When I was in high school, my friend Tom and I regularly visited a music venue known as Pine Knob where we made extra money buying and selling tickets to rock concerts. We would stand outside the gates offering to buy surplus tickets from guys who’d been stood up or gals whose friends had been grounded, before turning around and selling these tickets for a few dollars profit – just enough to pay for our own tickets and, of course, a beverage of choice.

Nearly every time we did this, at least one person would offer to sell us ‘Backstage Passes.’ Yes, these were exclusive tickets that always came with a hefty price tag and looked like they had just been run off some Xerox machine. So we always balked on those suspicious offers. Except that one night, when a little known British band was in town, and a couple of young men with English accents, claiming to be roadies looking for beer money, gave us the opportunity to relieve them of their backstage passes on the cheap.

Since Tom and I had made our money for the night, we figured we’d take the gamble and give these roadies the chance to complain about how watery Budweiser was, as we exchanged cash for their passes and went in to the show.

About halfway through the concert, which we enjoyed far away from the stage, my friend Tom looked over at me and said, ‘This band is really amazing! Remember those backstage passes?  Let’s go see if they’re real.’ So we flagged down the closest usher, who pulled out his trusty flashlight, examined both sides of our passes, then straightened his appearance before saying, ‘Oh yes, these are real, come with me gentlemen’.

As we followed that usher I couldn’t help but be overcome with excitement, ‘Wow, look where we’re going, those roadies weren’t lying, we’re going to meet this band, these backstage passes are real!’

Pentecost is a bit like this. 

It’s when we remember that the promises of God are real.

The God those early disciples read about in the Bible, heard about from their friends, and felt most deeply in their hearts – showed up in a rushing wind and tongues of fire - that God, is real.

Many of the troubles you and I experience stem from our difficulty in living into this reality. We worry about money, job security, medical challenges, and relationship issues – that ask big questions of our faith: will God take care of us, will we be remembered, is everything really going to be OK? The Pentecost answer is, ‘yes’ – we have not been forgotten, we have not been abandoned, this whole Christianity thing is the real deal.

Pentecost says don’t be bogged down with life’s anxieties, be buoyed with the reality of God’s presence; the One that’s promised in the Bible, witnessed to by the Eucharistic community, and that we feel in our hearts.

So how can we live more deeply into these promises today? How might we more completely trust in the pledges God has made to you and me? Given God's presence in our lives - how can we use this assurance to better reach out to the world around us?

Reading

Made to Stick – Heath Brothers

Becoming a Blessed Church – Graham Standish

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak