Rev. Eric Anderson Sermons

Sermon: Receive the Holy Spirit

May 24, 2026

Acts 2:1-21
John 20:19-23

There’s a reason why this morning’s story about the house finch guarding his treasure had him guarding… whatever it was. I think we have a similar problem with the Holy Spirit. We know it’s valuable. We know it’s important. We know it’s something to embrace. But…

What is it? When we receive the Holy Spriit, what do we receive?

It doesn’t help that we have two Scriptures offered by the editors of the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost with, shall we say, rather different ideas of how the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus’ disciples after his resurrection. The one we probably know better is the Pentecost account from Acts of the Apostles. Jesus had been raised but he had also departed, promising his followers the gift of the Holy Spirit. About a hundred and twenty of them kept close to one another in Jerusalem, and many if not all of them got together to observe the Savuot holiday together. Savuot was one of the three holidays that attracted Jews to Jerusalem in the first century, along with Sukkot in the fall and Passover earlier in the spring. In fact, the Greek name Pentecost stands for the fifty days between Passover and Savuot.

Whatever they’d planned – which was probably Temple worship at some point in the day – the Holy Spirit changed their plans with a rush like a violent wind, the signs of tongues on their heads, then speaking different tongues, and being so successful in proclaiming God’s inviting mercy that their community grew 2,500%.

As Margaret Aymer writes at Working Preacher, “The Holy Spirit proves not to be a quiet, heavenly dove but, rather, a violent force that blows the church into being (Acts 2:41–47). That church consists mainly of immigrants, people of different languages and cultures with different mother tongues (Acts 2:5, 9–12, 14). To these, the message goes forth: a message of the coming of the day of the Lord, full of heavenly portents and prophetic women, slaves, and men. But in the midst of the chaos of Pentecost rests an anchor: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

In contrast, we have John’s account of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The setting is much different: the evening of Easter Day itself. Just a few of the disciples were gathered in a private, even locked space. As Cody J. Sanders writes at Working Preacher, “John’s scene is an intimate proximity of bodies and breath, fright giving way to peace, signs of death bespeaking new life, and a renewed mission for those whose world had seemingly come to an end.”

On the one hand: Close friends gathered alone. The gentle breeze of a human breath. A promise of forgiveness.

On the other hand: Close friends gathered, then driven out into the crowds. The roar of a mighty wind. And… a promise of forgiveness.

One of my convictions about the Holy Spirit is that the Spirit’s manifestations simply aren’t predictable. I recall Elijah’s journey to the mountain of the Law, where he found that the great events of wind, fire, and earthquake were not full of the Spirit, but the “sound of sheer silence” was. I recall that the Spirit visited Jeremiah when he thought he was too young and Mary when she was not a married adult. I recall that the Spirit came to foreigners, not just foreigners, to a Roman officer’s household, and that the Spirit transformed someone fully convinced that the Jesus movement must be ended.

There are so many others. The Spirit doesn’t do what I expect it to do, or what you expect it to do, or what Elijah, Moses, Jeremiah, Mary, Simon Peter, or the Apostle Paul expected it to do.

So what does mark the Holy Spirit?

I’d have to say that the first sign is probably disruption. There’s that unpredictability again, but it’s also because the Holy Spirit isn’t that interested in changing things that are good and right and true. The Holy Spirit intervenes when things are going badly, wrongly, and falsely – or at least when they could be substantially better. The Pentecost story from Acts is disruptive from start to finish, changing the little Jesus community’s plans not just for the day but for the rest of their lives.

John’s account is gentler, but it’s disruptive, too. This was Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples on Easter, and in John’s gospel it took two more visits to shake them out of the notion that they were going to go on with life as usual. When you hear Jesus say, “Receive the Holy Spirit” here, you should probably also hear what he said in the next chapter: “Feed my sheep.”

What else marks the Holy Spirit?

Jesus’ first words to his friends as he appeared among them was, “Peace be with you.” A mark of the Holy Spirit is peace.

If that seems inconsistent with disruption, Jesus spoke those words in the aftermath of state-authorized violence: his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. He lived, and we live, in an age where wars tragically rage among nations and within nations. By the time John’s Gospel was written, Roman armies had swept over the ground Jesus walked and destroyed the Jerusalem Temple.

