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Sermon for Pentecost Sunday – May 23, 2021
Acts 2:1-21, John 15:26,27; 16:4b-15
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The classic rock station I often listen to has a segment they do every morning at 9:30 called the 9:30 Knucklehead. They tell the stories of three knuckleheads and decide which is the biggest knucklehead. One of this week’s 9:30 Knuckleheads was a man in Rhode Island who hosted a gender reveal party on his property just a couple of weeks ago. Gender reveals are very popular these days and can be quite creative and extravagant as expectant couples announce the gender of their unborn child. Well, this dad really went over the top. He set off explosives on his property to reveal that he and his wife were having a baby boy, and the resulting blast could be felt in two states! Thankfully, no one was hurt.
It was quite the showy announcement, quite the explosive beginning for this little boy! I’m not sure if he has been born yet or not, but once he is, that spectacular beginning will surely give way to something much more subdued and ordinary as these parents take up the daily tasks of feeding and nurturing and teaching their baby boy.
Pentecost Sunday marks the birth of the Christian church. And boy does it begin with a bang! In our reading from Acts we hear how the apostles were all gathered together in one place, and suddenly there was an explosion! There was a sound like the rush of a violent wind that filled the entire house. Tongues of fire rested on each of them. Devout Jews from every nation heard this explosion and came running to see what was going on. When they arrived, they heard the apostles speaking of God’s deeds of power, each in their own native language. Many were amazing and perplexed, but others thought the apostles were drunk. Peter responded to this by saying, “No, we’re not drunk! It’s only 9am for cryin’ out loud!” And then he went on to explain that this was all exactly what the prophet Joel said would happen! This was an explosion of the Spirit. This was that portent in the heaven above and on the earth below, blood and fire and smokey mist and the sun turning to darkness. This was the explosion of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all flesh, so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved.
What happened on that Pentecost was the explosive revealing of the birth of the Christian church! With a wind and a fire that shook the ground and got everyone’s attention, God sent the Spirit promised by Christ to give birth to that community which would bear witness to God’s deeds of power in Christ Jesus. And this revealing was showy and spectacular and over the top!
What would follow, however, would be much more subdued and ordinary. After that explosive beginning, the Spirit would take up the daily tasks of feeding and nurturing and teaching the church, so that it would grow, and so that it would begin to carry out its mission, its purpose.
Joel predicted the explosion, but Jesus himself described this much more subdued and ordinary work of the Spirit. We hear him doing so in our gospel reading for today. It was his last night with the disciples. Jesus was preparing them for all that was to come: his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and the coming of the Spirit. Jesus described this Spirit as the Advocate – also translated as the Comforter or the Counselor. Jesus repeatedly describes this Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. This Spirit will testify on his behalf, Jesus says. This Spirit will speak of Christ, he will declare the words and works of Christ, he will glorify Christ.
Jesus identifies three things specifically that the Spirit of Truth will testify about. The Spirit will prove the world wrong about sin, testifying that it is real and that it is always rooted in unbelief. Jesus says the Spirit will prove the world wrong about righteousness, testifying that it cannot be achieved through our own efforts, or our own self-chosen values, but can only be found in Christ. Jesus says the Spirit of Truth will prove the world wrong about judgment, testifying that it has got things backwards and put the devil on the throne and Jesus on the cross.
The Spirit’s work, as Jesus describes it, is more subdued and ordinary. It is simply to testify and speak and declare. Its work is to feed and nurture and teach. It is to bear witness to the truth. It is to speak of God’s deeds of power done in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, so that, as Peter says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved.”
Some branches of Christianity have the idea that in order to be a Christian, or in order to prove that you really are a Christian, you need to have an earth-shaking, hands-in-the-air, spiritual experience. And so they try to recreate this explosive beginning in showy, extravagant ways, often by emotional manipulation. They will pull all the right strings to bring about a Pentecost-type experience in your heart. Now I’m not saying God doesn’t still knock us on our backsides from time to time. I’m not saying that God can’t bring about a life-changing and soul-shaking experience that has you trembling and amazed and perplexed, especially as you first come to faith or as you experience a renewal of faith. God still sets off those explosions from time to time.
But they are not required experiences! The explosion at Pentecost was for all of us, and it reverberates not only across state lines, but across the centuries to us here today. There is no need to recreate it!
Furthermore, that explosion is not sustainable and was never meant to be! The Spirit goes on to work in our lives in much more subdued and ordinary ways. The Spirit of Truth is at work whenever you open up the scriptures and let God speak the truth of Christ to you. The Spirit of Truth is at work whenever you listen to God’s Word being proclaimed to you in Law and Gospel. The Spirit of Truth is at work in your life to do the simple but necessary work of exposing the world’s lies and planting God’s truth in your heart. The Spirit is at work whenever Christ is put in your ears through the Word or in your mouth through the Sacrament.
What started with a bang has given way to something more subdued and ordinary. What was first announced with a wind and a fire that shook the ground and got everyone’s attention has given way to the everyday tasks that the Spirit performs in and through the church, where we are fed and nurtured and taught. And as we simply listen and learn, we grow in faith. As we listen and learn, we are equipped and empowered to carry out our calling, our mission, our purpose as the church, which is to bear witness to God’s deeds of power to people of every language and ethnicity and nation on earth, so that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved.”
This is what we, the church, were born to do. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church