Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday

Year A

John 20:19-23

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday

Come, O Holy Spirit, come.

Come as the wind and cleanse;

Come as the fire and burn;

Convert and consecrate our lives to our great good and your great glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Yes, Come Holy Spirit – It’s your day and the birthday of the church. Today is the day when we give thanks and we praise you because without your guidance in the world we could not be the church. We could not be what we have been called and gifted to be. Week after week, in the Holy Eucharist we profess our faith “In the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” But there are many professing members of the church today who aren’t so comfortable with Pentecost – this whole Holy Spirit thing. They are comfortable with the manger scene and the cross, and they are quite comfortable with Easter and its grand tidings of victory over sin and death. But Pentecost, Pentecost is something totally incomprehensible.

I mean come on…tongues of fire, mighty, violent wind from heaven and speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability. What an awesome event that must have been for those who witnessed the mighty power of God that day. Jesus had ascended to God and the work of the Spirit in the church was born. But before Jesus ascended to God, he appeared to the disciples who were locked in the Upper room in fear of the Jews. Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.” When Jesus let go of that breath it was let loose on the earth. It was no ordinary breath it was full of love and full of life. It grew in strength and in volume, until it became a mighty wind spinning through an upper room.

Until it became a holy hurricane on the Day of Pentecost that blew through the place where about a hundred and twenty were gathered, striking sparks that burst into flames as each person was filled with God’s own breath. Like a room full of noisy instruments all going off at once, they began to speak in languages they didn’t even know drawing a crowd. People from all over the world were in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost when they heard someone speaking words from God in their own language so far from home, and before the day was over the church was born and grew to more than three thousand. They had breathed in God’s breath and were transformed by it.

Disciples who were once cowering behind closed doors suddenly found themselves boldly proclaiming the word of God. They discovered abilities they never knew they had. They began to sound like Jesus and act like Jesus. When they laid there hands upon the sick, it was as if Jesus himself was healing. They were doing things they had only seen Jesus do and all because they took the chance and breathed in God’s breath, the Holy Spirit and they were changed forever. Then, remembering Jesus’ final prayer before his death and resurrection, that the world would come to know God through them, they began to pass on this breath of life and transformation to others. It was time for the world to know Jesus, through God’s Holy Spirit…God’s breath.

We learn the good news of what God did through the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts; a book written by Luke that should be called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” because it proclaims that God started something in Jesus that cannot be stopped. God’s purpose is that every person be given an opportunity to respond to God’s love and grace so they may be saved. And the question for each one of us is do we believe that this Holy Spirit from God is active and alive today? Do we believe in a God who has the power to transform us and send us out filled with the breath of God to proclaim God to the world and are we ready to renew our commitment, our baptismal covenant, to be witnesses for Jesus Christ? At the end of this sermon, we will renew our commitment, the covenant we made in our baptism to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.

The way we make the Spirit active and alive in us is to pray often for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. If you are someone who wants to experience that power in your life, than pray for God to fill you with Holy breath. This is my prayer everyday that God will fill me with power and use me to do God’s work. I have come to know that I want that power. I want that transformation and I want to share this message of God’s love in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians, that God has given us this power. It is the Spirit who gives to each person the gifts needed therefore there is no need to fear the Holy Spirit; a breath of God so that we can carry on God’s work. So that we can communicate God’s love and healing to the lonely, unloved, frightened, un-churched and fractured people all around us. We are the only ones God has to carry out God’s purpose. We are the only ones God has to show his love to a world that overall is rejecting him.

Do you remember the series ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul” books? There is a short story in one that goes….Soon after her brother was born, little Sara began to ask her parents to leave her alone with the new baby. They worried that like most four-year-olds, she might feel jealous and want to hit or shake him, so they said no. But she showed no signs of jealousy and she treated the baby with kindness. Her pleas to be left alone with him became more urgent, so they decided to allow it. Elated, she went into the baby’s room and shut the door, but it opened a crack – enough for her curious parents to peek in and listen. They saw little Sara walk quietly up to her baby brother, put her face as close to his and say quietly, “baby, tell me what God feels like. I’m starting to forget.”  The world is starting to forget what God feels like. We have to allow the spirit to transform us and use us. Take that breath and receive the Holy Spirit. Give it a try and let’s just see how God will use us.

Come, O Holy Spirit, come.

Come as the wind and cleanse;

Come as the fire and burn;

Convert and consecrate our lives to our great good and your great glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit!