Sermon: "The Tailwind of Pentecost."
Let us just start with a democratic show of hands in the name of Pentecost. How many of you have ever felt the wind? It is a bit of a strange question, but there is meaning to madness.
It is good to gather here in the church where there is shelter for wind and rain, right? Generations have done this before us, because out there the wind blows to shake up our finely done hair, blow dust into our eyes; and even be against us.
As Danes, we know how windy it is in Denmark and when we cycle or walk with an umbrella, you can really feel the wind. The wind may be invisible, but it can be treacherous, piercingly cold and mischievous.
When we visited Skagen last summer in the worst storm of decades, we really felt the wind. We could barely stay upright as we fought our way to the tip of Skagen. Because we had to go there, even though it was difficult and a little foolhardy. But as we agreed when we were sheltered in the car again: it is fantastically beautiful and fascinating to experience the forces of nature so untamed and so dangerous even in small, peaceful Denmark.
But once you have felt the strength of the wind, you know that it may be invisible, but it can be felt and has powers that we cannot control or predict at all.
Therefore, it was fantastically fun and original when a Danish independent political candidate Jacob Haugaard years ago, went to the election on the slogan "Tailwind on the bike paths and bigger Christmas presents for everyone" and won a seat in the Folketing. After which he got a bit into a headwind!
Because there is always a headwind on the bike path, right? And in a strange way, the wind always turns when we cycle back again.
Today is Pentecost and it is an airy, intangible and windy holiday, which we cannot quite control either.
Pentecost is the church's third great holiday after Easter and Christmas: but whereas at Easter and at Christmas God comes forth from his heavenly hiding place, at Pentecost God is enveloped in wind, smoke, and invisible forces. At Christmas, Jesus is born, and we celebrate with joy and gifts that God meets us as a little child – as a human being like us. At Easter, we celebrate that this person lived and died and was laid in the grave but was resurrected as a shining hope for us all. At Pentecost, we celebrate that God's holy spirit, God's breath, lives on between us and in us. And with the Spirit that comes at Pentecost, God will give us a tailwind on the roads of life. So, where the politician promised a tailwind on the bike path, the Holy Spirit promises a tailwind on the roads of life.
Pentecost is also called the Church's birthday, because the breath of life was blown in the community and the beginning of the church: with so much tailwind in the sails that the disciples, as we heard, suddenly spoke as many different languages as there were languages in the world and could understand each other across cultures, languages and borders. Here 2000 years after this heavenly rush, the first Pentecost, we are still a church that gathers and bears witness to the greatest things of faith and hope gathered in the words: You must love God and your neighbor as yourself.
God's spirit, the holy spirit, the Christian tailwind, is thus the tailwind of love in our world, which is often far from loving or honest. So, we need this wind. This spiritual tailwind that pushes us in the right direction of love. For love gives courage to live, comfort in sorrow and hope in hopelessness. Love is simply the meaning of life, because without love, everything would be meaningless.
When we gather here in the church for Pentecost, it is to celebrate that God's Spirit has not left the world or us but blows like the wind in our world and pushes us like love with the wind at our back. Away from doubt and to faith. To the fellowship. To listen and believe the big words about life, faith, hope and love.
So, Pentecost is this beautiful celebration of the fact that we are not alone. That God is with us as the wind that blows, as the spirit that inspires new courage, as the community that connects us across languages, cultures, borders and differences.
And that is undeniably something the world needs!
I am currently reading a book that is like a long Pentecostal chant! A spirited book that provokes and puts faith to the forefront. And reminds us that faith is always in motion, that God's spirit is always blowing and pushing us in the back: to push us, go new ways, live with each other across and despite borders, differences, disagreements, languages and culture.
Brian McLaren writes: "Two thousand years after Jesus said that God loved the whole world without exception; two thousand years after the first day of Pentecost, when it was clear that God speaks to all languages and therefore loves all nations; two thousand years after an Ethiopian eunuch was baptized and Gentiles were welcomed into the Jewish movement; two thousand years after the apostle Palus said that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, woman or man; two dozen years after Jesus founded a spiritual movement of equality, liberation, and peace; two thousand years after the women were part of the inner circle around Jesus and were the first winners of the resurrection; two thousand years after the book of Revelation imagined that people of every tribe and nationality were united in God,” and here two thousand years ago, we are still on the way to embracing all of this as a Christian church.
The church is still on its way and the church must always be on the way to peace, freedom, hope and love.
Look at the beautiful church ship here in the church. A beautiful symbol of the church, where God's wind blows in the sail so that the ship sails. But, as Brian McLaren writes:
"Sometimes I look at Christianity and the church as a big ship capable of going on fantastic voyages. It has high masts and large sails, a strong hull, deep keel, and a powerful rudder. But it is going nowhere because its anchor is so heavy that the crew cannot pull it up. A ship that floats but does not sail. Why are we more loyal to our heavy anchor than our call to adventure?"
This Pentecostal book is called "Do I Stay Christian? A guide for the doubters, the disappointed and the disillusioned." Should I continue to be a Christian – and of course the pastor says yes to stay Christian, but I also think that we all too often get stuck with the heavy anchor and do not sail with the wind at our backs as we should.
Faith is always in motion and therefore the church must also move.... With the tailwind of love at our backs pushing us in the right direction. As the old prophet said: 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. As Christians we should dream, hope and have vision not only memory of the good old days. We are to be Christians in the spirit of Pentecost and with the spirit of Pentecost in our hearts, in our fellowship and in our faith.
As Grundtvig wrote so beautifully, so Christianly and so Pentecostal in the hymn:
O Holy Spirit
Come to move!
our hearts to Christian fellowship and prove that in love and gladness.
brother walks with brother,
having joy for sadness,
peace with one another.
Hear our prayer, O Lord!