John 14:8-17, 25-27 & Acts 2:1-21 • June 9, 2019
Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
We celebrate one of the great festival days of the church this week. As important as Christmas and Easter without the shopping, credit card debt, and Easter bunnies.
Today…we celebrate Pentecost.
Pentecost is a celebration of the breath of the Spirit of God being received upon the first followers of Jesus. It is the start of what we now know as the church. The beginning of the Jesus movement so to speak.
Every year on this day we hear two readings from scripture – the first is from the book of Acts. A reading of nations and names that gives even the most experienced reader of scripture a little anxiety when they are asked to serve as a liturgical reader in church on this day.
The second is always from the gospel of John. Although the text varies from year to year, the readings from John are all highlighting times when Jesus is trying to explain, again and again, that God will send someone else to be with the disciples – the Advocate or the Holy Spirit –after he has returned to the Father. This is a teaching and a truth that I think disciples like you and me still struggle to believe or understand today.
And I don’t think we are struggling to understand these stories and our place in them today just because we heard it for the first time today in Pastor Selva’s native language of Tamil rather than English.
I’m guessing, there is a distinct possibility, that many who are gathered here today did not follow much of what was being said in either of today’s scripture readings. Either because you didn’t understand the language being spoken or you don’t have any idea what the difference is between the Parthians and the people who live in Cappadocia. Well, brothers and sisters, you’re not alone if you feel this way.
Those who witnessed the day of Pentecost as told to us from the book of Acts and those who had been following Jesus for nearly three years by the time the story in John’s gospel takes place, they didn’t get it either.
It’s ok if we feel like we need to join them and say “What does this mean?”
What does this mean? for those who were gathered in that house and experienced the Spirit descending upon them as tongues of fire. Well, for one thing, it meant a new life. Life as they knew it before that event and life after that event was different. A sudden and new way of being that would send them out of the confines of the house they were gathered in and into every house, on every corner, in every part of God’s creation. Truth be told, if Pentecost didn’t happen, nobody outside of this small little circle of friends would have heard of the story of Jesus or what impact this Jesus might have on them or on the world.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
What does this mean? Well, for Lutheran Christians, you and I believe that we receive the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. And because of that truth, the Holy Spirit is alive in us…right now. We are being sent every second of every day to proclaim and share the good news of Jesus wherever we are with whomever we are with. As part of the faith community known as Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, you and I do this in some pretty amazing ways and places.
Within the membership of our congregation, we share the peace of Christ with one another by actively welcoming people who gather for worship; or by hosting Day Camp with our bible camp, Camp of the Cross; or by providing compassionate care for families following the death of loved ones.
You and I also do the Spirit’s work through our financial and physical support of local ministries like Ministry on the Margins, Heaven’s Helpers Soup Café, and Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota.
The Holy Spirit also works through us as a Cornerstone Congregation of Lutheran World Relief helping sustain coffee farming committees in Nicaragua or through our shared ministry with our sister church, Cristo Rey Lutheran Church, in Santa Ana, El Salvador or across the countries of the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Madagascar.
The language of the Spirit’s work may sound one way as dozens of Day Camp kids run through the hallways of our church joyfully celebrating Jesus’ love for them, and sound completely different as people gather over the casket of a deceased loved one at the beginning of a funeral worship service. Both of these sounds of the Spirit were heard in our congregation this past week.
In every person, it’s the same Spirit.
The same Spirit that is calling you and me into this work as Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
The language of the Spirit’s work may sound one way through Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota as we provide more than 1,000 units of quality, affordable housing to brothers and sisters in every corner of our state. Brothers and sisters who would otherwise not have a place to call home if it wasn’t for the Spirit’s work through us. And the Spirit’s voice may sound completely different as Cristo Rey Lutheran Church provides a sanctuary of peace on gang and drug infested Salvadoran streets. Streets where the smell of poverty is often overcome by the smell of gunfire and blood.
In every place, it’s the same Spirit.
The same Spirit that is calling you and me into this work as Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
The language may sound and look different from one place to another, or one person to another, but it’s the same Spirit at work, bringing peace and wholeness in a world filled way to full with division and brokenness.
One theologian offered this insight on Pentecost that further illustrates what I believe God is trying to say to us through the sermon this week.
“The writer of John’s gospel describes it this way – the Advocate, the one whom the Father will send, will teach the disciples everything they need to know. God is not yet finished revealing who God is, and the disciples are not yet finished learning. Through the Spirit of truth, the disciples will do the work of Jesus, and his life will continue through them.
In holy baptism, the Spirit rests on the heads of young and old alike. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the baptized have an old, old story to tell of Jesus and his love – and a new, new story of how God is birthing sudden, surprising, and unmerited life all around us, every day. God is at work, here, now in the world through the lives of everyday Christians. Jesus’ work continues through the lives of all the baptized. We discover meaning from this Pentecost story today, not only for our own sake but for the sake of the world that so hungers for this life.” [www.sundaysandseasons.com]
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Spirit’s work in you doesn’t mean that you have to run off to Nicaragua or serve on the summer staff at bible camp or even agree with all of the work that God calls us to do together through Good Shepherd or the other 151 congregations of the western North Dakota Synod or through partner ministries like Lutheran Social Services or within our denomination of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The fact remains that God is calling us to do God’s work. That the Spirit is at work through you, and through me. Period. That’s what Pentecost is all about. That’s what Pentecost means. That’s why Pentecost is so important for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus.
Let me leave you with one simple way that we can demonstrate the Spirit’s work and presence in our lives even before we leave worship today. As you look around this sanctuary, I’m guessing you’ll see someone you do not know. I invite you to reach out to that person with a greeting of Christ’s peace when we come to that time in our worship service. In other words, don’t just greet those you already know when you share the peace of Christ today.
That simple act of sharing Christ’s peace with someone you don’t know, may be a great blessing to the one receiving Christ’s peace from you. It may bring peace to someone whose life may not be very peaceful today. It’s one simple way that the Spirit’s work through us is bringing us one step closer to that day when everyone will call upon the name of the Lord. Come Holy Spirit, come. Amen.
Bishop Craig Schweitzer 
Leave a Reply