PENTECOST - We need the Holy Spirit

DAY OF PENTECOST Year C  June 5, 2022

• Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9  •   Psalm 104:24-34, 35b  •    Romans 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21  •   John 14:8-17, (25-27)

On the day of Pentecost there was a rushing wind.  I have to tell you, I have heard this story so many times, but it’s excitement never diminishes.   And that excited part of me listens each Pentecost, in anticipation, to hear the rushing wind, praying that we might all hear it too, and it will fall upon us all.  

 

On the day of Pentecost there was a sound that people heard with their very natural ears.  There was also, what appeared to be, tongues of fire over their heads, which they saw with their physical eyes.  In the church we talk about sacraments and we celebrate these significant events.  A definition of a sacrament is that it is an outward physical sign of an inner spiritual reality.  We know that something was happening on this day of Pentecost.  There were numerous outward signs and it was undeniable that God was doing something.  An outward sign of an inner and spiritual reality - it was more than physical -God did something that changed those followers, and it changed them for life.

 

The coming of the Holy Spirit was dramatic, yet in the lead up to this point Jesus constantly speaks of peace alongside his talk about the Holy Spirit.  We’ve been reading, since Easter, that Jesus breathed on the disciples and urged them to receive the Holy Spirit.  We also discovered that the word for breath and spirit, in both the Greek and Hebrew language, are the same.  In Greek it is Pneuma and in Hebrew it is Ruach.  When Jesus breathed on them, he also uttered words of peace, and again today, in our Gospel from John we read that Jesus tells them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” 

 

Peace that the world gives is circumstantial.  The Peace that Jesus brings is beyond circumstances.  It is supernatural and it is necessary if we are to be his followers, because there is much in this life that will cause us unrest and something will even rock us to our core.  The disciples had experienced things to upset them, but they also lived in a time when lives were fairly easily taken.  Jesus had now risen from the dead and now, even more than ever, Jesus urges them to accept his peace. 

On the day of Pentecost, it would seem, that there was upheaval at all that was happening.  Outwardly, life was dramatic, but inwardly with the peace of God, Peter no longer denies Christ, but stands and proclaims him as the Messiah.

 

Peace is to be at ease in all circumstances, but the “Shalom” that forms the Jewish greeting was about also having peace and a right relationship with God.  We can be very sure that we have shalom with God through the sacrifice of Jesus.  We are certain that we are accepted by God because Jesus is the willing the lamb of God.  He IS God, but he accomplished this for us.  And he says – PEACE I give you.  This peace was bought at a high price – we need to stop thinking that we need to do something to make us acceptable to God….. There is nothing we can do, other than give thanks and accept his gift.

 

It is somewhat like this - If we desperately needed a car, and someone drove one to our driveway, wrapped it up and handed us the keys.  We then ignore the car and go on foot to the bus stop moaning about how we need a car.  This is the same as us not realizing the peace, the love and acceptance we have with God.  But if you find it hard to comprehend that God has forgiven us and brought us peace, you are not alone…. Why do we think that Jesus had to say it so often to his disciples?

 

The disciples were a loyal group of Jesus’ followers who were praying and waiting for the advocate – the helper, that Jesus had promised to send.  Do you ever wonder what would have happened to the church if the Holy Spirit had not come?  These followers of Jesus had a personal relationship with Jesus.  They had witnessed miracles and listened to the teachings of Jesus.  Then, they had not only seen Jesus die, but they witnessed him risen from the dead.  What more could they need to be effective witnesses, changing the world?  In the university of the way of God, what was missing for these followers to be qualified?  Surely they had everything!

 

Yet that point, they did not do any changing of the world.  They prayed behind locked doors.  Nothing much changed… until that day of Pentecost.

 

What does this mean for us today?  At this point I bring your attention to the humble balloon.  A balloon that is not blown up is prepared for service, but not serving its purpose.  Are we fulfilling the purpose for which we have been created? 

 

Are we a vibrant community making a difference and adding thousands to our numbers each day?  If so, we no longer need a Pentecost experience.  Are we a people who can carry on as bearers of peace and comfort to our community in the face of disaster?  If we are filled with the Holy Spirit we should be. 