I’d argue that the world needs some serious disruption to live in peace. As Angela N. Parker writes at Working Preacher, “Jesus has given us a double portion of peace to breathe again. Let us be Jesus followers that transform society instead of being fearful disciples who are holding our collective breath.”

What else marks the Holy Spirit?

Forgiveness and inclusion.

In John, Jesus’ final words were that his followers had been given the power to forgive. I grant you that’s a power you may not want. It’s too big for most of us. Personally, I’m concerned that if I’m responsible for forgiveness there are some people who definitely need it who aren’t going to get it.

Forgiveness is a simple concept. When somebody does something that brings harm to someone else, which might be another person, or God, or both, then that person is obligated to make things right. In religious terms, they have to repent, they have to make restitution, and they have to reform their future behavior. If they do that, if they apologize and try to correct the harm they did, the person they injured has the opportunity to forgive.

Human beings do that a lot. They do things, and then they say, “I’m sorry,” and they try to fix it, and the person they harmed says, “It’s all right.”

Part of our understanding about sin and forgiveness is that God gets involved. God doesn’t want people harming one another, so injuring another person is also a sin against God. When we apologize to the person we harmed, we also need to apologize to God.

Jesus was clear that apologizing to God alone is not enough. In the Sermon on the Mount, he told his hearers that when bringing an offering to God seeking forgiveness, they needed to first make things right with the people they’d harmed. It’s important to apologize to God, but Jesus made clear that that wouldn’t have any impact if there’d been no apology to the people involved.

The current affection for non-apology apologies, “I’m sorry if I offended anyone,” and the assertion that “God has forgiven me, so I don’t need to make things right with anyone else,” are both bad theology and bad for human relationships.

When Jesus told his disciples that they had the power to forgive, he told them that they had the power to help people through their repentance to others and come to repentance to God.

They still need to take the steps themselves, however. Forgiveness without repentance and restitution isn’t forgiveness. It’s just license. Permission to cause harm.

Simon Peter, in quoting from the prophet Joel, made clear that the gift of the Holy Spirit would lead to salvation. He made it clear that many of the restrictions people usually apply to human societies would not be honored by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes to young and old, men and women, rich and poor, respected and discounted.

The Holy Spirit comes even to you and to me, who would probably prefer less disruption in life, who would like peace but aren’t sure what a world at peace looks like, and who are somewhat anxious to hear that God pays attention to whether we forgive someone or not. The Holy Spirit comes so that we get shaken from our complacency, so that we no longer accept the violence and coercion so common in the world. The Holy Spirit comes to give us courage to forgive when people apologize to us, and help them find their way to their further forgiveness by God:

So that all the world might be saved.

Amen.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Sermon

Pastor Eric makes changes from his prepared text while preaching, so the sermon as written does not precisely match the sermon as preached.

The image is The Virgin Surrounded Twelve Apostles or The Holy Ghost Appears by the Master of the Crucifix of Pesaro, ca. 1380. Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11148957.

Rev. Eric Anderson What I'm Thinking

What I’m Thinking: Pentecost Power

The power given us by the Holy Spirit is purposeful: it helps us promote peace, extend forgiveness, and renew life.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking about the second chapter of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-21), because this coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost is an older holiday than Christianity. It was celebrated in Judaism for millennia before Jesus’ followers gathered in some place in Jerusalem to observe the day. We know that they began in some place together. Perhaps later in the day they planned to go worship in the temple. We don’t know. What we do know was that whatever their plans were, they were disrupted.

There was the sound of a rush of a mighty wind. There was something that played above their heads that others later described as looking like tongues of fire. They came outside and began to speak to people about God’s deeds of power in Jesus. And when they did so, they spoke in languages that were not native to them, languages that until that day they had not spoken.

Pentecost became, for Christians, the holiday which celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. And indeed it’s paired in the lectionary with the twentieth chapter of John (John 20:19-23), in which on the day of his resurrection, Jesus said to his followers, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

There is a lot that can be said and has been said and will be said about the gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is literally the foundation of the church. We exist because the Holy Spirit gathers us and we continue to serve from the power that the Holy Spirit gives to us. But let’s be careful about what that power is.

When Jesus spoke to his disciples, he said to them, “Peace be with you.” So first of all, the power of the Holy Spirit is the power of peace.

