The Rev. Canon Todd D. Smelser
Mikell Chapel, The Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, Georgia
The Feast of Pentecost- Year C
"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one
place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a
violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting."
This
morning we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost"”the 50th day of our Easter
season. We just heard in the Book of Acts how the Holy Spirit was given
to the followers of Jesus. People from all over the world who were in
Jerusalem for the Jewish Festival of Pentecost were surprised to hear
someone speaking their own language so far from home. Parthians and
Libyans and residents of Mesopotamia"”in other words, everyone from the
known world"”all were ecstatic about the mighty acts of God. Before the
day was done the church had grown from 120 to more than three thousand.
Soon these followers were able to speak like Jesus did, and they were
able to bring healing to those who were sick, like Jesus did. God's
breath now gave them new life. It was time for God to be born again"”not
in one body this time but in a body of believers who would receive the
breath of life from their Lord and pass it on to others.
The
Book of Acts is the story of their adventures, kind of like a Gospel of
the Holy Spirit. In the first four books of the New Testament we learn
the good news of what God did through Jesus Christ. In the book of
Acts, we learn the good news of what God did through the Holy Spirit.
Of
the three persons of the Trinity, I think it's the Holy Spirit which is
the hardest to define. Most of us can describe the other two: God the
Father, creator of heaven and earth, who makes the sun shine and the
rain fall. God the Son, who was human like us: our savior, teacher,
helper and friend. But how would you describe God the Holy Spirit for a
child? "The Spirit blows where it chooses," he said in John's Gospel,
"and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes." That's about right.
The Church teaches that
the Holy Spirit is given to us in our baptism, and this is why
Pentecost is one of our baptismal Sundays (and Thomas Bryant Bateman is
baptized into Christ's Church at 9:00 service). This rite of initiation
is the beginning of a new life of grace and forgiveness, in which we
pray that they will have inquiring and discerning hearts and the gift
of joy and wonder in all of God's works.
It also teaches us that
each of us have been given a set of gifts by the Spirit, gifts we are
to use for the building up of God's church and the transformation of
the world with God's love and grace. That means that we are not to hide
those gifts under a basket, but to share them with a needy world.
Bennett
Sims, the former Bishop of Atlanta, writing in his book Servanthood:
Leadership for the Third Millennium says this: "The first and foremost
attribute of the servant church is its daring openness to the Spirit."
It is the prayer that the Church makes room for the release of the
Spirit in the life of the community and the courage to act when it
does. We are not fall back into being the safe and self-absorbed
church, but rather a place of outrageous hope and extravagant
hospitality.
On a personal level, I also think that this day
reminds each of us that God walks with us in our journey of faith, even
on those days when we might get discouraged and feel we have nothing to
offer. God has both the knowledge and resources that we don't have. But
in sharing them freely with us, God makes it possible for us to do what
we cannot do alone.
We are living in a strange time, in which
there is great distrust of anyone in authority"”in business, in
government and in the church. Corporate models are clearly not
transparent, and the church needs to be careful not to follow models
which are not healthy or life-giving. Church leaders need to be formed
not by the last gimmicks or the bottom line, but by the study of
scripture, prayer and the careful discernment of God's will. For our
bottom line has never been the profit margin, but rather the care of
souls of the faithful, and the care of the poor, the sick and the needy
of the world.
Living a spirit-filled life, does not depend upon
a person's intelligence or the ability to master skillful strategies in
order to become number one. The Christian life, begun in our baptism,
depends totally upon God and our receptivity to God's Holy Spirit
working within us. God chose a young virgin named Mary to bear God's
son, and Jesus chose a bunch of Galilean fishermen to share in his
ministry. God chooses you to bear his message of hope and promise and
love in this place and in our world this day.
May God empower and renew our faith this day as we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost.
Comments? Contact The Rev. Canon Todd Smelser at: tsmelser@stphilipscathedral.org
