Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Sermon Text
Sunday, May 11, 2008

 "Fear Mongering vs the Redemptive Power of Pentecost"
preached by Dr. Mark K. Smutny  

Scripture:  Acts 2:1-21

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." 14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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I want us to practice two very important greetings.  The first is:  “Happy Mother’s Day!”  I’ll say it first then you will repeat after me.  Happy Mother’s Day!  Congregation: Happy Mother’s Day!  Okay.  That’s pretty good.  Let’s try to say it with a little more enthusiasm!  It’s Pentecost and we’re supposed to be filled with the Holy Spirit!  Dr. Mark: Happy Mother’s Day!

Congregation: Happy Mother’s Day!  Okay that sounds great.

The next greeting is this: “Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”  Let me repeat it again.  “Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”  

Okay.  Are you ready to say it?  I’ll say it first then you repeat.  Dr. Mark: Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Congregation: Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!  

Dr. Mark: Muy bueno!

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” is an apostolic greeting that dates back to when the very earliest churches were founded.  The apostles and disciples of Jesus would travel throughout the ancient Near East, preaching, teaching and starting new churches.  Whenever they visited these very new churches, they would greet the congregation with the apostolic greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This church, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, in some ways, is not a new church.  In fact, in Pasadena, PPC is the oldest church of them all, having been organized in 1875, a few hours earlier than the Methodists across the street.  It’s the oldest church around.  On the other hand, PPC is a very, very new church.  Look at us now.  Ten years ago we didn’t look like this.  We are so new, so different, so changed that PPC reminds me of the very first Pentecost when the church was born, when the church was as new as a little baby with very smooth skin.

How is it possible for one church to be both very old and very new?  The answer must be that something very powerful must be at work among us.  I believe that it must be the work of the Holy Spirit.  What do you believe?  To understand that PPC is the work of the Holy Spirit and that, therefore, we can be at the same time, both very old and very new, we first need to understand something about the very first Pentecost.

Traditionally, Pentecost has been declared the birthday of the church, the day when the church was born.  The birthday of the church is described in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was poured out on all flesh, meaning people from every nation, culture, and ethnicity.  On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a mighty wind and flames came to rest on each and everyone, the church was born.  The church was born and empowered with the Gospel message that God was working through Jesus Christ to bring salvation, deliverance and liberation.

Suddenly the church took off like a baby on breast milk, growing, expanding, learning, teaching, healing, preaching, loving, telling the story of Jesus and bringing formerly divided peoples together to worship God and to follow Jesus.  These were people who had been afraid of each other.  I’m going to talk about fear and terror in a few moments.  But for now, understand that on Pentecost long ago, there were all kinds of people, together in one place, in one church, one happy, joyous, growing, loving church.

The passage in Acts 2 says it this way.  Listen to all the nations, languages, cultures and ethnicities that were together in one place:  “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs.”  All of these people were gathered in one place.

It reminds me of a congregation in Pasadena, California!  In this Pasadena congregation are life-long Californians, some blond with blue eyes, and many others with gray hair and bifocals.  At this church in Pasadena are recently-arrived immigrants from Nebraska, Ohio, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Idaho, and others states, all in one place in one church.  There are Canadians in this church, and natives of England, Scotland and a few Welsh, all in one place. There are Indians from the sub-continent of Asia, Koreans from North and South Korea, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and other Asians, some from San Francisco, all in one place.  Here we have people from Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Colombia, and northerners from Altadena, southerners from San Marino, south-westerners from Highland Park, and westerners from the Valley, all gathered in one place.  Many different languages, places and peoples, all gathered in one place, one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father/Mother God of us all, one people, amazingly diverse, miraculously united, gathered in one place, testifying to the mighty power of God to bring salvation, liberation, hope, peace, love and Jesus Christ to all, all here at PPC, all gathered in one place.

How can this be?  Are we drunk?  Filled with new wine?  No, it must be the work of the Holy Spirit!  Such an old church and such a new church!  We’ve come so far in our one hundred and thirty-three years of our existence!  It must be the work of the Holy Spirit!  Thanks be to God!

