ENTERING THE COCOON

“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.”

The Holy Spirit is like that, whenever the Holy Spirit - and by Holy Spirit I am referring to God’s Power present in the world - enters our world there is a disturbance. Life is turned inside out. The established order is overturned. The comfortable and familiar circumstances of our lives become challenging and strange. The presence of the Holy Spirit brings transformation for us, but not without a price. Transformation means change, and change always brings some level of disturbance along with it.

On the day of Pentecost some two thousand years ago, that is exactly what happened to the disciples as the power of the Holy Spirit swept into their lives. There was, if you will, a disturbance in their lives. They were transformed into a new community.

Imagine with me that scene of Pentecost from 2000 years ago. As the sun rose that first Pentecost morning we find the disciples still lingering about in Jerusalem. Even though 50 days had passed from the resurrection, even though the risen Christ had promised them he would meet them back in Galilee, still they lingered on in Jerusalem. Fifty days had passed and they had not yet moved forward with the great commission to go into all the world to share the gospel. Instead of moving forward as Christ had commanded them, they had held back. Indeed, as Pentecost dawned that day long ago, the disciples were not aggressively spreading the gospel throughout the world. In fact, they were huddling together in a private room somewhere in Jerusalem.

However, huddling together in seclusion was not God’s plan for them. The Holy Spirit burst onto the scene with the power of a whirlwind and transformed them. Acts describes the in-breaking of the Holy Spirit as happening “Suddenly”. Indeed, there is no way to predict or control the movement of the Holy Spirit. God is radically free to be God.

This wind from heaven turned their world inside out. The text wants us to imagine this quite literally. For, in the very next paragraph the scene changes from a private room to a public place. Therefore, from the power of the Holy Spirit the disciples were drawn from the relative security of being inside to the risky world outside. They were transformed.

Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit the disciples were drawn out from their hiding place to publicly proclaim the gospel on the streets of Jerusalem. Miraculously speaking in a way that allowed people of various languages to understand them, they preached the truth of the resurrection and told of the mighty deeds of God’s power revealed in Jesus Christ.

You see, the presence of the Holy Spirit transformed these men from a group of frightened, hesitant, clearly reclusive men who were fearful for their lives and fearful of what type of reception they might receive in public into a group of bold evangelists. God transformed them in order to share God’s Word with all who would listen.

On that Pentecost morning some 2,000 years ago the church of Jesus Christ was born. It was born with one primary purpose: to tell the Good News of the gospel that God is for us and not against us. These individual disciples were transformed into something greater than they could have ever imagined. They were transformed into a community and they became the corporate body of Christ in the world, sustained and guided by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit can and will do the same for each one of us as well. God has promised us this power of transformation through the gift of the church. This power of transformation occurs on two levels, (1) in that we ourselves are transformed, (2) in that we have the power to transform others as instruments of the Holy Spirit. This experience of being both personally transformed and leading others to an experience of transformation is part and parcel of our identity as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Today we celebrate Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is known as the birthday of the church. It is the day we set aside on the Liturgical calendar to celebrate and acknowledge the ongoing presence of God in our lives as individuals and through our corporate life as the church of Jesus Christ.

It is the presence of and the leading of the Holy Spirit that makes the church the church. It is the presence of and the leading of the Holy Spirit that sets the church apart from all other institutions. Without the leading and power of the Holy Spirit in our midst the church is no different from any number of other like-minded charitable institutions in the world.

The truth is, we come to church hoping to be transformed. We come to church hoping to find a place that is different from the world around us. We come to church hoping to discover and experience the power we know in our heart of hearts we need if we are to live as God intends us to live. The church, specifically our church, needs to be just such a place. And it is!

People’s lives are transformed here. People come here and do find a place that is different from the world. People do come here and find the power they need to live as God intends them to live. I’ve only been here for a short while and I have witnessed the Holy Spirit working powerfully in the lives of the disciples who work and worship here at Trinity Church.

In fact, people have been coming to this community of disciples known as Trinity Presbyterian Church for decades now. Just think about all of the lives that have been changed by the faithful witness of this faith community throughout its years.

