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Are you ready to fly?
Psalm 104: 24-34
ACTS 2: 1-21
May 19, 2024 – PENTECOST
When I think about all the modes of transportation, I have used in my lifetime it is flying that always seems to be the most amazing. Driving to the airport … getting caught up in traffic hoping to arrive two hours before the flight looking for a parking space … checking my watch … getting through security realizing that my phone charger is sitting on the dining room table. Waiting to hear that my seating area has been called so I can get to the jetway and then finally walking down the aisle in that large vehicle surrounded by strangers scrambling to get my bag into the overhead compartment close to my seat only to discover that someone has filled it with their bags even though they are seated 5 rows behind me … and then finally snuggling into my ever shrinking airline seat next to the person who forgot that many varieties of deodorants are available to purchase and then not really paying attention to the flight attendant who is showing me how to clip a seat belt in place.
Actually, it always seems very strange that we have to watch someone clip a belt into place and then unfasten it because we do that every time we get in our cars but there they are the FLIGHT ATTENDANTS carefully getting us ready for the flight in our oh so comfortable seats with our knees pushed up against the seat in front of us unless we have the money to fly first or business class. The person next to us whose body minus deodorant extends beyond the narrow seats … oh to fly … and then we sense the plane moving ready to take off … well then, the announcement that there are 15 planes ahead of us and we will have to sit in place for another half hour or more.
Ready to fly … the Wilbur and Orville Wright contribution to society and the world. I remember my first flight, do you? David Quagliana, our neighbor, had a private plane and he offered to take Mark Tammaro and I up into the sky. His plane was not a 747 nor some powerful jet … I think it was called a Piper and it was driven by a propeller … and the amazing thing is that my mom trusted Mr. Quagliana to take us flying … or maybe I didn’t tell her what our plans were that day.
But there we were flying … above our neighborhood … above Buffalo … above Niagara Falls … how could this be possible? How could we fly so high …. The impossible was real. Mr. Quagliana at the controls … later in life he became known for wandering the neighborhood in his satin shorts but that’s another story. He took my friend and I into the air for the first time … gravity no longer controlled our bodies … wow!
And, today we come to church WOW … dressed in our beautiful red Pentecost caps … dressed in red to celebrate the birth of the Christian church and again what seems impossible is real. The God of Creation has chosen to love each and every human being with so much love that we can fly above our sins … we can fly above the world … we can align with God with joy … if IF we choose to do so. We heard the psalmist’s reaction to his realization that God was there in his life … that God was God … “LORD, you have done so many things!!! I will sing to the Lord as long as I live!!! I’m rejoicing … ABSOLUTELY REJOICING in the LORD!!”
I often wonder why we as humans are so reluctant to recognize God. Much less worship God or show joy due to God’s love for us and we just hate to openly praise God in case someone might see us doing it. Perhaps we think we are smarter than an unseen power whose love exceeds beyond any human concept of love forgetting that God is willing to forgive us for ALL of our sins, yea the God who created the Milky Way forgives us … God actually teaches us to forgive other humans for our human mistakes and errors seven times seventy but we seem to enjoy not forgiving others don’t we and would rather not follow God’s directives.
Perhaps because we want to be god-like and forget that the Creator of the universe will not only forgive our every day human mistakes but also our sins. Maybe that’s why we are reluctant to praise God or show joy for God because doing so lessens how we value ourselves or other humans. Yes, it is easy to want to raise up cheers for humans and ignore God yet those humans we turn into gods won’t rescue us in times of trouble … and no human can fly us into heaven where God has prepared a place for each of us that is IF we align with God … if we recognize God as God … if we believe … if we live as if we believe because it is easy to say we believe and then claim we can do it all ourselves but truthfully … well, truthfully, we are here today in church because we recognize that we need God or at least I do and I think most of you do too.
