St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
June 5, 2022
Year C: The Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, 25-27
“Living Christs Here and Now”
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
As most of you know only too well, beginning on Easter Day and continuing through all the Sundays of Easter, I have begun and ended each of my sermons with the Easter Acclamation:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
I’ve kept our Easter call and response going as a way to keep Easter joy alive, even after the crowds in church have thinned out just a bit, even after the flowers are scaled back (but still always beautiful), even after most of us have long since left Easter behind and gotten back to our daily routines.
For those of you who have been not so thrilled with the Easter call and response, I have some welcome news.
Today is Pentecost – the fiftieth and final day of Easter – and so today is the last day for a while that I’ll begin and end my sermons with the best news of all time:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
You’ve all been good sports and given it your best, but there’s no denying that our call and response has faded a bit over these past Sundays.
And a few of you have mentioned to me that our joyful “Alleluias” sound hollow, or maybe even false, as we look at the bleak state of the world, and as we face our own personal challenges and setbacks.
I get that, of course.
And I wonder if the first disciples experienced something similar.
For them, there was the shock of the empty tomb and then the overwhelming joy of Easter – the difficult to describe describe experience of encountering the Risen Christ – the Risen Christ who was still very much the Jesus they had known, still marked by the nails of execution, still up for breakfast on the beach – but also mysteriously transformed – now able to pass through locked doors and not always recognizable at first glance.
It must have been amazing time.
And, if I were one of those first disciples, all I would want is to sit with the Risen Christ – to see him in his glory – and to wait around for his next appearance.
But, at least according to Luke’s timeline, this intensely beautiful time only lasted for forty days, only lasted until Jesus ascended.
Then the appearances of the Risen Christ stopped.
Even for people who had seen the Risen Christ with their own eyes, perhaps Easter quickly became just a sweet memory, as the cares of the world crowded out their joy, silencing their “Alleluias.”
We don’t know what the disciples were up to during what must have been a strange and uneasy days.
But, they gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish Festival of Weeks, also known as Pentecost because it was held fifty days after Passover.
Not only were the disciples in Jerusalem, but, the author of Acts tells us, “the disciples were all together in one place.”
I imagine them waiting together for something to happen – or maybe they stuck together because they were frightened and demoralized.
And then we’re told, suddenly, there’s a loud sound like rushing wind that fills the house and divided tongues like flames appear above their heads.
The Holy Spirit gave those first disciples the ability to share the Gospel so that people from all over the world could understand it.
That day in Jerusalem, those Spirit-filled first disciples made such a spectacle that some people concluded that they must be drunk!
But no, it wasn’t early morning wine.
It was the Holy Spirit, transforming the frightened and demoralized little band of disciples into bold and courageous ambassadors for Christ, spreading the Good News far and wide until eventually it arrived here among all of us:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
I love Pentecost (and, as most of you know, I really love baptizing people – and so with Marcelo here about to be baptized I can barely contain myself right now!).
Mostly I love this great feast - I love celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit - because unlike the other big days like Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is not only a historical event.
No, Pentecost happens all the time.
The priest and writer Henri Nouwen wrote,
“Without Pentecost the Christ-event – the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Sprit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.”
I love that.
“The Sprit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.”
And I know Pentecost happens all the time because I’ve seen it for myself.
I’ve seen the Spirit of Jesus come to dwell within us at St. Thomas’. I’ve seen you become living Christs here and now.
Now, it’s true that there may not be a sound like rushing wind or divided tongues like flame over our heads, but God sends the Holy Spirit to us all the time.
To give just one example, I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit was at work last year, when some among us who were feeling awful about the plight of Afghan refugees suddenly hit on the idea that we could do something big – that we could do more than just write a check – that we could and should make some real sacrifices to welcome people from far away.
Maybe some people thought it was a crazy – dare I say drunken - idea, but this hearty little band of ambassadors persevered through many, many obstacles.
Some even learned to speak a new language – mastering the complicated jargon of refugee resettlement!
And now our application is just about complete, and God willing, one day soon, we and our partners St. Mark’s On the Hill and ERICA will finally welcome refugees into our community.
Pentecost happens all the time.
The Holy Spirit is right here and now transforming us into Living Christs –Living Christs offering love to the outcast.
And, in just a moment, in the water of Baptism, the Holy Spirit is going to descend on young Marcelo – you folks in the back may have trouble seeing it but it’s gonna happen – transforming him into a Living Christ – giving him all that he’ll need to live a life of love and service.
And, I don’t know about you, but the joy of a Pentecost Baptism makes me want to cry out once more:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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