Sermon May 27, 2007

The Day of Pentecost, Year C, May 27, 2007

As I'm sure you all know the Sacred Christian year is divided into three cycles: Nativity and birth, Easter and re-birth, and Pentecost and renewal.

So here we are at the Feast of Pentecost - of the three the only one that is celebrated for just one day! That's right! Christmas has the one or two Sundays "after", and Easter has 50 days. But Pentecost is just one day.

In some ways that's a real pity - after all, Pentecost is the one festival out of the three that is directly about us, about ordinary believers, and what can happen to us as a result of our sacred encounter with God.

Obviously its about divine gift-giving: God comes in a new way, not just to be with us but to be in us. Here is the beginning of what has come to be called creation spirituality - that God is in everything, willing it to be transformed for good.

Central to the whole story is a question: the disciples asked it of their own experience: "what does this mean?" What are the consequences of God's gift of Spirit?

Lots of ways to answer that, of course. But first, a few comments on the Acts passage. Luke, in this piece, describes Pentecost in very familiar terms: of new life, of the burning gift of the Spirit - but based on where that language is used elsewhere in his writings its clear that he uses 'temporary' language to do so. For Luke, the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost was a temporary thing.

Paul likewise saw the specific Pentecost Spirit gifts as incomplete and temporary. When writing to the Corinthian Church he said that what we have been given is a "pledge", a "first installment", or the "first fruits" of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Rm 8:23).

In other words, it's a neat gift but if we want to sit back on our laurels and admire the view we're likely in for a rude awakening! We have to adjust ourselves and the way we live, reorient our lives toward God, and then this gift will start to make more sense....and it will become more permanent than temporary.

That's another way of saying that there is a process that we all must go through of adjusting lives to the Spirit - of re-orienting the way we "do business" to put God at the center.

This is not always easy, and, in fact, it's sometimes quite painful. I think you know that. Indeed, St Paul compared it to the pain of a woman giving birth. "The whole Creation has been groaning in labor pains until now," he says, "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" (Romans 8:22-23).

That reminder is helpful for what comes after Pentecost. The day itself is joyful but almost immediately the story of the nascent church is of division, failure, and muddled leadership. Luke is not afraid to reveal this post-Pentecost tale to us - perhaps as a reminder that there is no such thing as a perfect community, not even among the original Christians.

"What was true of the first Christian community remains true of us and of our communities. We experience failure within ourselves: division, bitterness, muddle-headedness and bewilderment in our communities. Luke would not have us suppose that any of this is not real; but he encourages us to see in it that imperfect humanity which the Spirit joins to itself, modeling us anew after the pattern of Christ, so that the Father's light might shine from our humanity as it does from the humanity of his Son." (Dennis Minns, "Pentecost is just the start" The Tablet).

Likewise, in the Gospel, Jesus offers peace as a gift. If peace were a marker of the disciples' identity such a gift would have been unnecessary. Human history testifies to that lack - and, in fact, so does this weekend: we would not need to remember with thanksgiving the sacrifices of those who have fought for this country if peace were a marker of human identity.

The readings are thus, at the same time, a future promise of joy and a realistic reflection of the way things are - the promise of God's Spirit is balanced against human frailty and failure. We are given a vision to live into, but we are not yet at that joyous destination.

This honest perspective is a good thing! The idealized view of the day of Pentecost so often creates not only unrealistic expectations but also guilt when we fail to match the disciples' experience. Phew!!

But that doesn't let us off the hook!

Today is often called - in addition to "Pentecost" of course! - the birthday of the Church. Pentecost marks the day God turned over responsibility for sharing the Good News about Jesus by living it. Christians are all, from that moment on, through the waters of baptism, "little Christ's". Let me repeat that more directly: you are a "little Christ". In baptism you were committed to be Christ to others. In renewing the baptismal vows you embrace that responsibility again.

In just a few moments we will, together, renew again those vows that make us Christians. I'm not going to repeat them here. Rather, I want to interpret them for you.

What our Prayer Book says about identity is this: you are the ministers. I am only a minister in as much as I am baptized. I am only a priest in as much as baptized Christians asked me to take on this representative role on your behalf. That makes me - and Fletcher, and Julie - 'support staff'! It is my responsibility to try and prepare you for the ministry that belongs to each of you. And, in fact, this is what leadership looks like for Christians - we are to serve and support each other.

Institutionally we had slipped away from that vision. The clergy had come to be the professional ministers, ordination was going into "THE" ministry, not adding a secondary ministry to the primary one given at baptism.

Baptismal garments - these white things - got reserved for the ordained, and a few "honorary clergy"!

And the word lay - an honorable word rooted in faith, and meaning, in the Greek "the gathered people of God" came to mean 'amateur, untrained, unexceptional, not the real thing!"

The baptismal covenant is designed to change that perspective. But you are the only ones who can make it so - by embracing the authorization to be a minister given to you at baptism - and seeing my role differently.

Each week it all begins here - in this place, and in this service. I would like you to think about this service - and every Eucharist - differently from now on.

Every one of you is a celebrant of this service. I'm behind the altar only because there isn't enough room for all of you - which is why the word now used is "Presider", not "Celebrant" for my role.

I say the words invoking God's blessing on your behalf. The reason we use Prayer C so much is because you have a more appropriately expanded role. Remember a couple of weeks ago when one of your lines in the Eucharistic Prayer was over the page, and there was a pause? I was tempted to say: "I can't go on until you speak!" Because I can't. That's your part, not mine. So please 'speak out' why your lines come up. We do believe, after all, that God is watching!

Joking aside, this is really important! It will transform you, I guarantee it. And it will transform us. May it be so!         Amen.