Yet this power of transformation did not come in the past, nor will it continue to come in the future without a certain price being paid. Remember, the Holy Spirit always creates a disturbance in its wake. The price we pay for receiving and accepting the power of transformation which God offers is the loss of what is comfortable and familiar to us.

According to scripture, the church is not intended as a place for comfort and familiarity, the church is intended as an agent of change, it is the body of Christ in the world and Christ changed everything. Indeed, from that first Pentecost morning, the church has been a place for fermenting and effecting change in the lives of disciples.

In some ways the church is not unlike a caterpillar’s cocoon. Now, perhaps, we think of a cocoon as a safe place, isolated from the dangerous world outside of it. Yet, upon closer examination the cocoon is anything but a safe place for the caterpillar. Inside the cocoon the caterpillar will be completely transformed. While in the cocoon the caterpillar is reduced to a formless blob of gelatin. Entering the cocoon the caterpillar risks his present way of being in the world in the hope of receiving a new way of being in the world. The cocoon is an environment for radical change, it is not a place of familiarity and comfort.

So it is for those who enter the cocoon of the church of Jesus Christ. In the church we undergo the transformation of how we live in the world. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we die to our old way of being in the world and we are reborn to a new life. The church understood as a cocoon is intended as an agent of transformation in the world.

As the church of Jesus Christ we are about constant change, we are about transformation. We are about taking risks and trusting that God will guide us as we seek to be faithful. At both the individual and corporate levels we are called to seek change and to open ourselves to transformation; to be open to the power of the Spirit at work transforming us from what we are into what God intends us to be. God transforms us from the sinful creatures that we are into the forgiven creatures he intends us to be.

Whether we like it or not transformation is always a part of life. Specifically, today we honor our young people from this church family who are graduating this spring. They are moving from stage of life to another. In a sense, their graduation is a breaking open of the cocoon. You graduates are about to enter a whole new world. You are about to be transformed. You have been prepared. You have experienced many different things. Without question you have thought about what tomorrow will bring for you. But you are not today what God intends you to be in the future.

Accordingly, not unlike with the butterfly and its newly formed and untested wings emerging from the turmoil of the cocoon, you have gifts and skills that God has equipped you with but you may not know about them just yet. You may not understand how to flap your new wings. Listen to that still small voice that is God’s, and prayerfully act.

You are more secure in your faith than you probably imagine. Trust that God is with you. You are more certain of your path than you probably wish to admit. Trust that God is with you. Whether you are entering the job market, or whether you are continuing on in school I urge you to remember two things everyday. Remember who you are and remember whose you are. You are a child of God and a disciple of our Lord Jesus.

So, then, I urge you to start “flapping”, even if it feels funny and uncomfortable. The only way to learn how to use your skills and gifts, the only way to learn how to be faithful is to stop thinking and start doing. Take some risks in life. Be responsible for yourself. Be accountable for what you say and do.

Thinking beyond our graduates, the events of that first Pentecost morning from long ago teach us that this is how we are called to live as disciples of the risen Christ regardless of the stage of life that we are in. Each of us is called to take risks as an inherent part of our discipleship. Faith is risky. There is always that element of uncertainty. We are called to take the risk of sharing our faith with others. We are called to take the risk of being compassionate with others, even to the point of making ourselves vulnerable. In short, both as individuals and corporately as the church of Jesus Christ in this time and in this place we are called to take the risk of trusting God with our future.

In practice, this means that as we go about the task of being the body of Christ in the world we are guided and informed not by the conventional wisdom of the world, or the power of human reason, but rather by the blowing winds of the Holy Spirit.

Long ago, on that first Pentecost morning, the disciples were swept up by the power of the Holy Spirit. They felt themselves drawn outside of themselves and into the streets of Jerusalem to share the good news of the gospel.

On this Pentecost morning, let us also be swept up by the power of the Holy Spirit moving powerfully in our midst. Let us take some risks in our discipleship. Let us enter the cocoon of the church of Jesus Christ that we may be transformed into the powerful witnesses for the gospel which God intends for all of us. Amen.

Reverend Marc V. Mason

Trinity Presbyterian Church

Pentecost, May 15, 2005

Travelers Rest, SC