by The Rev. Dr. Max Lynn
SCRIPTURE READINGS Psalm 104:10-15, 24-30, Romans 8: 14-17, Acts 2:1-21
Transcribed from the sermon preached on JUNE 8, 2025
Psalm 104: 10-15, 24-30
10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills,
11 giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14 You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,
15 and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.
24 O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
27 These all look to you to give them their food in due season;
28 when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.
Romans 8: 14-17
14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Acts 2:1-21
2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But 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. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, 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. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Last week I tried to describe the experiences I have had at the bed side of four different people at their time of death. While I have been beside about 15 at the moment of death, I didn’t have this experience with each of them. There were distractions and noises and conversation, or maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to notice or who knows. But each time I had the experience it was the same. Each experience was identical. The particular soul identified with the individual rose slowly for a few moments, then there was a great flash, a disbursement of the soul into the Godhead, or union with the Spirit of all life. Among the many interesting things about these experiences is that the soul or Spirit of the individual was no longer individual in the sense we think of it in this world, but it is not an erasure but an expansion. In joining the Spirit of all life at physical death we join all life still living. Immediately. But we get to see the beauty of life as God sees it, beyond human concerns, beyond space and time. “Now we see in a mirror dimly,” says Paul in I Cor 13, “but then face to face.” And Paul in Romans tells us we have no reason to fear: “When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The spirit which animates our soul is of the same substance of the Spirit which is God. The present is contained in the Eternal.
Another interesting thing about these visions is that they have similarities with many recorded mystical experiences. There are moments when we are opened up to the Spirit in the world.
Thomas Merton, one of the great Christian mystics describes such a moment in his book , Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:
‘In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. . . This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud . . . I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God . . . became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun . . . Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.’
https://theunbrokenway.com/articles/seeing-the-unseen/you-re-walking-around-shining-like-the-sun
Now there is no limit to this Spirit, which is in each living thing, in each of us. It does not recognize the ways we separate and delineate, consider family, make boundaries and borders, nations and languages and cultures and religions and classes and genders. It doesn’t recognize the separation, the ins and the outs, the ups and the downs, those who are to be exploited and those who are to rule.
This does not mean that God does not find joy in particularity of individuals or in the beautiful ways cultures try to define life and find meaning and responsibility. It doesn’t mean God doesn’t try to guide us in trying to create a community where life can thrive or send prophets to pronounce judgement and call us back when we mess it up. It just means there is nowhere we can go from God’s Spirit.
One of the things that makes Christianity somewhat unique among world religions is that it has no official language, culture or land which holds claim to it. We recognize and honor our roots in Judean culture because that is the culture from which Jesus came. So, if we want to understand his particularity, we need to understand something of that tradition, history, religion and culture. So, we hold the bible as sacred because it tells us of the people’s attempt to find, explain and listen to God through history, and this people and tradition testify to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But it is at this moment of Pentecost when it becomes clear that God will not be contained by a particular people, language or land.
Pentecost commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit into the followers of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks also known as Shavuot. It is both the celebration of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Wheat Harvest Festival. It is 49 days, or the fiftieth day after Easter, or in the Jewish tradition the fiftieth day after the second day of Passover, or for Christians the seventh Sunday after Easter. Or seven weeks. Seven times seven days.
So, for Christians, God sent, the ten commandments to Moses and now sends the risen Spirit of Christ, or the Holy Spirit. We might imagine that Christ’s death is the seed of wheat, which sprouts and grows until the harvest of Pentecost, where Christians have the vision that they are, as Merton said, “all walking around shining like the sun.” So, Christ is planted in Judean culture, and then at Pentecost is found harvested in multiple lands, languages and peoples.
Now I find this celebration of Pentecost especially relevant and powerful this year as our nation’s leaders have cut aid to hurting and hungry nations, closed immigration access from certain countries, revoking visas, asylum and protective status, designated English as the only official language of the country, hunted down people of color who have recently been hired, to fire them without looking at performance. They told universities not to admit international students and have plans to rename ships previously named after African Americans, women, Latinos and the gay navy submarine rescue swimmer, Harvey Milk. I always looked up to and wanted to be a rescue swimmer. If you were drowning, would you care about the sexual orientation of the person who is strong enough and brave enough and kind enough to save your life? Anyway, we could go on and on and on.
I have always thought that it isn’t the looks of someone or where they come from but the values that make a good American, and that our diversity is what makes us uniquely wonderful nation. No matter who you are or where you come from, you can work hard, earn enough to survive and bless your community and this nation.
But I am not a government official but a Christian minister, and I am talking to and about the Church and not the nation. We answer to a higher power, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Christ. We have that higher power within us. We are the higher power. And this slight momentary affliction of a government cannot thwart that joyous revelation.
When I look at you and worship with you I am filled with joy. You are so beautiful I can hardly stand it.
You are all shining like the sun.