WAITING! We all end up waiting for things: like medical results: on pins/needles ‘til they come. Even waiting for good things can be challenging: when our brother Michael was born in Dec of 1963, my dad, my sister Meg & I went up to the hospital to visit mom & Mike. My sister the comedian sees mom in bed, holding Mike in her arms, & goes right up 2the bed & talks to this newborn baby: “Hey, Mike: where’ve you been? We’ve been waiting for a long time for you! Mom said right back:  “Oh, so YOU’VE been waiting? I’ve been waiting to deliver Mike, & I had to wait ‘til he was ready!”

So yes, the apostles were in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, & they were waiting. Waiting 4what? Waiting to be freed from all kinds of fears & anxieties & hesitations. What were they worried about? They were afraid of being mocked, & spit on, & ridiculed, & persecuted just as Jesus was abused. & when this Spirit came in the form of a powerful wind & tongues of fire – wind & fire are elements –  that Spirit so filled the Apostles with faith that there was no room for fear to live within them!                  This major Pentecost event, with the Holy Spirit becoming the Apostles’ internal & external GPS, fulfilled Jesus’ 2 promises: “the Holy Spirit will remind you of what I taught you, & will teach you all things.”

& Jesus knows EXACTLY what His Apostles need to hear with their locked doors & buckets of fear:  He comes and says, “shalom aleichem,” which in Hebrew means “peace be with you.” Jesus says it twice: it’s not a mystery why we, 2000 years later, wish each other the peace of Christ before communion.  It’s to empower us to encourage one another before receiving our call to live Christ’s love all week.  You know: we NEVER know how the Lord Jesus will call us to serve others in days to come, so we share Christ’s peace, & know that despite our human weakness, the Jesus in us can help others. & it’s more than interesting that the Apostles don’t all receive the same gifts: they receive different gifts, and it’s only by pooling these gifts that the Christian community sees Christ in action in its fullest form.

In simple terms, Jesus comes to remove a negative, like fear, & replace it with a positive – like faith. Of course, the liberating power of Jesus ALSO comes to free people to be their truest selves, to free them from feeling paralyzed by what others MIGHT say or WOULD say or even WILL say!  e.g. that’s certainly what Christ’s healing power did in St. Paul, who did a 360* turn from being ANTI-Christ to 100% PRO-Christ. You know the way people shake their heads when they’re bewildered & can’t believe their eyes? Lots of folks did that with Paul, whose tune God changed through a conversion of his heart, mind, and body. 

That’s certainly possible for every person in church today, on this feast of the birthday of the church. Everybody has challenges, roadblocks, & fears that hold them back: negatives that just have to go.            & Everybody wants to make room for positive things in their lives, so they can be their best selves. Before we continue today, let’s allow the Holy Spirit some quiet & some space to speak in each of our hearts: let’s all quietly admit, in our hearts’ silence, which negative element in our life we want to surrender. & if the Holy Spirit has already enlightened us about what positive gift we need to live more fully for Christ, let’s ask for the will & power to do so. May the power of God breathe new life into all our members, include those God will prepare us to receive.  Alleluia!