Jesus also said, and later Peter would say in that sermon on Pentecost, the the power was the forgiveness of sins: not the power of condemnation, the power of restoration and belonging.

And it is the power of life and of resurrected life. The power of the Holy Spirit is what lifts us up when we are cast down, what gives us strength to continue doing what is good and right and true when we think we have run out. The power of the Holy Spirit is the power to take our bodies when we have laid them down at the end of our lives, pick them back up again in a grand resurrection, and restore us to one another and to God in the realm that is to come.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Rev. Eric Anderson Sermons

Sermon: Visions and Dreams

June 8, 2025

Romans 8:14-17
Acts 2:1-21

Do you remember how old you were when somebody first told you that you couldn’t do something?

I don’t, actually. I certainly remember it happening, usually after I’d tried it. I had this notion, for example, that I could climb into this piece of furniture that had an intriguing big cupboard in it. I’m pretty sure it was intended for towels, but it sure looked like it had space for a curious three- or four-year-old boy.

Said three- or four-year-old boy had not thought that the cabinet was built to sit pretty flat, with all the weight within its sides, so adding the weight of a three- or four-year-old boy to one side might just cause it to lose its balance. Actually, did cause it to fall over, trapping said three- or four-year-old boy inside the intriguing big cupboard in the middle after creating a terrible crash.

I survived.

My parents also told me that I couldn’t do that. Or that I shouldn’t. Ever. Again.

Some of the things we’re told not to do are for our safety. We’re told not to drive 80 miles an hour through those big turns in the gulches along the Hamakua Coast. Good, say I. We’re told not to cross the barriers along the cliffs of Kaluapele, the summit caldera of Kilauea. I’m happy with that. We’re told not to go swimming for a full hour after a meal to avoid cramps. Well, that’s a bit of a legend, but I’m willing to relax for a bit before taking on the waves again.

People tell us, “No,” to keep us safe.

Except for the times they tell us, “No,” to keep us limited.

About one hundred and twenty of Jesus’ disciples had stayed in Jerusalem after his resurrection, according to Luke’s Gospel and his sequel, Acts of the Apostles. I like to call “Acts” a sequel. It makes me feel that Luke should have ended the Gospel with something like: “Coming soon from this author: the exciting tale of how Jesus’ frightened followers faced the faith and found their fearlessness. Look for it in a bookstore near you!”

We don’t have names for all of the one hundred and twenty. Luke identified the eleven of Jesus’ inner circle of followers, and described the selection of Matthias to replace the betrayer Judas Iscariot and bring the number to twelve again. Luke wrote that there were “certain women” among them, one of whom was Mary, Jesus’ mother. His brothers had joined the group, too.

Then came Pentecost.

Jeremy L. Williams writes at Working Preacher, “Shavuot or ‘The Festival of Weeks’ occurs seven weeks after Passover and begins on the fiftieth day after, hence its Greek name Pentecost. This is one of the three festivals for which some Jewish people would make pilgrimage to Jerusalem (the other two are Passover and the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles). Pentecost is a harvest festival where families bring the first fruits of their harvest in anticipation of God blessing the remainder of the harvest (Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 26:5-11). This made Pentecost already symbolically rich for imagining the beginning of a bountiful ingathering, but in Acts’ case what was reaped was not produce, but people.”

Let’s face it, Jesus’ followers had heard a lot of “You can’t do this,” recently. Jesus’ debates in the Temple during the last week of his life had included a lot of “Don’t you dare”s from the people in power. The fact that they scattered to the four winds the night Jesus was arrested reveals that they recognized the danger they were in – kind of the ultimate, “You can’t do this.” The resurrection had certainly changed things, but how much? What were the risks? What kind of power might be with them? Jesus had told them the Holy Spirit would be given to them, but what did that mean? They didn’t know.

They got together in a house that Shavuot, that Pentecost, but they wouldn’t stay there. As Margaret Aymer writes at Working Preacher, “The Holy Spirit proves not to be a quiet, heavenly dove but, rather, a violent force that blows the church into being (Acts 2:41–47). That church consists mainly of immigrants, people of different languages and cultures with different mother tongues (Acts 2:5, 9–12, 14). To these, the message goes forth: a message of the coming of the day of the Lord, full of heavenly portents and prophetic women, slaves, and men.”

