St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Very Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
May 24, 2026 ● Pentecost Sunday
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Many of you were here on Easter Sunday, as we worshiped together and celebrated the risen Christ. The very next day, I was struck with an infection that required 18 days of intravenous antibiotics infusions and resulted in my absence from this body of Christ three weeks. This dangerous and mysterious issue has assaulted my body every 10 years since the year 2000. I admit that around year nine, after each health crisis, I do hold my breath anticipating terror. As I moved through this Easter season, I felt like Lent, in the form of sickness, was gripping my ankle, forcing me to limp, instead of dance, through the Easter season.
I know that many of you can relate to this internal conflict where there is true cause for deep soul celebration in your life (Easter), yet the physical experiences of your temporal body, and experiences of this dark and broken temporal world, remind you that you are but dust and to dust you shall return (Lent). I invite you to ponder with me, through your own lens, this question: “How can one stand firmly in the gift of Pentecost, and freely embrace the Peace of Christ, when one foot is still stuck in Lent?”
Our gospel passage in the 20th chapter of John is a timely reminder of the hope that is in Christ when all one can do is hold their breath when hope feels elusive, even absent, in the midst of fear and anticipated terror.
On that day of Jesus’ Resurrection, the disciples were together behind locked doors, fearing the Jews. Many of the disciples had witnessed the brutality Jesus suffered on his way to the cross, and some had witnessed his public murder, and they were terrified—collectively holding their breath, not unlike so many of us in our own modern-day contexts, anticipating terror.
But, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ very presence brought Peace—and Jesus’ very presence was Peace. Jesus did some powerful exhaling of his own as he breathed the Holy Spirit onto the disciples and instructed them to participate in this exchange by receiving the Holy Spirit. As a response to the risen Christ’s presence, the disciples collectively exhaled their terror, and replaced it with rejoicing, and they could breathe again.
Recall that in the first chapter of Acts, the risen Christ, at that time, reminded the disciples that they would indeed be baptized by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5), and that the Holy Spirit would give them power to be His witnesses in Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8).
Recall, also, that in our lesson in the second chapter of Acts today, Peter, with the authority of one who was like Jesus, refuted claims that the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability, were simply drunk. Peter reminded the Jews a scripture passage from the Prophet Joel, of which any devout Jew would have been aware, that God declared that in the last days, he would “Pour out his Spirit upon all flesh…and they shall prophesy.”[1]
Up to this point, God’s promise of his Spirit, as prophesied by Joel, was something that God’s people could not yet see, but had certainly hoped for. The disciples would have recognized this public proclamation of the mighty deeds of God for what it was—a fulfilled prophesy affirming God’s faithfulness.
As for you and me, God’s powerful spirit blows us into desolate places—literally and spiritually—where the thirsting of spiritually-dry people can be quenched by the living water of Jesus Christ. Like the disciples in our lesson, the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to continue in the apostles’ teaching, and to scatter the seeds of the life-giving gospel everywhere the Spirit leads us.
Even in times when we walk in our own darkness, of unforgiveness, sickness, anger, guilt, shame and heartbrokenness, we are called to be evangelists—living examples, beacons of Christ’s light, who bear Christ’s hope as people who are faithful to our promises to God.
We do well to remember that we are not sent out into the world alone, ill-prepared or ill-equipped. Sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, we are uniquely equipped and empowered to carry the life-saving gospel message out into the spiritually dry and desolate places in the world, and indeed within this gathered faith community—we who are gathered together in one place.
Like the disciples in our gospel passage, who were locked behind closed doors we are reminded that behind the “locked doors” of humanity’s injustices against humanity, of socioeconomic inequities, racial injustices, and the litany of systemic -isms that divide human beings, Jesus comes among us, stands with us, and sends us out, as God sent him out to speak truth to power with the fire of the Holy Spirit poured out from our souls; poured out from our tongues; poured out as healing balm for this hurting world.
In the presence of the risen Christ, we, like the disciples, are empowered by the Holy Spirit to move from fearfulness to rejoicing. And, because Jesus exhaled with the life of the Holy Spirit, we, too can risk exhaling, with the life-giving gospel message to all people, who receive it, that the Peace, given by Christ, frees enslaved souls.
Filled with the Peace that only Christ can give, and the Peace of Christ that only Christ is, we are sent to move beyond the man-made locked doors, and the spiritual locked doors to be among God’s people—of all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, all nations—all of God’s people.
And yet, the challenge to hold both joy and sorrow at once (and it can be done) remains: “How can one—a faithful person—stand firmly in the gift of Pentecost, and freely embrace the Peace of Christ, when one foot is still stuck in Lent?”
Friends, I think that we continue to put one foot in front of the other, walking by faith and not by sight, through myriad wildernesses of Lent throughout our lives, and by trusting that when we can see no ground beneath us, the church’s one foundation, Jesus Christ our Lord, will rise up to meet our feet so that we may continue our lifelong journey to make Christ know and to help others to exhale fear—and to inhale the breath of life.
On this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate that as the body of Christ, of which Jesus is the head, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak truth to power with the fire of the Holy Spirit poured out from our souls; poured out from our tongues; poured out as healing balm for this hurting world.
May the Peace of Christ be with you, and within you, as you inhale the Holy Spirit, and exhale the aroma of Christ on all who have the heart to receive him. Amen.
[1] Joel 2:28-32
