May 19th Sermon

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Today is the 50^th day after Easter, Pentecost, the day in which we celebrate the birthday of the church and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the crowd gathered to hear Peter witness to the truth of who Jesus was and is, our Lord and our savior.

It is a day we wear red, remembering the flames that appeared over the heads of all who heard God’s word proclaimed.

Neal: Es ist ein Tag, an dem wir Rot tragen und uns an die Flammen erinnern, die über den Köpfen aller erschienen, die Gottes Wort verkündet hörten.

Me: Es un día en el que nos vestimos de rojo, recordando las llamas que aparecieron sobre las cabezas de todos los que escucharon la palabra de Dios

Victor: Es el día en que muchas personas escucharon la palabra de dios en sus propios idiomas.

Romita: பலர் தங்கள் சொந்த மொழிகளில் கடவுளுடைய வார்த்தையைக் கேட்ட நாள்.

Me: It is a day when many people heard the Word of God in their own languages.

Our Gospel today begins in the Gospel of John with Jesus talking about the PARACLETE—that is the Greek word used by John 4 times in the Gospel to describe the work of the what we call the Holy Spirit, or as John also uses, the Spirit of Truth.

InGreek the word Paraclete means to come a long side—

Para as in parallel..

Clete from the word “to call”

So literally, the word for Holy Spirit used by John is “the one called alongside”.

It reminds me of Matthew’s Gospel which begins and ends with the idea that in Jesus, God is with us.

In Matthew 1, after Joseph learns of Mary’s unexpected pregnancy, an angel appears to him in a dream and explains:

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
²³“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”  (Matthew 1:20-23- NRSV)

Matthew’s Gospel then concludes with Jesus ascending into heaven 40 days after his resurrection, with Jesus promising the Disciples to be with them always.

¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

In other words, Matthew reminds us at the beginning and the end that Jesus has promised to be with us, even when we do not see him.

In translating the Greek, we have used many words to explain the Holy Spirit:

Comforter

Advocate

Counselor- as in legal advocate

John also describes this entity as the Spirit of Truth.

Paul, written before Matthew and John, merely used the Greek word for Spirit- Pneuma and insists that the Spirit prays for us with sighs too deep for words.

^‘6Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’

What I am trying to get at is that the Bible is not very clear or definitive when teaching us about the Holy Spirit.  Is this the same spirit that David begs God not to take from him, in his prayer of confession, Psalm 51?

 ¹¹Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me. NRSV Psalm 51:11

Nearly 2000 years after the Christian Pentecost, the flaming tongues of fire, and the beautiful sounds of so many languages being spoken at once, we are still “amazed and astonished” asking “What does this mean?”

What is this pnuema, this Paraclete, this prayerful advocate who is with us always?

(pause)

The Holy Spirit remains much of a mystery… I have felt it moving in the room and in my heart, but explaining that to someone else isn’t easy.  Besides, I truly believe that how the Spirit speaks to us is as unique as our fingerprints.

But in this new century, we are not always comfortable with mystery, with not knowing.

(pause)

I remember years and years ago, I’d see a movie or a TV show and I’d recognize the voice or the face of an actor in the program and I’d wonder: “Where do I know that actor from?”

But I’d have to let it go, because there was no way to find out.

The internet and the Internet Movie Database didn’t yet exist.

How many miles between here and the moon? Here and the sun?  I could guess, but today, Wikipedia knows the answer.

The internet often seems to have an answer for everything… but I wonder if it is just another tower of Babel, allowing us to believe we truly are all-knowing, like God.

One of my favorite books in the last ten years is The Sin of Certainty, a book that reminds us that understanding God and how God thinks is beyond our limited human brains.

(pause)

On Pentecost, a church festival dedicated to the mystery of the Holy Spirit, I am led to proclaim that faith is about mystery.

If we knew for certainty, then it could not be called “faith.”

Faith is after all “… the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

And so on this Pentecost,  I invite you to reclaim the mystery. Embrace the unknown…

Open your hearts to the mystery of God the Holy Spirit- and be led by the one who is called alongside of us, the comforter, the advocate, the counselor, the spirit of truth…

Allow the mystery and wonder of our God to fill your life with the fruits of the Spirit.

For if we live by the Spirit, then surely we will be guided by the Spirit.  Amen.