Pentecost 2016
The readings
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together
in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a
violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided
tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
1 Corinthians 12:1-13
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do
not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were
enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to
understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be
cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now
there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of
services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is
the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the
Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various
kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are
activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just
as the Spirit chooses.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all
the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For
in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or
free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
A note for online
readers who were not at worship on Sunday, May 15. For worship, I completely
changed the order of our service. We
started with a few hymns, then celebrated communion (which is usually the end
of our service). After our sacred meal, we confessed our sins, prayed, shared
the peace, had our readings and ended with this sermon)
Sermon for
Pentecost 2016
If you are
like me and accustomed to church being comfortable, with everything done a
certain way and all of our rituals and practices in a particular order, then
this has probably been a very strange experience for you. For most of my life, as a Roman Catholic, then
a Lutheran, then a seminary student learning proper worship and then a Lutheran
pastor organizing and presiding over that proper worship, church has always
followed a familiar pattern. Today, virtually
every part of our worship was shifted around.
We started with communion, are ending with this sermon and rearranged
everything in between. The pattern and
ritual of worship is part of a very long tradition, going back to those first
churches that apostles like Peter and James and missionaries like Paul founded
in the years after Jesus life, death, resurrection and ascension. Our worship is done in certain ways for good
reasons, to help tell the story of God’s love, to provide people with a comforting
and shared experience, to praise God by obedience, and affirm our connection to
all the saints who have gone before us through worshipping God in the same
way. The changes today are not something I decided
to do lightly and I owe everyone here an explanation of what just happened at
church and why we celebrated Pentecost in such an unusual way.
Pentecost
literally means the 50th day and it is the Greek name for the Jewish
festival of Shavot ( an important day in ancient Israel which celebrated the
giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai).
For the sparse, confused, and hopeful Christian Community gathering 10
days after Jesus’ Ascension to celebrate Pentecost, everything was about
change. This feast would take on an
entirely new meaning, their lives, the church and the world would never be the
same. This particular Pentecost, the first one after Jesus resurrection, his
followers experience the fulfillment of a promise spoken through the prophets
centuries before Jesus birth, by Jesus throughout his ministry and in Jesus
final minutes on earth, in the moments right before the risen Christ ascends to
God. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 14, we hear "I will put My Spirit within you and you will
come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I,
the LORD, have spoken and done it," declares the LORD.'". In the
book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 44, verse 3
'For I will pour out water on the
thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your
offspring And My blessing on your descendants; In both cases, this promise is spoken to a
broken people, to bring comfort to the anxious and reassurance to the suffering
that God is still in control and God’s promises are still good.
In all 4 gospels, especially at Jesus Baptism
and at the Ascension, we have that promise of the Holy Spirit
At the end
of Luke chapter 24, verse 49, Jesus tells his followers to wait, to not do
anything until the Holy Spirit comes. "And
behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to
stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
In John,
chapter 15, verse 26 as Jesus prepares his disciples for his death,
resurrection and their work, , we hear "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is
the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,
In the start
of Mark and Matthew, at Jesus Baptism, John the Baptist repeats this promise
Mark Chapter 1 verse 8 “I baptized you
with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” and Matthew
chapter 3 verse 11 "As for me, I
baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is
mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire”.
On
Pentecost, this longed for, expected, promised, hoped for event happens, the
Holy Spirit comes to the world. Now this
promise is not fulfilled with a gentle ocean breeze, or the soft whisper of a
dear friend, it comes as a violent, disruptive wind and consuming fire. Pentecost is not fully understood, quiet,
private and well organized. It is
unsure, loud, public, and chaotic. The first thing the Holy Spirit does is
cause this mysterious, attention grabbing
ability to clearly share the story of God’s love revealed through Christ
in all different languages. They are
speaking about “God’s deeds of power”, talking
about God’s love, Christ’s resurrection, the power of God to act in the world,
Jesus healings, miracles and signs, the invitation to baptism and a lifelong
relationship with God. This gets
everyone’s attention. The crowds are amazed, in awe and very confused. Some actually dismissed Jesus followers as
drunk (which might make sense if they were just rambling incoherently. They are
speaking properly in languages they have no business knowing). Peter, standing
with the disciples, does the only things he can, he proclaims Christ, dead and
risen for the forgiveness of sins to the crowds.
None of the disciples could hide in a room, wait around, quietly pause to figure out what was going on, plan the next steps, write out and edit a message or argue over the best way to go from there. They could not simply do what they did yesterday. Everything has changed. They would have to speak, to explain, to open the scriptures and point to God’s love revealed by Christ.
During these
moments, no one had any idea what was going on. The crowds and the disciples
were not sure what was happening or what to do next. The
crowds knew something big just occurred right in front of them but needed help
to understand. On one level, the
disciples knew Jesus’ promise would be kept, that the Holy Spirit would come,
but I am not sure they were prepared for it. When the Holy Spirit does break into the
world, Peter and the others do not have time to think, stall, or wait. Remember, a few days ago, this group of
disciples were still hiding, locked in rooms, a little afraid and a little
excited, trying to recover from the incredible emotional storm that was
watching Jesus arrested, put on trial, being executed, rising from the dead and
ascending into heaven victorious over evil, sin and death. They are now the center of everyone’s
attention. There would be no hiding from
Pentecost. Peter and the others are driven to do the only thing they can, to
follow Jesus instructions in his last words “Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”. The
sudden arrival of the Holy Spirit hits them unprepared, with nothing to lean on
other than this Holy Spirit. That is enough though. At the end of Peter’s
message, the first Christian Sermon, 1000’s are baptized and the church
begins.
That is at
the heart of today’s changes in our worship.
Church is the experience of God breaking into the world, disrupting
things and changing us. As God’s people, we do not lean on ritual, wisdom or
always having the right words, we lean on the Holy Spirit. We do not pray, worship and live out our faith
in a stable world, where things always work out the way we want or even the way
they should. Things are often a mess but at the center of this mess is God’s
love for us, that is all we have which never changes. No matter what happens,
God’s promises are still good. Salvation does not come from saying, doing or
thinking the right things, salvation comes because Christ is risen from the
dead and that is enough. When we do not know what to say, we say Christ is
Risen. When we cannot figure out what to do, we listen for the Holy Spirit in
the world.
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