Loading...Day of Pentecost, June 4, 2017
Sermon by the Rt. Rev. J. Scott Mayer,
Bishop of Northwest Texas
Today in the life of this parish we celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation, and we will continue the celebration early this week in Colorado at Cathedral Ridge, as Emmanuel has a couple of youth who will confirmed at our annual camp event. It is a tough job to fly all the way up there to celebrate confirmation with our youth, but duty calls.
It’s an exciting time, even a transformative time, in the Episcopal Church right now. We are being led by an evangelist as our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. Many of you heard him preach and speak when he came through this diocese a couple of months ago. Bishop Curry refers to the position, CEO, as “Chief Evangelism Officer,” and he reminds us that the earliest Christians understood themselves to be part of a movement. More than understanding themselves as belonging to an institution, they understood themselves to be part of a movement. By now I suspect most of you know, Bishop Curry refers to this as the “Jesus Movement,” a movement called into being to “make disciples of Jesus who will change this world by the power of God’s love.” Bishop Curry boldly proclaims, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”
Love changes lives and changes this world, and baptized people are part of a movement to change the world by the power of God’s love. Today we celebrate this Movement: the Day of Pentecost, the event when the Holy Spirit descends upon the community of faith, a fellowship, soon to be the Church. “Like the rush of a violent wind,” the Scriptures tell us, and with “tongues, as of fire,” the Holy Spirit is made manifest among and within the followers of the Risen Christ.
By violent wind and tongues of fire. Wind and fire, two free, spontaneous, unpredictable, powerful, universal forces, two images of the dynamic Spirit of God, symbolize the indescribable experience of Pentecost. And just as the Spirit “swept over the face of the waters” in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth; just as the Spirit came upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a child was born; just as the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism; so, also, the Spirit descended upon the followers of the Risen Jesus at the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, kind of like our Thanksgiving Day. It was a high holy day among the Jews that’s why there was such a large gathering in Jerusalem, just as they would gather for the Feast of Passover, for example. And today in our tradition, the day stands as one of the three principal feast days of the Church, ranking alongside Christmas and Easter.
We tend to call Pentecost ”the Church’s birthday.” I think the magnitude of its importance is described well in one of our Eucharistic prayers, actually the oldest Eucharistic Prayer in our book, from Basil in the 4th century (prayer D). A portion of the prayer, recalling our salvation history, reads like this: “And, that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for him who died and rose for us, he sent the Holy Spirit, his own first gift for those who believe, to complete his work in the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.”
He sent the Holy Spirit to complete his work in and through the community of faith, the Church. Now that means a lot of things. One thing it describes is a high understanding of the Church. It means the Church participates in the work of the Spirit, has a role and responsibility in the reconciling work of Christ. That’s how we might define “high church” theology. That’s one thing. It also implies that the work of the Spirit is dynamic. This is not a stagnant religion that happened a long time ago, once upon a time. The Spirit did not stop acting in the world after the Bible was written or after the Creeds were confirmed. Rather, Christianity is a dynamic religion, fueled by the Holy Spirit, who is both present and active here and now. And like wind and fire, the same Spirit can be spontaneous, and elusive, and unpredictable, and powerful, just as the Spirit can be quiet as a whisper, “the still, small voice.” But either way, like a wind that “blows where it will,” the Spirit is uncontrollable and untamable.
I believe that same wind is blowing today, perhaps in a new way, not only through the Episcopal Church, but throughout Christianity. That may be a surprising claim, given that the polls say that fewer people are calling themselves “Christian,” and many are wringing their hands over the decline in numbers and loss of influence throughout Western Civilization. Probably no Christian tradition in our time has escaped the pain of division. And yet, I believe a new wind is blowing, and it cuts across all denominational boundaries, and includes everything from the “house church” to the mega-church, from evangelical to catholic, and it transcends our categories or labels of liberal and conservative, progressive and fundamentalist. And whether we call this new day a Reformation (re-formation), or the Emerging Church, it appears that a fundamental shift in our self-understanding is beginning to emerge. One way I’ve heard it described is this: Christianity is moving from presenting itself as a system of beliefs to presenting itself as a way of life. For, people are hungry for more than doctrine, more than knowing ABOUT God. People are hungry for an encounter with God. People are starved for a new way of life which leads to a sense of God’s presence, a path which leads to the abundant life which Jesus promises, a path which leads to a sense of being alive. That’s the shift we are seeing. And more and more Christians from every corner of the Christian tradition are returning to the ancient Christian practices which lead to life. We are moving from an emphasis on doctrine, however important, and believe me, I think it is, and returning to an emphasis on practice. Theologians such as Richard Rohr, Diana Butler-Bass, Brian McLaren, and the late Phyllis Tickle are reminding us of our ancient practices, that Christianity in the beginning was a “WAY,” a path, a movement.
If you’re wondering what I mean by “practice,” think of it this way. Think of it as exercise. Think of it as training. Brian McLaren says, “Practice may not make perfect, but. . .it does make currently impossible things possible. The one who tries to run a marathon cannot do it, but the one who trains eventually can.” Take for example a wonderfully gifted musician. We may experience her music as inspirational, if not transcendent or ecstatic. I suspect there are times when even the musician would agree that something glorious has filled her and her audience, and it is pure gift. Practice alone did not earn that gift. By definition, we cannot earn a gift. But practice made it possible. Practice can make the gifts of patience, kindness, courage, forgiveness, and inner peace possible. Practice can make the gift of an awareness of God’s presence possible. Practice can make the gift of communion with God and one another possible. Like “the rush of a violent wind” and with “tongues, as of fire,” the Holy Spirit is moving in and through God’s Church.
Wind and Fire. Wind and Fire: two images of the Holy Spirit, two images used by Brian McLaren when he says, “Perhaps we could say, just as a piece of wood catches fire when placed with other burning logs, and just as an iron rod in some way catches the heat and glow of the fire in which it was plunged, and just as a person who gets too close to a person with a cold catches first the germs and then the symptoms from his companion. . .then if we are plunged into God’s light and heat long enough, if we stay close enough to God for long enough, close enough to breathe God’s breath, so to speak, then we will catch a case of God. The symptoms of what God has. . .love, joy, peace, patience, justice, purity, strength, vitality. . .will be transferred to us, and we will be infected, infected with God.” And we could say that when we become infected, we also become carriers of health, carriers of healing, carriers of the vitality and light and fire, so it can spread to others and perhaps, cause a full-blown pandemic.”
Talk about a Movement! Staying close enough to God to breathe God’s breath, and become infected with God, and become carriers, spreading to others, causing a full-blown pandemic of God. Breathe on us, breath of God.
In the Name of the Holy Trinity, one God, in whom we live and move and have our being, breathe on us, breath of God. Amen.
