Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23
Something stunning is about to happen this
morning. It’s something you’ve probably
seen before, even something that may well have happened to you. But every time it happens, it’s new and
miraculous. Are you ready? Here it is:
The Holy Spirit is about to descend upon three small, normal, everyday
people – babies, in fact. And that Holy
Spirit is about to change their lives and change the life of the world.
Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost,
the coming of the Holy Spirit among Jesus’ apostles – his friends he sent out
into the world. We call Pentecost the
birthday of the Church because it was on this day that 12 normal, everyday
people became gifted in a way they could never have been on their own. God sent the same Spirit that moved over the
waters in creation to move among them and within their hearts, equipping these 12
normal, everyday people to be something I guarantee you they’d never imagined themselves
to be: witnesses of God’s transforming love.
Each one of those 12 people changed the world, going places they’d never
imagined going, meeting people they’d never imagined meeting, sharing their
passion and experience of God’s love, and inviting people into eternal life –
life in the here and now that means so much more than what passes for life in
most people’s day-to-day grind.
So that’s Pentecost, when 12 normal,
everyday people received gifts of language and calling that they never knew
they had.
We’re participating in that story this
morning. A few minutes ago, we spoke and
heard words that sounded odd and confusing, Good News from Jesus to his
astonished friends, when he told them they should both be at peace and stretch
themselves in ways they’d never considered.
“As the Father has sent me,” Jesus said, “so I send you” to proclaim
peace, and to forgive, and to love, and to draw people into beloved community
(John 20:21). In a way, his call sounds
even stranger in clear, everyday English than it did in the multitude of
tongues we just heard. It sounds strange
because, surely, Jesus can’t mean us, right?
We’re just normal, everyday people.
But then we come to the other way we’re
participating in the Holy Spirit’s story this morning. In a few minutes, these three small people,
just beginning their journeys in life, will come to this font – and something
stunning will happen. You may have seen
it a hundred times, but it’s still stunning because, as I said, it’s new every
time. They will come to this font to die
with Jesus symbolically and rise with him into resurrected life, the life he
brought to his friends in the upper room behind their locked doors. And in that moment, the Holy Spirit will come
upon them and enter into their hearts. The
three of them – Graham and Margot and Madeline – will come out of the water not
just with Christian names, an identity inextricably intertwined with Christ,
but also with the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
among them, “an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and
to persevere, a spirit to know and to love [God], and the gift of joy and
wonder in all [God’s] works” (BCP 308). God
will open their hearts to grace and truth.
God will fill them with life-giving Spirit. God will teach them to love others in the
Spirit’s power. And God will send them
into the world to witness to Christ’s love. (BCP 305-306) Those aren’t just lofty hopes. Those are divine promises, the equipping
power of the Holy Spirit anointing us, like the apostles, to change the world.
We don’t know how that will look exactly,
any more than the apostles knew what lay ahead on that day of Pentecost, as
they felt their hearts catch fire and knew they were, indeed, sent to speak
words they didn’t know they knew.
Starting with these 12 normal, everyday people, the Word went forth from
one community to another. Soon, people
in all kinds of unlikely places began to learn how following this way of our
resurrected Lord can transform your life – people in Greece and Russia, people
in Persia and India, people in Egypt and Ethiopia. The travels and proclamation of these 12
saints reflect deep passion and commitment and trust, the stuff of legend. But actually, those saints were no more
special, and no differently empowered, than little Graham and Margot and Madeline
about to be baptized this morning.
And, those saints were no different than
you. Or you. Or you.
Or you. In just a few minutes, we’ll
each renew our Baptismal Covenant. We’ll
remember who we know God to be, and we’ll remember what the baptized life looks
like – gathering for strength and praise with a community of fellow travelers,
resisting evil and repenting when we miss the mark, proclaiming Good News by
word and deed, seeking and serving Christ in everybody, and striving for
justice and peace by respecting the dignity of all. Our Baptismal Covenant will remind us of this
high calling, the job description of apostles today.
But as we remember that, I want you to
remember something else, too. If you’re
anything like me, on any given day you’re likely to look in the mirror and
think, “You’ve got to be kidding, Lord. You’ve
made a huge mistake. I’m not exactly
apostolic material.” Like Moses on the
mountain trying to talk God out of sending him
to free the children of Israel, we all probably have our moments when we figure
God must be crazy, when we just can’t see God sending us out for divine work – or, when we just don’t want to go. “O, my Lord,” Moses finally said on the
mountain, “please send someone else!” (Exodus 4:13).
But here’s the mystery: You’re the one. Graham and Margot and Madeline and me … and
you. You have come through the waters of
new birth. You’ve been welcomed into
God’s own family. You’ve been cleansed
of your sins. You’ve been reborn by the
Holy Spirit. You’ve been marked as
Christ’s own forever. And you’ve been
gifted and empowered as an apostle, sent “into the world in witness to [God’s]
love” (BCP 306).
The same Spirit that blew through that
upper room on Pentecost blows through your life, too. It was poured out on you in baptism, perhaps
evoked again and claimed by you in confirmation. That same Spirit wants to make your heart dance. God longs to hear your heart beat with love,
and God longs to see you to act on that power you’ve been given.
What would happen if we lived as if it
were all true? What if you had words you
didn’t know you had? What if you had stories
to tell about God blessing you in surprising ways, or turning your life in a
new direction, or using you to touch another person’s heart? And what if you had a commission from God on
your heart to be an agent of change and healing and hope? What if God actually loved you and believed
in you that much? What would you say and
do in witness to that love? How would
your Spirit-filled life change the world?
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