A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt,
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Day of Pentecost
May 11, 2008

Scripture Lessons: Numbers 11:24-30; Acts 2:1-21
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There’s something about the title of my sermon this morning that strikes me funny – “A Multitude of Preachers.” I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it has to do with the caricature of American preachers as men and women with big egos, big mouths, and big hair (in some cases, anyway), and the thought of a multitude of them gathered together in one place is, well, funny!

Or maybe it’s my remembering the famous story told by Garrison Keillor some years ago on his Saturday evening radio program, Prairie Home Companion. It seems that there was a large of gathering of Lutheran ministers in Keillor’s fictional Minnesota hometown of Lake Woebegon.  One evening during the ministers’ convention, they all crowded aboard a pontoon boat for an evening’s cruise around the lake. It was a lovely summer evening, and far more ministers than expected chose to go on the cruise. The multitude of preaches aboard the boat that evening exceeded its legal limit, but the cruise proceeded anyway.

After the boat made its way out to the center of the lake, it began to take on water and list sharply to one side. It quickly became obvious to the captain and to the multitude of Lutheran preachers onboard that it was going down, and sinking so quickly there was no possibility of anyone reaching them in time to save them from the rising water.

As the boat sank and the water level rose to cover their knees, the preachers, believing they were about to drown and meet their Maker, began singing what passengers on the Titanic did as their mighty ship sank beneath the waves of the North Atlantic, “Nearer, My God, To Thee.” What they didn’t realize, but soon would, is that Lake Woebegone is no more than 4 feet deep!

Through all these years, the picture of a multitude of preachers, and Lutheran ones at that, standing chest-deep in the middle of a lake singing and praying as if with their last breath has remained in my mental gallery of hilarious images. Maybe that’s what struck me funny about the title of my sermon. But that’s what our Pentecost Scriptures are about; they have to do with God’s sending out into the world a multitude of preachers!

Consider first the story from the Book of Numbers. The people of Israel are on their long, hard wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. They are weary and grumpy, complaining about the food, the conditions, and the dangers, longing for the comforts of life in Egypt even though they were enslaved. Moses, their leader, bore the weight of their constant complaining. And he had had enough! In great frustration he prayed to God, “If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once…”

In response, God told Moses to choose from the tribes of Israel 70 elders and gather them at the tent where God met with his people. Moses did what he was told. Most of the elders assembled at the tent as instructed. And God took some of the spirit he had put on Moses and distributed it among the elders, giving them authority and responsibility, making them able to prophesy, to speak for God among the people.

But two of the 70 elders, Eldad and Medad by name, did not go out to the tent of meeting as instructed. They remained in the encampment. Still, God put his spirit on them, and they too began to prophesy. And it caused quite a stir, leading one young man to rush out to Moses at the tent and tell him what was happening with Medad and Eldad back in the camp. Hearing the young man’s breathless report, Moses’ assistant, Joshua, said to Moses, “My lord, Moses, stop them!”

At which point Moses spoke these famous words, “Would that all  the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them.”

Now, fast-forward some 13 centuries. The place is Jerusalem on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, in around what we call the year 30 A.D. Jesus’ followers are gathered together, but as yet there was no such thing as “church.” Seven weeks earlier Jesus had been raised from the dead and afterward appeared to them at various times. It had been a little over a week since they had gathered on the nearby Mount of Olives and saw the risen Lord taken into heaven. At that time Jesus had instructed them to do nothing, but simply wait for God to act, to give them the power they needed for their mission of taking his Name into all the world. And so they had waited and waited, as they were instructed by the Lord.

Then it happened. The Father poured out on them and into them his Spirit – with the sound of a mighty wind, the hiss of high energy, and tongues of flame resting on each one. These back-country Galilean followers of Jesus were propelled out into the streets of Jerusalem where Jews from all over the Roman Empire had come to celebrate Pentecost. A large crowd of them had gathered because of all the sound and fury. The fired-up apostles emerged and moved among the international crowd, telling the story of Jesus, unaccountably and miraculously speaking in the native languages of their audience.

The Apostle Peter, who, the last time he spoke publicly, had denied even knowing Jesus, now courageously got up and addressed the bewildered crowd. He assured them that these friends of his who were speaking to them about Jesus were not drunk as they supposed. Instead, what was happening before their eyes and unto their ears, was what the prophet Joel had prophesied long ago: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”

God had answered the wistful prayer of his servant Moses. God had fulfilled the prophecy spoken by Joel. Now God was pouring out his Spirit, giving birth to the Church by creating a multitude of preachers!

I stand before you today as a preacher, as one into whom God has set his Spirit and given the task of telling the story of Jesus within the family of God’s people. That’s why you sometimes refer to me as “Preacher.” And so I am.

But there is a bigger truth than this one, a truth which in our culture, and even in the church, is not as obvious, not as easily recognized, and not as readily affirmed: the truth that you are preachers. You also are those on whom God has set his Holy Spirit. When you were baptized, God claimed you and marked you. God set his Holy Spirit upon you, his Spirit in you, thus God set the stage for the time when you would come to accept your God-given mandate to be a preacher, that is, one who tells the world about Jesus.

We come together here each Sunday morning to talk about Jesus. As your preacher, I have a primary role in that telling. One of the reasons we do this regularly is in order that we might get the courage and the conviction to leave this place and to speak about Jesus in the world. Isn’t that what your newly adopted mission statement says?

  Our mission is to worship God, to provide training
  and support for discipleship growth, and to proclaim
  the Gospel of Jesus Christ through word and deed.

You are the preachers! You are the prophets! You are part of that great multitude of those on whom God has put his Spirit, so that you may tell by word and deed what God has done in Jesus Christ.

And what’s more, your job is much harder than mine! After all, I stand up here in this pulpit wearing liturgical vestments, a gown and a stole, protected by church and tradition, speaking to people who have voluntarily gathered here to worship God and learn about Jesus and his Way. Relatively speaking, it’s easy for me to speak up, to speak out in the name of Christ.

But for you – on the assembly line, in the office, in the warehouse, in the classroom, in your business, in your house, at the grocery store, the post office, the hardware store, with your neighbor, your client, your patient, your boss– why, that’s another matter! It takes great courage in your world to be the one who speaks up for Jesus, who speaks up for what’s right, who does the right thing, who goes against the grain of this world’s values, who acts according to Jesus’ Way, who shares your faith with someone who may laugh at you or dismiss you as a religious fanatic, who testifies to the truth in daily life, no matter the consequences. You see, when it comes to being a preacher, I’ve got it easy compared to you!
 
Today is Pentecost Day, friends. Nearly 2,000 years ago God fulfilled the dream, the promise of pouring out his Spirit, not just on a few chosen leaders, but on all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He thereby called into being a multitude of preachers, you included!

So, after you have come to this Table to receive Christ in the bread and wine, I say to you, leave this place, get out of here; go and be the witnesses God has called and empowered you to be. Join that multitude of preachers in the place where you live and work, in the world God loves and is now at work making all things new. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, may the Father make clear and strong your witness to Jesus Christ!