Yeah, see! I thought so! Every age, every ability can

go to an I-fly indoor skydiving center and give it a try. Do you know

where the nearest one is? King of Prussia. That’s barely two hours

away.

So, what I’d like you to do is if you are interested in giving this a try

over the summer, email me. We’ll put our name on a list, and by the

way, this is great, they even say right on the website, it’s great for like

youth groups and other church groups.

I’m thinking YAH club. So, if you are interested at all in giving this a

try, let me know. I’ll collect all the names and the contact info. I’ll

call for some group rates and information. We are going to do this.

Does that sound like a plan? Yeah. Okay.

Now, all of this brings us back to the most important thing, which is

talking about the Spirit of God on Pentecost.

Wind, as you know, is air in motion. If you look outside at the trees,

see the wind moving them. It’s moving pretty good today. It is mov-

ing a little bit faster than it normally does.

The wind in the indoor sky diving places is 120 miles an hour because

that’s the terminal velocity of a body falling through the atmosphere.

That’s why when you lay out in that wind tunnel you float; you don’t

go either down or up, it’s exactly the right speed. And because of that,

we know that wind is powerful. If wind can hold me up off the

ground, we also know that wind can blow trees down and do all kinds

of stuff. There is a lot of power in that wind.

And, interestingly enough, throughout all of the Bible and throughout

all of the history of the church, wind is one of the symbols of God’s

Spirit.

And because when it moves things happen it’s the Spirit of God in mo-

tion. When God does stuff, it’s done by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the Spirit is full of God’s Power, all the different types of power

that we watch God exhibit throughout all the stories of the Bible and in

our lives.

And on the day of Pentecost, which is today, the birthday of the

church, the Spirit of God brought together all of those people who had

known Christ, that had seen him and they gave them a new job. And

this is what the story is all about, from Acts 2:

On Pentecost, the disciples were all together. And out of nowhere, the

sound of a strong wind…what does the sound of a strong wind sound

like? (Blowing) Okay. Do you think they could make the sound of a

strong wind? Go ahead; make the sound of a strong wind. (Blowing)

Nice, right? It filled the house just like that sound just filled the house.

And like wildfire, the Spirit spread out among them. They started

speaking different languages…you guys, we all speak English. In

school you have an opportunity to study other languages. The disci-

ples had never studied any of these other languages, but the Spirit of

God gave them the ability to speak different language as it empowered

them. There were many languages spoken, but there's only one mes-

sage. And people came running from all over the place because they

heard the sound of the wind. They came to see what this wondrous

thing was. And Peter, who was in charge of the disciples at that point,

stood up and addressed everybody who had come and he said this,

“Friends, God’s Spirit’s power is now fulfilling his promises. Every-

one, as they are, will see him as He is. Everything that keeps us divid-

ed and apart will be swept away. You’re not too young and you’re not

too old. You’re not too rich and you’re not too poor. You won’t speak

the wrong language or comes from the wrong place. The Spirit will

lift up anyone who is open to receive it. Hearts and lives everywhere

will be changed. Call out to God and watch new life emerge from the

old!”

Wind is the Spirit, the power of God as it moves and that Spirit has the

power to do many things in our lives.

It has the power to

recreate everything and everyone. This is a brand new day. You are a

new person. And when we comes together on Pentecost and share the

sacrament and we baptize babies and adults and we receive them into

fellowship, it’s creating and recreating us and the relationships that we

share.

And that’s another aspect of that power. God’s Spirit has the power to

redeem relationships, to put people back together who are estranged by

all sorts of things that divide us up: indifference and hatred and preju-

dice and poverty and disease. There are all sorts of relationships that

need to be put back together and the Spirit has the power to do that if

we allow it to move.

God’s Spirit has the power to

reach out to those who need help, to rescue them, to draw them in, to

give them the things that they need.

And God’s Spirit has the power to

reunite the human family. This is one manifestation of the human fam-

ily. This is called the church, the Family of Christ in this time and in

this place called together by the Spirit.

Wind is air in motion and if you look outside and watch the trees to-

day, if you step outside,

it will blow you away because wind is powerful and it’s that same

symbol of power that we come to think about on Pentecost because

wind is just one of several symbols that remind us of the power of

God’s Spirit.

It is the Spirit of God moving

and it moves in you and in me

in order to change the world.

Now, when I said to you at the beginning of the Children’s Sermon

have you ever flown a kite or do you have a kite, when I said “Go fly a

kite” I realized that maybe that would be a bad thing to do unless I

gave you a kite. So, there are three different kite designs in this bas-

ket. They are actually hung above the dove which is above the altar.

Do you see the three different kites up there? So, there are three dif-

ferent versions of a kite in there. You are welcome to take it home.

You might try it today but it might be almost too windy today.

So, whenever you get a chance to do that with your families you are

welcome to do it and as you watch that kite go up into the sky, remem-

ber the power of the Spirit of God.

Thanks for sharing in our time this morning.

Benediction:

On this day of Pentecost we are aware that wind is the Spirit of God in

motion. As we look outside at the trees bending in that wind, we are

reminded how it is that our wills may bend the will of those around us

to celebrate the Love of God. The Spirit is moving within us, not

simply to change us, but to change the world.

Thanks be to God for the gifts that He has given, for the chance to

share them, for this gathering of the faithful and for the ministry that

sends us forth.

Amen.