Pentecost 2021
Mary Holmen

Acts 2:1-21, John 15:26-27. 16:4b-15

Jesus said. “Now I am going to the One who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away.” (John 16:5-7).

Well. The mood of today’s gospel reading seems tailor-made for a congregation that has just said good-bye to its incumbent and is perhaps wondering, “Now what?” Jesus says, “I’m going away. I know this is upsetting to you, even though you should be glad for my sake. And it’s for your own good, you know.”

This conversation takes place during Jesus’ last night with his disciples and forms part of what biblical scholars call the Farewell Discourse, the last time Jesus will impart his teachings to his followers. He has already washed the disciples’ feet and given them the new commandment of love. Judas has already betrayed him and left the room. Peter’s denial is foretold. And Jesus begins the Farewell Discourse: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” But they are troubled. Jesus has been anointed at Bethany for the completion of his mission, and he knows he is leaving his disciples. They also must be anointed for their mission. In this tender, poignant moment, he begins to speak to them of the Spirit. In such moments, God enters those spaces of loss, abandonment, questioning, wondering.

So we have these two texts today – Acts and John. They portray the giving of the Spirit in different but complementary ways. Acts is full of wind and fire, the strange ability to speak other languages, and the fulfilling of prophecy. John’s description is quieter – the Spirit comes as advocate, strengthener, helper, teacher, guide, companion. Both texts, though, tell us what the Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is not a doctrine. As Jim Brown, former rector of this parish, used to say, “The Holy Spirit is God personally present in power.” Things happen when the Spirit moves.

Sometimes, listening to a Pentecost sermon, you might be forgiven for thinking that Pentecost is the first time the Spirit is given to anyone. But of course that is not true. God has always been Triune. The Holy Spirit has always been present and active. The Spirit brooded over creation as God spoke it into being. The Spirit was there when God blew the breath of life into the earth creature, and it became a living being. When Israel lamented in exile, the Spirit breathed new life into them like a wind animating a valley of dry bones – and that reading, by the way, is an option on this feast. The Spirit of God filled the prophets. The writer of Luke-Acts portrays Jesus’ ministry as imbued by the Spirit, right from the prophecies of Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary to Jesus announcing his mission in the words of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” And the risen Jesus commands his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they are “clothed with power from on high”. The Spirit continually renews the face of the earth.

So the Holy Spirit is not a new character in the story at all. Rather, what is unique to Pentecost is the new way in which the Spirit is given. The Spirit comes as wind and fire, giving the disciples ability to speak in other languages in such a way that Jewish believers from all over the world who had come to Jerusalem for the festival – because Pentecost was and is a Jewish feast – heard the message of God’s powerful action in their own languages. God breaks in with good news for all, regardless of gender, age, or social status. It is the fulfilling of Joel’s prophecy that God will pour out the Spirit on “all flesh”. The Spirit is given for those outside the Jesus movement. It is not for those already on the inside, those who already know Jesus and have given him their allegiance, but for the outsiders who are listening. God’s gift reaches outward to those outside the immediate circle of Jesus’ followers and invites them in. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

What was true then is true now. The Spirit is given for the sake of those who do not yet know Jesus. What languages do we need to speak so they can hear and come home? Some may speak the language of emojis, texting, or digital images. Some may speak the language of science, or of poetry, music, and art. Some may speak in a deep spiritual longing for meaning and connection. Some may speak in their passion for action on climate change or issues of justice. We need to hear and understand the language of the world, its hope and fears, its possibilities for growth, its cries for deliverance, the places where it needs to be challenged. To really listen to the world and speak to it calls for sensitivity, insight, discernment, compassion, and sometimes a word of judgment and accountability.

In the narrative of Acts, the Spirit comes to a group of diaspora Jews gathered for the festival. In this moment of coming together, God breaks in with good news for all. We are well into the second year of dispersal due to COVID, but we are not adrift from God or alienated from each other. Each week, we gather – we are reconstituted as this faith community – to tell the story of God’s loving purpose in the midst of our stories of isolation, loss, trauma, and fear. The Spirit unites us around the story of a future in which God opens new ways for the church to be together and serve together. Even though many of us long to “get back to normal” – a longing which I share in part – this will not be a recapturing of what we had, either before the pandemic or under Donna’s leadership. There is no going back. God calls us forward in the trust that the Spirit will take us where the Spirit calls us to go, to move in new directions without quite knowing the destination even as we set out. Pentecost sets the pattern for how the church is to be. The Spirit is our link with the earthly ministry of Jesus in the past. The Spirit equips and empowers us as witnesses as we move into the future. The Spirit nourishes and sustains us in the truth in the present. The gift of the Spirit is for the healing of a broken world, and the torch of Pentecost is now passed to us. Amen.