So, on Pentecost I want us to consider the opportunity to fly that God gives us. We are church attenders here in person where you all look so resplendent today in your Pentecost colors or you are worshiping with us at home or on your boats online … I am pretty sure some of you online are glad that we can’t take a look at you this morning, but I will assume most of you are dressed in red with a Pentecost cap on your head too.
I started to wonder if we are amazed by God, God’s grace. If we are flying with God … living changed lives overcome with joy even in the storms that evade our realities with more regularity than we like at times. Are we taking on God’s grace and flying high …. With joy?
You know, AMAZING GRACE how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me … God through Jesus Christ is willing to offer us the Holy Spirit as a guide and regardless of our faults and shortcomings … God is willing to fly us out of and above the fray … into a place where peace, and joy and hope and restoration are available but we have to join in. We have to step up … not by memorizing Holy Scriptures … definitely not by judging others because Jesus was pretty clear that His followers were not supposed to align humanity into those like us and those who are destined for the bad place … we have to step up in love … love of God and love of all of our neighbors.
But, the first commandment is essential if we believe … Jesus said it and even the Old Testament confirms it WE ARE to love God. Celebrate God! Have no other gods before the God who gave us Jesus … We ARE NOT TO make images of humans to bow down to any human nor to any graven image to worship them as if they are extra special.
“Let everything that breathes PRAISE THE LORD” and that is THE LORD GOD who created heaven and earth! The Lord God who sent Jesus to teach us about living life the way God intends us to live and who sent Jesus to take on our sins, to die on the cross and friends on Easter morning there was joy because Jesus, HE IS RISEN <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> friends you can’t praise God without joy in your hearts! You know “REJOICE ALWAYS in the LORD, Again, I say REJOICE!” Joy … happiness … celebration … party time!
We need to fly high with God … we need to be happy and joy-filled and ready to shout it out or as the song goes … “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands! If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands! If you’re happy and you know it then your face will surely show it. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!” The song goes on to have everyone stomp your feet … shout hurray …. Do all three!!! Yes … get up and celebrate no matter what others might think … even hop over a bench if you are up to it …
So, who took you flying with God for the first time … how did that feel? Were you like those folks back in Jerusalem on Pentecost … “suddenly a sound from heaven like a howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. They saw individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit!” Joy-filled … able to talk clearly with their neighbors from around the world different from themselves but all loved by God … they shared in the joy God had filled them with … it became not a solemn sad affirmation of faith with downtrodden faces but instead it was like the day when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to town … “David danced before the Lord with all of his might! David and all of the people of Israel brought up the Ark with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns! David was leaping and dancing!”
Those observing these new Christians on Pentecost were surprised and bewildered … we know what was happening, but their joy was so loud and celebratory that some of the people on the streets thought they were drunk at 9 in the morning!
The birth of the church was not a slow-moving solemn process because God had declared to the prophet Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people!! And, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” EVERYONE … EVERYONE IS invited to the party … everyone is invited to experience the joy … and what happened because of the joy … the celebration … the witness of people with smiles on their faces when referencing God … thousands came to the Lord and believed and the church of Jesus Christ had its beginning moments.
We will pray … that we want want God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Well in heaven there is a celebration going on because those in heaven know God … love God … are thankful for God … so right now if you are able … let’s get on our feet to show our happiness and joy for God by tossing around some balloons by singing IF YOU’RE HAPPY and YOU KNOW IT CLAP YOUR HANDS … STOMP YOUR FEET … SHOUT HURRAY!!!
It is PENTECOST … if people in the world saw Christians like you and me showcasing joy and love and forgiveness while experiencing peace and hope … I think they’d like to join in but we have to fly … fly above the struggles and pain that humanity inflicts on each other. Remember who took you flying for the first time and perhaps consider who you would like to introduce into a life when we fly together with God and Jesus Christ guided by God’s Holy Spirit! PRAISE THE LORD … let every breathing thing PRAISE THE LORD!!! AMEN