Eternal God, pour out your Spirit upon us, that we might be sensitive to your presence, attentive to your Word, and faithful always to your way. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.

They were called the odd couple: Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. There were other actors in those roles in plays and movies, but those are the two we remember the longest. They caused us to laugh, but they also caused us from time to time to reflect on ourselves.

Today we celebrate an odd coupling, the coupling of Memorial Day and Pentecost. It is a time that causes us to reflect, to reflect on ourselves. Our national calendar is full of days of reflection and remembrance. The Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day are but a few of those. On this Memorial weekend we reflect. We reflect back on those who have served this country and given of their lives. We remember with gratitude their families and the sacrifices they have made. We remember those who have gone before us who have served, and who have returned to be part of our country and to be strong citizens. We think of those serving presently around the world on our behalf. For all of these people we give thanks. We are grateful for their sacrifice. We are moved by their commitment. On this weekend we remember them and we remember their answer to the call of their country. We dedicate ourselves again to liberty, not just for ourselves, but for all people. This is Memorial weekend. It is a time to reflect and be grateful.

This is also Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. This is the day in which the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples as they were gathered in Jerusalem. It is a day in which we celebrate a part of our religious tradition, a part that also causes us to reflect. The disciples were gathered in Jerusalem not to celebrate Pentecost, as you and I know it, but to celebrate the Jewish Pentecost. The Jewish Pentecost was a joyous celebration. It was a celebration of the ending of the wheat harvest in the late springtime. It was a time when the people got together and reflected on how good God had been to them through the abundance of the earth, and they gave thanks.

Later on in the history of the Jewish people, they added another note to Pentecost. The other note was that they celebrated the gift of the law. Speak about an odd couple, wheat harvest and law being celebrated in one day? But that’s the way our fore parents saw things. They saw both the wheat harvest and the law as nurturing, as giving life, so they gave thanks to God for both of those things together.

In the passage we have from the Gospel of John today, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will come. It’s his last talk with them. As a part of that last talk he is evidently talking about the nature of God. Philip, one of the disciples, says, “Lord, show us the Father.” It looks as though Jesus got a little perturbed with Philip. He is incredulous. “What do you mean, ‘Show us the Father.’? How long have you been with me? How many times have you seen people healed, people fed, lepers cleansed, the homeless housed, those who were lonely befriended? How many times have you seen the love of God working in our midst? How can you say, ‘Show us the Father.’” What Jesus is saying to Philip and the other disciples is reflect on what we’ve been doing, reflect on our ministry. Look at it. See what it has caused in the lives of people.

As Jesus prepares his disciples for the time when he won’t be there, he calls them to reflect, to look back and understand their own activities and their own ministry. Then he says, “When I leave God will send the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will be with you, and the Spirit will teach you everything. One of the things the Spirit will teach is how to reflect. The Spirit will remind you of everything I have taught you.” The Spirit is the one who leads us when we are called to reflection.

There is a marvelous and beautiful passage in the Old Testament that shows the power of reflection. It’s from the prophet Isaiah, chapters 52 and 53. The Gentile kings, the non-Jews, begin to reflect upon the suffering servant. As they reflect on the suffering servant and his ministry, even though they don’t share the servant’s faith tradition, they are moved, they are transformed, and they become new people. That is the power of reflection. That is the power that comes to us when we look at our actions, whether they be unfaithful actions and we repent, or they be faithful actions and we affirm and learn from them. It is powerful when we reflect and we grow. That’s what happens to the Gentile kings.

In the beginning of the Book of Acts, Luke says that the risen Christ tells the disciples, “Stay here in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. Their waiting is not just sitting around in the hotel lobby waiting for somebody to come by and say, “Hello. I’m the Holy Spirit, and I am going to move you today!” It’s much more powerful than that. Their waiting involves prayer. Their waiting involves breaking bread from house to house; in other words, worship. Their waiting involves gathering together and eating together gladly; it involves fellowship. Their waiting involves generously giving to others; it involves service.

Does that sound familiar? Those are three of the major elements in our vision of the Church. Those elements are that we will interact with God through prayer and worship, that we will share together in fellowship, and that we will serve those around us. It’s what the early Church was doing. Their time of waiting was a time of reflection. They were reflecting through their actions their calling to be the Church, even though the Spirit had not yet come to them. They were reflecting on what Jesus had instructed them to do, and in caring it out they remembered and they celebrated and they acted out their reflections. It’s a marvelous time in the history of the Church. All of that active waiting positions them to receive the Spirit when it is given.