They’d been told not to get people excited. They’d been told not to make a noise. They’d been told not to make waves.

If the Holy Spirit had been told that, the Holy Spirit ignored it.

Who told you that you couldn’t do something? Why? Did they say, “You can’t do this because: You’re too young. You’re too old. You’re too female. You’re too Micronesian. You’re too Japanese. You’re too Hawaiian. You’re too gay. You’re too not-what-we-expect-when-we-think-of-someone-in-this-position.”

You can’t. Go away. Hole up with a hundred and twenty others in a house and keep quiet. That’s nice.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t care about any of that.

On that Pentecost Day, the Holy Spirit drove them out of the house. The Holy Spirit filled them with so many words that they had to speak them. The Holy Spirit decided that one or two languages wasn’t enough. Hebrew or Aramaic? Great. Greek? A nice addition. Enough? Not even close. Brush up your Parthian, there. How about Persian? Egyptian? Go for it. Arabic? Good call.

“In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

If you didn’t want to speak to those foreigners, if you didn’t want them in your city, if you didn’t think they were interested, well, too bad. The Holy Spirit doesn’t care about any of that. Put up all the travel bans you want. Be as cruel to fearful people fleeing violence as you want. The Holy Spirit doesn’t care.

The Holy Spirit will speak God’s deeds of power.

What kind of people will speak them? Sons and daughters – good grief, we’ll be listening to women now? Young men haven’t gained any wisdom; but we’ve got to listen to them? Old men ramble, we all know that. But now they’re going to prophesy? And slaves – slaves? Really? The lowest of the low? The Holy Spirit will speak through them?

All flesh, declared the Spirit through the prophet Joel. All flesh, and the Holy Spirit means it.

You can decide that a Navy ship shouldn’t honor a gay Navy veteran assassinated for being gay. You can decide that a Navy ship can’t honor a woman who led slaves to freedom with the code name, “Moses.” You can decide that women shouldn’t have senior positions in law enforcement.

You can decide that women shouldn’t pastor churches. You can decide that gay people aren’t welcome in a church. You can decide all sorts of things.

The Holy Spirit will ignore all that.

The Holy Spirit will speak God’s deeds of power.

The Holy Spirit will bring dreams and visions, and these will be dreams and visions of a world saved, not a world damned by greed, division, prejudice, and selfish pride. The Holy Spirit will come to those at the margins of society, and it will come regardless of gender or age. The Holy Spirit doesn’t care about the barriers human beings so carefully create to lift some up and keep many down.

The Holy Spirit will come to you.

That might be the most astonishing thing of all, because I imagine that a few people, possibly more than a few people, have told you it can’t. You’re not holy enough, right? Or possibly too young, or possibly too old, yes? Did somebody tell you that only a select few receive the Holy Spirit, and that you’re not special enough to be one of those? Did somebody tell you that being female, or gay, or male, or from wherever your ancestors were from made you ineligible?

Guess what? Whoever told you that, and however many people told you that, they were wrong. The Holy Spirit comes to all flesh, and none of those things bother the Spirit in the least.

Or was it you? Did you tell yourself that you weren’t worthy somehow? I’m a sinner. I’m a failure. I’m not smart enough. I’m not vocal enough. Did you come up with some reasons for the Holy Spirit to pass you by?

Guess what? None of those things bother the Spirit in the least.

For heaven’s sake, the Holy Spirit came to the guys who ran away the night Jesus was arrested. The Holy Spirit came to the one who denied knowing Jesus three times. Those things didn’t bother the Spirit in the least. Those things didn’t stop the Spirit for a moment.

Dreams and visions, friends. Dreams and visions of a better world, a richer world, a loving world.

The Holy Spirit is coming to you so that these dreams and visions might be.

Amen.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Sermon

Pastor Eric prepares his sermons in advance, but he does make changes while preaching, sometimes intentionally.

The image is Pentecost by Jean Restout (1732) – Web Gallery of Art:   Image  Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15885407.

Rev. Eric Anderson What I'm Thinking

What I’m Thinking: Spirit in Everyone

June 3, 2025

When the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, it came to a much bigger group than expected.

Here’s a transcript:

This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, so I’m thinking about the second chapter of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-21, Luke’s account of the first Christian Pentecost.