Martin Iles from the Australian Christian Lobby had a short video recently (episode 91) reflecting on covid 19 and noted the covid experience brought three things; fear, deception and division.  My observation is that it not only brought these things to the community, but sadly fear, deception and division were experienced by the church also – although we hope, at least to a lesser degree. 

 

But where is our peace?  Where is this peace that Jesus gives?  In the video, Martin talks about the early church and their response to a plague.  The plagued community would throw bodies out into the street, even before they were dead.  However, the Christians at that time, were completely different, and they would care for the sick, sometimes contracting the disease and dying themselves.  The Christians were calm.  They were peaceful, caring and loving because they had the peace that the world could not give… they had the peace of Jesus.  To care for others was how Jesus explained, that we were keeping the law.  This was the point of his telling the story of the Good Samaritan.

 

The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost.  It just so happened that Pentecost was a feast of giving first fruits to God, but it was also a feast commemorating the giving of the law to Moses and the people of Israel.  From a little research on the web I found that there were definite parallels between the time on Mt. Sinai and the coming on the Holy Spirit.  At the time of the giving of the law there were also dramatic events.  A sacred Jewish text says this; “When a word had issued from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be His Name, in the form of sparks or thunderbolts or flames like torches of fire … then a flame on the right and a tongue of fire on the left would fly through the air and return and hover over the heads of the Israelites, and then return and incise itself into the tablets.” https://jewsforjesus.org/blog/the-jewish-roots-of-the-feast-of-pentecost

 

The Old Testament Israelites were afraid and asked Moses to be the mediator for them.  In our New Testament story the disciples needed no mediator, the Holy Spirit filling them had an immediate effect and they themselves became those stone tablets declaring the wonders of God in languages unfamiliar to themselves, but identified by the many people who witnessed them. 

 

The Holy Spirit indwelling the disciples had the effect that Jesus told them in today’s Gospel; “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Peter was suddenly filled with understanding and explained this as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel.  Peter was familiar with scripture and the sayings of Jesus, but up until this point many things were not clear…. Suddenly he understood and proclaimed the Good News.  This is the same Peter who was so scared only a month and a half earlier, that he denied Jesus.  Now he openly, not only professed to know Jesus, but proclaimed His message.

 

It is obvious to me that we need this same out pouring of the Holy Spirit today.  In different generations there are revivals… I think we are overdue for one.  But how does it start?

 

When I was in primary school I remember being told, the Holy Spirit will come when you ask him.    We have free will.  We will always have free will, but prayer is about lining our will up with God the father’s will.  God has already given us the Holy Spirit… it is His promised helper.  It is a gift he gives, but is it like that car in the driveway that we are overlooking… not using… perhaps never unwrapping?  We plead with God for change in our community, not realizing that he has given us every gift that we might need.  If we have accepted Jesus in our life, we have everything…. He has already given it to us…. But are we enjoying that gift… utilizing it, getting to know and understand it?

 

Before the Holy Spirit came, Jesus breathed on his followers and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.  There is some debate about whether this was Jesus actually already giving them the Holy Spirit or simply the command to receive the Holy Spirit when it came.  Certainly, he breathed on them, indicating the nature of the Holy Spirit.  As breathe is to physical life, the Holy Spirit is to spiritual life.  We are spiritually alive because of the breath of Christ who said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”… and breathed on them… much perhaps like it might be if I breathed gently into this balloon.  It takes shape, it is identified as a balloon.

 

When we are baptised we are given the gift of God and all that he has for us, but as I have already said, we are not necessarily using that gift.  I like to think that the disciples also had been given all that Jesus had to give them, but on the day of Pentecost the gift of the Holy Spirit was activated.  The disciples were told to wait for the Holy Spirit.  They were together on the day that commemorated the coming of God’s law with signs and wonders, and suddenly something similar happened.  This time the law is not written on tablets of stone, but in the minds and hearts of God’s people.

