31 May 1998
The whole thing started back around the beginning of Lent. As we read the story of the final journey to Jerusalem, interesting things happened on Palm Sunday, something new was announced on Easter Day and now something new again. The story of Jesus Christ has come to its fullest expression with the Feast of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It also parallels our story which began between you and me early in Lent, finished on Palm Sunday, was announced on Easter Day and now culminated on the Feast of Pentecost. It is tempting to talk about this parallel, but I just wanted to point it out to you because I believe the Holy Spirit is alive and well and moving in St. Margaret's parish, in our lives as individuals and family and as the people of God.
The Gospel today is an Easter story. Jesus appears in the upper room and breathes on the disciples and gives them the gift of the Spirit, and transforms that nervous and unfocused community into a creative force which began to grow. It began to grow the next forty days as our Lord in His resurrected body was with them to teach them, to cram into their thick skulls and into their little minds as much as He could. Then on the day of the Ascension, Jesus comes to them one more time and, as Mathew says, "they worshiped Him, but some doubted." Without any other reference to those who doubted, Jesus gives the Great Commission. He sends those who believe and those who doubt into the world to "proclaim the gospel and to make disciples," and He says to them, "but wait, but wait in Jerusalem until the time appointed."
They don't know what that is, and so they try
to fix it. "Okay, we have to wait for the time
appointed, so what do we need to do? Well, there are only eleven
of us left, so we need to fill the twelfth position — of
course, because the number twelve paralleling the twelve tribes
of Israel is important." So they went through an interesting
search process. They nominated two people, they threw the dice,
and took the one that was elected from the dice. They waited around
a few more days and, finally, on this harvest festival of Pentecost,
they gathered in Jerusalem again to talk about Jesus, to tell
the story. As they were gathered and trying to make their Galilean
lingo understood by people from all over the Mediterranean Basin,
suddenly they found they were able to speak in the language of
all the people who were gathered there. It was a wild, untamed,
and unpredictable day!
It makes us nervous, especially we Episcopalians, the idea that we can't predict something. And so we changed the name to Whitsunday. We changed the color from red to white to tame that day down a little bit. It was only in recent years, we said "Oh, let's try it again, let's try the Holy Spirit out and put red back on the altar on a festival day instead of a martyrs day." And so things have changed.
The message, the commission is the same, to go and to speak the word of God to those who have not yet heard it, either because they have not understood the language we used, or because they are hardhearted and hardheaded. We are sent out to speak and impart the gifts of the Holy Spirit today just as those original disciples were on the Feast of Pentecost nearly 2,000 years ago. The gifts are the same, the gifts of wisdom and knowledge and faith, the gifts of healing and miracles and prophecy, the gifts of discernment and language and interpretation.
We begin this festival day by praying that
God will shed abroad this gift of the Spirit throughout the world
by the preaching of the gospel. And remember, every time we
welcome a new Christian at the font, we say to them, no matter
what their age, "we welcome you into the household of God,
proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ." And it is our holy
obligation, our holy joy, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the saving knowledge of His death, resurrection and ascension;
the saving knowledge of the gift of the Holy Spirit with those
around us. We may or may not be articulate at doing it; but the
best definition of evangelism I have ever heard was: "Evangelism
is one beggar showing another beggar where the bread is."
Sometimes the best we can say to another person who does not know the grace of Christ in their lives is, "I do not know what it is that is changing my life, but someway and somehow it has to do with my participation in this crazy organization known as `the church'. With all of its warts, with all of its problems, with all its frustrations, it's still there. And how exactly it is there in the church community, I do not know. I do know it includes the liturgy; I do know that it includes music; I do know it includes education and fellowship; I do know it includes attractive buildings and cared for grounds — because those things show others how much we love the Lord. It also includes social ministries, caring for the poor and the dispossessed and the hungry. And it includes, most importantly, changed lives.
It all begins with expectant waiting, like the disciples during the ten days from Ascension Day to the Pentecost. We don't know exactly what to do, but we do know the Lord is going to lead us and we are going to follow the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. We do know that expectant waiting will be, and is, empowered by joyful infusion of the Holy Spirit and then is led in complete trust of God in all circumstances of life, especially those circumstances where we do not understand what it is that is going on. As individuals we are simply a collection of promises. We're a hodgepodge of people with different talents and different abilities, and no single one of us will accomplish the mission of the kingdom of God. Not even will we accomplish it if we gather together as a totality. It takes more than that. In order to usher in the kingdom of God, it is done as community of the people of God — the glue that holds us together.
But it must have Jesus Christ who serves as a multiplier of our gifts. Philip had it right, when he said,"Lord, we have only a little boy's sack lunch, what is that among so many?" And Jesus multiplied that "happy meal" to be not only enough for each person, but enough to take back up and share beyond. Jesus doesn't fill our cup to the brim, he fills it to overflowing.
If the Lord is the multiplier of our gifts and talents and love and care, then this parish and this church cannot be stopped as we seek to do the mission of Jesus Christ, to usher in the kingdom of God. We are God's people. We are chosen by the Father. No one is here by mistake. God has brought us together. Without the mission, we are scattered and useless. But called into community by Jesus Christ and mixed in the water of baptism and formed into his body on earth and set afire by the Holy Spirit, if we will allow the Holy Spirit to empower us and inflame us to action, then we can provide the world around us with the nourishing gospel of Jesus Christ.
The future may be difficult — in fact it will be difficult — but it will also be the crucible wherein we are formed, and continue to be formed, and reformed, into an effective force for the good in this community and in the world around us. It will take all of us, some of us to lead, many more to follow, and no one — not one single person — to stand still. As you receive the sacrament around this altar today, pray that the Holy Spirit will inflame you, and pray that the Holy Spirit will send us as the body of Christ to build the kingdom of God in Palm Desert, in this valley, and in the world.
AMEN
The Rev. Dr. Robert Certain
rgcertain@stmargarets.org
31 May 1998