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Day of Pentecost Lesson: Acts 2:1-21
May 31, 2009 Psalm 104:25-35; 37b
The Rev. Raymond Gotko Epistle: Romans 8:22-27
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
Today is the Feast of Pentecost, a very old and revered celebration. The Christian Feast of Pentecost is named so because it occurs 50 days after Easter, seven weeks after Easter. Seven is the number that represents completion. On Pentecost, we celebrate the completion of the ministry of Jesus. Actually, Pentecost is a renaming of the Jewish Festival of Shavuot, literally the Festival of Weeks, seven weeks after Passover plus one day, which is 50 days. Shavuot is also called “Yom Habikurim” or “Day of the First Fruits,” or “Chag HaKatzir,” the Harvest Festival. It was on this way that people were supposed to bring a tenth of the first fruits of the harvest to the temple. This is the wrong season for harvest in the United States, but in Israel, the growing season is the rainy season, from December through April. May is a harvest month. Shavuot also is the celebration of the giving of the Torah. Every year Jewish congregations renew their acceptance of God’s gift of the Torah, the Law of Moses.
This background to Pentecost is appropriate because first the strange story we heard about “tongues of fire” this morning occurred to Jesus’ disciples who were celebrating Shavuot in Jerusalem with thousands of other Jews from around the known civilized world. Secondly, Shavuot, alias Pentecost, celebrates a gift from God to the early followers of Jesus. Often called the birthday of the church, on Pentecost we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus. For Jews, it is the Torah that leads one into all truth. For Christians, it is the Holy Spirit that leads one into all truth – at least that is what Jesus said of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
So, on this day, we have a tension of truth between the written Holy Scripture and the unwritten movement of the Holy Spirit. Resolving the two is sometimes difficult. The recent debate involving sexuality is a case in point. Which shall we follow – literal Scripture or the Holy Spirit? Must we make a choice, or are the two – Holy Scripture and Holy Spirit – entirely consistent? Questions like these can be unsettling.
Today we celebrate not only the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, but also baptism. (At 10:00, we will baptize four infants into the tension of Holy Scripture and Holy Spirit, the Christian life.) Four new people are here in the front pews, completely unaware of what is going on. They are in the process of being formed into full humanity, to take their place as leaders in the world. It is our hope that they will work for justice with mercy and for love of God, neighbor and self. That hope will only be realized if they continue in the “fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.” Why? Because, it is by being part of the Christian community that we are formed to take our place as faithful witnesses to the truth of the Gospel and to the love of God that is available to all.
The point of the strange story of the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit is not the strange experience. The point is that the story completes Jesus’ ministry, his reason for being at all. The whole of the Gospel leads up to this story. Without the story, Jesus would have ascended into heaven and the disciples would have been left alone, wondering what their time with Jesus had been all about. The giving of the Holy Spirit tells us that the Church, we, are not left alone to grope our way in life. God has sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.
The giving of the Holy Spirit means that our lives are continuous with that of Jesus. Jesus lived, died, was resurrected to new life, ascended into heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit of holiness that he shared with the world. He sent the Holy Spirit to lead us to be servants of God in the world. We live in the world, but we are not of the world. We live in the world as servants in the Kingdom of God, working for love and justice with mercy, being salt for the earth, being light to the world. We have a very important role to play. Remaining in the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in the prayers, is very important, not for ourselves only, but for the good of the entire world.
At the end of the morning, there will be four new Christians waiting to be formed into the image of Christ. It is a lifelong process that begins at home, then continues in the community. Living such a life means that we surrender our will to the love of God, the Holy Spirit, the Christ life. How? As the modern hymn tells, “Let the Son of God enfold with us his Spirit and his love. Let him have the things that hold us (from that love), and his Spirit, like a dove, will descend upon our lives and make them whole.”
And in doing so, we can then “Go forth for God in peace, in joy, in strength, in love, to strengthen the faint hearted, give courage to the weak, help the afflicted, hold fast the good, render to no one evil for evil, serve the world in his name.” Having done that, there is no fear for this life or the life to come. Fearlessly facing the future we say, Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
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