Pentecost is originally a Jewish holiday, so Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem were already gathered and prepared to celebrate God’s gift of the Law. As Luke describes it, there came the sound of a mighty wind. They saw something that looked a little bit like flames dancing upon their heads. Most importantly, they went out into the streets and started to tell the story of God’s love in Jesus Christ. They spoke that story in languages that they did not understand, but that countless others around them did.

When they were challenged about being drunk early in the morning, Simon Peter got up and quoted the prophet Joel that men and women, young and old, would see visions and dream dreams. Today, said Peter, these things have been accomplished before you.

In various places throughout the Scriptures it is said that God’s spirit is rare, selective, uncommon. It was the experience of the early Christians that God’s spirit was present, not just to some, but to all. To the young, who might be disregarded. To the old, who might be discounted. To the men (frankly, we tend to expect men, if anybody, to be filled with the Spirit). And to the women, who we still, to this day, tend to doubt whether they have the capacity to receive God’s Spirit.

Joel said they would. Peter said they did. The experience of the church for the last two thousand years says that they do.

Young and old, men and women, see visions and dream dreams.

It is the task of the Church to try to understand the visions and dreams. It is the task of the Church to discern the meaning of what our men and our women, of what our youth and children, of what our kupuna say that they have seen or dreamed. It is not the task of the Church to say through whom God will speak. God has made it clear but that can and will be anyone.

It is up to us to listen.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Rev. Eric Anderson Sermons

Sermon: Everyone Knows It’s Windy

May 19, 2024

Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Some of you are asking, “Pastor, did you really get your sermon title from a repeated line in the 1967 song performed by The Association, “Windy”? Some of you, as I say, are asking that. The rest of you have never heard of the song.

But the answer, as you’d probably guess, is “Yes.”

I’m afraid that that means that my sermon title is somewhat misleading. I always remember the story of Pentecost with that rush of a mighty wind, a sound heard by all the people of Jerusalem, a sound that brought them together into a crowd to meet the disciples-becoming-apostles as they emerged from their rented house. I always imagine that the crowd marveled at the sight of those, “Divided tongues, as of fire, [that had] appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.”

Unfortunately for my overly imaginative memory, that’s not what Luke wrote. As far as we can tell, the sound of the wind happened inside the house, and only inside the house. The tongues “as of fire” (which implies that Luke didn’t know what they were, either) also happened inside. How certain am I of this? Well, pretty certain. Because when the crowd got a word in edgewise amidst all that the little group of Christians were saying, they didn’t comment on the wind. They had nothing to say about flames in the hair.

They talked about the miracle of the languages. That was what they’d heard. That was what impressed them. The fire and the wind… they missed them.

Nevertheless: Everyone knows it’s windy.

Luke made an interesting choice for that word we’ve translated “wind.” As D. Mark Davis writes at LeftBehindAndLovingIt, “The word ‘wind’ (πνοῆς) has the same root as the word which is typically translated ‘spirit’ (πνεύματος) below. It could also mean ‘breath.’ This particular variation of that root only appears one other time in the Scriptures, in Acts 17:25, which says that God ‘gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.’” In making that choice, Luke aligned his description of the Pentecost event with the description of the Creation, when “the Spirit of God,” or “a wind from God,” or “the breath of God” – those are all sound translations from Hebrew into English of that phrase in Genesis 1 – moved over the waters. Jewish writers repeatedly used the word “ruach” – which means breath or wind or spirit – to refer to some of God’s activity, which included the inspiration of prophets to speak God’s word.

So if the sign is a mighty wind, a mighty breath, a mighty spirit, well, everyone knows it’s windy.

The Spirit chose an interesting day to manifest. Fifty days after the celebration of Passover, the “pente” of “Pentecost,” the city had filled with visitors again for another holiday, this time Shavuot. It’s described as a wheat harvest festival in Deuteronomy. By the first century, it also commemorated God’s gift of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, which was, you’ll recall, strongly associated with wind and fire. To the little group of Jesus followers in Jerusalem, numbering around 120 or so, the association would have been immediate and clear. God is doing something as new and dramatic as the gift of the Law.

Everyone knows it’s windy.

