Happy birthday, church! On a day like this, on the day of the feast of Pentecost, almost 2000 years ago, the church was born -- that is, not Cornell, but the church universal. I like the words of the song to be our birthday wish.

Someone said, be careful what you pray for because you might just get it. And if we ask for grace and love and power, and we mean it, I know God is going to grant that request. And if God does grant that request, hold on to your hats – its going to be a wild ride.

To get the background to the wild events that happened on the day of Pentecost we need to look at the first chapter of the book of Acts. It begins with the events on the day of Jesus' ascension. You heard that story last Sunday. Earlier that day, they had asked Jesus a question – "Lord, is this the time you will restore the kingdom to Israel." These people had made a very serious commitment for God's kingdom, you see. When Jesus walked past them on the Galilean sea shore one day and said, "Come, follow me, " they left their fishing boats, their livelihood and their families and followed him. Now, that was serious commitment. Jesus told them about a kingdom, where God reigns. And where God reigns, what happens -- human oppression ends. For a people who had been occupied for generations, this was truly good news.

So, the disciples eagerly waited for Jesus to establish the kingdom. The day the 70 returned from the missionary journey sounded like an ideal time. Luke writes in 10:17ff., "The seventy returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!' He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening." What better timing than that to establish the Kingdom. But it did not happen. Then there was the time when Peter made the bold confession, in 9:18ff., "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." That seemed like another ideal opportunity. But Jesus used it to talk about his suffering and death. Before they hardly knew what was happening, opposition had built up and they were getting ready to crucify him. Surely, the disciples would have thought, this is the time to establish the kingdom, and turn tables on his opponents. But they nailed him to the cross. May be he'll get down from the cross, they thought. When he gave that cry of dereliction, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani," people around him tried to interpret that as his calling out to Elijah. The returning of Elijah in Jewish theology was the time of establishing God's reign. But no, there was no establishing the kingdom. He died. And with him died all their hopes for the kingdom.

Luke's first volume ends on a happy note, though, when we find that he had risen and is fellowshipping with the disciples in his risen body. But he was not going to stay with them much longer. And no kingdom yet! Now then, at the top of the second volume, Luke says that he appeared to the disciples for 40 days and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God. Jesus' agenda had not changed. So the question arose again, and they asked "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"

Jesus’ answer is very interesting. He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But when you receive power you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Did you notice a Jesus twist in that answer? The Jesus twist is the kind of curve ball that Jesus was very good at. The disciples ask, "Lord, is this the time when YOU (Jesus) will restore the kingdom." And Jesus turns the question right back on them – "when YOU (disciples) receive power, you will be my witnesses.

When I was a teenager in Sunday School I was told that God answers prayers in one of three ways, yes, no or not yet. That’s the kind of answer most of us expect when we pray. But you know, I see little evidence in the Bible for that. The evidence I see goes right along the Jesus twist. When we ask in fervent prayer "Lord, will you heal my loved one, Lord, will you deal with my awful boss, Lord, will you intervene in my difficult relationship with my spouse, my neighbor, my colleague, Lord, will you heal our nation, Lord will you make wars cease and end poverty, Lord will you save the people, the answer I hear is not a yes, no or not yet. The answer I hear has a Jesus twist. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

There’s an old story about what happened when Jesus ascended. As he arrived in heaven all the angels gathered around very excited wanting to find out from Jesus himself, how his experience had been. Gabriel, always inquisitive, said to Jesus: "O Master, you suffered terribly for all the people in the world." "I did," Jesus said. Gabriel asked, "Do they all know about how you loved them and what you did for them?" "Oh no," said Jesus, "not yet. Just a few in Palestine know." "What have you done," said Gabriel, "to let everyone know about it?" Jesus said, "I have asked Peter, James, and John and a few others to tell others about me, and the others to tell still others, until the whole world knows what I have done." Gabriel was less than convinced that this would work. "But Jesus," he persisted, "Peter and James and John and others are fishermen and common folk. What if they forget or get tired, or fail? What would happen way down the years – say, 2000 years from now – if people just don't tell others about you? Did you not make any other plans-- a back-up strategy?" "I have no other plans," Jesus replied, "I’m counting on them!"

