Comfort Zone

Acts 2:1-21

How many of you hear the Pentecost story – this story of disciples set alight, telling the story of God in languages they don’t know, the public, noisy, fiery spread of the gospel – and just can’t wait to be lit up by the Spirit and jump in?

Excellent. I think God has a use for you!

And who hears this story and thinks it sounds thrilling – for someone else to do? Exciting, sure, but not easy; not natural for you, even distinctly uncomfortable?

That’s usually a majority among communities that have been Christian for a while and have gotten comfortable with our faith the way it is. For those of us who don’t find our own faith story startling and new. It’s not surprising if many of us here this morning find it hard to get out of our comfort zone.

But it might not actually have to be that hard.

This Pentecost story is also very much a story of God moving right in to people’s comfort zones and meeting us there.

Think about the wonder and amazement of the crowds. “Aren’t these people Galileans? How on earth are we hearing them speak each in our own native language?” Hearing in the language of my birth, my childhood, the language of home.

Many of the people in Jerusalem at that time would have spoken Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire. They would have understood perfectly well if the disciples had proclaimed God’s deeds of power in that common language.  

But the Holy Spirit lights up the disciples to speak to them each in the language of home. In their first language, most natural and comfortable.

When the Spirit wants us to listen, we’ll hear in the language of our hearts.

And the Spirit isn’t grabbing the attention of strangers who’ve never heard of God before. These are “devout Jews,” immigrants who had moved to Jerusalem from places near and far to be close to the center of their faith, to live more deeply into their relationship with God.

The Spirit lights up the disciples to speak to them about the deeds of the God whom they already know; already want to know better. Peter interprets the experience for them using scripture they already know, familiar words from the prophet Joel, a vision they may have been longing to see become real.

The Spirit gives them – us! – what they and we are already looking for; opens up our understanding with the truths we already know, the stories we already love. Invites us to grow in the relationship with God that we already have, however devoted or distant it feels right now.

The Pentecost experience – that experience of being filled with, lit up by, the Holy Spirit, may not really be so hard.
God really does come to us right in our comfort zones, really does speak the language of our hearts, really does teach us to find what we are looking for in stories we already know, even love.

God comes to us within our comfort zones, and the Holy Spirit lights us up so that we don’t get stagnant there.

So that we don’t get stuck, and lose the love, the joy, and the freshness of the miraculous story and powerful love that come to find us where we need God, where we already are.

Because God wants to get close to us in trust; not paralyze us with fear.

It’s true that when the Holy Spirit moves into my comfort zone, or yours, that safe, familiar space gets stirred up. Sometimes it’s the noise of a storm wind, the shocking brightness of a living flame around you – like the disciples felt that first Pentecost, while they were sitting together in the comfortable, holy space they had made for themselves by prayer and celebration, by telling each other the stories and reminding themselves of Jesus’ promise to send that Spirit to help them, to defend and encourage them. The bright, noisy Spirit stirs them up to share the comfort of their community; share their assurance of God’s promises; share their favorite Jesus stories with people who were waiting to hear them in the language of their hearts.

Those disciples don’t have to invent anything new, plan an “elevator speech”, a compelling sales pitch, or find the perfect words of comfort or inspiration, either. Those lit-up disciples simply tell the story they already know, the story of Jesus that they love.

Peter tells the story he already knows – and knows that his audience knows – the vision of Joel, the story of the promises of God that we’re all already longing for.

It’s an expanded comfort zone, all of a sudden, for those disciples, of course. That’s what the Holy Spirit does to us; for us.

The Spirit doesn’t generally drag us unwilling into the streets, knocking on doors and forcing salvation on suspicious strangers. Instead, God comes to meet us inside our comfort zone, and widens and deepens the story we already know and love so that we can recognize and receive from God what we’ve already been longing for.

And then the Holy Spirit expands that zone. Makes your comfort zone, or mine, a place that reaches out to comfort others with what you or I already love and know, and trust with all our hearts.

On Pentecost, we remember and renew the covenant of our own baptism as a way to return to the deep trust of what we already know. To remind ourselves in the words of the creed that we know God as Father and Creator; that we know Jesus as human and divine, as a teller of stories and a story we tell; that we already know the Holy Spirit who fills us with life and makes the connections that create community.

Baptism also reminds us to live in that story, to let the beloved story of God shape our daily lives, our comfort zones. We promise again to take comfort in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers, the promise of God’s forgiveness, the challenge of God’s hope for the world in a daily, regular, life-shaping way.

We’ll promise to proclaim Good News the way the disciples did – with the story we already know, the love we already feel, sharing the language of our hearts with the language of someone else’s heart.

We’re also hearing from our RenewalWorks team this weekend. They have planned a lot of ways to refresh and deepen your comfort zone with God, to help us see all the room for God to work that we already have in our hearts, receive the gift that we are already longing for from God.

The spiritual growth we are embarking on as a congregation, and the growth we’re each invited to as individuals, is not necessarily a leap into the unknown or uncomfortable.

That’s why you’re seeing an invitation to refresh your familiarity with God’s story this summer; to get more familiar with the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer, the books that are about the story we love.

To grow spiritually, to be disciples lit from within by the Holy Spirit, might not be as hard as it sometimes sounds.

It might already be within your comfort zone; it certainly grows from the language of your heart, the stories you already know, and the longing you already have for God.

I know that the Holy Spirit loves to meet us in that place of trust, and light up our hearts, two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, or here and now, today, so that we keep falling in love with the old story; so that the story stays fresh for us, and that we tell it, not only to others, but to ourselves, with deep and joyful love.

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best

Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;

And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song,

’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

I love to tell the story. Twill be my theme in glory

to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.