Scripture Readings: Acts 2:1–21 | Psalm 104:24–35 | 1 Corinthians 12:3–13 | John 20:19–23
“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.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13) Happy Pentecost. Here we are, fifty days after Easter, celebrating one of the central festivals of the Christian faith. Today we rejoice in God’s gracious gift of the Holy Spirit… His personal presence and power, poured out onto His people… enabling us to do far more than we could ever imagine. Many people consider Pentecost to be the birthday of the Church: the defining moment when the new community of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord first came into being… the beginning of a whole new era… God’s new creation coming to life in the middle of the old creation... dramatically upending history, and opening up a new way forward. But what exactly is the point of Pentecost? What was it God intended to accomplish by pouring out His Holy Spirit on His people? What is this “new creation” supposed to look like? What is the Church being empowered to do? Or maybe it’s better to say, what are we being empowered to become? Just like the Ascension, which we explored last week, the story of Pentecost is not an isolated episode… a strange story that stands alone. Pentecost is a part of the whole arc of God’s great story, which finds its center in Jesus Christ… in what He has done, and in what He is still doing today. Last week we spoke about how when Christ Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father in Heaven, His eternal reign as King of all Creation had begun. And just before He ascended, as Jesus told them that He was returning to His Father, He promised them He would soon send them the ultimate helper and gift: the Spirit of God. Christ commanded them to wait in Jerusalem until this all came about. There was so much for them to do, but they couldn’t do it on their own. To truly be His witnesses in the world they needed God’s own power at work in them. And today, on Pentecost, we heard that this is exactly what happened. 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.” God’s Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, and filled them with His holy presence… just like God’s holy presence and glory had filled the Tabernacle and Temple long ago. But unlike the Tabernacle or the Temple, the centre of the Church Jesus Christ the Risen Lord would not be bound to a building. It would be the new community itself where God’s holy presence would dwell… the people of Jesus were now to be the “place” on earth where all the world could encounter the Living God. We Christians are to be the sacred sign of the Life of Heaven at work in the world… spreading out from Jerusalem to the farthest corners of Creation. But is this really the story of the people who claim the name of Jesus today? Does the world around you and I catch a glimpse of the life of the Living God when they encounter us? It’s not an easy question to answer. We know there are many Christians living faithfully today, who through big and small ways are making known the New Creation that God is bringing about. Their work may not make the headlines these days, but the seeds of the Kingdom are still being faithfully planted, tended, and watered… and will produce the harvest the Lord is bringing about through their labours. But we also know that there are many today who use the name of Christ as a weapon… a tool to try to build up their own kingdom, or tear down those who oppose them. For many of our neighbours today, “Christians” are simply one of the various factions fighting over control of our society… using “spiritual” language to get their own way in the world. And we know that these devastating temptations to bind the Christian faith to this or that cultural movement or political party are nothing new. They’ve been forces pulling at the Church for centuries… almost from the start. All throughout our history, Christians have also followed the ways of the world… tearing down and lashing out at anyone we see as enemies. And even seeing it as God’s plan somehow to use His power to push and keep them down. You might think I’m being a bit extreme. But I’m not. Tragically, I’m not. There are lots of those who, like us, claim to follow the ways of Jesus today, who truly see themselves at war… and they’re on all sides of the divides that are tearing our society apart. Those who think the “Christian” thing to do is to tear down all who stand in their way. Is this what the Living God had in mind when He created the Christian Church? When He poured out His Holy Spirit, His personal presence and power, onto the people of Jesus? Is this what we are to celebrate at Pentecost? Or is there something more? Thankfully, the actual story of Pentecost found in the Scriptures paints us a very different picture about what this New Creation Community of the people of Jesus is to look like… the kind of power that is still at work in it, and how we are to take part in it today. In a word: Pentecost is about Peace. God’s peace breaking out into our warring world. That first Pentecost we read about today, Jerusalem was a city