That’s why the Holy Spirit received so much attention in the writings of early Christians. The Apostle Paul spoke of it repeatedly, using the phrase “Holy Spirit” five times in Romans alone. The reading from John’s Gospel today tries to explain the gift of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s followers. Of all the gospel writers, Luke really emphasized the Holy Spirit, using the phrase more than twice as often as any of the others, and in the book of Acts, he wrote “Holy Spirit” forty-two times.

Luke wanted everyone to know it’s windy.

Do you know it’s windy?

Do you know that God hasn’t left us abandoned and on our own with the recorded memories of Jesus and the early thinkers of Christ’s Church as our only guide? Do you know that the Holy Spirit was not just the gift of the early Church, but also the not-so-early Church, the medieval Church, the Renaissance era Church, the pre-modern Church, the modern Church, and now the post-modern Church? Do you know that light and truth are not the exclusive possession of those long ago, but potentially accessible to you and I right now? Do you know, to use the UCC phrase, “God is still speaking”?

Do you know it’s windy?

There is some justice to Karl Marx’s critique that religion is the opiate of the people. The problem with the Holy Spirit of God is that, well, it’s not controllable. It tends to rile things up. It disrupts our customs and conventions. Worst of all, it tends to tell us we’ve got things wrong just when we were certain we were right.

The section of the Prophet Joel that Simon Peter used to explain what was happening is one of those disruptive declarations. As Frank L. Crouch writes at Working Preacher, “All flesh — boys and girls, young and old, free and slaves — whether they be women or men — are graced with the Spirit’s direct connection to the prophecies, visions, and dreams of God (vv. 16-21). This was institutionally unsettling back then and is institutionally resisted today. In this story, God shows no regard for our structures, hierarchies, or status quo.”

I won’t claim to be utterly charmed by our structures, hierarchies, and status quo, but I’ve got to admit that I know how to live in them. I don’t know how to live in their replacements – even the replacements I yearn for.

The problem is that putting God in a box not only doesn’t work – since the Holy Spirit tends to burst out of boxes like, well, like the rush of a mighty wind – not only doesn’t it work, it produces actual harm. In her novel Shirley Charlotte Bronte wrote, “Your god, sir, is the World. In my eyes, you, too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship: in all things you appear to me too superstitious. Sir, your god, your great Bel, your fish-tailed Dagon, rises before me as a demon. You, and such as you, have raised him to a throne, put on him a crown, given him a sceptre. … In his dominions, children grow unloving between parents who have never loved: infants are nursed on deception from their very birth: they are reared in an atmosphere corrupt with lies … All that surrounds him hastens to decay: all declines and degenerates under his sceptre. Your god is a masked Death.”

Isn’t that just what we’ve done with our attempts to domesticate God? When… everyone knows it’s windy?

But why do we want to stay in the box, with our masked Death of a God, anyway? As Melissa Bane Sevier observes in her blog, the disciples inside the house were missing the festival of the harvest in the streets. There was a party outside and they were missing it. She writes, “The church isn’t the church if it stays indoors. Set down your donut and go find the baklava.”

That’s a comparison that works for me. I like donuts, don’t get me wrong. But I love baklava.

Christ’s Church is not supposed to be a collection of Gloomy Guses and Gabrielles sitting off in a room by themselves. As a confirmed introvert, I see the attraction of that. As a Christian pastor, I can’t affirm it. Because I know it’s windy.

Debie Thomas writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “There is no way to overstate how much we need to gather as God’s people right now and ask the Holy Spirit to instruct us, shape us, remake us, and commission us.  We need fresh languages of bridge-building.  We need new words to rekindle love.  We need the wind and fire of God to challenge our complacencies, reset our priorities, ease our anxieties, and move us out.”

We are unlikely to be subject to the rush of a mighty wind (except the trade winds, of course). We are unlikely to see something that looks like flames but probably isn’t dancing on our heads. We are unlikely to speak other people’s languages without a great deal of work and study.

We are likely to feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We are likely to be challenged by the words of the Scriptures, which may not speak to us now as they did the first time we heard them. We are likely to be inspired by the example of other people, particularly when they do something unexpected, like, oh, say, the rather comic Simon Peter, the one who said so many foolish things to Jesus, the one who denied him on the night Jesus needed him most, when someone like Simon Peter stands up and quotes Joel (Joel?) in an improvised sermon to a crowd of people and leads them to believe.

Because yes: Everyone knows it’s windy.

