Boldness to Live without Fear
Pentecost Sunday C25
Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago
Today, on this the Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the ingathering of the church and the disciple’s great discovery that the wellspring of incarnation runs deep in themselves and in all God’s creation.
Violent wind and tongues of fire inspire fascination and dread. Yet each is linked to God’s presence and power in scripture. The arrival of Pentecost startled the first disciples and stirred them to action. Pentecost rang like an alarm clock. Time to go, time to leave the comfort of that upper room, time to proclaim the message of Christ in the streets and throughout the world. Time to tell all people that they are not only made by God, but are also made of God, and that God is love. (Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, 1998, p. 129). It’s time, beloved, to cast out fear and put on the garments of perfect love which are your inheritance as children of God.
Set aside the theatrics for a moment. Look at the back of the worship folder and scan through the appointed lessons for today. Count the number of times the word “all” appears in the Pentecost story. Pentecost is sometimes called the “birthday of the church.” But, actually, it is the birth of something much bigger — the birth of a new humanity, a new creation. “In the last days,” God declares, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). Christians are not awarded a franchise on grace as if the Holy Spirit is theirs alone to dispense, withhold, and control. We don’t hold exclusive rights to God’s Divine Love, but we are held by that love as little children are held by a loving parent. We behold the image of the living God in Christ Jesus. This love and this image open a window to see God alive and at play in ourselves, in all people, and all creation. We call this divine immanence of God the Holy Spirit.
This Spirit is fire. This Spirit is like a mighty wind. This Spirit cannot be controlled but is a vital force moving in the cosmos, propelled by God for the destruction of evil and rebirth of hope. It is the Divine wellspring which gives life to all. This was the disciple’s great discovery. It is their legacy and gift to us now.
In the days leading up to Pentecost, the disciples struggled with a locked-door mentality. They are 120 disciples packed into one dark room. They have re-gathered following the resurrection, but are still laying low, looking over their shoulders, and whispering to one another, questioning what the glad news might mean.
“They have good reason to be afraid. The authorities want them to be. They’re playing out the political script that the authorities have written. Remember, the High Priest, Caiaphas had said that it would be better for one man to die than for this thing to get out of hand and bring the Roman heel down upon them all (John 18:14). They did away with Jesus to crush a budding movement. The strategy was simple. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will run for cover.
The question was this: Will the movement be ruled by fear? Will the followers be contained and confined? Pentecost comes with a bold answer: No” (Bill Wylie-Kellermann, “In the Boldness of the Spirit,” Sojourners Magazine). At Pentecost the disciples began to be fire-touched people. They defied boundaries of race, class, religion, and gender and burned with the love of God and their neighbors. They won’t be called “Christians” for many years to come. They were simply followers. People of the Way. Imitating a crucified Jewish rabbi named Jesus whom they experienced as fully alive with God’s fire” (Diana Butler Bass, “ALL, the Spiritual Power of Little Words,” Sunday Musings, 6/07/25.)
It’s as if the walls dissolve. The disciples took the resurrection to the streets; they went public. To the authorities it must have appeared as political madness. Some people said they have had too much to drink. Their reckless courage inspired awe. After what’s been done to Jesus, you’d have to be either crazy or drunk to be shouting his name in the streets and pointing accusing fingers at the guilty executioners. But that’s just what they do. (Bill Wylie-Kellermann)
In Peter’s first sermon delivered on Pentecost, he says, “I may say to you confidently…” (Acts 2:29 NRSV). The Greek word is “parrhesia.” It is a word that appears only once in Luke and the other gospels but suddenly flourishes in Acts from the day of Pentecost on. Most often translated as “boldness,” or “speaking openly,” it is a mini-Pentecost packed into a single word…Originally it signified the right of a citizen to speak fully and freely in the public assembly. It means literally “the freedom to say all.” Now, for Peter and the early church, it is the freedom of another kingdom; it is a gift endowed by the Holy Spirit. It is freedom to live in love without fear (Bill Wylie-Kellermann).
It is the bitter legacy of worldly tyrants to make us less safe; less wealthy, less fair, less free, less truthful, less innovative, less happy, less just, less creative, less resilient, less healthy, less knowledgeable, less competent, less efficient, and less great. They can only operate through fear. But we have received a spirit of adoption. That very Spirit bears witness with our spirit to make us bold—bold enough to know and claim our place as children of God (Romans 8:16). We cannot manufacture this boldness. We cannot get there by good works or moral uprightness. We can only be there–resting in the arms of Abba God through faith in Christ Jesus.
The Pentecost clock is ringing again. You know what time it is. It is time to pack your bags. Like us, without God’s Spirit, our church is merely dust, devoid of life. The sturdy Ark of the church, which has carried our ancestors in faith through tempest and turmoil these two thousand years “…will perish unless it opens its window and lets out the dove to search for an olive branch. Sometimes even it will do well to disembark on Mount Ararat and build a new altar to the divine Spirit, an altar neither in Mount Gerizim nor yet Jerusalem.” (Alfred North Whitehead). What are the walls and obstacles the Spirit is urging us to take down today?
The disciples left the safety of the upper room for a new dwelling in Christ—a living sanctuary not made with hands. They left behind beloved doctrine and dogma to follow the Spirit. They drank from the wellsprings of grace they found flowing from deep within themselves. It made them bold to love and curious to welcome the stranger whom they received as the living Christ in their midst.
Like them, faith must not be merely upon our lips but also in our hearts. Like them Pentecost must fill us with an urgency to sweep back the tide of hatred, uncaring, and injustice. This is the mission we affirm today in the Rite of Christian vocation. Whenever we think we’re “not enough” God’s Spirit reminds us that we reflect God’s image. We are heirs with Christ. We are children of a new humanity. We live a cruciform life, a life shaped by the continuous movement from life to death to new life, dying to ourselves and rising in love. We move with boldness. We are free from fear to follow the wild and uncontrolled Spirit of God giving life to us now and life to all. In the name of Christ. Amen.