When you receive power, you will be my witnesses. Witnesses to what, you ask? Witnesses also to the Christ who loved us so much to come to this world to live and die for us, who even today receives us with open arms just as the father received that prodigal son, and throws an extravagant party. But is it not true that our won fears, anxieties and cultural hang ups keep us from sharing this love with our neighbors colleagues and friends. Let’s not have any illusions about this: we cannot be sharing Jesus’ love witnesses without Holy Spirit power. Thankfully Jesus did not say, I am counting on them to do it on their power. Rather, he said, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

We are also witnesses to the Christ who comes to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of Jubilee when slaves were released and all debts were forgiven. Witness to the Christ of abundant life, isn't it? Witnesses to the one who has enough and to spare, to the one who does not give out miserly portions, the one who does not want us to eke out and existence. Is it not true that such a witness must necessarily take us to a confrontation with the powers that prevent God’s abundance from being properly distributed, and prevents the freedom that Jesus gives each of us from being properly received? And we think we don't have the power. You just have to read the story of the book of Acts. Such confrontation was an essential part of the story in Acts -- you know the stories of Peter and John, Paul and Silas. Yes, they got thrown in prison because with the power of the Holy Spirit, they threatened the power of the state and the religious authorities.

It is also important to recognize that this Holy Spirit power was not given to sweeten their private spirituality. Many Christians think this is the purpose of the Holy Spirit -- to allow us to spend time in prayer, among our friends, within our comfort zones and in our own upper rooms and live in the "joy of the Lord." It is more than likely that this is what the disciples expected too. They had no idea what this power was that Jesus was talking about and how it was going break open their timid lives and rocket-launch them out into the world with such force that it would create a revolution that has up to now lasted 2000 years. How do you know that, you ask? Well, look at what they did. They held a Nominating Committee and elected another person to the twelve. Eleven was such an odd number you see. There were twelve tribes of Israel -- and in order to be true to that calling to Israel, they needed to fill it out with another. So, they elected Matthias, a man who passes off in to oblivion, whose name we don't hear any more. Little did they know that their worldview was going to get blown apart on the day of Pentecost.

Yes, many Christians think that the Holy Spirit is there to help them live a life of private spirituality. It is easy to think that if we separate the work of the Holy Spirit from the work of Christ. Many Christians have the misconception that God the creator was in the Old Testament, Jesus was in the gospels, and now we are living in the time of the Holy Spirit. No, Jesus was filled with Holy Spirit when he came to Galilee to preach his first sermon. In fact, Jesus said very pointedly in his sermon in the gospel of John, that he is sending the Spirit in order to continue to the work that he had begun. And of course, Jesus' work as we have seen over and over again, was to bring redemption to people and the world -- to bring them back into the place that God had originally intended it to be. And that meant meeting people where they are at in the neighborhoods and it meant confronting the principalities and powers that oppress and exploit. The Holy Spirit was sent so that we might continue the work of Christ. That's not for our private spirituality, but as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit is given for the common good.

So they prayed. I am sure they were praying with great anxiety. This could be the end of their movement towards the kingdom -- or it could be the greatest thing that ever happened to them. It was an in-between time. Like how we find ourselves in an in-between time. Last year when several families left us, a lot of our energy went down. We became fearful and anxious, we worried about the future. It was like we were asking with the disciples, Lord, when would you restore the kingdom. We know the promise of power, but we too like the disciples don't know much about what to do with it. Its like we are in the upper room with the disciples -- like them we find ourselves to be in a valley of dry bones.

