Pentecost Sermon-making

For six years, my ministry has been involved with editing and writing, a ministry that I love. Occasionally, however, I miss the weekly rhythm of preparing the Sunday sermon. Sermon-making was my way of life for nearly twenty years. Bishop Robert Spain, who continues his ministry as pastor at the UM Publishing House, asked me to preach at the chapel service for Pentecost. I'm thrilled!

Sooo.....Acts 2. Mighty wind. Flames. Foreign languages. Converts to the way of Jesus. The birth of the Church. This is good stuff! I'm thrilled, but I am also nervous. How can I offer this text so that my colleagues at the House can hear it and claim it in a new way?

I think the movement inside the text revolves around communication....a movement from “me” to “us” .... a movement that emerges from seeing tongues of flame and hearing the sound of a mighty wind, images of power for either destruction or creation. Power. Empowerment. Hmmm........