This couple is married 60 years, 

And the husband’s upstairs in the bedroom dying. 

But he smells homemade chocolate chip cookies. 

He can’t resist. 

He crawls out of bed on hands and knees, 

Crawls slowly down the stairs, 

Crawls to the living room, 

On hands and knees to the dining room, 

Crawls slowly into the kitchen. 

Reaches his hand up to get a homemade chocolate chip cookie. 

He was about to grab a cookie- 

The wife slaps his hand and says, 

“They’re for the funeral.” 

[Laughter] 

Nice wife. 

How do you describe the indescribable? 

A football player is interviewed as confetti rains down 

After his first super bowl win. 

And he says, “it feels like I’m floating on the air.” 

A hospital patient’s asked how it feels after 

Successful surgery to remove cancer. 

“I feel like a kid again, like everything is possible.” 

And a man is asked how he feels to lose his loved father 

After a very sudden heart attack. 

He replies, “i feel like the pillars of the earth 

“Have been shaken. 

“Nothing is safe anymore.” 

How do we describe the indescribable? 

We talk in metaphors. 

We use poetry. 

We gesture with our bodies. 

In short, we speak in slanted language 

Because straightforward speech is just too inadequate 

When trying to describe the indescribable. 

So how do the first leaders of the church 

Describe the experience of the coming of the holy spirit? 

And the best definition of holy spirit is, 

“The mysterious presence of God in each one of us.” 

The holy spirit is a mysterious presence of God 

In each one of us. 

So for Pentecost, they were filled with courage, 

New insight, a new intimacy with God. 

It was a shaken experience, to be sure. 

It was a life-changing experience. 

That’s what it was like. 

It was like a rushing might wind falling upon them 

Or breathing a new life creation within them, 

But ensured it was not like anything 

They’d ever felt or experienced. 

How do all of us, no matter our age, 

Talk about the holy spirit? 

Because the holy spirit and Pentecost, 

Fears turn into purpose, despair into direction, 

And disgrace into grace, with the earliest apostles. 

A woman is in line waiting to check out, 

And she was passed an envelope, one person in front of her, 

Be given to her. 

Someone had written on the envelope, 

“There’s $50 in this envelope for your groceries. 

Take it if you need it, or pass it on.” 

This was at the grocery store. 

The woman passed the envelope to the person behind her. 

She then watched it go through the line, 

To the next line, to the next line, to the next line, 

Which she noticed was so amazing. 

Now one person took a penny out of the envelope, 

And many people put money into the envelope. 

The spirit of God moved through the line of shoppers 

In that and through that envelope. 

Anytime, any place, where compassion and generosity, 

Selflessness and humility control people 

To do what is right and just, especially among the poor 

And toward those who need the help most, 

The spirit of God is moving. 

Remember this, the spirit of God loves us 

Just the way we are, and the spirit of God loves us 

Too much to leave us that way.