Sermon for May 15th 2005. The Revd. J. Michael Povey at St. James?s, Cambridge, MA

Acts 2:1-21 + Psalm 104:24-34, 35b + Acts 2:1-21 + John 20:19-23

How many sides does the Pentagon have? Well, if it has five sides, it is true to its name. What is the Pentateuch? How many books form the Pentateuch? Have you ever taken part in a Pentathlon? O.K. we are getting the idea that ?penta? has to do with the number five.

Do we know if it has any connection with the word ?Pentecost?. Does ?Pentecost? mean ?five-something?. Almost. It?s in fact not five, but fifty.

And it?s fifty days after something. What?s the ?something? which happens 50 days before Pentecost? If you said ?Easter? than take an ?A?. We have come to the end of what we call ?The Great Fifty Days?, fifty days in which we celebrate Easter. So this is the last Sunday this year in which we?ll add all those extra ?Alleluias?, and starting next Sunday we?ll be saying the confession again. We don?t say it in Easter, for after all, there have to be fifty days on which we concentrate on Jesus? resurrection, and not on our sins.

So the disciples, men and women, were all together on the Day of Pentecost. Those disciples, men and women, were they Christians? That?s a bit of a trick question, but on that day, the word Christian had not even been invented. So they were not Christians.

What religion were they? Yes, they were Jewish. And they were all together because Pentecost was a Jewish Festival before the Christians began to enjoy it too. That word ?Pentecost? comes from the Greek language, but the special religious language for Jews was and is Hebrew. And Jewish people have a different name for what we call Pentecost. They call it ?Shavuot?. So the disciples, men and women, were together because it was Shavuot.

And that comes fifty days after what? If you said ?Easter?, then you get a failing grade. Shavuot comes fifty days after another Jewish Festival called ?Pesach?. You?ve never heard that word? O.K. I?ll make it easier for you. ?Pesach? in English is ?Passover?.

So Shavuot comes fifty days after Pesach, and Pentecost comes fifty days after Easter. If you are Jewish then you will know that Shavout has two meanings.

One of the meanings is to celebrated that G-d gave the wonderful gift of Torah to his people. Christians sometimes think that Torah is just a bunch of laws and rules. But its much more than that. It guides people to live holy lives in an un holy world. It is a treasure, and Jesus lived by it.

The other meaning of Shavuot is to celebrate the first harvest of spring barley. That was important, because the first barley was a sign of more to come, and it reminded people to give thanks to G-d for all the fruits and grains and vegetables which G-d?s earth gave them.

So those disciples of Jesus, men and women, were all together for Shavout. And G-d kept two promises, which G-d had made.

First, the Holy Spirit came to all people, men and women, young and old. Joel had said this would happen.

Second, G-d began to place God?s law in peoples? hearts; Jeremiah had said this would happen.

So Pentecost is a way of celebrating how G-d gives us the desire to live holy lives in an un holy world, by the Spirit in our hearts.

I think that it is a mistake to call Pentecost ?the giving of the Spirit?. For God?s Spirit has always been present. Remember, right back of the beginning of the story, how a wind from God blew over the face of the waters. The Spirit is the wind of God, which brought about Creation on the first place.

Now on this day of Pentecost, the wind from God makes a sort of new Creation with those disciples, men and women, who were gathered together. As St. Paul puts it ?if anyone is in Christ - new Creation!?

And that new Creation is also the beginning of a harvest. Jesus had said that his death was a bit like seed-grain being planted in the earth. His resurrection was like the first green tips of the growing grain emerging from the earth. Pentecost, for Christians, is the first harvest, when those men and woman in Jerusalem knew that the good news about Jesus was for the whole world.

They surprised themselves by speaking in languages they had never learned - a sign that G-d wanted this good news to be for all peoples everywhere. Even us!

Pentecost delivers us from having a vision which is too small. We think too small as we think about G-d?s presence in my life, or my family, or my Church. It is true to say that G-d cares for my life and me. It is true to say that just so long as we remember that G-d also cares for a 10-year-old girl with AIDS in Tanzania, and for a Dalit in Mumbai.

If G-d?s Spirit is on our hearts then we shall have ears to hear what God is saying to us not so much from Priests and Bishops and Theologians, but from 10 year old boys and girls, and from oppressed people everywhere ?even my slaves? says G-d.

We shall know that G-d?s Spirit is in us when we live the Good News which Jesus taught. And what is that? When Jesus first began to teach he said this : (Luke 4) ? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me - to bring good news for the poor, delivery for the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed?. A Gospel, which is only about me, is a false Gospel. A Gospel, which is Jesus? Gospel, is good news for the poor, delivery for captives, healing to the sick and freedom for the oppressed.

Pentecost. Wind and Fire.

I?ve talked a bit about that Wind being the Creating Wind of God.

Now a bit about fire.

Two things. First, fire is very good at burning up rubbish. Now if you are a bit like me, then you?ll know that there is a ton of rubbish in our lives. There is my sin, my self obsession, the grudges I hold, the way I can be mean, always wanting ?my way?, thinking that I am better than others, being afraid, thinking that other people are ?out to get me?, taking offence all to easily, wasting time, wasting God?s resources. It?s rubbish! It?s trash. In my kitchen there is a fridge and a pantry with good food in them. There is also a bin filled with trash and garbage. Now when I need a meal, do I go to the fridge or to the trash can? Well, the trash is there to be burned up, not to be eaten. But I spend a lot of time poking around in the rubbish of my life. I?d be a lot holier and a lot happier if I could learn to pray ?come Holy Spirit and burn up the rubbish in my life!?. The Fire of the Spirit will burn up all that is trashy in our lives! Let go of your trash, it?s not worth keeping!

Second, fire binds things together. It?s called welding. The Fire of the Spirit binds us together, joins us so that we can never be separated. So there is a person from Barbados, another from Africa, one from Haiti, one who is quite old, another who is very young, and even a middle-aged Englishman. The Holy Spirit binds us together, calls us Church, and tells us ?get going, and be God?s news for the whole world?.

Acts 2:1-21 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2:2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 2:6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 2:7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 2:8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 2:11 Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." 2:12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 2:13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." 2:14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 2:15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 2:16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 2:17 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 2:19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 2:21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 104:25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. 104:26 There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. 104:27 These all look to you to give them their food in due season; 104:28 when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 104:29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 104:30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground. 104:31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works-- 104:32 who looks onthe earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. 104:33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. 104:34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. 104:35b Bless the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD!

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 12:3b No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. 12:4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 12:5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 12:6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 12:7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 12:8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 12:10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 12:11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 12:13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

John 20:19-23 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."