Amen.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Sermon

Pastor Eric frequently departs from his prepared text. Sometimes he intends to. Sometimes he doesn’t.

Photo of wind shaping clouds on Kilauea by Eric Anderson.

Rev. Eric Anderson Worship Services

Worship for May 19, 2024

Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.

Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, May 19, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily. 

Worship Service for May 19, 2024 (PDF)Download
Story: Soar Loser (PDF)Download
Sermon: Everyone Knows Its Windy (PDF)Download
Pastoral Prayer (PDF)Download

Service of Worship, May 19, 2024
Pentecost Sunday
Celebration of Graduates and Teachers

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor               

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.

Prelude: Brother James’ Air                                           Kayleen Yuda

Lighting of the Candles

Ringing of the Bell

Welcome                                                           Rev. Eric S. Anderson

* Call to Worship: (based on Ezekiel 37:1-14)                                                  Bob Smith

Leader:         In a vision, God showed the prophet a valley full of very dry bones.
People:        “Can these bones live?” God asked, and with the prophet we reply, “O
                        God, you know.”

Leader:         God told Ezekiel to speak to the bones, to tell them to draw together
                        enfleshed, and live.
People:        The prophet spoke. The bones came together. The prophet spoke to the
                        breath, and the dead lived and breathed.

Leader:         Now we are those who speak to those who think themselves dry bones.
People:        Now we are the ones who assure the hopeless that they can, do, and will live.

All:     Let us worship God!

* Hymn #270: Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song (v. 1-3)

* Invocation (based on John 15:26-27; 16:4-15)                                                Bob Smith

Send us the Advocate, O God. Send us the Spirit of Truth who comes from you. Guide us into all truth. Help us to anticipate what lies ahead. Fill our hearts. May we glorify you in the Holy Spirit as we worship today. Embrace us as your people, and rejoice in our praise. Amen.

Please be seated

WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD

Anthem: Spring song Op. 62-6                                                         Kanako Okita

Recognition of Graduates and Teachers

Time with the Children                                                    Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21                                                    Bob Smith
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a 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 filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

John 15:26-27; 16:4-15
 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Sermon: Everyone Knows It’s Windy                                                Rev. Eric S. Anderson

WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED

Pastoral Prayer                                                     Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen

* Hymn #286: Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness (v. 1-4)

Call to Offering                                                     Bob Smith

The Holy Spirit gives us comfort and guidance. The Holy Spirit gives us strength and inspiration. The Holy Spirit summons us to be generous. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.

Offertory: Hour of Worship                                                  Kayleen Yuda

* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen

* Offertory Prayer                                                 Bob Smith

You have called us to share your blessings, O God, and so we do. We share your good news. We share your love. We share the things of this world that help others live, learn, and grow. Accept these gifts in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

* Hymn #272: On Pentecost They Gathered (v. 1-4)

Please be seated

Announcements                                                      Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction                                                        Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: God’s Trumpet Call                                                 Kayleen Yuda

* Please stand if you are able.

Permissions

Brother James’ Air
James L. MacBeth Bain
Tune: © 2004, Oxford University Press
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song
Text by Carl P. Daw, Jr., 1982
© 1982 Hope Publishing Company
Tune BRIDEGROOM by Peter Cutts, 1969
© 1969 Hope Publishing Company
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Spring Song Op. 62-6
Felix Mendelssohn
Public Domain

Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness
Text & Music (SPIRIT) by James K. Manley, 1978
© 1978 J. Manley Publishing
Arr. The New Century Hymnal, 1993
© 1993 The Pilgrim Press
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Hour of Worship
Roger C. Wilson
Tune: © 1955 Lorenz Publishing Company
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. By Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

On Pentecost They Gathered
Text by Jane Parker Huber, 1981, rev. 1993
© 1981 Jane Parker Huber (admin. Westminster John Knox Press)
Tune MUNICH first pub. 1693
Public Domain
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

God’s Trumpet Call
George Blake, Joseph W. Lerman
Tune: © 1978 Lorenz Publishing Company,
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Dates to Remember
Today – May 19: Dedication of Strengthen the Church
Today—May 19: Deacon’s Meeting after worship

Pastor                                                                                  Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator                                                                         Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader                                                                        Bob Smith
Choir Accompanist                                                        Kanako Okita
Choir Director                                                                 Doug Albertson
Organist                                                                             Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director                                                        Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations                                                       Ann Kanahele
Projected Imagery                                                        Sue Smith
Web Master                                                                      Ruth Niino-DuPonte  
Videographers                                                                Eric Tanouye, Eli Yamaki
                                                                                                Ruth Niino-DuPonte, Bob Smith

We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.

