Pentecost Sunday (sermon text)
Scriptures: Acts 2:1-21, Psalm 104:24-35, Romans 8:22-27, John 15:26-27 & 16:4b-15
Truth of the Spirit
1,990 years and 364 days ago, give or take, Jesus’ disciples were still in hiding from the authorities, and even their neighbors and former friends, in the aftermath of Jesus’ death. Jesus, resurrected, had appeared and told them to wait in Jerusalem, but he wouldn’t tell them what was going to happen or when it would occur. There were about 120 followers of Christ in all.
1,991 years ago, during a Jewish festival called Pentecost, at about 9 in the morning, a miracle occurred, Peter testified, and about 3,000 people were baptized. So began the church, loosely organized as it was, and so I say-
Happy Pentecost! It doesn’t roll off the tongue quite like Happy Easter or Merry Christmas, but all the same, blessings to you on this holy feast day. Pentecost is so many things that it’s difficult to pin down. The coming of God’s Spirit… which was present from the creation of the world. The birth of the church, which is a continuation and outpouring of God’s covenantal promises from across the generations. What makes Pentecost unique? Easter and Christmas – for all their nuances – are both pretty easy to explain in a single sentence.
Perhaps most simply put, Pentecost is the Sunday we celebrate the Holy Spirit – and this scratches the surface of why it’s more difficult to explain. It’s not the birth of the Spirit, not even the first time the Spirit appears in the world.
And I’ll never forget the first Lutheran church my family attended, in rural Montana, where we’d recently moved. If you experienced the ‘70’s and ‘80’s in the church, you may remember the “worship-in-the-round” style that was all the rage. I’ll be generous and call it a “Spirit-filled experiment,” but obviously, it hasn’t replaced traditional pew worship.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, imagine a sanctuary about a quarter of this size, with a circle of chairs all facing the center. Often, the altar at the center would be small, so you could see almost everyone – and everyone could see you.
Please indulge me for just a moment. Look around at the other people in the room. Left, right, behind you, in front of you. The guy up here in the fancy robe. It’s a bit of an exercise, isn’t it? As a five-year-old, worship-in-the-round was part of what drew me to the Lutheran church. On the one hand, everyone at this particular mountain church was friendly and open, which was completely different from the church we’d left. As a bonus, it looked like a giant game of musical chairs; this was very appealing to a child.
As an adult, I probably wouldn’t like that style of worship. It can feel uncomfortable, to have someone in your direct line of sight for an hour or so, and to know that you’re in theirs. It can leave one feeling vulnerable. Yet… part of me still misses it.
In that circle of about 30 believers, it was impossible to lose sight of your fellow Christians. Your fellow human beings, simultaneously sinners and saints as the Reformer Martin Luther taught. And this, from an early age, gave me a perspective on the “Spirit of Truth,” as Jesus calls the Holy Spirit.
As a sinner, it is amazing to me that Christ could look on each of those 30 people with unconditional love, and as a sinner, it is inconceivable that I am called to do the same, as Christ commands.
On this day that we celebrate the Holy Spirit, it is amazing to me that Christ could look on each of those 3,000 newly baptized Jewish followers with unconditional love, and as a sinner, it is inconceivable that Peter and the disciples were called to do the same.
In the Gospel of John, including in today’s reading, Jesus emphasizes the arrival of the Spirit amidst his disciples, making it clear that the Spirit will continue the work Jesus is doing to grow them in fullness of life as witnesses to God. In Acts, we see the Spirit in action.
I think an exciting description of Pentecost is this: today, we celebrate what Luther called “the freedom of a Christian.” We are freed from any possible reliance on our sinful selves to live in Christ’s faith. We are freed through the power of the Holy Spirit – active and directive in our lives – to give our lives away for the sake of others, to joyfully give what we freely receive. To love, unconditionally, as Christ loves us.
The Gospel of John has a unique name for the Holy Spirit; I mentioned it a moment ago. Jesus calls it the “Spirit of Truth.” Because Jesus doesn’t define it, it’s not entirely clear what he means, but I think we can puzzle through, because as with the entire book of John, we return to our touchstone passages to remember that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that anyone who receives Christ’s faith may live into the fullness of life God promises, forever; this fullness of life involves living not for ourselves, but pouring out the abundance we are given by sharing the love Christ shines on us with others.
The Truth of the Spirit is that Jesus came to earth. And that changes everything.
To paraphrase Luther, “Christ’s faith alone can rule in our hearts… and since [faith] alone justifies, no outward work or labour can justify the heart, make us free, or offer us salvation; no works whatsoever have any relation to our state of grace. […] Therefore the first care of every Christian ought to be, to lay aside all reliance on works, and strengthen their faith alone more and more, and by it grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ Jesus, who has suffered and risen again for us.”
On the one hand, it’s astounding, to us in our modern, achievement-focused culture to think that such a simple thing as faith in Christ is the only faithful act. On the other, we are obsessed with self-reliance, so to hear Luther say that “we find in ourselves no resource for justification and salvation” is particularly gut-wrenching.
We want to put the cart before the horse. We want to do something to show that we are worthy, that there’s value in us, when God created us in love and values us exactly as we are. Yet, we love because Christ first loved us and loves us still.
And like a discussion of love in Christ, talking about the Holy Spirit always seems to take us to the beginning. The Spirit of Truth is a creative force, present with God at the act of creation. The Spirit of Truth filled the disciples at Pentecost and there gave birth to the church. The Spirit of God is with us today, and it is the Spirit that Christian action takes place.
Because as Luther understood freedom, a Christian is “the most free lord of all, and subject to none;” and also “the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.” This paradox is only possible to embody in Christ’s faith, and lived out through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thinking back to my childhood experience with worship-in-the-round, it may not be in me, alone, to look into the faces of 30 people, seated in a circle, and love them unconditionally. It is in Christ, alone, that I am freed to love them, and through the power of the Holy Spirit that I may serve them.
This is the God that created the world in love. This is the body and blood of Christ, broken and shed for us. This is the Spirit, poured out for the sake of the world. This is our triune God: creator, redeemer, and sustainer. This is our freedom and our salvation.
For the sake of the world. Not just 30 people. Not just 3,000. 7.9 billion. That’s the population of the world today. Each person created in the image of God. Christ, come into the world for the sake of each.
The Truth of the Spirit is that Jesus came to earth. It is in Christ to love, and may we live in the Spirit of Truth, freed to love as Christ commands, to serve as the Spirit empowers and emboldens us. Thanks be to God.
-Pastor Will Bevins