Brothers and sisters in Christ, good morning!

I wish you a happy birthday. It is the birthday of the church. Today is Pentecost, and it is the church's birthday.

Let's stop and think for a moment what happened on this remarkable day in church history. The Bible says that the disciples were gathered together in one place. What does that mean? Jesus had risen from the dead on Easter, and about 40 days later we celebrate His ascension into heaven. He stood at the top of a hill and ascended into heaven and vanished from the disciples' sight. And in the time after that, the disciples asked themselves, "What are we going to do now?"

They were scared. There were the Romans, who didn't like what was going on with Christianity. The Jewish leaders didn't like what was going on with Christianity. So the disciples were in trouble. What did they do? They pulled their wagons into a circle, so to speak. They hid in the upper room. "They were gathered together in one place." They were a group of scared human beings. That's where it all started.

And the Bible says, "Suddenly, there was a sound like the rush of a mighty wind." Imagine a mighty wind filling the room. And then, the Bible says, there were points of light, tongues of fire that appeared and seemed to rest on the heads of each person. Red is the liturgical color of fire and of the Holy Spirit. Think of the Methodist logo - the cross and the flame. The flame of the Holy Spirit, of God's energy, is symbolized in the Methodist logo.

There was the sound of a mighty wind, and there were tongues of fire resting over every head. Each person was illuminated with light. And then, the Bible says, they began to speak in many languages. The sound of talking filled the room. From fear and from frozenness came energy and sound. >From stilled voices came raised voices. That's what happened at Pentecost. And those people who were locked in that upper room spilled out of the room. They opened the doors and went out into the streets. They began to talk to people, each in their own language. Phrygians and Pamphylians, Medians, Elamites, Dolomites - there were all kinds of people there.

The point is that each person heard the disciples talking in his or her own language. Today we might say, "There were truck drivers, and there were Princeton rocket scientists, and there were teachers, and there were homemakers. There were people who picked up trash and there were people who worked in restaurants."

That's how the church got started, with each person receiving the Holy Spirit in his or her own way. And they asked, "How can this be? This is amazing!" These people were so enthusiastic, someone said, "Maybe they're drunk." And Peter stood up and said, "No, they are not drunk. They are filled with God's Holy Spirit. It was predicted in the Old Testament, and it is true today, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In other words, they will have a good relationship, the right relationship with God, which promises them peace on earth and joy in heaven."

What do we know from this Bible story? We know three things. We started with a bunch of scared human beings all together in one room. The second thing we know for sure is that the Holy Spirit of God came and started the church. This gathering that you see today, and the church universal, is not a human construct. It is something that was started by the Spirit of God. That's the point of the Pentecost story.

The church was not started by a bunch of disciples gathering together in the upper room saying, "Well, you know, Jesus had good philosophical premises, so maybe we should bind ourselves together into an organization, claim that He is risen, claim that the Holy Spirit somehow came down and blessed us, and we can start this great organization and eventually we can give up our lives and we'll start a church."

"That sounds like a good idea, Peter. All in favor say 'Aye'."

And Thomas says, "I'm not so sure, but okay."

That's not how the church got started! It started with a group of human beings who were scared out of their minds. Only one thing could start the church of Jesus Christ, and that is Jesus Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit. So He came down in this new form and breezed through us all, through the disciples. God intervened, and now we have empowered human beings. That's the third thing we know. Now there is confidence and strength where before there was only fear. And the disciples burst out of their room confident because God had changed their lives. And that is how the church got started.

There is only one way the church could get started, and that is by the power of Almighty God. And there's only one way the church could keep on going, and that's through the power of Almighty God. We see it all the time. We try to be faithful Christians, but we look around the world and we see Christians and preachers doing things that are discriminatory, disappointing, dumb. We say, "How could the church survive?" There's only one answer - God! The Holy Spirit is what started us, the Holy Spirit is what keeps us going, and the Holy Spirit is what will keep us going long into the future.

That's why today's sermon title is "Close Encounters of the Spiritual Kind," because I'd like to maintain to you, my friends, that that's not only how the church got started, but it's how we keep on going. The Holy Spirit is available in your life and mine today. It is not a static element; it is not a philosophical concept. It is a dynamic spiritual energy that is as alive today as it was then.

How do you get the power of the Holy Spirit into your life today? May I suggest two things? Invitation and Inspiration.

