Sermon - May 23, 2010

Year C - The Year of Luke - Pentecost Sunday

Today is about a birth, the birth of the church; and, thus, it is about the birth of all who call on Christ's name. Today, Pentecost Sunday is the day on which the first believers came alive in their faith. They came to a new understanding of who Christ was and who they were in the holy history of our God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they were immersed in the power and life of the Spirit. This power and life has existed since the world began. However, God poured it out in a special fashion on the disciples on Pentecost Sunday. Furthermore, God pours it out on you and me in the waters of baptism. Through the power of the Holy Spirit given to us at baptism, we become the body of Christ in this world.

Pentecost was an event that had long been promised and which the people of God had long awaited. Pentecost was the reversal of what occurred at the Tower of Babel when, because of our sinfulness, we became unable to understand one another.

Pentecost is the gift of God who makes us one in the Spirit - and to make us one in the way he is one.

Pentecost is our becoming "little Christs" in the world. In a sense, God takes on flesh though his people who are the Church. Christ reveals himself not only in the least of those to whom we give water to drink or clothes to wear; but he reveals himself in and through us.

Pentecost gives us the eyes to see and the ears to hear. God gives us the eyes to see that God is in the details of our lives in both flesh and Spirit. God gives us the ears to hear him speaking through the Scriptures, in our hearts and upon the lips of others.

God gives us the eyes to see and the ears to hear - as one - and as unique persons who are valued and treasured so much by God that he went to the cross for us, and comes to us as we are - sins, faults, flaws and all.

The story of the birth of the church, of that day some fifty days after the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus that Jews and Christians call Pentecost - tells us that this what God has done - and what God is still doing.

The followers of Jesus were given the ability to speak the languages of all those who were assembled in the Jerusalem and beyond. God grants us the same ability in the sense that if we want to, we might understand one another if we take the time to listen. If we listen to our neighbor, we might understand the good news - in just the way we need to hear it.

God communicates to each one of us here today. We only need to listen. We hear the gospel in our own language, in our images, with our own words, and with our own ears.

For some of us, God is encouraging us to spend more time in praise and wonder so we might thank God for our blessings. To others of us, God is telling us that the power that we need for tomorrow's trials and tribulations will come by God's wisdom and hand. Still, to others of us, God is telling us to take heart - knowing that God is present to us at all times.

Pentecost is the birth of the Church. It is God among us in power. Pentecost is God making us not simply a group of believers, but Christ in the world who live bearing the cross, and knowing we will be raised from the grave in glory.

We here today are a people born of Pentecost. Through the waters of baptism, the Spirit pours out upon us. The gift of God is just below the surface in our minds and hearts. It is to the right and to the left of us - above us and below us.

As the Church and the body of Christ in the world, we are blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are blessed be the church in this world announcing the victory Christ has won for the world that is yet to come. Amen