The Breath of Life
May 12, 2008Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 11, 2008, Pentecost Sunday, Year A
Psalm 104:24-34; Acts 2:1-21
Today, we are celebrating a very special birthday in the life of our church. Yes, Cecil Yeatts is celebrating his 80th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Cecil! 10 more years and you’ll get to celebrate your 90th like Billy Johnson did yesterday! And yes, today also happens to be my birthday. Happy Birthday, me! But more special than these two birthdays, today is Pentecost Sunday, a day on the Christian calendar in which we celebrate the birthday of the Church. Today, we celebrate our birthday as the community of faith of Jesus. Happy Birthday, all of us!
It’s always been interesting to me that we go all-out celebrating the birthday of Jesus during Christmas and we make a big deal celebrating the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, but when it comes to celebrating our birthday as the Church of Jesus Christ, many Christians, we Baptists included, mostly ignore it. In fact, I’m willing to guess that most evangelical churches today will emphasize Mother’s Day more than Pentecost Sunday.
Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating Mother’s Day and recognizing the role that mothers play in bringing forth, sustaining and nurturing life. After all, everyone in this room came into being through a biological mother. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here today. Our mothers carried us in their wombs for around nine months, giving us sustenance and life during a time when we couldn’t do that for ourselves. And then for many mothers, they had to go through a painful labor and delivery process. Bill Cosby once quoted Carol Burnett’s description of what labor pain is like: “Take your bottom lip and pull it over your head!” And through all the breathing and the pushing, our mothers gave birth to us. And we can all be extremely thankful for that. Even so, no matter how much our mothers did for us while we were still in the womb, once we were out, we still had to draw our first breath of life in order to stay alive out in the world apart from the protective cocoon of our mother’s womb.
On that first Pentecost Sunday described in Acts chapter 2, Jesus’ disciples went through a similar birthing experience. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Michael
