Day of Pentecost

 

I Corinthians 12:3b-13

Today is the great festival of Pentecost in the church, one of the Holiest days of the church year.  The day we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit.  It is the birthday of the church, the festival of the Holy Spirit.  But it is also a little weird and scary.  Quite frankly Pentecost can be a little intimidating.  I mean just look at the story, rushing wind, tongues of fire, people suddenly and impulsively speaking in foreign languages, generally making a public spectacle of themselves.  This holiday can be a little hard to get behind.  Anyone can handle Christmas and Easter.  They deal with discrete historical events, events that perhaps most importantly happened to someone else.  We easily try to can sit by and stand as silent witnesses to the events of Jesus’s birth, life and death, but not Pentecost.  In a world full of spectator events, Pentecost is a full contact sport.  No one knows when or where that wind will blow or what it will drive us to do.

Maybe that’s why Pentecost and anything to do with the Holy Spirit often makes us so uncomfortable.  We here in the Episcopal church are often not very good at dealing with the Holy Spirit.  Even the word Pentecostal in today’s parlance often conjures up mental images of people flinging themselves about in church, speaking in unintelligible babble, faith healings and modern-day exorcisms.  In other words, very un-Episcopal behavior. 

If that is what we can expect when we receive the Holy Spirit, I bet most of us would just as soon take a pass.  But there is so much more to the Spirit than wild extravagant displays.  So maybe it’s time we take a few moments to demystify the Spirit a little.  We know well the wild story of Acts, now let’s take a moment to consider what Paul has to say about it.  For, while Acts shows us the intensity and power of the Holy Spirit, Paul in Corinthians shows us its breadth and variety.  Paul tells us that we cannot do anything even as simple as confess Jesus as Lord without the help of the Spirit.  He shows how all of the people of the church are given varieties of gifts in the Spirit.  And not all these gifts are outlandish or spectacular or unmanageable.   Just look at the gifts he lists there for people of Corinth:

The first 3 don’t seem all that extraordinary at all: wisdom, knowledge and faith.  Paul tells us that even the most simple and basic of Christian impulses, faith and any knowledge or wisdom gained and passed on from it are in fact gifts brought by the Holy Spirit, gifts that we all receive every day.

And even the next three aren’t as far out as you may think – I know many people that serve as healers – who work as doctors and nurses and medical professionals.  But they are not the only ones, there are many more people here than that with gifts of healing.  Anyone who prays for the sick or infirm in our congregation, picks up the phone and calls someone who is hurting, who shares a hug or gives a ride, or who offers support is exhibiting the gifts of healing.  Anyone who has ever sent a sympathy card or listened to a friend in need has gifts of healing for sometimes spiritual healing can be just as important as physical healing.

And I know a lot of prophets too.  For the spirit of prophesy in the bible does not refer to the ability to foresee events or predict the future, it refers to the pursuit of justice and harmony for all people.  Anyone who works for justice or on behalf of those less fortunate has been given the spirit of prophesy, whether it is as profession as a policeman or lawyer or social worker or in a non-profit.  Or Prophets may also be volunteers, activists or ordinary citizens.  Anyone who attends a protest, works to bridge differences in our community, votes their conscience or resists tyranny, does so in the spirit of prophesy.  As does everyone who supports any of our outreach ministries, who collects items for our drives, feeds the fish, parks cars, serves at Crossroads or volunteers anywhere in the community.  Whenever we serve others and work to improve the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves, we serve as prophets of God.

And I know a whole bunch of miracle workers right here in this room too, for this ‘working of deeds of power’ Paul presents here could kind of include what we would commonly consider miracles, but really what the Greek usually means is anything done using specialized skills or abilities.  So I bet you musicians and artists didn’t know you were actually miracle workers, or you handymen, scientists, managers, accountants or engineers.  When we put our skills and abilities to work for the glory of God, inside or outside the church we do so by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I could keep going about the huge variety of gifts of the spirit, but my point is this: the Holy Spirit unleashed at Pentecost is alive and active in the world in the lives of every single believer.   As Paul tells us, we have each been given the manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.  Each and every person, no exceptions.  We need not wait from some great rushing wind, some miraculous event to see the spirit active in our lives.  Every day, as we go about our lives, at work, at home, with our friends and family, the Holy Spirit is seeking to use our gifts and skills to make the world a better place and bring about the coming kingdom.

Pentecost is not something that happened long ago and far away to people who were definitely not us.  It is something that happens every day to all of us.  No exceptions.  When Jesus gives his disciples the gift of the Spirit, he transforms a bunch of ragtag, frightened people into the leaders of his church, the people who will bring the message of his gospel to the whole world.  Not just that once in the upper room, or for the big scene in Jerusalem right after his ascension, or to his original disciples as they begin to spread the word, or to Paul as he is sent to preach to the gentiles, but to every disciple of every generation.  We are the way that Jesus has chosen to spread the good news of God’s love to the world.  We are the ones that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit and sent out into the world.  Every day.  Every one of us and what a wonderful world we can make together id we are willing to use those gifts.  Amen.