Let me tell you about the dry bones. About 2600 years ago in 597 B.C.E terrible things were going on in Jerusalem. The city had fallen to the mighty armies of Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzer. It was a long and hard siege. And when the Babylonian army finally broke through the walls of the city, they showed no mercy. People were butchered, their valuables were taken, their homes were burned. Even the Temple, which King Solomon had built to the glory of Yahweh, the God of Israel, had been desecrated and pulled down stone from stone and left in ruins. Then to add insult to injury, they took the brightest and best of the Jerusalem’s citizens and carted them off to Babylon to do whatever their captors wanted them to do. They had lost all hope. They had no where to turn. Everything of any value in the people's lives has been torn from them. In the midst of this utter despair, Prophet Ezekiel, one of the captives, sees a vision.

Ezekiel sees a valley full of dry bones and they were very dry. Perhaps he was looking over a battlefield where a lot of people got killed. Only the bones of those embattled soldiers were left. There is no life in this valley, no hope, no future. The Spirit of the Lord brought Ezekiel to the midst of this valley and said, "Mortal, can these bones live?" And he replied, "Lord God, you know" meaning, something like Lord, you know they can't but with you, anything is possible. Then he said, "Mortal, prophecy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to those bones. I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin, and put breath in you and you shall live." And so he prophesied. and suddenly there was noise, a rattling, the bones were moving. One bone was being connected to another bone. There’s a whole lot of rattling going on. And the bones came together: bone to bone, and then there were sinews on them and flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them. But there was no breath. Breath, ruach, is the same word that is used for the Holy Spirit. Then he said, "Prophecy to the breath, say, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. He prophesied, and before him stood a vast multitude a living breathing army of people. The Valley of Dry Bones, a dead and hopeless place, becomes a place full of life and possibilities.

There was a purpose for the story. God said to Ezekiel, "Mortal, these bones are the house of Israel. They are dried up. Their hope is lost. they are cut off completely. So go to them and prophecy. I will open your graves and bring you up from the graves O my people, I will put my spirit within you and you shall live." Ezekiel took this as a sign from God of what was in store for the people of Jerusalem. It was as if God was saying: "I know things might look pretty bleak, right now. People feel discouraged and defeated like a field of old, dry bones. But don't lose hope. I will put new form onto those old bones and, after I have done that, I will put my Spirit in them. Right now, all looks lost and dead. But I promise you that the people will, once again, feel the vigor of life flowing through the nation.

On the day of Pentecost a large number of people had gathered in Jerusalem for the festival celebrating the giving of the law. The disciples were still in prayer. And something utterly remarkable happened. Luke explained this unexplainable event this way. "And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability." The people who had gathered, people who spoke in many different languages heard about God's deeds of power, about God's miraculous interventions in their own language. People were amazed. Some thought they were drunk.

Peter got up to explain to the crowd what was going on. Peter, the same impulsive guy whom Jesus chastised once with a "Get behind me Satan" the same Peter who when push came to shove denied his Lord, this same Peter got up before a large crowd and began to tell them about what happened. At the end of his sermon 3000 people were joined them. That’s power.

The following day, this same Peter raises up a crippled man at the gate called beautiful and heals him. This same Peter who only watched when Jesus healed, boldly raises him up and the man starts running and jumping and carrying on. The religious leaders get annoyed with Peter and John and try a power play on them, asking by whose name and whose power he had healed him, and after that examination they warn Peter and John not to preach in Jesus’ name and this same Peter gives him an answer that astounds them. If it is right for us to obey God or obey you, you be the judge he says to them. And the power brokers are amazed. That’s Holy Spirit power. This same Peter, John and Paul and others throughout the book of Acts went out. They took on the power structures, evangelized people, organized them into churches and revolutionized the world. That’s what Holy Spirit power does to you.

Like the disciples in the upper room, we’ve been devoting ourselves to prayer. "Lord listen to your children praying, we say. Send us love, send us power, send us grace, we pray." Someone said be careful what you ask for, because you might get it.