In a dirt-floor, back alley church, 8 year old Bobby and his six year old brother Henock where made to kneel before a pastor  - Looming over the boys, the Rev. Moise Tshombe went into a trance during which he claimed the Holy Spirit took over and the voice of God spoke through him. “I see that witchcraft is in these two.” Tshombe… said.

The two young boys were the latest victims in an epidemic of accusations of child witchcraft that is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This bit of news according to an ABC news clip I happened to see last week.

As the Scriptures attest well that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit –

When I was pastor developer in S. C. our first meeting room was a bar on the ground floor of the Litchfield Inn that was not in use on Sunday’s it was named Big Daddy’s Bottom… try telling that to people who asked where your church is holding services.

Big Daddy’s bottom was not the ideal place since it usually reeked with left over beverages from the night before and one wall was plate glass window facing the beach and the ocean… I have competed with many a distraction during preaching, but a string bikini is beyond anything that even my sermons can top…

So, in a few short months we graduated to an upstairs conference room that was called – are you ready? The Spirit Room… I’m not kidding!

I later found out that it was so named by a group of Jesuits retreatants who where the first to use the room…

Pentecost is not only a reminder that it is about God’s timing and not ours but that when it comes to God don’t play with fire if you don’t want to get burned.

Pentecost is actually my favorite, because it is God in the here in now. And because, of the mischievous kid in me, unlike Christmas and even Easter to some degree,

 has not been commercialized… when was the last time you saw a “two for one sale”  on a Pentecost Special at Wall Mart?

If we were to go down to the Boardwalk in Sea Isle or anywhere else on the whole east coast – unless we happened to run into a catholic or Lutheran –

I’d be willing to bet that a random survey would tell us that 98% of those asked what is special about today could tell you that it is Pentecost.

It was day of the first harvest – 50 days after Passover for the Jewish community in Jesus day.

In other words it was a day to begin paying up on your annual pledge and what better way to do that than come to the big city, visit the temple and do a little shopping and sight seeing all at the same time..

The disciples had been hanging out too, maybe hiding out would be a better way of putting it.

As Luke reports it, first it sounded like Gk.  Word translated sound is ecos .. like a echo reverberating throughout.. The breath of God blew has it had over the chaos of the waters in Genesis at creation.. As it has blown when the angel Gabriel’s wings touched Mary as she was told of an unplanned pregnancy, and as it blew  in the dark of night when Nicodemus  ask Jesus how a grown man could enter for a second time into his mother’s womb to be born again..

And Jesus told him it is like the wind you hear it and you don’t know from where it is coming or where it is going... so it is with everyone of the Spirit.

 So it happen at Pentecost, it was the wind a violent wind which blew out the windows and billowed the curtains like parachutes... and if that wasn’t enough, it was wind that blew on the embers of the hearts of the huddled masses and ignited a fire that has swept out into the world and has not stopped burning to this day!

That is what happens when God-Yahweh’s speaks the creative word... and I’d bet God felt the same joy on that day as the day He said let there be light and suddenly the moon and sun and stars and this little ball of blue we call terra firma our earth, was born!

But that wasn’t all – He said let there be plants, fish and animals and let there be humankind that feel and live and love and know me as the Wind, the Ruach of Life...

And then there came the wind of the Exodus that gave His children a land bridge to freedom. How about the wind of a Bethlehem birth and the searing wind of a desert flame that cut the curtain of the temple and Jesus said “it is accomplished... amen!”

And the breath of God was hushed, hushed, until the dawn of a New Day that we called Easter and with Mary Magdalene and Peter and all the witnesses of the resurrection, with earth and sea and all their creatures and with angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim… we praise His name and join their unending hymn… so on this day God Yahweh created a spirit filled people to go and light the Pentecost fire throughout the world… from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and that is where our story gets personal…

When you called me to be your pastor only two short years ago... You were a band of dispirited few...

But not entirely beaten – you are certainly not quitters. And like that first Pentecost the Spirit of God moved among us and here we are, we too come from many places and in our hearts there too is the Pentecost fire that has added to our numbers..

Read Names:

When it was all over there where some who couldn’t put it into any frame of reference except a Saturday Night Party at Big Daddy’s Bottom but Peter reminded them that it was only 9:00 in the morning.

Peter being Peter saw it as a CARPE DIEM moment... the man who wanted to walk on water and didn’t quiet make it stepped up to the plate and preached his first sermon!

Quoting form the parts of the Jewish Tanaka that we call our OT he read from Joel 2.28-32, 

I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophecy... young men, old men, slaves, women and on and on Peter recounts the Salvation History begining with their great King David who’s blood line would give  birth to the Messiah.

This Jesus whom God raised up and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. 32-33.