Now, as I promised, I want to talk about fear, because the opposite of the power of Pentecost is fear.  Fear can be a very good thing.  Fear can alert us to dangers and cause us to protect our families and friends from harm.  Fear can motivate us to change, to grow, to be tested.  Fear can help us not to do foolish things that put our lives at risk or make our lives miserable or pointless.  Fear can bind humans together.  Fear can be a very good thing.

Fear, however, can be a bad thing.  Fear can even be an evil thing.  Because fear is so primitive yet so common, fear can cause people to do things that are not only foolish, but wrong, even evil. Fear can make one kind of people believe that another kind of people is less than human.  Fear can control us, seize us, get its ugly grip on our throats and hold us captive.

I am sorry to say that we’ve allowed that kind of fear to control us too many times in history. Like when the Nazis killed the Jews.  Like when Euro-Americans tried to wipe Native Americans from the face of the globe, calling it manifest destiny and God’s will.  It wasn’t God’s will.  It was fear.  Fear divides north from south, and east from west in so many places.  For instance, in the United States one hundred and fifty years ago when Abraham Lincoln was President, fear divided our country.  Fear still divides North and South Korea and has for sixty years.  Some would say it’s only a matter of law and order that is erecting the fence between the southern border of the United States and the northern border of Mexico.  But others say it’s fear. Maybe it’s both.

Fear is so natural and very, very common.  There’s fear between the races, fear between male and female, young and old, rich and poor, fear among Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Sometimes people, politically astute people, people who run political campaigns, people with power, know that if you play with peoples’ fears you can get more votes.  It’s called fear- mongering.  The way it works is that you can get really down and dirty and play on peoples’ worst fears of other kinds of people, people with different skin color, different eye shape, different accents, different nationalities, different religions, and different sexual identities.  Fear is such a great motivator, that fear can win elections.  Even worse, it can put people in concentration camps whether it’s Jews in Czechoslovakia seventy years ago or Japanese Americans in California seventy years ago or. . . .  I’m sure you can come up with a contemporary example.

There are so many ways for people to be taught hate by allowing ourselves to be afraid.  We become so fearful that we become almost paralyzed with it and start believing propaganda, lies, and half-truths.  We bomb indiscriminately.  We torture.  We kill innocents and we go to sleep at night without even thinking about it as though we have no conscience.  And as a human race, the bodies of millions and millions of our kind lie dead in the ground because of fear and its ability to control us.  We can become worse than any other animal.

And that’s why we are here in this place, because we need to repent and offer over our lives to God and to Jesus who saves us from our sin.  We come to this church, a church that’s very old and a church that’s very new.  We come to this sacred space, this sacred space for the city, to present an alternative to fear.  The New Testament says in the First Letter of John, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”  That’s why we are here.  We are here to provide an alternative to fear.  The alternative to fear is Pentecost.  Why?  Because when the Holy Spirit came to the church a long time ago and people from every nation, ethnicity and culture were gathered in one place, then suddenly, miraculously the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to declare the wonderful deeds that God had unleashed in them through Jesus.  They no longer feared each other because of differences, because of skin color or eye shape or accent or language or national origin.  Quite the contrary, they began to love one another, because they knew that love was from God.  Despite all their differences, despite all the reasons they should never talk to one another, never eat with one another, never marry one another, maybe even fight and kill one another, all those reasons that the Devil puts into our heads, those reasons melted away because of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, because of Love. 

The Holy Spirit was poured out upon all flesh at Pentecost and its power to turn fear into love was unleashed and the church was born.  That’s why we are here.  That’s why we are a brand new church.  That’s why we have forty-nine people joining the church today.  What a joy!

We are here at the birthday of the church, the Day of Pentecost, to receive the gift of forty-nine new members, people of remarkable diversity, speaking English, Korean and Spanish, singing the same songs, professing the same faith, worshiping the same Lord who gives us power to redeem and reconcile, to love and to proclaim the mighty deeds of the One who is working powerfully among us.  What a wonderful day to be alive!  Happy Mother’s Day!  Grace and peace be to you from God our Father, our Mother, and the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we give honor and praise, forever and ever.  Amen.