Sermonette - May 21, 2018

Reflecting on the assigned texts for this Sunday, The Day of Pentecost, it occurs to me that this is the day Jesus’ disciples had been waiting for their whole lives. They might not have known that this was the day they had been waiting for . . . until it happened.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:4). At Pentecost, with the power of the Holy Spirit, people who were scattered all over the world are gathered together. People from nations all over the world were gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival. And then . . . the day they didn’t know they were waiting for happened, too.

“Each one heard them speaking in the native language of each” (Acts 2:6). The power of God, symbolized by the tongues of fire, enabled the disciples to communicate the good news of Christ in a manner that both transcended the barriers and respected the differences among them. “In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power,” the Jewish pilgrims said (Acts 2:11). In a time when we are struggling with the meaning of diversity, it is important to note that these people were not asked to give up their individuality in order to discover this new unity. We discover the meaning of unity in diversity.

Pentecost was the Jewish festival of the renewal of God’s covenant. As these Jewish travelers from all over the world came together to renew their covenant with God, they experienced the power of God enabling them to renew their covenant with all humanity. Pentecost is the time when we open ourselves to the power of God working within us to reconcile all people to God.

At Pentecost, we hear of the empowering and essential presence of the Spirit of God if Christ’s church is to live. We recognize, on this day for which we didn’t know we were waiting, that the church is part of God’s whole creation that also depends on the Spirit of God for its existence. We also recognize that unless Christ’s church stays connected with the Spirit of God, it will simply be part another organization, another institution.

Also, on the Day of Pentecost we hear Jesus say, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12-13). It is the Spirit of God that continually breaks through the barriers of our understandings and provides us with fresh insight. It is this same Spirit that testifies to the truth of Christ that transcends all of our cultural understandings.

You see, the Spirit of God does empower us to find unity among all of our diversity reconciling all people to God. The church often finds itself in trouble when it has denied the winds of the Spirit that are blowing through the church. Jesus taught his disciples as much as they could understand while he was with them but then sent the Spirit to open them to even greater truths as they were ready. As a church, may we be ready to embrace and live the truth that we are united in God’s love revealed in Jesus, through God’s Holy Spirit. Glory be to God!