What I’m Thinking: Raucous Spirit

The first Pentecost Day, Jesus’ disciples abandoned their anonymity and came out into the public square. They were speaking of God’s great love revealed in Jesus: and people mistook them for being drunk. 

Can you imagine being so excited about faith that people would think you’re at a party?

Here’s a transcript:

I think I’m glad to be back home again after a couple of weeks away, and I’m glad to be with you.

Congratulations to my daughter Rebekah on her graduation from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts: that was the reason for my traveling. Well done, Rebekah, well done.

Well, this coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and so we turn to the second chapter of the book of Acts, which describes how Jesus’ disciples, who had been separate and away from people, were suddenly driven out into the public square to tell what had happened in Jesus and how God had been at work.

Some of the people had a strange reaction. They said, “They’re filled with new wine; they’re drunk.”

How odd that this testimony to God’s amazing work in the world should be mistaken for a raucous party at eleven o’clock in the morning (Editor’s note: the Bible text actually says nine o’clock in the morning. Oops).

Well, we, particularly in the United Church of Christ, we have a habit of making religion into something that’s rather dry, rather formal: certainly something that doesn’t look like a wild party. I’m not suggesting that we want to turn our Sunday morning experiences into, oh, something that might have the officers of the law coming in because of noise. 

But what we do need to do is rediscover the joy of our faith, rediscover the joy that Peter and those other disciples felt when they were filled with enough courage to come out and describe just how wonderful God’s presence had been with them in Jesus.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking, so please leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.