Revised Common Lectionary

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Sermon

Pentecost      

May 11, 2008                                   

First Reading :  Acts 2:1-21

Second Reading : I Corinthians 12:3b-13

Gospel:  John 20:19-23

God in the Present Tense

By Richard Holmer

Way back when I was a confirmation student I learned that the Church Year included three great festivals.  Like everyone else, I was well acquainted with the first two.  Christmas and Easter are filled to the brim with glorious trappings and traditions.  Christians look forward to these celebrations with eager anticipation.  Everyone wants to be in church on Christmas and Easter.  We know these stories by heart.  We love to sing the familiar carols and hymns.  We appreciate all the unique features of these celebrations.

But what about this other “major festival” of the church?  What about the festival that isn’t as rich in tradition and sentiment as Christmas and Easter?  This festival for which there aren’t a lot of memorable hymns, and certainly no greeting cards at Hallmark?  What about Pentecost?  What exactly are we celebrating here today?

*    *    *    *

We know that without Christmas there would be no incarnation, no word made flesh – NO JESUS.  And without Easter there would be no resurrection, no victory over sin and death, no hope of heaven.  So, what would we be missing without Pentecost – besides that reading from Acts which is filled with all those hard-to-pronounce names?

Consider this:  without Pentecost

• God would be mainly a God of the past, without much present or future.  Without Pentecost, there isn’t much of a role for the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, namely the Holy Spirit.

• Furthermore, without Pentecost, you and I would have no part in the story – we wouldn’t be here together today.  Without Pentecost, there would be no Christian Church.

Christmas and Easter are about what has already happened, what God has already accomplished. 

Pentecost is about what God is up to right now.  Pentecost is the celebration of the Holy Spirit:  God in the present tense.

Christmas and Easter focus on unique, historical events: Christ’s birth and resurrection. 

Pentecost is about an event that keeps on happening:  the coming of the Holy Spirit, with all the Spirit’s energizing power. 

Pentecost is God in the present tense, God acting in real time:  the God who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps US.

Pentecost celebrates the living God, the God who lives in us, in all who are baptized.

Christmas and Easter are the high points of the story told in the four gospels – a story that could be called, “The Acts of Jesus.” 

Pentecost is the starting point for a new book called, “The Acts of the Apostles,” that is, the activities of the followers of Jesus. 

At Christmas and Easter, God’s people are on the receiving end:  accepting and enjoying the marvelous gifts of God’s grace. 

At Pentecost, we find the people of God not only receiving, but also giving, doing, speaking, serving, reaching out.

At Christmas and Easter we celebrate the wonderful truth that God in Christ has acted on our behalf – he has saved us. 

At Pentecost we witness the beginning of people acting in the world on God’s behalf:  telling others of the mighty acts of God.

Christmas & Easter show almighty God over and above us, doing something for us, doing what we cannot do for ourselves.

Pentecost is God in us, empowering believers to do for others.

Pentecost is vital because it’s about believers reaching maturity, coming of age, taking responsibility.  It’s the story of a crucial transition.  Pentecost is a bit like graduation day.  On Pentecost, the students become workers, the disciples become apostles, the followers become leaders, the observers become participants.  This is a necessary transition in the life of every Christian.  Paul calls it “growing up in Christ.”  Yet many never quite make it to Pentecost.  There are a lot of Christmas and Easter Christians.  I’m not talking only about those who show up for worship twice a year.  There are also many who have never moved in their faith life from passive to active, who have never gone beyond observation to participation, who never really got very enthused about Christianity. (To be enthusiastic means “filled with the spirit.”)

*    *    *    *

At Pentecost it becomes clear that more than something you have, faith is something that has you.  It’s how you live, what you allow God to accomplish in and through you. 

Abundant life is God’s gift to us.  How we live this life is our gift to God.  It’s not that we ever outgrow our need for God:  our need to be loved, taught, fed, forgiven, guided.  You and I never stop being sheep in God’s flock.  It’s good to be a sheep, to have a shepherd.  But it’s also good to grow up!

Spiritual maturity involves learning the rhythm of a faithful, fruitful life:  discovering there is a time

to be fed and a time to feed.

to be loved and a time to love.

to be served and a time to serve.

to be forgiven and a time to forgive.

to be blessed and a time to be a blessing.

to follow and a time to lead.

One way to think about it is the rhythm of worship and ministry.  As it says over one church door:  “Enter to worship, depart to serve.”

Let’s be clear:  the Good News is (and always will be) news of what God has done for us.  We never move past our need for the goodness of Christmas and Easter.  It’s just that there is more to the story. The New Testament doesn’t end when Jesus ascends into heaven.  The Good News is also that God wants to work with us and through us.  And this is the message of Pentecost.

From the start of his ministry, Jesus didn’t work solo, but with his chosen disciples.  And then he left the work of the Gospel in their hands.  He even told them they would do greater things than he did!  Frankly, I’ve always been a bit perplexed by that remark, but maybe it’s Jesus’ way of telling his church:  “Make No Small Plans!” 

I recall the words of a pastor friend:  “Little, petty tasks attract little, petty people.  Significant tasks attract significant people.  So stop thinking small.”

It’s the Holy Spirit who inspires people to dream dreams, to have new visions, to think big, to aim high.  And then the Spirit moves us to roll up our sleeves and get to work.  The Holy Spirit encourages us, empowers us and challenges us to become more than what we are:  as individuals and as a church.  You could say: Pentecost is about Inspiration and Perspiration.

Now, to be sure, some may not welcome this.  Some may want things to stay just the way they are – both for themselves and for the church.  Maybe that’s why Pentecost has never caught on like Christmas and Easter:  it asks a lot of us, it changes us.

So then I ask you:  what do you hope for?  What do you hope for yourself, for your church?  Is your hope to somehow be able to maintain the status quo?  St. Paul would tell us that’s not really hope:

“Hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it (and work for it) with patience.”

 Romans 8:24-25

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the hearts of a small band of believers with a hope that they might make a difference – that God could actually use them to bless the world. They couldn’t begin to see what you and I take for granted:  a church that reaches the four corners of the globe – close to two billion believers. 

But they dared to hope for what they could not see, inspired by a Spirit they could not see. 

They dared to dream – and they dared to make themselves available to God.

They grew up.

We believe and serve a living God.

And Pentecost still happens, whenever and wherever God’s people are open to the Holy Spirit:

daring to dream

willing to change and grow.

Amen.

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