Luke describes the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples as the movement of a mighty wind with tongues of fire. Talk about an odd couple: wind and fire together. It is marvelous imagery, but a little strange to put together. But this is not the first time that we have heard it. We heard it back in Genesis, chapter 1. There it describes the first creation. Here Luke uses it to describe a new creation. Remember John talks about the new creation as a fulfillment of a number of days: on the first day of the week…on the eighth day of creation there is a new creation. Here Luke is using different imagery, but he is saying the same thing. In the gift of the Spirit we have that which is new. Everything is new. The power of God is moving among us as a strong wind and as tongues of fire.

What happened on that first Pentecost was that the people had gathered to celebrate a part of their tradition, but God moved them in a new direction. It was because they had been reflective that they were ready to move. Have you ever tried to fly a kite on a day in which there is no wind? It is not a very easy thing to do. Preacher are always being accused of being full of hot air, but even preachers can’t fly kites on days when there is no wind. We can blow all we want, buy we can’t get the kite to go up in the air. You have to go to the bay or the coast, someplace where the wind is blowing to fly a kite. That is what happens to the disciples. They were where the wind was blowing, the wind of God’s Spirit. It was in their worship and their prayers, in their fellowship and their service, that they positioned themselves to capture that wind, and it moved them, it transformed them, and it made them into the Church. We see it in Isaiah, and we see it as the disciples walk on the road to Emmaus. We see it here in Jerusalem. It’s what we experience when we say, “Wasn’t that a good time! Wasn’t God present!” It requires a time of reflection so that we position ourselves.

Dick Wills is a United Methodist pastor in Florida. For a number of years he was very much a man of prayer. He said his prayers went something like this: “God bless me. God bless my church. God bless this people. God bless this program. God bless this ministry.” He was always asking God to put God’s blessing on something that they were doing. Then he went away for a time of reflection. He went all the way to South Africa, in fact. It transformed him. He came back and his prayers were different. Now his prayers went like this: “God help me to be a part of what you are blessing. God help my church to be a part of what you are blessing. God help this group to be a part of what you are blessing. God help this ministry to be a part of what you are blessing.” He wasn’t asking God to change God’s way to satisfy him. He was asking himself and his church to change to get into God’s movement, to become a part of God’s power. They were positioning themselves for a new Pentecost.

Djalma used this story last week in our staff worship time. I used it at Church Council the other night, and I will use it again with you this morning. It’s a story told by Fred Craddock, a retired minister from our seminary at Emory University in Atlanta. He tells about reading for the first time Albert Schweitzer’s book, Quest for the Historical Jesus.” Craddock said that he was about twenty years old when he read the book. As he read it he thought, “This Christology is woeful material. It is more water than wine. As he read through the book he marked it up, crossing out paragraphs, putting big question marks in the margins. He said that he was extremely critical.

Not long after he read the book, he heard that Schweitzer was coming to this country. He was coming to play a dedicatory concert on a new organ in a big church in Cleveland. Remember Schweitzer was a philosopher, a theologian, a concert organist, a medical doctor, and a pastor. Fred Craddock was down in Knoxville, Tennessee. He bought a ticket on the Greyhound Bus to go from Knoxville to Cleveland. He said that all the time he was on the bus traveling up there he had his book out, and he was going over his notes again. He had a pad of paper with him and he was writing down questions. He was including the page reference in his notes so that when he had a chance to talk with Schweitzer, he could say, “On page so and so, you said this, and I don’t believe it,” and then follow that with, “On page so and so, you said this, and that contradicts the other.” He was ready.

He went to the concert. It was a great concert. When it was over he ran into the fellowship hall, and sat down in the front row, because the announcement had said that there would be a time of refreshment and fellowship afterwards. He had all his questions laid out in his lap. Finally Schweitzer walked in. He was a man with shaggy hair, a big, white mustache, stooped over, seventy-five years of age. He was carrying a little cup of tea and a small plate with a couple of goodies on it. Schweitzer walked up to the microphone in front of the room, and said, “You have been so kind to me, so hospitable. I thank you very much. I can’t stay very long. You see I operate a little medical clinic down in Lambarene in Africa. My people are there. My people are dying. My people are hungry. My people are diseased. I need to go back. If any of you here have the love of Jesus in you, would you consider coming with me?”

Fred Craddock looked at the questions in his lap. They were utterly stupid. He said, “In that moment I was changed. I knew what it was to be a Christian, and I hoped someday I would be.”

It was a moment of reflection and transformation. Look at us gathered here. We gather in a room with the Spirit all about us. These marvelous windows on both sides represent the Holy Spirit. You can see the red at the top, then the yellow, and then clear glass below. They are symbols of flames. The Holy Spirit is all around us. The reason there is red carpeting in a church is because it symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is underneath us. Surely when we are in this place we need to reflect. We need to reflect on the call of God, and we need to position ourselves so that we capture the energy of God, and so that we can be on fire for Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God.