Acts 2: 1-21
Pentecost, the
coming of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the church, the return of God to be
upon the people, the fulfillment of the promises of Jesus that the disciples
would not be left alone, the dove that descended upon the Lord Jesus at the
beginning of his ministry and the dove that will descend upon each of us at the
beginning of our own ministry.
Because that
is what we are celebrating today.
Christmas marks the birthday of Jesus, Easter marks the re-birthday of
Jesus, Pentecost marks the birthday of the Jesus’ church, of the body of
Christ. Today marks the celebration of
the birth of the ministry that each one of us has in Christ Jesus if we have so
chosen to follow him. What’s more, if we
give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely. If we have dedicated our lives to the worship
of the Lord in all that we do.
So the first
question for each of us to consider is, are we heart-ready to serve the
Lord? Have we truly given ourselves to
Him? Have we partaken of the prayer of
Invitation, “Dear Lord, I Need You, please come into my heart today?” In the process of confirmation, we recognize
a decision that each has made to take the promises of the Lord onto ourselves.
The greatest thing we receive when we
accept the gift of the Holy Spirit is the knowledge of how much we just don’t
know, yet. Living in Jesus means that
everything is new, everything is different, everything makes sense in a way
that living without Jesus just plain does not.
What does that
mean? It means we need to offer our
hearts eagerly, sincerely, and humbly to the service of the Lord. Have you ever met someone who has given their
hearts to Jesus Christ but, in that moment, the experiences of others who are
not of Christ, or apparently not of Christ, or of a different, unapproved
version of Christ, how their experiences are suddenly disparaged? Someone of a different faith, their belief
system is obviously wrong and to be rejected because it is not of Jesus. Someone without faith is ultimately without
worth until we can win their soul for Christ Jesus. Or worse, they are hell bound because they do
not believe right.
Let me try and
give an example. During the Second World
War, Canada, my home country, actively participated in the battle against the
Nazi’s. Because of the manpower
situation, and calling men up for active service, an assessment of the services
was done and it was found that there was a substantial surplus of men serving
in the air force when the needs were in the army. It made sense to move those men over,
supplement their training, and use them more effectively within the military
service. But then stupid things began to
happen. All of these men had received
their inoculations upon entering the Air Force, but the Army insisted they get
them all over again, because those were ‘air force’ shots.
Those coming
to Christ without a fundamental humility about the power and plan of Jesus
Christ can be just as dense. The people
they have love and known forever-but who aren’t ‘of the faith’ are suddenly
turned away from or disparaged because they don’t have the Jesus stamp upon
their brow.
Accepting the
Holy Spirit means offering our heart to the Lord eagerly and sincerely and
broadly. All too often, Christians fall
into the trap of dualist thinking. But
our faith is NOT about right and wrong, black and white, us and them, saved and
condemned. We must fight the temptation
to accept that Jesus is right, therefore the rest are wrong, and since I am in
Christ, I am right and they are wrong. Whoever
they are. Our faith is based on the
broadening assumption that we are ALL God’s children and we have to fight the
notions of the sinful world that would categorize somebody as ‘other’, as evil,
as not worthy.
People have
been marginalized and cast out of the family of God’s children in the minds and
hearts of Christians for all kinds of reasons, for skin color, for language,
for immigrant status, for economic level, for hygienic practices, for
disability, for appearance, for perceived intelligence, or the lack there of,
for who they are.
Let’s talk
about the people at the southern border, trying to get in. They have fallen off the radar insofar as the
news in concerned, but not because we fixed the problem. What is the Christian response? They are God’s children. Their lives are in danger. They are fellow Christians. They are Latin American. They are Spanish speaking. They are poor. There is no way around it, no Christian
reason they should be left behind.
Living in the
faith can be difficult.
In the Holy
Spirit, we give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely and deeply. The whole depth of human experience comes
under the power of God.
Some people
come to Jesus Christ expecting that the ills of the world will no longer affect
them. One version of this is the
influence of capitalism on Christianity.
You may have seen this brand of faith preached on the television. Be faithful to Jesus and you will be
blessed. That is true. The problem comes in the definition of
blessing. Faith in Christ has been
conflated with the American dream and material prosperity is the resultant
definition of God’s blessings. That
means if you are poor, you either are not faithful enough, or you are being
punished for something. That is very
much Old Testament thinking where the prosperity of God’s People in the
Promised Land was tied to their obedience and devotion to their Lord. Jesus changed that game.
Some people
come to Jesus Christ expecting that tragedy can no longer touch their
lives. In the face of a sudden illness
or a tragic accident, when the prayers come fast and furious and the miracle is
expected, but it doesn’t happen-is it a measure of our lack of faith? Is it punishment for something I did? Jesus takes care of his own-except that he
doesn’t. And then we come up with the
most damaging platitudes to try and cover our bases. “Our loss is heaven’s gain.” “Jesus wanted another angel.” “God wanted them for the heavenly
chorus.”
One of the most painful moments I have
had in observing pastoral leadership was in college. There was a tragedy in the congregation, a
young person taken before their time. I
was part of the group that this person was a member of. We were gathered with friends and family, and
the pastor was there. He was a good man,
strong preacher, good friend to us. He
was talking about the stages of grief, I think you know what I mean, denial,
anger, bargaining.
As a pastor, I
have come to view those as gifts from God to keep humans from exploding in the
face of overwhelming tragedy. But the
way he was approaching it was that each of those feelings was a manifestation
of sin unleashed in us by the weight of the tragedy. We will experience them, all humans do, but
being in Jesus, we will be forgiven for feeling that way when we get back to
our “proper” relationship with God.
It twists my
guts to this day to think back on the ignorance of God’s creation that this
pastor was showing. He was trying to
help. His heart was in it for the Lord,
sincerely. But he was not in the Holy
Spirit in that moment. Maybe the only
thing worse than this kind of ignorance is an assumption that we should be
essentially suicidal in our thinking, wanting to die for the next life because
this life of sin and evil is worth little more than being thrown in the
dumpster.
Blessed be God
the Father Almighty, blessed be God’s only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed
be the granting of the gift of the Holy Spirit to be upon us and to guide as
seek to live and minister as Christians.
When we offer our hearts to the Lord, eagerly and sincerely, the Lord
returns the blessing, if we open ourselves, to the power and grace and teaching
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will
teach our hearts to be humble in their attitude, to be broad in their outlook,
and to be deep in our experience of God’s love in our lives.
May this
Pentecost be for us the renewal of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our church.
Amen
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