God is on the Loose! Be Careful!
Acts 2:1-12
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
June 4, 2006

The Gospel writer Luke, in his sequel to his Gospel, Acts of the Apostles, recounts for us a wonderful story of the coming of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, they were all gathered and the Holy Spirit moved through their midst. People were filled with energy, enthusiasm, and great understanding. People could actually understand other's speaking on foreign tongues.

Luke says that they were ‘amazed' and ‘perplexed' by all of these remarkable happenings.

People fell to their knees and praised God for sending his Holy Spirit.

Oh, wait, excuse me, that's the Disney version where people fall to their knees and praise God. In real life, they stand around, bewildered, and say, "Hmm, must be the new wine." In other words, "These guys must be drunk."

We, in Christianity, have something of a dilemma with the Holy Spirit..

We officially like and approve of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, of God, and we officially like and approve of God.

We read such things of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, such as charity, joy, peace, etc., and they all sound good to us and we approve of them.

We read about gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as wisdom, knowledge, understanding, etc., and we approve of them.

So, Christianity officially approves of the Holy Spirit. Obviously. Easiest thing ever said from this pulpit.

Except.

Here’s the thing. Unofficially Christianity has worked hard to keep the Holy Spirit from running loose. Churches organize themselves so that the Holy Spirit doesn’t run amuck in them.

Popes surround themselves with people who will protect the Pope from people saying crazy, Holy Spirit inspired things, and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is established in a way that they don’t have to worry too much that the Holy Spirit is going to run amuck.

The United Church of Christ often seems to be the opposite of this because we are so loosely structured. But down deep, in churches, we work hard to structure and organize ourselves in such a way that the Holy Spirit doesn’t get loose.

And Christianity does this for good reasons.

For one, when the Holy Spirit gets loose, the Holy Spirit proves to be disruptive.

We don’t often like disruption in the church. I found a collection some time back of things to do during boring sermons. Listen to these for a moment:

See if a yawn really is contagious.

Slap your neighbor. See if they turn the other cheek. If not, raise your hand and tell the preacher.

Sit in the back row and roll a handful of marbles under the pews ahead of you. After the service, credit yourself with 10 points for every marble that made it to the front.

Using church bulletins or visitor cards for raw materials, design, test and modify a collection of paper airplanes.

Start from the back of the church and try to crawl all the way to the front, under the pews, without being noticed.

Raise your hand and ask for permission to go to the rest room.

Whip out a hankie and blow your nose. Vary the pressure exerted on your nostrils and trumpet out a rendition of your favorite hymn.

Most of us wouldn’t do any of that stuff because we’d be afraid of disrupting the Worship Service.

The thing with the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit is disruptive, and not always predictably so. Sometimes the Holy Spirit messes with long held beliefs and such.

In the 1840's and 1850's pulpits in the north and the south in the United States began to disagree with each other radically and it had grim consequences.

In the north, most noticeably in Boston, and most often in Congregational Churches, a common theme began to be explored. The common theme was slavery and how dreadful it was and how it needed to be stopped. Stories in the Bible were told to validate their arguments.

In the south, most noticeably in Atlanta, these sermons in Boston attracted attention and from the pulpits of those churches came a theme, over and over again, that slavery was God’s will. Stories in the Bible were told to validate their arguments.

These were all good people in the north and the south, all seriously trying to discern God’s will and do what was right. Soon, people began to correctly ascertain that the Holy Spirit was flowing in the land, running amuck some would say. The only question was this. Where was the Holy Spirit running amuck? Was it in the pulpits where the preachers quoted scripture and were anti-slavery, or was it from the pulpits in the south where preaches quoted scripture and were pro-slavery?

And, people were afraid. War was looming of the debate could not be resolved. And it wasn’t, and war took place.

Lest it sounds like I’m blaming the Holy Spirit for the Civil War, I’m not. Hardly. It’s more an observation that when the Holy Spirit is loose people are listening and not listening. It requires great discernment to figure out what the Holy Spirit is saying and what our response ought to be.

When people observed the coming of the Holy Spirit a several things happened.

Some were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s presence in their hearts, in their minds, and in their lives changed them forever and empowered them to do the work of Jesus.

Some weren’t sure. Some witnessed what was taking place and weren’t sure. But they stayed, watched and listened, and gave themselves an opportunity to be open to God, and gave God an opportunity to reach them.

And some just scoffed and said that “the drunks are out in force today.”

It’s not all that different now.

The Holy Spirit is on the loose and some catch the Spirit and are changed forever.

Some watch, listen, and learn.

And some just presume the drunks are out again.

So here’s the thing.

If you think that the drunks are out in force, you’re safe. The Holy Spirit won’t bother you.

If you take the time to stop, listen, and learn, be careful, because the Holy Spirit may fill you up and use you in ways that you will find totally unexpected.

And if you are totally open to the Spirit, hang on, for God is on the loose in you. And when God is on the loose, you never know what’s going to happen.