Sermon for the Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2015. Preached at St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church, my internship congregation in Dubuque, Iowa.
This week’s lectionary texts are John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15, Acts 2:1-21, and Romans 8:22-27. As you will be able to see in the video, I actually preached from notes this week while standing among the congregation, rather than from a manuscript in the pulpit.
Also, the video at the end is in the sermon video recording, but it’s embedded at the end of the manuscript and it’s easier to read there.
We begin with prayer.
Holy God, as we gather to worship on this Pentecost weekend, as we celebrate the birthday of the church and the gift of the Holy Spirit, meet us here and ignite our faith. Come alongside us, in all our fears and our doubts, and nudge us, provoke us, to ever-growing trust and faith in your promises. Amen.
What is something that you’re waiting for? What’s something you’re anticipating?
Take a minute and share with someone sitting near you.
What are some of the things you’re waiting for?
[Discussion]
What’d you come up with?
[Sharing Responses]
I feel like I have a lot of things right now that I’m waiting for. Some of them I’m looking forward to, like my parents coming to visit next week, volunteering in Detroit this summer at the churchwide Youth Gathering, even going back to school this fall. There are other things I’m anticipating, although not exactly looking forward to, like leaving St. Peter in a month, and some of the work that goes along with going back to school.
For some of what I’m waiting for, I feel like I’m in this sort of in-between state. One of them’s here at St. Peter. I’m here for another month, yet people are already saying good-bye. Plans are well underway for many things happening after I’m gone, like VBS and next year’s confirmation class.
The section of Paul’s letter to the Romans that we just heard speaks to a time of waiting, anticipating the future. Paul is writing about 20 years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, and he and the church are in this odd sort of in-between time.
For thousands of years, they’d been waiting for the Messiah to come. Then the Messiah, Jesus, came proclaiming God’s kingdom is here, he was killed, and raised from the dead. And then…what?
The early Christians knew Jesus had proclaimed the arrival of God’s kingdom, but the kingdom isn’t fully here yet. Sin, suffering, and death were defeated on the cross, yet people still suffer, and die. The cross and resurrection showed God’s triumph, but the victory seems incomplete. The people were still waiting for Christ’s return and the promised new creation.
We’re still in this situation today, so this letter speaks to us as we await the culmination of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God is here among us, but it’s not yet complete.
So in this in-between time, Paul writes, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
I was thinking of examples of what it’s like to live in the in-between, in the now and not yet, and it’s kind of like being in high school during your senior year. Many seniors in high school are 18, so they’re legally adults, so technically they have adult freedoms and responsibilities to make adult decisions, to excuse themselves from school. But for at least a little longer, they’re still in high school, bound by the same rules as children. You know you’re at that graduation milestone, that life will soon dramatically change, but it hasn’t happened yet. You’re in the in-between.
What sticks out to me this weekend is Paul’s example about waiting for adoption. Three years ago, my God-parents, Heidi and Peter, adopted their son, Lucas, from an orphanage in China. When they got him, Lucas was seven years old, spoke no English and of course, had no idea at first who they were. On top of that, he was adopted as a special needs child because of some medical issues with his legs, and shortly after they got him, he had to have both of his legs amputated. Pretty dramatic change! Since then, he’s learned lots of English and his prosthetic legs really don’t slow him down at all.
But over the last few years, Lucas has mentioned these two friends he had back in the orphanage in China. Over this last year, after a great deal of prayer, Heidi and Peter felt called to also adopt these other two children. So, on Tuesday morning this last week, they left for China, where they’ll be adopting these two other kids and bringing them back to live with them in Atlanta.
All week, as I’ve been thinking about what it means to live in the in-between, I’ve been thinking about these two kids. They know they’re getting adopted and their future parents are coming to get them. I’m sure they’re eagerly awaiting their future. They also have some medical needs, and they’ll be able to get the treatment they need, and they’ll have a home. But can you imagine how terrifying that must be? These people, whom they don’t know, will be taking them across the world, away from everyone they know besides Lucas, who they haven’t seen for years. They know they’ve been chosen for adoption, but they don’t know what the future holds.
Heidi and Peter know these new members of their family are waiting for them, they’ve seen pictures, they’ve prayed for them, but they hadn’t met them. They know it will be challenging, but there’s only so much they can anticipate. I know they’d welcome your prayers.
We know that we have been saved, that God is making all things new, but right now, we wait in hope for what we don’t yet see, a new reality we can’t yet grasp.
Sometimes, we get tired of waiting and we want to see some progress. 2,000 years is a long time to wait. I know I’d sometimes prefer to see God active in some kind of an exciting, visible, tangible way, like at Pentecost. Sometimes, some tongues of fire would be kind of refreshing!
It would be nice to have Jesus here physically with us. I imagine the disciples were thinking along those lines as Jesus told them he’d no longer be with them. But listen to what Jesus said to them shortly before his death. “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
Jesus isn’t physically present, but that doesn’t mean we or the disciples are left alone. In the Gospel reading, we heard Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit, and in the reading from Acts, we hear the fulfillment of that promise.
I imagine the disciples felt a bit confused. Jesus had ascended into heaven, leaving instructions to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. But, at least in what we have recorded, he wasn’t very specific about what that would look like. So they wait together in the city, and suddenly, on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, (get it? Pente? 50? Pentecost), the Holy Spirit comes upon them.
And it’s not a subtle thing. All these people from all those hard to pronounce places notice something’s going on. And in one of my favorite Bible moments, the onlookers tell them they’re drunk. Peter explains that they’re not drunk, he preaches a sermon, and, it says a few verses later, 3,000 people join the new church.
As we celebrate Pentecost today, it’s important to remember we’re not just celebrating this one time when the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit wasn’t just around in the first and second centuries, then decided the church was doing all right on its own.
No, you and I are still living in this in-between time. The Holy Spirit is still here with us. We continue to hope for the coming of God’s kingdom, the new creation of all things, the final resurrection. But the promise of Pentecost is that we don’t hope alone.
When Jesus promises the disciples the Spirit will come, he uses the word, “Advocate.” In some older versions, it’s translated Comforter, but that’s a bit too narrow. In the original Greek, the word used is “Paraclete,” literally, “one who comes alongside another.” The Holy Spirit comes alongside us.
I met with a family in a hospital room recently, and I shared this section about the Spirit interceding with sighs too deep for words in those times in life when we don’t know how to pray, when we can’t find the words to say. Prayer isn’t a magic wand to fix things, but in some situations, even if it was, I still wouldn’t know how to pray. That’s when I think this image of the Spirit interceding for us with sighs beyond words is so powerful.
The Holy Spirit comforts us, equips us, and energizes us. Jesus describes the Spirit as coming to enable us to testify, to witness, and to do it with confidence.
Part of how the Spirit equips, enables, and advocates is by provoking us. Sometimes the Spirit intercedes for us by pushing us to go intercede for others, and that can be scary, sometimes when we’d like to be comforted, not pushed.
The promise of Pentecost is that in the in-between times, when we’re waiting, we are not alone. God is at work in the world, calling and provoking us through the Spirit.
This video clip speaks to our response to how the Holy Spirit is calling and provoking us. Take a look.
As we celebrate Pentecost this weekend, my prayer for you is that you might be inspired to share the story of what God is doing in your life, and as you go from here, that you would know that you are not alone, that the Holy Spirit is present with you.
Amen.
For more on the idea of the Holy Spirit provoking and encouraging us, check out my newsletter column for this month.