Pentecost – Pastor Ellen Mills
I am offering you two ways to receive this. In print, you will need to read the scriptures for yourself, and then the prayer and reflection that follow in this post. If you click on the audio link below (below), you can hear all of it, including the scriptures.
Pentecost
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray,
O God on this day you open the hearts of your faithful people by sending us your Holy Spirit. Direct us by the light of that Spirit, that we might have a righteous judgment in all things and rejoice at all times in your peace, through Jesus Christ, your Son and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 20:19-23
When Jesus appeared before the disciples, he offered them peace, and then he showed them the healed wounds of his crucifixion. For me, these go together. Jesus could have appeared much differently. He could have appeared as the triumphant “didn’t get hurt at all” Christ who would then go on to promise his followers nothing but riches and comfort. He could have appeared as the vengeful Jesus, wanting to get back at those who had harmed him in any way. He did not. He appeared to those who had betrayed their three year relationship with him by deserting him. He gave them no rebuke, but he didn’t deny the reality of what had happened either. He showed them the marks of crucifixion. Harsh reality and peace. And this is the Hebrew shalom kind of peace, rather than the peace of the Roman Empire. The Empire’s peace was the result of conquest and oppression. It was the peace of brutal dictatorship, grinding the poor into the dust. That was not the peace of Jesus. Jesus’ peace was about the well-being of all. It was about wholeness and forgiveness. It was the sort of peace that Martin Luther King Jr talked about as the beloved community, where both the oppressor and the oppressed would be healed and set free. It is the peace that can come only when oppression is lifted, rather than when the oppressed are silenced.
This peace is not something that Jesus grants to his followers so that they can live “happily every after.” It is the peace of the living God in their hearts as they are sent out to love and serve the world, no matter what the cost. Because there will be a cost. Loving enemies is not a popular thing to do. Neither is valuing the lives of all people. Nor is actively caring about and for those who are poor and trampled in the dust. But I do not think that Jesus is calling us to anything less. For me, the giving of the Holy Spirit, no matter if it is according to John or to Luke in Acts is another “so that” thing. So that. The Spirit is not given to us as yet another gift to put on the shelf so that we can feel better because we possess it. The Spirit is given to us so that we can continue the work Jesus was given to do. We do not possess the Spirit. If we are willing to allow it, the Spirit is to possess us. And it will not leave us unchanged. It will be as much fire as wind, and the wind will more often be the wind of a tempest than a gentle breeze. God is about changing human hearts, and not just the hearts of those we do not agree with. And we are usually not at all sure that we need to change at all. But God is calling for hearts that can be broken and wounded by the violence done to our brothers and sisters, just as if it had been done to us. Our hearts are to be changed by fire as metal is purified until only the very best remains. Because it will take the very best to do what we are being called to do. We are called to continue the ministry of Jesus, or in the words of Isaiah, to “bring good news to the poor…proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free….” What that looks like will be a little different in each time and place. But it will look like love for those who have not been treated with love by the world. The body of Christ that we are called to be part of will bear the wounds of the crucifixion, because those are the wounds of God’s love for the world that persisted and overcame death.
There is little peace in our world right now. And there are many different ideas about what must be done. But I cannot preach about peace in any other way than the shalom of God, where every body, every person matters. Maybe it is shocking to realize that God loves those we do not value, but grace is shocking. Maybe if we don’t find it shocking, that is because we think we deserve it and some others don’t. If we answer the call of Jesus to love and serve others, we won’t find it easy or comfortable. But Jesus did not live an easy or comfortable life. He counted himself among those who did not matter, even among those crucified on a cross by the empire. He didn’t do that so that we could have an easy life. He did that as the first of many actions his body would go on to do. Peace, shalom peace, starts in our hearts when they are surrendered to God. And it is passed on by actions of love and mercy in the midst of a broken and hurting world. Because we are called to follow the Savior who appeared alive and with the wounds still visible. AMEN.
Draw your church together, O God, into one great company of disciples, together following our teacher Jesus Christ into every walk of life, together serving in Christ’s mission to the world, and together witnessing to your love wherever you will send us; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O God, where hearts are fearful and constricted, grant courage and hope. Where anxiety is infectious and widening, grant peace and reassurance. Where impossibilities close every door and window, grant imagination and resistance. Where distrust twists our thinking, grant healing and illumination. Where spirits are daunted and weakened, grant soaring wings and strengthened dreams. All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine upon you with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor, and grant you peace.
Amen.