divided. Jewish pilgrims who had been scattered across the Mediterranean world, had gathered in the Holy City for one of the sacred festivals of their faith. Coming together, even despite their cultural and linguistic differences, bound to each other only by their devotion to the Living God. But when the Holy Spirit of God shows up, suddenly, these scattered Israelites were being brought together in a whole new way: by the Good News of the Messiah, Jesus the Risen Lord, which they could somehow all hear in their own languages. We know how hard it can be to understand… to draw near to and share our hearts with people from other cultures. It’s not impossible, by any means! But still, there are lots of barriers. I mean, just consider how hard it can be for people from different generations of the same culture, even the same family to truly understand one another. Imagine that day, when suddenly strangers from so many different nations, so many different ways of life, were suddenly in an instant all on the same level? All spoken to in the language of their heart, with no need for translation? All suddenly equally invited to take part in this new thing that God was doing? That first Pentecost, suddenly, all sorts of divisions were overcome. God’s scattered people were able to truly come together… they were reconciled, setting aside the differences of language, culture, and distance that so often keep us apart… invited together to believe the Good News of Jesus, and to let it change their life. From the very start, the Church has been a community of reconciliation… of those who were scattered being reunited… a broken body being renewed. God’s Holy Spirit’s first action that first Pentecost was to bring God’s people back together. Again, when we look around at the Christian Church today, true unity is hard to see. The strong temptations to cut ourselves off from each other… to divide up the Body of Christ for all sorts of reasons, have also been a constant danger for centuries. Our own Anglican tradition is no stranger to these tragic divisions. Even though we often try to hold to the Via Media, the “middle-way”, we too can easily let ourselves become estranged from our sisters and brothers in Christ… ignoring, competing with, or even fighting against each other, all the while thinking we’re doing God’s work, and faithfully following His ways. Again, thanks be to God, Pentecost points us to the work of the Holy Spirit in overcoming these deadly divisions, and how He intentionally uses our differences to bring God’s blessings to life! In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle makes this claim: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, “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.” Right here we find, not an argument for conformity, but a vision of the one true God working with variety. With real differences, but all aimed towards a common, good purpose. St. Paul goes on to describe all sorts of ways that the one Holy Spirit empowers God’s people, not so that they can be independent, but so that they can depend on and be blessed by their brothers and sisters in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “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.” Racial, class, economic, and social divides… all broken down by the one Spirit of God. All believers are equally invited and empowered to share in God’s new community. One might be a hand, another a foot. Yet another an eye or an arm… yet all belong together. All have a true part to play. All suffer when one is cut off. Such is the Spirit’s work in the Church, drawing us together, with all our differences still intact, to show the world what the reconciling love of the Living God really looks like. This is, of course, something that neither the first Christians, or disciples like you and I today can do on our own! Even the most sincere efforts we humans make to be truly united end up in trouble. To become one, we need God’s own power to break down the walls that we have build up between us. Only when our attempts at reconciliation flow from Him will they gain ground. But as important as Christian unity is (and I believe it REALLY IS important!), this is only the beginning of the heavenly peace, the New Creation that Pentecost has opened up. For the people God’s Spirit had gathered together in reconciling love, were soon to be sent out and scattered among the nations to share God’s love with everyone. As we heard last week, right before Jesus ascended into heaven, Acts 1:8 tells us that Jesus gave His followers a promise and a mission. He said to them “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The Holy Spirit was going to empower them to be Christ’s witnesses, His messengers and heralds, sharing the Good News of God’s reconciling love through Jesus Christ. Not just with their own people, but with their neighbours, and strangers, friends and foes alike… with everyone. Jesus sent them out into the world. Not just to their fellow Jews, but to all nations. To those who already believed in the Living God, and also to those who do not! To those who have very different commitments, and convictions… very