Receive God’s Holy Spirit

Today’s New Testament selection tells of Jesus’ post-Easter visit to his disciples.

We heard this passage right after Easter as a resurrection story, but today we hear it anew as a Pentecost story.

Today we focus on Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, granted through breath to each of the assembled disciples.

You, too, are offered this gift today.

Hear now the gospel according to John 20:19-23.

Here ends the reading of God’s holy word. May He add to our hearing and understanding His blessings. Amen.

Please pray with me.

Perplexing, Pentecostal God, you infuse us with your Spirit, urging us to vision and dream.

May the gift of your presence find voice in our lives, that our babbling may be transformed into discernment and the flickering of many tongues light an unquenchable fire of compassion and justice?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

Sermon

Singer, Mindy Smith, has a great song called “I Need a Hurricane.”

The lyrics include this line: I need a hurricane to straighten out this place; It may be the only way to salvage any sense I have left; to move on.

Sometimes, the only way we can accept or even allow change is when it comes swooping in with gale force winds.

God knows this about us, so when God sent the spirit that Jesus had promised it came with the roar of wind and the tumult of an earthquake.

Everything was turned upside down.

Tongues of fire landed on the disciple’s heads.

The crowds, gathered for the feast of Pentecost, each heard Peter preaching in a language they could understand.

This was all new.

No one had ever experienced such a thing before.

My guess is that no one who experienced that first Pentecost went away unchanged.

As I read the Pentecost account I can’t help but wonder why we think it would only be in the end times that ‘God’s spirit will be poured out upon all flesh?’

Why do we wait for some future point to hear the prophesies of our sons and daughters?

Couldn’t our young men see visions and our old men dream dreams now?

Does it have to be the end of the world as we know it for each one of us to feel God’s spirit poured upon us?

It does not.

God’s Holy Spirit is present in the very air that we breathe.

Each breath that we take is confirmation of God’s spirit alive in us.

This should make us dance with joy!

We ought to be shouting from the rooftops celebrating that God’s Holy Spirit is present here in our lives.

It is God’s spirit that reminds us each day of our blessedness.

It is God’s holy spirit that provides us with opportunities to serve.

It is God’s holy spirit working through us that reaches out a compassionate hand to a neighbor.

We do not have to wait until the end of time to hear the voice of others in our own language.

The amazing power of the Holy Spirit is that we can open new channels of understanding and compassion any time we want!

Reverend Kathryn Matthews characterized the Pentecost miracle this way:

The Spirit of God rushed in to empower many different kinds of people to do something astounding: communicate with one another effectively (a miracle in any age!).

“Communication problems” has become one of key catchphrases in our cultural battles.

A number of ills that might have been labeled differently in another time are now attributed to communication failures.

Perhaps this is progress.

Maybe our understanding of the impact of what we say and how we say it (or don’t) has evolved over time.

Maybe God’s Holy Spirit has brought us to this moment in time and empowered us with the knowledge that we have the ability and responsibility to communicate clearly, honestly, without prejudice.

If this is so, then we as Christ’s followers in the 21^st century have a job which far exceeds our biblical ancestors efforts to spread the good news.

Reverend Matthews continues: Bridges were built and crossed in a moment, and the differences among them, instead of dividing, provided startling illustration of God’s great power.

Beyond the differences of nationality and language, there was a fundamental unity that was not only touched but enlivened and experienced, profoundly, by many who were there.

I love that description: Beyond the differences…there was a fundamental unity…that enlivened…profoundly…many who were there.

Couldn’t we use some of that in our world today?

Well, if you think so – here is the good news.

You have the power.

God’s gift of the Holy Spirit resides in you…it is a part of who you are.

You can choose how to use it or not to use it at all.

Rev. Matthews concludes her reflection: Others scoffed and interpreted even the most amazing of events through the eyes and ears of cynicism, but those with hearts and minds that were open to the movement of the Spirit knew that a new day had come. 

My friends, a new day has come.

Pentecost marks a shift in the Church Calendar from God’s Story to Our Story.

After the months of remembering and entering into the grand narrative of God’s saving work, we now begin to explore the implications for us, and how we can become participants in building the kingdom of God.

Pentecost is the moment in which Jesus “passes the mantle of discipleship” on to us.

We know what God’s mission is, and now we have received his Spirit in order to continue his work.

So, while Pentecost is a gift, it is also a preparation, an empowering, for the work ahead.

As with any blessing – there comes responsibility.

Another writer acknowledged: As we seek to follow Christ in this world, we will face many challenges that are beyond our ability to overcome. We will encounter many people whom we would not naturally be able to love. We will confront many aspects of ourselves that we would rather deny than heal.

I would argue that these seemingly unsolvable problems do not exist in a spirit-filled life.

When we allow God’s spirit to rule us we are empowered to change our perspective from viewing others as problems to seeing opportunities to live out God’s call to us.

I spent a good part of this past week drafting wedding services for the five couples I will marry this summer.

It was a joyful task, finding different ways for these exuberant young people to express the love and commitment they have for each other.

I came away with one scripture verse resounding in my head, and heart: Let love be genuine, hate what is evil and hold onto what is good.

My friends, God’s holy spirit empowers us to love genuinely, to stand up to evil in the world and to hold on to what is good.

It takes more effort to resist these things than to embrace them.

I urge you to turn your life over to God’s holy spirit.

Watch for signs of grace throughout your day.

A new day has dawned and it is completely up to you whether you will be among the cynics and scoffers or among those dancing with joy and celebrating with near-drunken fervor.

As for me, I plan to dance.

Let us pray.

Gracious God of spirit and life, be with us this day as we discern how to let your holy spirit into our lives.

Help us, we pray, to dismantle the barriers that keep others at bay.

Grant us the grace to open our hearts and our minds to make room for the unbounding love with which you created us.

O God, we yearn to be filled with your Holy Spirit, alive to your presence in our lives.

Hear now our prayers this day for those whom we love.

For those who are sick, we pray for healing…Barbara, Ransom,

For those who mourn, we pray for comfort.

For all those in transition at this time from graduates to refugees, may each find their place in your sacred world.

We pray for the Earth, that we might have the wisdom and will to save her.

Come Holy Spirit, awaken us to the sacred

Nurture our relationships

Enliven our community of faith

Unite our parish families.

Fill us with joy to celebrate the fullness of life.

Watch over and guide us.

Send forth your light to help us see where you are leading us.

Send forth your gifts of wisdom, understanding, right judgment, courage, knowledge, reverence, wonder and awe.

Fill us with truth so that we may grow in our love for Jesus,

And be of greater service to our Creator.

Empower us to be a community of love, growing in your likeness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.