 

Waiting for activation means that we have all the goods, but a final action is needed – for example, a credit card that needs you to sign it, or an account that needs you to verify your email account by clicking on the link.  In fact what all these things are waiting for is your “OK” – in Christian speak, we’d say, it is waiting for your, “Amen” – amen, meaning “Yes, so be it”. 

 

The Holy Spirit is still with us today, but God always waits for our free will to align with his.  Can we say, “Yes! Come Holy Spirit”?  When we do, we become like the balloon fully filled with air… fulfilling its purpose and achieving its potential.  Come Holy Spirit be mightily activated in our lives.   Can you hear the rushing wind?  Listen…. Pray… wait…. Receive the Holy Spirit.

A New Commandment (Easter 5c, May 15th, 2022)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER   Year C   May 15, 2022

• Acts 11:1-18  •    Psalm 148  •    Revelation 21:1-6  •   John 13:31-35

 

In the weeks since Easter we’ve been presented with various resurrection messages from our readings.  Firstly, reflecting on an experience with God we are called to transform.  Then we, the transformed and converted, are challenged to believe fully and know what we believe.  This week we learn about how God wants us to live.

 

Our reading from Acts tells the story of Peter being challenged by the circumcised believers.  Firstly, we need to understand that these are Jews, and that the first Christians were Jews.  Sometimes we forget this and the fact that there are many Jewish people still, who are Christian.

 

Now these Jewish Christians of Peter’s time were people who understood the Old Testament scriptures and how the prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus.  Those who were not circumcised – the non-Jews-  could not possibly understand the message they way that they did.  As well as this, those Jewish Christians felt that Jesus was their personal Messiah, and the Messiah of their own culture - it was a promise that God made and revealed to his chosen people – to them.  In fact, there are many things that we miss, or don’t understand in the scriptures because we don’t know the history or the culture in which the scriptures were written.

 

In the tradition of these Jews, there were many rites and rituals, and as a people who’d just found and accepted the Messiah, their zeal and passion for their faith was renewed.  As you know, some of these precepts laid down in their law were that you didn’t eat certain foods, and many things needed to be done certain ways.

 

Imagine that someone today, who had never known anything of church, suddenly became a Christian.  They might walk into a church wearing a shirt with a profane saying on it, or they might call out during the service, not realizing the way that we do things.  It would be rather unsettling.  But this pales in contrast to the kind of thing that the early church was facing, as they had many rules about keeping their sacred things separate from the Gentiles (i.e. the non-Jews).

 

Peter had been shown a vision where God clearly called him to do something that, in his tradition, was forbidden.  The vision had been shown to Peter three times and this is one of those things that Peter understood from his culture, that the matter – being shown three times – meant it was a contract… It was confirmed and made sure.

 

I imagine that Peter, at this time, though obedient to God’s call, was still perplexed.  When Peter went and shared the message of Christ to the non-Jewish people and the Holy Spirit came upon them, it must have blown Peter’s mind.  At this point he understood that the message of God’s salvation was offered to all and not just to the Jewish or “chosen” race.

 

Throughout the Old Testament there are scriptures that declared that all the nations would be blessed through Israel, but just how that was interpreted, it seemed, was different to the reality.  (Genesis 22:18 God to Abraham – “And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”).  My guess is that Israel saw themselves as some how being the leaders of the world.  They were, after all, God’s chosen people. 

 

Revelations is a book of prophecy and prophecy is fulfilled in a variety of ways. Our reading today tells us; “ …the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

This is a declaration for the future, but it is also a declaration for today.  God himself, through his Holy Spirit, dwells with us.  Although we do still have pain and mourn, we also know that Jesus has overcome death and that there is eternal life in him.  There is a more complete fulfillment of the prophecy to come, but we have a foretaste now in the presence of Jesus with us, through the Holy Spirit.  In this ultimate prophecy there is no distinction between Jew or Gentile (us – the non-Jew).  We all have this promise through the resurrection of Jesus.

 

In this verse we have an understanding about God.  He understands our tears.  In fact, there is a Psalm that tells us that God collects our tears.  We are so precious to him and he cares so much for us that he counts every tear as precious.

