Pentecost is one of the church festivals that is often overlooked, though it wasn’t always, in the Medieval church it was a Holy Day of Obligation, and it still officially is in the Catholic Church. It doesn’t evoke the happiness of Christmas or the Joy of Easter for most of us or bring in the crowds like those two holidays, but without Pentecost those two, seemingly far more exciting holidays wouldn’t exist. Pentecost is the celebration of the birth of the church, it isn’t the celebration of the cementing of the physical bricks that shape this or any other building, it is a celebration of the one thing that binds us together regardless of our backgrounds, the language we speak, or even the depth and understanding of our faith in God. It is like the mycelium Rev. Anna has often spoken of, or the Force from Star Wars; it is discernable, yet unexplainable and mysterious, it binds us to each other and to God and its name is The Holy Spirit.
In John’s Gospel Jesus calls the spirit an advocate, as in one who is a supporter, a defender, and a guide. It is the Holy Spirit that remains with us at all times, that reminds us to breathe, that nudges us to remember the teachings of Jesus as we strive to be at peace with the world, with each other, and with ourselves. The disciples had a lot of questions and if you are like me, I often take this to mean that they didn’t understand and truthfully, they probably didn’t at first; but we should not fault them for this, they were experiencing Jesus’s teachings for the first time and they were likely nervous about the idea of him leaving and not understanding everything he was talking about. I recently read that we should take their questions as a sign of the strength of their relationship with Jesus, that they felt comfortable enough to ask for clarification. Why they couldn’t then write it down in a clearer manner I don’t know, but what I do know is that discerning meaning in these stories is a lifelong pursuit and it is a pursuit that we are not meant to do alone.
One of the things that has often confused me is the line “Peace I leave with you; my own peace I give to you”, While confusing I have never really thought too much about it, assuming it just means we are never alone because Jesus is always with us, which in all honesty has never given me much comfort because knowing that an invisible all powerful creator that never talks to me is with me at all times doesn’t help me feel better; talking with my family and friends helps me feel better. I read a commentary this week by the Rev. Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough, who implies that the context in which Jesus offers peace is very important, she says “Jesus, knowing that these disciples both have experienced and are headed into harsh times, offers this word: “peace.” Peace then feels like an invitation to community and trust. The peace is found in the collective.” This simple sentence caused a light bulb to appear above my head, “Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you” is not just the idea that Jesus is always with us, it is the fact that we will find peace among each other because Jesus, who is and was and will always be, is in us. His commandments, his stories, his love of all people is all a part of us, that is the peace he left us, and the peace he gave us is the Holy Spirit. The gift is not just the presence of Jesus through his teachings, but the gift of literally always being in community with God, through the Holy Spirit, even when we are sitting alone. Accepting that and drawing strength and comfort from it is probably the hardest part of being a Christian. We know intellectually that God is with us, but do we feel it? If you do, I am very happy for you, because I suspect most of us don’t which is why we are here. When we are together as a community, we, at least sometimes, feel the comfort and the peace we were gifted from God and we feel it because we are bound together by the Holy Spirit and the closer together we become the stronger the bonds become. The Spirit is like a magnet, the closer it gets to another magnet the harder it is to pull it away. A lone magnet will occasionally latch onto something, but it is strongest when it is grouped with a bunch of its friends, (don’t check the physics on that, remember I’m a historian and amateur theologian, math and I don’t get along and we’re both fine with that).
The gift of the advocate and the peace that comes with it is not intended to be a replacement for the commandment to love each other. It is itself an act of love and a demonstration of what it means to love each other as God loves us. Jesus could sense the disciples fear, he knew that they would encounter resistance in their ministry; he knew that they would have more failures than successes as they built the church. It is no different for us, yet the call remains the same. How do we love all people, not just the ones with whom we feel connected? How do we help others feel the love of God, even if they don’t believe in God? How do we help them feel the happiness of Christmas and the Joy of Easter, even when they don’t participate in the celebrations? How do we help each other feel the happiness and joy? How do we embody the peace Jesus gifted us?
The answer to these questions will not only be different for all of us, they will be personal. Some of us may already know the answer to some of them, some of us may feel confused about them, and no matter where we fall on the spectrum of our understanding about God’s call to love, what matters most is our awareness of God, that we are drawn together by the Holy Spirit, and that it is that awareness and togetherness that makes us the church. What we choose to do with that awareness is an entirely different sermon and a life long conversation and what I will be spending the next nine weeks pondering.
While I am away, I will most certainly be thinking of you all, I will be thinking about how I can best support our community and you as individuals, and I will be taking some time to renew my own relationship with God.
As today is a celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church I will end with a portion of the Prayer of St. Patrick, which dates to the 5th century. This prayer is a reminder to me of what the church is, with every invocation of Christ I see you because Christ is in you.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
Amen
Learning by Fire! 