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Sunday May 15, 2005 - Pentecost, Year A

Today
we celebrate the feast
of Pentecost.

Like the Ascension last week, it's one of the more peculiar seasons
of the Christian year.
From Easter Day
we begin counting
and when we reach fifty
that's Pentecost,
the feast of the Holy Spirit.
In some churches, everyone wears red to match the liturgical color of the season; in others
they do the bible readings in foreign languages, remembering that first Pentecost when the disciples were suddenly able to tell the good news of Christ in a bunch of different languages; in still others
they celebrate with a birthday cake as marking the beginning of the church.

But if someone came up to you in the street
and asked you what this Pentecost thing
was all about
I wonder what you would answer?

Christmas is easy; it's about a baby,
and Easter about death and new life,
but Pentecost
is a lot more difficult to explain.

You see, red clothes and foreign languages and birthday cakes are all
good things to do,
but if that's all we understand
about Pentecost,
then I suspect we've missed the point.
We've lost sight of what's at the very heart of this festival,
and that, of course,
is the Holy Spirit.

I wonder what comes to mind
when you think of the Holy Spirit?

Wind? Fire? A dove? Some strange supernatural being? Or maybe even some kind of Godly ghost?

For the last couple of weeks,
the lectionary has had us read
through part of the gospel of John.
It's a part when Jesus is speaking
his final words to his disciples
before he goes off to his death, and it's there
in the reading we had a couple of weeks ago, that we were introduced
to this Holy
Spirit.

It is the Advocate, the comforter,
a kind of holy helper
to be with the disciples
in the times
when they are
most alone.
It's this Spirit
that we experience
when we are aware of the presence of God
with us
in a time of grief
or trouble.

But the Holy Spirit
that the disciples experienced that very first Pentecost
was not exactly
a comforting presence.
In fact
it was something quite different.
Listen again
to how it is described.
"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 violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as f fire, 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."

This Spirit
was no gentle comforter,
this was no holy helper.
The coming of the Spirit
that first Pentecost
was a violent, maybe even frightening, event.
It came with a rush of wind,
more like a hurricane or tornado
than a playful breeze,
with the flames of earthquake and wildfire.
It was as if the earth
as they knew it
was breaking open! -
as indeed it was,
God breaking in
to this world
in a new
and different way,
a way that was no respecter of the artificial boundaries
of race and language,
of civilization and culture.
Was it any wonder that the crowds
were bewildered, even afraid?

"Breathe on me breath of God" we sing,
but I suspect we think of a gentle breeze
rather than a fierce wind and flames,
we think of something softly inspiring us,
not being caught up in a gale
like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz"
being taken to a whole new life.

Because this in-breaking of God
as Holy Spirit
was revolutionary. It didn't just unsettle the disciples;
it turned their world
upside down.

It signaled the end of one thing
and the beginning of something else.
Their lives as they had known them
had come to an end,
and with the arrival of the Holy Spirit
everything had changed.
Words came from their mouths
which they had no knowledge
to speak,
acts of healing came from their hands
which they had no training to do.
They were caught up into something
far bigger than themselves
and far more powerful
than they had ever known,
and this
was the coming of the Holy Spirit -
whether they liked it
or not.

A generation later
the church was still trying to understand
what the coming
of this Holy Spirit
was all about.

And so we read, in a letter of advice from the apostle Paul
to one of the churches in Greece,
that the Spirit
gives gifts.
Gifts that don't belong to our ordinary categories
of math or English,
sports or art or music,
gifts that don't belong
to our ordinary lives
of work and shopping and childcare.
but gifts which seem to belong
far more
to the realm of God,
or at least the supernatural.
Gifts like working miracles
and prophecy
of wisdom
and faith.
The in-breaking
of the Holy Spirit
was not just
about tongues of flame
and sounds of wind,
but about
people transformed, doing
and being
what they could never
have imagined.
And its clear, at least in the opinion
of the Apostle Paul
that these gifts
are their calling,
and that they'd better do
something about it.

Once again the people of God, the followers of Christ
they have been propelled out of their ordinary lives
into a whole new world
of faith - whether they liked it
or not.

So then, what does it mean
for us to celebrate Pentecost today?
What does it mean
for the Holy Spirit
to come among us?
What does it mean
for God
to have broken in
to our world?

For all the changes
in the last twenty centuries
since the time that books like Acts and 1 Corinthians were written,
I suspect
that there are some things
which haven't changed.

Now, just as then,
there is no Jesus
wandering round
being God for the world.
Now, just as then, God chooses to rely on us
the followers of Jesus
to do all that God would do
in this world.
Now, just as then,
God breaks in to our world
through the Holy Spirit
and turns things
upside down.

Unless
God has changed,
we
are the ones
gifted by the Holy Spirit;
unless
God has changed
we
are the ones
called to be Christ
in this world.

Its an awesome, a life-changing
responsibility.

And there are times when I wish
that Pentecost
had never happened.
There are times when I wish
that God would leave me alone
to live my life,
just an ordinary person
in an ordinary world.

Following Christ
is enough for me;
I don't need
this Spirit business,
I don't need
this sort of call
on my life.

But like it or not,
this Holy Spirit
will not leave me alone. Like it or not
God keeps on breaking into my world
throwing me gifts
and expecting to use them.
That's the way it is.

And that's the way it is for you too.
For unless God
has made a radical change
in the way God works – and as far as I can tell, God hasn't,
unless God has made
a radical change
then God continues to gift us
and God continues to call us - each of us -
to bring the gifts of God
into our world.

And that means, if Paul got any of it right
that some of you
may have gifts of wisdom, and some gifts of knowledge,
I guess what we would call insight.
Some of you may have gifts of faith,
able to inspire others with your strength, and to wait patiently
when other people are ready to give up.
Others may have gifts of healing
not just of the body but also of the mind and spirit.
Some of the gifts
seem far-fetched today, or to belong only to our Pentecostal friends
gifts like miracles, and prophecy. But they have their time and place, just like some of the gifts spoken about in other places in the New Testament, things like teaching and prayer, hospitality and encouragement and even administration, gifts which, to be honest, fit better
with our Episcopalian culture!
And if you're not sure
you can see yourself there
in any of those categories
take a look around this church;
take a look around this community
and see what gifts are needed.
Because the Holy Spirit
gives gifts to us
for the sake of the community;
the Holy Spirit gives gifts
for the sake of us all.
And if something is needed
to keep the community of faith
whole and healthy,
if something is needed
to make Christ visible to the world,
then God will give someone the gifts to do what is needed —
as long as they are listening and willing to do what God is calling them to.

God gifts us
and God calls us — each of us —
to bring the gifts of God
into our world.

And yes,
if we are prepared to hear this
it has the potential
to turn our lives
upside down
just as it did
for the disciples
that first Pentecost.

For that is what Pentecost is all about,
God
breaking into this world
transforming it
calling it into faith
through us,
the sometimes uncomfortable,
sometimes afraid
sometimes faithful
people of God.

Breath on us, breath of God.
Fill us with life anew,
that we may love what you love,
and do what you call us to do.

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2005