Don't Sell That Cow

Sermon: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Pentecost,  6-12-11

(Acts 2:1-21, 1 Cor 12:3b-13, Jn 20:19-23)

“Your sons and daughters shall prophesy.  Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.”  1 Cor. 2:17

The wise Mother Superior was dying.  The nuns gathered around her bed, trying to make her comfortable.  They gave her some warm milk to drink, but she refused it.  Then one sister took the glass back to the kitchen.  Remembering a bottle of whiskey the convent received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened it and poured a generous amount into the warm milk.  Back at Mother’s bed, she held the glass to her Superior’s lips.  Mother drank a little, then a little more.  Then, before they knew it, she had drunk the whole glass of milk down to the last drop.  “Mother, Mother,” the nuns cried, “give us some wisdom before you die.”  She raised herself up out of bed with a pious look on her face, and pointing out the window, she exclaimed.  “Don’t sell that cow!”

The message is “don’t sell the Holy Spirit.”  We need the Holy Spirit and He is just as available as the bottle of whiskey that most households have.  It is no surprise that on the first Pentecost when the apostles, full of the Holy Spirit, found their courage and their tongue, or should I say tongues, they were accused of being drunk on new wine.  Alcohol and the Spirit have been associated down through the ages.  In fact, the word spirits is an alternative word for alcoholic beverages.  The word spirituality comes from the word “spirit,” which means breath or wind.  We ask the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us, light our fire, to help us speak as we have never spoken before.  And when the Holy Spirit breathes on us and in us that wind may lead us to dream of things that never were and to have the courage to pursue them, to sing our hearts out and to dance before the altar of the Lord as did King David.

Oh yes, alcohol and some other drugs (alcohol is a drug) in small amounts may do some of these things for some people.  We do serve sacramental wine in our Communion, but basically it’s a false substitute for the real thing.  Some folks should not take it even in small amounts because it takes them, through no fault of their own.  The real thing is God, the Holy Spirit, who not only enables our young people to see visions and our old people to dream dreams, but enables all of us to realize those dreams.

Let me ask you this.  When you were younger did you have some dreams, some goals you wanted to accomplish, some far off places to visit, perhaps a college degree to finish, a reunion with alienated loved ones.  These dreams got postponed for any number of good reasons and you just kind of gave up and forgot about them.  Think about it.  What was your vision for your life?.  What is that vision now?  Is that vision totally unrealistic?  Maybe some adjustments are needed in the dream, but it might not be impossible to attain.    

When my father retired and became a recluse my mother stayed home with him even though she had wishes and plans she had hoped to realize.  When we would say, come on up to Michigan and visit us, she would say, I can’t leave your father.  He can’t get along without me.  When she was close to death she regretted she had not pursued her dreams.  After she died my father did not lack for ladies to care for him.

If you are young, get in touch with your bliss.  What are your visions?  Don’t give up on them.  It is really easy to become discouraged now because of the economy and lack of jobs, but times will improve.  Do you want a better world for everybody? Then look for opportunities to contribute to that.  Robert Kennedy before he died was quoting someone, I don’t know who, with the words.  “Some people see what is and ask why, I dream of things that never were and ask why not.”  The Apostles were not drunk on new wine that first Pentecost. They were on fire with the Holy Spirit and look what they accomplished, things that never were.

Look what we have been able to accomplish here at St. Stephens, because people had visions and then got a group to support them. And by golly it happened and will continue to happen.

So, on this great feast of Pentecost let’s look at our cup as half full rather than half empty, or maybe as full of milk, fortified milk at that.  Let’s continue to sing with gusto and today, like King David, dance before the Lord.  You are invited to dance your way out of church today.   The recessional hymn is “Lord of the Dance.”  Instead of stopping at the back door I am going to keep going and dance into the daylight.  Would every able bodied person please follow me and dance before the Lord in your own style.  You don’t have to dance the Macarena, but at least move a couple of body parts you don’t usually move.  John Jawing