St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
Pentecost Sunday/Year B
Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
May 19, 2024
Lord, take our minds and think through them. Take are mouths and speak through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire! Amen.
What is Pentecost Sunday without the awe and amazement in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles’? On the day of Pentecost the disciples were all together gathered in one place, when suddenly they were in the presence of a violent wind that filled the whole house, and tongues as of fire rested on each of them.
Then the Holy Spirit filled the human beings, who were sitting in that house, and gave them all the ability to speak in other languages. Now, for context, the apostles were amongst devout Jews who were living in Jerusalem, many from multiple nations, and who spoke the languages of those nations. This crowd heard, and witnessed, this holy commotion of the Spirit’s indwelling in the disciples. And, witnessing this supernatural happening, they were amazed, confused and assumed that the disciples must have been drunk.
Truly, what is Pentecost Sunday without hearing about the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit’s movement amongst mere mortals? Mere mortals, I would suggest, who needed someone to point to the truth of what they were not only witnessing, but experiencing. That someone would be Peter. It was Peter who refuted claims that the disciples were simply drunk, and essentially said, “Hey, remember that God’s prophet Joel, prophesied about this very experience that we’re in the midst of right now.”
God declared that in the last days, he would “Pour out his Spirit upon all flesh…and they shall prophesy” (Joel 2:28-32). Peter pointed to the truth that was already in scripture—a scripture passage of which any devout Jew would have been aware. 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. What the apostles experienced, and what the gathered Jews witnessed, on the day of Pentecost was the manifestation of hope.
In our gospel passage in John, Jesus was seeding his disciples with the anticipation of the Advocate’s coming, the one whom he would send to them from the Father. And, when the Spirit came, the disciples could expect that his very nature would contradict the world’s wrong beliefs about sin, righteousness and judgment.
The disciples were to expect the Spirit to speak truth; to guide them into all truth; and to declare the truth of the eternal things to come. It was not a matter of if the Spirit of truth was coming, but when. As the disciples listened to Jesus, they could not have perceived of this, yet unseen, hoped-for Advocate of whom Jesus spoke.
As Paul said in our epistle to the Romans today, “Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Rom 8:24-25).
Who hopes for what is seen? Jesus’ disciples in John’s gospel were to hope for the coming of the Advocate, after Jesus’ death, and they were to wait for him with unwavering patience.
As Easter people, baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we live in the hope that through our belief in the only Son of God, we have life eternal with the Father beyond this temporal existence. We cannot see Jesus, but we certainly look for, and expect to see glimpses of Christ’s light in this world, and in the faces of our neighbors, and each other. We cannot see Jesus, but we certainly experience his real presence in Holy Communion in the Eucharistic prayers and in the sacraments of bread and wine. We cannot see our promised eternal life, but we can certainly expect to see glimpses of this hope manifested in our lives lived faithfully in Christ.
And, as we prepare to witness the baptism of one-year-old August, we certainly expect to see glimpses of Christ’s light as August is anointed with chrism oil and marked as Christ’s own forever. But before August is baptized, each of us must examine our own commitment to keeping our promises made in the Baptismal Covenant.
Last month, I attended, along with two of our Bishop’s Committee members, Bishop Scharf’s Water and the Word Conference. The title, of course, is a refers to the waters of baptism and holy scripture.
The theme of the Bishop’s message was one question, “Baptism. Do you mean it?” Throughout the 45-minute address this question was repeatedly asked of those present. When you look at the covenant, and we will today, notice that the first section is about belief—do you believe? The second section is about action—will you act? One of my key take-away messages from the Bishop’s message was that as the actions are presented, the personal risk embedded in those actions increases from continuing in the apostles’ teaching in holy communion and in prayers to striving for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.
When we re-affirm our Baptismal Covenant today, and we respond with, “I will, with God’s help,” recognize the risk involved in agreeing to the covenant and ask yourself, “Baptism. Do I really mean it?”
Baptism is the full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s body; it is the beginning, not the end. Indeed, one’s life in Christ is lifelong. As Easter people, we believe that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, after this mortal life is over, that there is the hope of eternal life with God.
Friends, the hope for God’s restoration of God’s people in this broken world is found in the Baptismal Covenant. By your baptism, your belief and action, you are co-creators with God in His divine action of reconciling all things to himself through Christ. On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate that God loves us so much that he always gives us glimpses of His manifestation of hope, and the baptism of baby August today is certainly that.
When we are gathered together, in worship, as the disciples were on that day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes amongst us and moves in us and through us, as we participate as the body of Christ in the ongoing work of the Spirit.
August, you are the manifestation of hope. And by the joining of your soul into the body of Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit, your very life will point to the truth of Christ’s light in this world. Brothers and sisters, let us all be on the lookout for, and expect glimpses of, God’s divine manifestations of hope in our daily lives. And, let us re-commit to ourselves, and to one another, to make promises to God that we not only mean, but intend to keep. Amen.