different ways of life, to share the Good News with them too! Inviting them to believe in Jesus, the Risen Lord and become His people too. The same promise and mission of peace was told in our Gospel reading today, which tells of the Risen Christ’s first encounter with His disciples . after His resurrection: John 20:19-22, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ” Now in many ways, the Gospel of John presents the story of Jesus differently from Matthew, Mark, and Luke… but that doesn’t mean the same Spirit is not at work in and through it! For John, the giving of the Spirit happens on Easter, but the overall message is the same: Jesus, the Risen Lord brings the personal presence and power of the Living God to His people, so that they can be sent out and share with others… what they themselves have received. And what is that? Here, Jesus says it’s His peace. The peace of God’s love… reconciling sinners to the Living God through what Jesus Himself accomplished… once and for all making peace between Heaven and earth through His blood on cross… sacrificing Himself in order to save His enemies… to bring true life to the very ones who brought about His death. We Christians have often tried to use the powers of the world… violence, coercion, force, to bring about our vison of Christ’s Kingdom, but this only contributes to tearing apart the New Creation God Spirit is bringing about. The Spirit of God is given to us to draw us all together in the love of Christ. Christ gives us His peace at Pentecost, and this is the seed from which God’s New Creation is grown: Peace with God, peace with one another, and peace to share with everyone. But to do that… to become a people truly shaped by Christ’s peace today, we must also become a people shaped by forgiveness. The forgiveness of God, of one another, and forgiveness shared with everyone. In our Gospel reading, St. John tells us the Risen Christ tied His peace directly to practicing forgiveness: Jesus “breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The forgiveness of sins, like the fiery glory of God, was another way that the Church of Jesus was like a new Tabernacle and Temple, for that was where God’s people would go to be reconciled to Him, and to their neighbours. But instead of bringing sacrifices to the Christian community to be forgiven, Jesus had already sacrificed His Holy life on the cross to bring them forgiveness. Yet the Church community was now to be the place where this forgiveness could be encountered… could be made known, and experienced. Where the freedom from guilt, and shame, and broken relationships would become a lived reality. Overcoming the barriers that divide people today is impossible without forgiveness. There is just too much hurt, too many wounds, and guilt, and shame, and fears on all sides to move forward without God’s forgiveness at the core. And if we read through St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon, we’ll find that forgiveness is at its core too. From the first breath, the Church has been calling us all to believe the Good News that Jesus is the Risen Lord… and that He has given His life to rescue and reconcile world to God. That everyone, that all of us, must turn around and embrace this gift of forgiveness… not only for ourselves, but for each other, so that Christ’s peace may reign in us, and the world come to know to power of God’s saving love. So how can we faithfully respond to the message of Pentecost? What are we being asked to do? Or to let the Spirit of God do in and through us? We’re called to believe, repent, and forgive. We need to believe the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord. To take this truth to heart, and let it be the foundation of our lives. To entrust ourselves wholeheartedly to the arms of our loving Saviour, and cling to Him always. We need to repent… to turn away from those old sins and temptations that kept us in the dark, tearing ourselves and each other apart. We need to step back from of our self-centered divisiveness… and let God’s love lead the way. And we need to forgive… to share what we have ourselves received from Jesus: to look at those who have hurt us, and who might even seem to be our enemies, in the light of the cross of Christ. To recognize one another as those Christ loves and has died to save… just like you and I. Of course, we can do none of these things on our own. We need the gift of God’s Holy Spirit… His presence and power at work in us to believe, repent, and forgive. And this is the promise of Pentecost: that God really has poured out His Holy Spirit, and is at work even now in the lives of His people… doing what we can’t do on our own: making us into the place where the blessed life of the Living God is truly known here on earth, and where the peace of Christ in His beloved Creation has already begun to reign. Happy Pentecost everyone! Amen.
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Rev. RObRev. Rob serves as the Priest-in-Charge at St. Luke's Gondola Point, and as the School Chaplain at Rothesay Netherwood School Archives
December 2024
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