Why Celebrate Pentecost?

The following sermon is based upon the following scriptures:

Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17
Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, 25-27

These can all be read by clicking here.

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Out of all the reasons I can come up with as to why we celebrate Pentecost,
I want to deal with two this morning:
The first has to do with pride and prejudice,
and the second is all about power.

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin, is considered by many to be one of the great English novels.
Set in the early 1800s,
this satire of courtship and marriage in English society,
tells the story of Elizabeth Bennett,
one of five daughters of a country gentleman and his matchmaking wife.
Elizabeth meets Mr. Darcy at a dance.
And at first glance, he appears prideful, rude and arrogant.
Naturally, he and Elizabeth are immediately at odds,
and as they continue to be thrown together in social situations,
they continue to spar.
Darcy, however, begins to fall in love with Elizabeth,
and this is despite the fact that he considers her well below his social station and has even advised one his friends not to marry one of Elizabeth’s sisters.

Eventually he proposes to her,
but listen to his proposal:
Mr. Darcy:  Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months have been a torment. I came to Rosings with the single object of seeing you… I had to see you. I have fought against my better judgment, my family’s expectations, the inferiority of your birth by rank and circumstance. All these things I am willing to put aside and ask you to end my agony.
Elizabeth Bennett: I don’t understand.
Mr. Darcy: I love you.
Only then does he ask for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage.
Can you imagine a marriage proposal from a man who has called you inferior, and who has said seeing you was against his better judgement?
Mr. Darcy is just filled with all kinds of pride and prejudice.

Of course, the same could be said of Elizabeth,
she has her own pride and prejudices,
especially against those in the upper class of society
And it is not until the very end of the novel that we find her willing and able to admit as much.

Pride and prejudice -
they have been with human kind from the beginning and stay with even now.
You may know that one of my favorite Mac Davis songs,
in fact the only one I know,
has to do with pride:

        I used to have a girlfriend
        But I guess she couldn’t compete
        Because of these love-starred women
        Who are clamoring at my feet
        Well, I probably could find me another
        But I guess they’re all in awe of me
        Who cares, I never get lonesome
        ’cause I treasure my own company

        O Lord, it’s hard to be humble
        When you’re perfect in every way
        I can’t wait to look in the mirror
        ’cause I get better looking each day
        To know me is to love
        I must be one heck of a man
        O Lord, it’s hard to be humble
        but I’m doing the best that I can.

He says he sings about humility,
but we all know it’s really about pride.
Of course pride has it’s dangers.
A young woman named Mary asked for an appointment with her pastor to talk with him about a sin that concerned and worried her.
When she saw him, she said,
“Pastor, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I cannot control.
Every time I am at church I begin to look around at the other women,
and I realize that I am the prettiest one in the whole congregation.
None of the others can compare with my beauty.
What can I do about this sin?”
The pastor’s reply:  “Mary, that’s not a sin, why that’s just a mistake!”

We are a prideful people.
We always have been.
A quick look at Genesis 3 shows us that pride was at the root of the very first sin.
You remember what I’m talking about.
God has given Adam and Eve all that they could ever want,
with just one small caveat:
Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for on the day you eat it, you will surely die.
And what happens?
The serpent tells them that they won’t die if that taste the forbidden fruit,
no, he says, for as soon as you eat of the tree,
you shall be like God,
knowing the difference between Good and Evil.
To be like God,
to overstep our bounds,
it’s nothing more than pride.

Just ask the builders of that tower in Babel.

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To read the rest of this sermon, click here.