Many were gathered there: African-Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Koreans, Ethiopians, Costa Ricans, even one person from Burma, and others from around the globe. There were people from the South, the North, the West, and the mid-West. We were all gathered under a large tent. The choir and musicians were under another tent, yet another tent was set up for the speakers and in front of it all was set a pulpit.

The faculty and distinguished guests processed to their spaces. There was some singing, scripture was read, and the choir lifted up their voices in song. Then the preacher got up to speak. Brian stood at the pulpit and began to preach. As he preached, the wind began to blow – the Spirit was on the move.

The gathering that I am describing is one that I had the pleasure to attend on Wednesday when the seminary in Richmond inaugurated its new President, Brian Blount. As Brian preached his sermon entitled "Are you ready?" I could most definitely feel the Spirit moving within the gathering as a new chapter in the life of the seminary began. In the gathering of people there I could feel that something was changing. Before us stood the first African-American to become president of a predominately white seminary. Described as the descendant of former slaves I heard Brian talking about moving into the future. I could not help but hear echoes of Pentecost in that gathering as God’s Spirit moved among us doing a new thing.

In the scripture from Acts we hear that the day Christ promised would come, has come. The Spirit that Jesus promised would come among his followers has arrived. In vivid language that harkens back to Luke’s description of Jesus’ baptism, Luke describes the events of that first Pentecost.

It had been ten days since Jesus had left them and the disciples are still gathered in a house in Jerusalem, awaiting further instructions. That’s when it happens. Luke paints a picture with words of a great wind coming through the house. The word for wind is also the word for Spirit. This description of the great wind harkens back to Genesis where we hear the description of the wind blowing over the waters of creation as God formed the earth. Just as God was making a new thing in creation, God is making a new thing with the gift of the Spirit to the group of gathered disciples.

The Spirit rests upon each of the disciples with the appearance of divided tongues like fire causing the reader to remember the promise that John the Baptist made when he said that the one coming after him would offer not a baptism of mere water but of the Holy Spirit and fire.

All of a sudden the disciples can speak and understand a multitude of languages as though the events described in Genesis when the people decided to build a tower to heaven had never happened. It’s as though the tower of Babel, when the world’s languages were confused, had just been reversed. People are gathered from all over the world there in Jerusalem on that Pentecost Day and language is no longer a divider between the people.

And then it happens. The people are amazed at what has happened in their presence. However, when the people cannot find an explanation as to why this is happening, they blame it on the disciples being drunk. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the Spirit. Then here we have it: the first sermon of the newly birthed church. Peter stands up and says, "We’re not drunk, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!" What a sermon starter – We’re not drunk!

Now I must admit that my Presbyterian background used to make me a little uncomfortable with Pentecost. After all, I had attended many a church where the congregation definitely fit the description of the "frozen chosen." A child crying or saying anything would get a stern look and immediately be removed from the sanctuary. The congregation was not to say anything at all except what was written in the bulletin. If anyone responded to the preacher or (heaven forbid) said an unscripted "Amen" why the walls themselves might just cave in. I guess that’s why I was a little uncomfortable with Pentecost. It seemed a little too "Pentecostal" to me.

Among that gathering in Jerusalem, it seemed as though all decorum had been blown out of the window with that great gust of wind. Certainly no one would have mistaken the congregation of most of the churches I have attended as drunk. It must have been chaos with that wind blowing through the house and all of the disciples talking all at once. A crowd gathering to stare at the spectacle and question the disciples’ state of sobriety.

"We’re not drunk," Peter defends. "What you’re seeing and hearing now is not the result of drinking cheap wine but the result of having the Holy Spirit poured down into you, searing your very soul." Peter is able to see clearly that with the inrushing of the Holy Spirit, just as the wind swept over the waters of creation, God is doing a new thing here. Things have changed again and suddenly things start to fall into place. Christ had promised the disciples that they would be clothed with power from on high – well, here you go. If this wasn’t power from on high – what could it be?

Pentecost is a day that we do things a little differently. We put red up in the church to remind us of the tongues of fire the Spirit used to defrost the disciples. After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples were lacking direction. They were without a leader and were searching for what they would do next. Jesus had told them that they would become his witnesses to the ends of the earth - but how to start? There wasn’t a bureaucracy in place. There was no international fund set up to aid the disciples in their travels. Where should they start? They had selected one person to replace Judas as one of the twelve disciples but seem not to have taken any other steps as they were waiting around in Jerusalem.

How many of us are afraid of those tongues of fire? How many of us like everything to stay just as it always was? [I should raise my hand with this too.] Things are going along just fine and then all of a sudden the Spirit blows through our life, sears our very being, and fans the flames within us. We can get real comfortable with being frozen. We like the way things are – why change?

The way that Luke describes it, Pentecost almost seems like a second resurrection or re-birth. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the disciples to follow the task that Christ has set out for them is resurrected. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples have their hearts seared with the Spirit and the flames within their souls are re-ignited for the promise of what lies ahead.

We sang not long ago for the "Spirit of the living God to fall afresh upon" us. But isn’t that a scary thing to ask for? Isn’t it scary to think about God’s Spirit coming upon us? If God’s Spirit comes rushing in upon us what might we do? If God’s Spirit "melts us, molds us, fills us, and uses us" what might we become? What might we become? When the Holy Spirit got a-hold of the disciples, they became Christ’s witnesses. What might we become if the Holy Spirit blew on the coals within us, fanning the flame of the Spirit within us? What might we become if the Spirit blew over us as over the waters – making us a new creation? What might we become?