Rev. Eric Anderson Pastor's Corner

Pastor’s Corner: Congratulations, Graduates!

May 15, 2024

“Special Sunday Season” continues! This coming Sunday we celebrate our Sunday School program, the ancient Christian holiday of Pentecost, and the achievements of our graduates. You’ll learn more about them on the first page of this issue of The Messenger.

Pentecost proclaims the birthday of the Christian Church, which took place when the Holy Spirit inspired that small group of Jesus’ followers to leave their rented rooms and tell the Good News in the streets of Jerusalem. That day God’s Spirit transformed them from grateful but private people into exultant and public people. I can’t call it a graduation, no, because for those disciples-become-apostles it was not an ending so much as a beginning. It was the first day of their new lives, not the last day of the old ones.

Our graduates rejoice in what they’ve accomplished, and well they should. Learning is hard work, easily shirked, sometimes discounted. They have done what’s been asked of them, and knowing them as I do, they’ve done even more. We can all be proud of their successes.

Like those Christian at Pentecost, their graduation is not just an end. It is also a beginning. Two of them plan to continue their educations next fall, and the third is beginning his chosen career. All of them will learn new things, do new things, experience new things. All of them will share the blessings God has given with those they encounter.

Congratulations, graduates! You’ve done much and you’ve done well!

Congratulations, graduates! May the Holy Spirit bless you as you live as Pentecost people.

In peace,

Pastor Eric

Photo of an ‘amakihi in flight by Eric Anderson.

Rev. Eric Anderson What I'm Thinking

What I’m Thinking: A Mighty Wind

Jesus’ disciples would have recognized the sound of a mighty wind as a sign of God’s Spirit. We need to be attentive to the intervention of the Spirit in our lives.

Here’s a transcript:

This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, so of course I’m thinking about the second chapter of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-21).

As Luke tells the story, Jesus’ followers remained in Jerusalem following his resurrection. Fifty days after Passover, the Jewish calendar celebrated another holiday known as Sukkot (correction: Shavuot) in Hebrew but known by the name Pentecost or “fifty days” in Greek to show its relationship to Passover fifty days before.

We now celebrate it forty-nine days after Easter Sunday. We don’t carry it into the Monday.

While they were there, gathered together in some room (a large enough for a fair group of them), they heard the “sound like the rush of a mighty wind and it filled the room where they were meeting.” Wind has long been associated with the movement of God. In fact, go back to the very first couple verses of Genesis and you will find that the spirit of God, the “Ruach Adonai,” the breath of God, the wind of God (“ruach” means all of those), moved over the waters.

So this sound of a mighty wind, well, those gathered followers of Jesus would have associated that with the presence of God’s Spirit.

That sound, and whatever was happening within them, drove them out of the room, out of the building, out into the streets where lots of people had gathered in order to celebrate the Pentecost holiday, and there they began to speak. And now the Ruach Adonai, the Spirit of God, had a new effect. They spoke in languages that they did not understand, but the people visiting from elsewhere did. “Are not these all Galileans? How is it that we hear them, in our own languages, speaking of God’s deeds of power?”

In our day, we are sometimes reluctant to acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit. There are theologies that say that the Spirit no longer intervenes in human life. there are theologies that say that God, having given us instruction and given us guidance and given us Christ, has let us go on to follow the directions we’ve been given and to accept the forgiveness that we’ve been offered. I don’t think those are right.

I think that the Spirit of God, that mighty wind, continues to be with us today. Not everybody directly experiences it. Those first disciples heard it in the room in which they were meeting. They didn’t bring the wind out into the streets with them. What they brought was the word about the wind. They brought the testimony about the Spirit. They brought their witness about the mighty acts of God.

It is upon us to be attentive to the movement of the Spirit in our live — because it may not always be as grand and unmistakable as the sound of a mighty wind — to be attentive to the movement of the Spirit in our lives, and then to bring that experience to others — out into the streets, if you will — so that they too may know about the mighty acts of a gracious God.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.