Invitation is active. Remember the last statement that Peter quoted from the prophet Joel? "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." There is an action there - we call upon the name of the Lord. "Lord Jesus, come into my heart and empower me. Lift me up from my frozen fear and give me confidence." And He will do it, because Jesus always says yes. If you want to get the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life, if you want to be less fearful and have more strength and possibilities, invite the Lord in, and He will change the setback into a setup for a comeback.

How else do you invite God into your life? By being ready for a blessing. What radio station do you have your clock radio set to in the morning? You can have a news station or public radio and get all the bad news that's fit to broadcast, you can have some stations that aren't so good to listen to, or you can have WAWZ, 99.1. Why not? Let there be some good sounds coming into your ears first thing in the morning, some positive thoughts. That will invite the power of the Holy Spirit to move us away from frozen fear and into a positive future.

Read the Bible. Let me tell you, I sat for a long time this week with a man who is in a very difficult position. But he told me that he had made a choice. He could be enormously bitter about his situation, but instead he has decided to read his Bible and to place his faith in his future in God. There is a brightness in his spirit, and he is going to come through and be all right. He is inviting the Holy Spirit into his life, and I invite us to do the same thing.

Come to church. Pray. Let God take away the fear and replace it with confidence. Those are ways to get the Holy Spirit active in your life, through invitation.

And the second way is through inspiration. God is not invasive, but if you are open to it, the Holy Spirit of God will breeze through your life, even when you are not exactly asking it to. When I was in seminary, there was a situation over which I was extremely depressed. It was hard to study, and I remember being at my desk, reading my seminary books, and I heard this declarative sentence: "If you are truly a man of faith as you say you are, then you will know that I will not leave you in the midst of this situation." I sat bolt upright. I thought, "Wow! Did I hear that?" It was a very subtle, 'feeling' sentence that went through my mind, and it was of the Holy Spirit.

How do you know if it's of the Holy Spirit? It's of the Holy Spirit if it is positive and loving. That's the test. Listen for it. Sometimes in the midst of your saddest and toughest moments, the Holy Spirit will inspire your life. Inspiration and invitation.

Let me close with one more story about inspiration and about close encounters of the spiritual kind. Doris Nystrom, our beloved Doris, a founding member of this church, passed away two weeks ago. I was thinking about her funeral, planning it, and I became mindful that she was a violinist. I never heard her play, but I knew she was a violinist. I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have a violinist play at her funeral? I remembered that Linda Chang had come to our church once and said, "If you ever need a violinist, let me know."

I thought, what are the chances that she'll be available?" But I called her, and she said, "Yep, I think I can do it. What would you like me to play?" I tell you, friend, from the moment that I had started thinking about Doris's funeral and the violinist, I'd been hearing a beautiful piece in my head, "Meditation from Thais" by Massenet. I kept hearing it over and over. I asked Linda, "Do you know the "Meditation from Thais"?" And she said, "No, I don't. But I can play these two pieces for you." So we put those in the bulletin.

Laura Bell came up to me and said, "You know, I have the music for that piece. I can rehearse it with her." So they did rehearse it. The morning of the funeral, they said, "We can do it. Do you want us to play it for the prelude?" I said, "That would be great."

Just before we began the service, my secretary came up to me, pointed to the bulletin, and said, "Do you know you put in one hymn twice?" It was right in the middle of the service, and I knew we'd have to do something else. I said, "Laura, can you play another piece there?" She said, "How about 'The Meditation'?" So there it was, right in the middle of the service, "The Meditation from Thais", beautifully played by both of them. It went well.

At the cemetery, I was talking to Doris's daughter Chris. Chris was very grateful for the service, and she said to me, "Thanks for having the violinist there. It was so nice. Everything she played was so beautiful. But you know, there was one piece in there - I don't know what it was called, but it was in the middle of the service -..." I said, "That was the 'Meditation from Thais'."

Chris said, "Yes, it was beautiful. A funny thing about that piece - I remember so clearly, as a child, sitting at the top of the stairs and listening to my mother play that piece in the living room. It was so beautiful to hear that."

The Spirit still speaks. There are still close encounters of the spiritual kind. Do you want to get close to the Holy Spirit? Invite the Spirit in. Let the Spirit breeze through your heart, and you can rise from fear to faith, from frozenness to strength and confidence, because God loves you. I do, too. Have a wonderful week. Amen.