Can You Feel the Breath of God? John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
There is always the temptation, when one preaches on Pentecost Sunday, to preach the story of the 1st Century Pentecost. That is, to retell and recount the story of the events that occurred the fifty days after our Lord’s resurrection, ten days after his ascension. It becomes a history lesson of the church. All one ends up telling is the same thing we could accomplish simply by reading Acts 2.
But that is not what preaching is about. Preaching is about proclamation. Telling the truth about life through the text of the Bible and its stories about faith and life and connecting that with the faith and life of the present day church.
In fact, pastoral ministry itself is more than walking into a pulpit or about visiting people in their homes and hospital rooms, as I will do later today. The “what” of what is done has importance, but the “how” of how it happens is of major import. [CAN YOU FEEL IT?]
The disciples knew “what” they were to do, but Jesus took it farther and told them “how” it is that they would do what they were to do. Jesus does not expect the church to have the “wherewithal” to do what needs to be done. So he promised us, his church, the Spirit of truth who would testify to Jesus, to the will of the Father, to the love of the Father, to the mission of the Father.
In the promise of Pentecost, is the Spirit. Not “was” but “IS.” Pentecost is NOT a history lesson from the past, it IS current reality for us now. It is the truth for the future. Pentecost was not a one-time event any more than Zage Jordan Clark’s baptism today. There is one baptism for the remission of sins. But that baptismal promise, while it began today for Zage and at some point in time for each of us (my time was November 2nd, 1958), has an import for us beyond that moment but prior to parousia, Christ’s second coming. Each has their own Pentecost, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
For that wind of the Holy Spirit did not only come in Acts, but all the way back in Genesis 1, when the Spirit of God was present in giving life to creation. It was active and present in Genesis 2, when God “breathed” into the breathless, lifeless form of clay that became man. It is that Spirit, that wind, that breath of God, [CAN YOU FEEL IT?] that lives in all people and moves throughout all of creation.
We need to re-steer our thinking towards understanding what the Bible reveals about the function of the Spirit. What is to happen when the Spirit comes? And secondly, we need to challenge ourselves to ponder where and how we see this same activity in our church community, in our human community and in the world community today. [CAN YOU FEEL IT?]
Because Jesus did not promise the Spirit as a gift only for the first and second century Christians. The reality of Pentecost is that our 21st Century world, at this moment, is God-drenched. [CAN YOU FEEL IT?] It is the Holy Spirit who reveals that.
When we, as a faith community, within our secular community, see that it is not by OUR wisdom and power, but by the wisdom of God’s truth and the power of his Holy Spirit that we function…, then we will better understand what it is that we can do and what we called to do. What we do in the Holy Spirit is guaranteed by God. When the decisions we make and the visions we see and the dreams we dream are empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, then our vision will clear and we will move forward in God’s mission. We will understand that we have the Holy Spirit poured into us, that we are God-drenched. [CAN YOU FEEL IT?]
To this end, I invite you to feel the breath of God by participating in three activities over this summer.
Beginning with this June in the Messenger, where you will find the calendar of the Daily Readings. I invite you to join me in the reading anew of the book of Acts throughout this summer. In June, we will read the first eight chapters about the growth of the church in Jerusalem up to the persecution and dispersion of the church into the world.
Second, beginning next Sunday, we will be reviewing the seven parts of the Small Catechism. Each broken down each week for easy digestion. It will be a good time for all Confirmed members to reexamine our articles of faith and for Unconfirmed members to hear for the first time and to discuss with their parents.
Third, beginning this week, I will kick off making phone calls to schedule “house calls” with each household in Trinity. These will be of a “social” nature. During my house calls I want to hear where you may be seeing the Holy Spirit at work in our community. Together with you, I want to envision, dream and imagine what and how we might be a church of and in the community. I only seek your concerns, needs, questions, and fellowship, and then I want to pray with you and for us as we journey together, into the future, into God’s future, together.Together, let’s see if we can feel the breath of God.
Amen.
