When We Get It Together

Pentecost Sunday

Title: When We Get It Together

Text: Acts 2:1-13 and 42-47

Thesis: When we get it together there is no telling what God will do.

The Season of Pentecost

Pentecost marks the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit and the amazing impact the Spirit’s presence had on the Christians and how it splashed over onto others. Christ has ascended and the Holy Spirit has come. Pentecost bursts into our lives and awakens our senses with a roaring windstorm, bright flames of fire, ecstatic outbursts of unlearned languages… it is an inundation of the Holy Spirit of God’s presence and power. During the next six months we make our way through the Season of Pentecost or Ordinary Time with the intent of being attentive to our calling as disciples or followers of Christ. In Ordinary Time we will be considering what we are called to do and what we are called to be. In Ordinary Time we are immersed in the Spirit and empowered for mission.

Introduction

The Starbucks Mission Statement is: To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market in 1971. In the 1990s Starbucks expanded beyond Seattle, first to the United States and then the entire world. Today Starbucks has more than 16,000 stores in 48 countries.

The Starbucks Mission Statement page states, “Every store is part of a community, and we take our responsibility to be good neighbors seriously. We want to be invited in wherever we do business…”

The Starbucks goal is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks began locally and went global. (http://me.starbucks.com/en-US_About+Starbucks/History+of+Starbucks.htm)

Howard Schultz may well have gotten his strategy for reaching the world with the good news of the finest coffees on the planet from Jesus Christ.

I. Wait for It

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about… But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:4-8

The adage “Think Globally, Act Locally” is not a new idea but has gained traction over the years and is now a common catch phrase for businesses and industries who wish to embrace the big picture while working diligently on the little picture. The Urban Dictionary has condensed the concept of Thinking Globally, Acting Locally into one word, “Glocal” or “Glocalization.”

It is a way of working at a grassroots level hoping to have a global impact. When we wish to care for the environment of the world we begin by taking action in our local communities. Glocalization can also be thought of as a strategy wherein a business begins working locally but has aspirations of becoming multinational. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Globally_Act_Locally)

It would seem that God was the original thinker who thought glocally.

Before the Pentecost event Jesus gave his followers a peek at the heart of God. He instructed them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, who would empower them for their work which was to make Christ known throughout the world. He said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It was a movement that was to begin locally as a grassroots movement right there in Jerusalem. And then the movement was to expand and spread globally from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and eventually world-wide.

The heart of God is to bring the Good News of new life in Christ to the world, one person and one neighborhood at a time.

In our story today Christ’s followers have waited in Jerusalem and the Day of Pentecost they welcomed the Holy Spirit of God to be present and powerful in their lives.

II. Welcome It, Acts 2:1-13

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly the sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were willed with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:-14

I spoke earlier of how God’s heart is for all the people of the world and of how his vision was that the movement would begin in Jerusalem and then spread throughout the world. On the Day of Pentecost the followers of Christ welcomed the Holy Spirit into their lives and they began to speak in other languages. The followers of Christ are indentified in our text as Galileans but as they begin to speak, the people from around the world who had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, heard in their own languages.