 

Our Revelations reading ends with; “… "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”  Note this collision of identity between Jesus and God, confirming the deity of Jesus.  He is the beginning and the end… God.  Are we thirsty?  Are we thirsty for the life that God gives?

 

The life God gives and His message of Salvation is always a bit of a surprise.  The people always expect a God of power, wrath and vengeance.  God is a God of power.  God is a God of such passion that the ancient writers spoke of his wrath… but his wrath is out of love for his people…. An anger due to our actions causing others or even ourselves harm and pain.

Today, we read about the story of Peter, a Jew fully accepting the Gentile believers, and we naturally think of the divisions in our society.  We think of divisions that have happened over the years and beliefs that proliferated racism.  Surely in 2022 we realize that such beliefs are wrong, and if we don’t, then possibly, we have not understood the message of Jesus at all.

In case it isn’t clear enough from the story of Peter in Acts, we have the same message coming from our Gospel reading.  The same message, but different. Where our Acts reading makes it clear that both Jews and Gentiles are loved by God, our Gospel message is simply to love one another as Christ loves us.  In my mind, if we love one another there is no room for racism or other divisions.

 

In our Gospel reading it begins with something curious which seems to be disjointed from the new commandment to love one another.  And when something appears to not fit, it is always worth looking into more deeply as then we find that it is actually crucial to the interpretation.  The Gospel reading begins by talking about Glory.

 

The word for exalt or glorify actually means to lift up on high.  All through the Gospel of John the language Jesus used, often spoke about himself being lifted up.  He was talking about being lifted up on a cross.  Literally he was lifted up on the cross, but the deeper meaning is that he was exalted … ..  almost a play on words, but Jesus’ interpretation is deliberate and it comes to its culmination in this passage where Jesus talks bout being glorified by the father.

 

How this being lifted up and being glorified fits with the whole message is that Jesus is actually redefining Glory.  Glory isn’t about being above others, lording it over them.  Glory, in the economy of Jesus, is to lay down your life out of love for others.

 

Jesus continues his message with the giving of a NEW commandment.  This is also a little puzzling, as Jesus always talked about loving others and summed up the commandments into loving God and loving others.  The key to understanding how this could be a NEW commandment is to realize that it was new because there was about to be a new understanding of what love actually was.  Jesus was going to the cross out of love for you and me, and he asks that we love each other in the same way that he has loved us.

 

To say the two greatest commandments, is easy.  It is simplified into loving God and loving others, but to love one another as Christ has loved us is somewhat frightening because it means laying down our lives for each other.

 

Practically, what does it mean to lay down our lives for each other?  It doesn’t mean meekly laying down and letting people walk on us.  We love our kids and we don’t do this, so please don’t misunderstand.  However, we put up with a whole lot of impositions for our children.  We sacrifice our time, our money and so much energy for our children.  We will argue with our children to show them the way that is best for them because we dearly love them, and when they still make bad decisions, we are still there to help them out regardless.  We make sacrifices for our children, and will even bare their resentment if we know it is for their good in the end. 

 

It is easy to understand God’s kind of love when we think in terms of our children.  When it comes to each other it is more difficult because our relationship is as equals and not as a parent to a child, but the analogy is worth thinking about as it helps us to understand our responsibility to each other and how we need to love.

 

Often, we are happy to disagree with each other, but we don’t do it out of love and it is obvious.  The interactions don’t contain an attitude of love nor any indication of laying down of lives one for the other.  We are all the children of God and he has given us his Holy Spirit.  God dwells in each of us.  We can not actually keep the first commandment to love God if we do not also keep the second commandment and love others, seeing as God is dwelling there.

 

Peter knew that his own people would criticize his actions and possibly ostracize him because of it, but Peter was willing to bare that shame because God had commanded him.

 

For Jesus to be arrested was an embarrassing thing.  To be spat at, whipped and all manner of taunting, was humiliating – and he was God incarnate.  What the world saw as shame, Jesus called it glory.  We too are called to live gloriously with this redefinition of Glory and the New understanding of the commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us.