Acts 2:1–21
Like a Wild Goose
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2006
Rev. Sandy Messick

• A young pastor went to visit a church member in the hospital. She was ill, pale, conscious but weak, with IVs connected to both arms and a monitor that kept track of ever weakening heart beat. Pulling up a chair next to her bedside, the pastor, fresh out of seminary, gently laid his hand over hers and prayed for God to heal her. After he finished, he sat quietly, with his eyes closed, until suddenly, the woman’s hand moved under his. When he looked up, he saw that her color was better, much better. Her heartbeat was stronger and her eyes were open. As the woman sat up in bed and swung her legs over the side, she proclaimed, “It’s a miracle! I’ve been healed.” She then proceeded to disconnect herself from the monitors and began to laugh and dance herself around the room. With a pale face and trembling hands, the young pastor excused himself and rushed from the room. Running quickly to his car, he quickly got in, closed the door, and then clasped his shaking hands together in prayer. “Thank you God for that healing, but please! Don’t ever do that to me again!”
• Overwhelmed…awestruck…taken aback…blindsided…dumbfounded… utterly speechless! What words could describe how that pastor was feeling at that moment?
• Perhaps the same words the Disciples might have used on that first Pentecost Sunday when without warning the Holy Spirit blew into the room like a Midwestern tornado.
• Average Sunday gathering…all together doing whatever they did when they worshiped together: prayer, announcements, suddenly rush of mighty wind, flames of fire appeared, everyone began speaking in tongues.
• It was such an uproar, and so unexpected, that casual observers were heard to exclaim, are these people drunk? What’s gotten into them? And they were right to wonder!
• Their quiet, sedate, predictable worship was turned upside down and inside out and the church of Jesus Christ was never the same again.
• Now that’s Pentecost! That’s what happens when the Holy Spirit is set free and allowed to run amok within the congregation:
• People’s lives are touched, fears are released, tongues are freed to give praise in ways and languages they never knew.
• That’s what happens when the Holy Spirit happens.

• But if we’re honest, that’s not how we usually prefer it:
• Like predictability
• Church should start promptly at 11, be over with at 12. OK, maybe 12:15, see we’re flexible.
• We should be able to get this church stuff out of the way, don’t have to think about it again for a week
• And next year, should be roughly the same as last year, predictable, comfortable, safe.
• And we want the same kind of predictability in the Spirit. Tame those tongues of fire, because we’d hate for any one to get burned. Harness the energy of the Spirit, like we harness the power of the wind, to fuel our own desires, our own plans, our own priorities. Recreate God’s vision into our own image, tell God what we’ll do next and then ask God to bless it.
• We want the Holy Spirit to work in our ways, at our comfort level, in ways we can predict and expect.

• Only that’s not how the Holy Spirit works.
• Sometimes the Holy Spirit isn’t a tame dove that lands gently on our shoulder to offer reassurance
• Sometimes the Spirit is more intense, like the rush of a mighty wind, or the scorching flame of fire.
• Celtic tradition: H.S. is imagined as a bird, but not as a dove. Instead, as a wild goose.
• Like a wild goose, they recognized that the H.S. is uncontrollable, it’s not a domestic animal, not a pet we can tame. It can be unpredictable, raucous, loud, even a bit scary. It’s can be pushy and demanding and force us to act. When Sarah was young we spent Thanksgiving in Williamsburg, VA one year. It was a time share with sweeping grounds and a beautiful lake. But stalking the lake, was a goose. And it chased us, and followed us, and nipped at us wherever we went. So what an image that is: the Holy Spirit as a pesky, annoying wild goose.
• It sweeps into our congregations unexpectedly, and dare we confess, uninvited, causing us to change course. It nudges and challenges and cajoles us to change the way we see things, do things, even believe things. It forces us out of our routines, our ruts, our ways we’ve always been.
• It dares us to step out in faith, embrace new dreams, boldly go where only God’s vision has gone before. It dares us to become the church we are called to be, instead of the place we’ve always been.
• This image of the Holy Spirit doesn’t drift quietly into our life and settle gently on our shoulder, no indeed. It bursts into our life like popcorn popping or bubbles in champagne and releases within us a faith and fire we never knew existed. And that is both terrifying, and exhilarating. Who knows when the Holy Spirit will burst in? Who knows where it might lead?
• Do we dare find out? Are we ready for Pentecost here?

• Ann Weems in her book, Reaching for Rainbows, writes about “A Group of Believers.”

A group of believers gathered in a church.

They believed in one God, God Almighty, who made the world and everything in it.

They believed in God the Creator. And they believed that God the Creator sent the Son, Jesus Christ, to save the world.

They believed these things and they said them every Sunday at 11:00

They were very busy and did the things most churches do. They had church dinners and they inquired about each other’s families.

They read the Bible and the sent a check to missions every year, and at Thanksgiving they collected canned goods for the poor.

And on Sunday mornings things were done decently and in order.

They were good church people.

But one Sunday morning during the service of worship, a little boy came running in the church door, ran right down the center aisle, and stood under the cross screaming, “Help me!”

He was a thin child with dark, sunken eyes. The clothes he wore were no more than rags.

His feet were bare and he shivered and then, with a cry, fell-under the cross.

Every was quiet – and then a voice yelled:

Get him out of here!

And another said: We don’t want to get involved with his kind.

And a third said: Get someone else.

But the rest of the congregation arose quietly, in unison, and walked as if they were in step until they, too, stood under the cross. They bent and lifted the child gently and ministered unto him.

And then, as if for the first time, they noticed each other. They smiled and their hands reached out to one another and they began to dance.

Some people laughed, and said: They’re drunk!

But others asked: What does this mean?

And the people answered:

The Lord’s Spirit has been poured out upon us. The Lord has anointed us to care for God’s children everywhere who are crying, “Help me!:

And now this church is decorated in the bright colors of joy. The people wear robes of caring and commitment.

The call to worship is: “Help them!”

The entire congregation dances together.

By the grace of God may it be so with us.