Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost
Click here to read the biblical text.
This morning, as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we heard a story from the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit descends upon the gathered community of Jesus’ disciples after his resurrection and ascension. The majority of sermons on this passage focus on the first part of the story, where the really interesting and dramatic depiction of the Spirit’s arrival takes place. But I want to focus our attention this morning on the much-neglected second half of the story, where St. Peter stands up and interprets what is happening to the people around him.
The events of that day were confusing, to say the least. There were reports of inexplicable wind and fire. People were suddenly able to speak fluently in previously unknown languages. The crowd didn’t know what to make of it. The most rational explanation was to dismiss the pandemonium as a whole lot of drunken nonsense.
But that’s when Peter got up and began to offer some perspective about what was going on. Like any good Christian, he begins by setting these seemingly random events in the context of Scripture. Citing a passage from the book of Joel, Peter showed the crowd how it had always been part of God’s plan to “pour out [the] Spirit upon all flesh”: male and female, young and old, slave and free. We are, all of us together, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
What Peter does here is tie together current events, recent history, and the biblical text with the cord of the Spirit. He showed them how everything that was happening around them was not in fact a series of random events, but the unfolding of the divine plan in history.
Peter’s explanation of current events in the context of the biblical story is a perfect illustration of the term prophecy.
Words like prophet and prophecy have been misinterpreted and misunderstood in Christian history. For many people, prophecy has become a kind of fortune-telling about the imminent end of the world. Popular authors scour the book of Revelation for clues about when and how Christ will return to earth. When many people think of prophets, they conjure up images of mysterious, occult figures like Nostradamus, who claim to have special, insider information about the end of days.
It will come as no surprise to most of you that I think these so-called “prophecies” are absolute and total nonsense. The historic Churchwholeheartedly affirms, in the text of our creeds, our belief in the second coming of Christ, the final judgment, and the resurrection of the dead, but we decline to speculate about the details of when or how those events will happen.
When the disciples asked Jesus himself about these things, he responded in no uncertain terms, “About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” If Christ himself doesn’t know when or how it will happen, I think the rest of us can absolve ourselves of the responsibility for figuring it out.
So then, prophecy, in the biblical sense, has nothing to do with predicting the end of the world. To the contrary, it has everything to do with interpreting the present.
Peter interpreted current events to the people from a spiritual perspective. He brought clarity to their confusion and reality to their delusion. This is the work of prophecy in the world. It is a gift of the Spirit that continues to this day. Here is one example:
I have a close friend in Canada who lives with Schizophrenia. Several years ago, when he suffered his first major psychotic break, he was in pretty bad shape. In a delusional state, he walked several miles on foot from the town where he lived to the nearest major city.
Once there, he was tired and bored and wished he had something to read. Reaching into his pocket, he found a pamphlet of Christian literature. As he looked over it, he thought to himself, “This is what I need!” So, right there in the middle of the street, in downtown traffic as the horns of frustrated commuters surrounded him, he knelt down and prayed.
And as he prayed, something remarkable happened: he had a moment of clarity. He realized that something was wrong in his brain and he should go home and get help. So, he turned around and walked the many miles back to his house. When he got there, his mother was worried sick. The police had arrived and were trying to locate him. My friend walked through the front door and said to them, “Hi. I am a danger to myself and others. I need help. You should take me to the hospital.”
Today, I’m happy to report that my friend went to the hospital, stayed there, and got the help he needed. Today, he continues to lead a meaningful life with the help of medication and therapy. And beautiful thing is how it all began with this brief moment of clarity in the middle of downtown traffic.
This personal story is just one example of the many ways in which the Holy Spirit continues the ministry of prophecy in the Church today.
It also continues in the Church’s ministry of Word and Sacrament. Every Sunday, before we read from the Scriptures, the priest recites a short prayer called a Collect. This prayer (the Collect of the Day) highlights the theme of the readings or the liturgical season. One of my favorite Collects from the Book of Common Prayer is the one for Proper 28, which we recite each November:
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer, p. 236
We pause to pray before reading the Scriptures each Sunday because we depend on the Holy Spirit’s insight in order to properly understand them.
Episcopalians call the Holy Scriptures the Word of God, not because we think the Bible is an infallible source of historical facts, but because we believe that
“God inspired their human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible.”
The Book of Common Prayer, p. 853
In a similar way, the Spirit’s ministry of prophecy continues in the Church through the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In the Great Thanksgiving, the prayer we say before receiving Communion, the priest recalls the saving deeds of Christ and tells again the story of the Last Supper. She then calls upon the Holy Spirit to descend upon us and upon the physical elements of bread and wine, so that our celebration of this meal might be a Communionin the Body and Blood of Christ.
We do not believe the Eucharist to be a mere memorial of past events. We believe Christ is really, truly, and spiritually present in this Sacrament, therefore we need the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts, so that we can receive his Body and Blood by faith as we partake of the physical elements of bread and wine.
Of course, the Scriptures and the Eucharist areby no means the only ways that the Spirit continues to work in the Church. I could keep going about Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, Reconciliation, Matrimony, and Anointing. All of these are ways that the Holy Spirit continues to work in the life of the Church, but we would be here all day if I went into detail about each of them.
The Holy Spirit works in our lives outside church as well. I already spoke about my friend’s “moment of clarity” in the midst of a psychotic break. Many others, especially those who are in recovery from addictions, can tellabout similar moments when they decided it was time to get clean and sober. Most of them describe this moment as pure grace: that clarity came to them, not from them. They say it felt like something (or someone) was speaking to them, but without words. Not all of them are ready to believe that it was “God” who spoke to them, but you can visit any Twelve Step recovery meeting in this town and find people there who say, “We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” I, personally, have no trouble affirming that this too is the work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives.
The Holy Spirit is all around us and within us, continuing the ministry of prophecy today: gifting us with moments of clarity in the midst of our confusion. The Spirit is at work today in the priest celebrating at the altar and is also at work in the alcoholic struggling for one more day of sobriety (and sometimes, the Spirit works both of those things at the same time, in the same person). The Spirit is at work today in the friendly usher who joyfully greets worshipers on their way into church and is also at work in the sceptic who barely scraped together enough faith to make it to church this morning (and sometimes, the Spirit works both of those things at the same time, in the same person).
The Spirit is at work today, confronting us with moments of clarity and leading us to let go of our delusions. The Spirit is at work today, inviting us to follow where Jesus leads and to trust that our life (as individuals, the Church, and the world) is not a series of random events, but the unfolding story of God’s love for us.
Whoever you are, and wherever you are on life’s journey, know this: the Spirit is at work in you today. Trust this and remember that you are loved.