June 5, 2022 – Pentecost Sunday

The gift of the Holy Spirit is for each and every one. The potential love and power of God working in us is limited only by our imaginations.

Let us bow our heads in prayer.  O God of love and power, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us.  Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day.  And may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

“This is the day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Pentecost is one of the most important festivals of the Christian year – certainly in the top two or three. This is when God’s whole purpose in the life and ministry of Jesus gets “up close and personal” to each one of us. Jesus has victoriously completed his purpose on earth and now he equips and deploys us – you and me. We need to pay attention because all of this may have begun 2,000 years ago but this, today, is all about us – disciples of Jesus Christ. And not about life in some “parallel universe” called “Bible-land”. It’s about living in this world – now – in Winnipeg, Manitoba, or wherever you call home.

So let’s dig a little deeper into Luke’s account in the Book of Acts, about what took place on this day. Pentecost is actually, originally, a Jewish Pilgrim festival. And it was celebrated to give thanks to God for the first fruits of the harvest. Think about that for a minute, living here on the Prairies – first fruits of the harvest at the beginning of June – clearly not happening here! But this is an event when the Holy Spirit, on this day, produces the first fruits of God’s Kingdom beginning to be established on the earth, in our midst.

The experience of a violent wind and fire – both are signs of God’s presence. And the really spectacular manifestation of the presence of that Holy Spirit – speaking in other languages, or tongues, in part, because the newly anointed disciples were speaking in the native languages of every person assembled. Now, that speaking in tongues, and those languages, may not seem much to us. We’re sitting here in an English-dominant language society – probably for many or most of us here, English is our native tongue. But Luke goes to great lengths, in this account, to share with us that at least 12 different cultural identities and languages were present, and they all heard preaching about God’s deeds of power in their own native language, none of which would have been the official language of the day. The official language at that time was Greek. They all would have known Greek. But that was the language of the Roman empire at that time – trying to enforce, throughout that empire, unity by way of uniformity. But this manifestation of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost showed everyone’s intrinsic, unique value as distinct and diverse peoples in God’s eyes. This is unity in diversity. It’s true, when you speak to someone in their own native language, it affirms their value for who they are. So this Kingdom of God that the Holy Spirit is ushering in is for everyone – for whom God made them to be.

Now everyone was blown away by what they heard. But Luke tells us that some said, “Ah, the disciples are drunk!” It’s not as surprising as it may at first sound. Many of us here, I suspect, are mainly monolingual. There will be some who know more than one language. But even though English may be what we’re most familiar with, we’ve been exposed to some of the Germanic and Romance languages. So if we heard them we could recognize them, even if we don’t understand them. But if we were to hear some African, or Oriental languages, or even local Indigenous languages, they would mean nothing to us. So in this story, if you’re one of the Elamites and you hear one of the disciples speaking in the Egyptian language, it might sound like drunken gibberish to you. So Peter stands up to interpret to the crowd what’s going on. He explains that this Pentecost event is a fulfillment of a scriptural prophecy from the prophet Joel. It is God’s final acts to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.

So there’s two main takeaways from this lesson. The Kingdom of God, initiated by Jesus Christ, is for everyone – all nations, all cultures, all people – particularly appropriate at this beginning of Pride month and of the Pride Day parade today. And the Holy Spirit working in and through us is an amazing grace and power heretofore never experienced.

In today’s brief Second Reading from the Letter to the Romans – it reminds us that the Holy Spirit within us makes our relationship with God real! Even when we feel far away from God – when we have alienated ourselves – when we’ve counted ourselves as being outside God’s circle – no! We have been adopted with Christ as children of God – forever!

But it is the Gospel Reading from John that both explains the work of the Holy Spirit and challenges us as 21st Century disciples. Jesus says, ‘those who open themselves to him in love will receive from God, the Advocate – the Holy Spirit – to be with them forever – and will live within each one of them. And it is this Spirit that will be Jesus’ abiding presence in their lives. Jesus says, “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. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is amazing! The presence of Jesus intimately within each one of us – reminding us of Jesus’ teaching, to his disciples, and now to us, and teaching us about living as a child of God as a disciple, in this world – now – with all its complexities and challenges. Though the words of John’s Gospel may be a couple of millennia old, the promise and the gift of the Holy Spirit is real – here and now.

And then the real “kicker” – the challenge that really stretches us – is this one. Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact, will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father. Note who Jesus says it about. It is not limited to the 11 apostles. It’s not limited to the first century disciples. It’s not limited to the elders, the ordained leaders of the communities. But it is for the one who believes in me – “the one” – anyone. Greater works – because I am going to the Father. (and sending the Holy Spirit to you.) This is addressed to each one of us gathered here – not theoretically - but in reality! The ‘untamed’, ‘undomesticated’, unlimited love and power of God in you, and expressed uniquely through you, just as it was manifested uniquely to each one present on the first Christian Pentecost.

So ask yourself – do you have trouble conceiving of that reality about yourself – or for others? On Easter Day, when we gathered here, I was preaching on the resurrection and I challenged us with this truth. “You will never see or believe something that you can’t imagine.” Let me say it again, “You will never see or believe something that you can’t imagine.” It has to be, at least potentially, possible to you – not matter how unlikely – before you can accept it and receive it. So here it is again, with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Can the love and power of the risen Christ, the Holy Spirit, be that present, and that real in your life? Stretch your imagination – allow it to be possible. Open yourself to receive anything and everything that God wants to give you, to live your life in Christ now – to become conscious of who you are, called as a child of God, to see others around you also as unique children of God. And to dare to believe, to imagine, the works that the Spirit can do in and through you – today – tomorrow – forever.

We will actually pray expectantly for just that experience in today’s final hymn. In the last two lines of each verse we will pray these words, “break upon your congregation, give us vigour, life anew.” “Burst upon your congregation, give us gladness from above.” “Breathe upon your congregation and inspire us with your word.”

This is Pentecost for us today. Let God make it real in you!  Amen.