Sermon: Pentecost – 2023

28 May 2023

Text: John 14:15-21 (Gen 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus spent the last few moments before His arrest preparing His disciples – which includes us – for living out our Christian life in a different way.  For the disciples were still not aware what was going to happen next, even though Jesus told them several times.  And in spite of His knowing what was coming, that even as He was comforting His disciples and getting them ready, the police were already nearby, and all of His disciples were on the verge of running away.  Nevertheless, Jesus continues to love them (and us) in our weakness of faith.

And we see this in the entire sweep of history in the Old Testament.  According to God’s promise, of which we are reminded when we see the rainbow in the sky, God will not again destroy us all with a flood.  Rather, the waters that God uses are applied individually: waters that save us from sin and death rather than punish us for sin and by death.

We can call to mind the Israelites of little faith, who were delivered from being trapped at the Red Sea, as God parted the waters and drowned Pharaoh’s army.  And yet, even after having seen that, as well as God’s miraculous and glorious presence in the pillar of cloud and of fire, many grumbled at Moses, cursing him for leading them into the desert to die.  And God did not respond by wiping them out, but rather by providing them with miraculous food: bread from heaven to sustain their lives. 

And as Jesus is about to be arrested, and although the disciples will scatter in fear and faithlessness, Jesus remains faithful to them.  For He will show them mercy, shepherd them like a flock, ordain them, and send them out armed by the Holy Spirit, the Word, and the sacraments as apostles, to bring the Good News to people of every nation and every language.

For the world was divided up into various languages and national linguistic groups at the Tower of Babel.  Being of the same nationality draws us together as a people, but being divided from others has led to warfare and hatreds.  Though many languages are beautiful, and though we can indeed learn to speak them through study, the fact that we have many languages at all is a curse from God: a punishment because of our universal human disobedience.  And it is that sin that Jesus has come to forgive by means of His own blood, dear friends.

Jesus tells His disciples: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  And the Greek word translated as “Helper” can also be translated as “Comforter.”  For listen to our Lord’s teaching on the Holy Spirit’s coming: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  Jesus reminds them that He has told them that He was “going away…. So that when it does take place you may believe.”

For belief, that is, faith, is the opposite of fear.  And it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, dear friends.

St. Luke’s account of Pentecost from the Book of Acts includes spectacular miracles.  When God wants to get His people’s attention, He makes use of such signs that defy reason.  Pentecost means fifty.  It was an Old Testament feast of celebration of the first-fruits of the wheat harvest.  It took place fifty days after Passover.  And that is where we are, dear friends.  For Jesus celebrated the final Passover: the one that is continued in the Eucharist.  Forty days after His resurrection, He ascended.  And ten days later, He sent the Holy Spirit.  We have retained this seasonal pattern in the church year.  And Pentecost in the New Testament is a harvesting of the first-fruits of all nations to hear the Good News preached in their native tongues, to believe and be baptized, and to become part of the Holy Christian church.

We tend to focus on the spectacular miracles: the sound the rushing wind – reminding us of what our Lord said to Nicodemus that the “wind” (the same word in Greek as Spirit) “blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit,” that is born again of “water and the Spirit.”

Then “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.”  This glowing light calls to mind the face of Jesus that glowed at the transfiguration, the face of Moses that reflected this divine light, the pillar of fire of God’s presence in the tabernacle, the chariots of fire that surrounded Elisha, and our Lord describing Himself as the “light of the world.”  Indeed, in the Creed we confess Jesus as “God of God, light of light, very God of very God.” For even God’s first act of creation was the Word speaking, “Let there be light.  And there was light.” 

Artists throughout history have used a ring of light around the head of Jesus and of the saints to show this glory of God resting upon the people to whom He gives the gift of grace.

The next spectacular miracle is the gift of tongues.  The real gift of tongues is not a “secret prayer language” or being emotionally ginned up to speak in gibberish.  For we see it at work here on Pentecost.  These real Pentecostal Christians who were speaking in tongues were preaching the Gospel to those cursed by the diversity of languages, as everyone heard the Good News of Jesus in their own native languages.  The curse of Babel was overcome not by a world language or a world government, not by mandatory language education in schools, but rather by the Holy Spirit’s establishment of the church, the drawing together of a diversity of peoples and nations and languages into one kingdom.  The Holy Spirit has done this, and continues to do this.

But the greatest miracle of all, dear friends, may not seem like it.  But it is Peter lifting up his voice, loosening his tongue, and preaching.  St. Peter points out that this first Christian Pentecost fulfills the prophecy of Joel, that in the last days, God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh.  And just as the first disciples of Jesus were called to be watchful for the Spirit’s coming, we are to be watchful for when “the day of the Lord comes.”  For indeed, “it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

This sermon and its reception is indeed the greatest miracle of that Pentecost, dear brothers and sisters.  For if you keep reading the second chapter of Acts, you will find St. Peter’s sermon is all about Jesus and His mission of salvation.  Peter openly preaches the law against his hearers, calling them to repent for crucifying Jesus, allowing Him to be “killed by the hands of lawless men.”  He shows them Jesus in the Psalms.  He shares with them that Jesus is God, the Messiah, the Son of David.  And instead of stopping up their ears and stoning him to death, as they did St. Stephen, who preached a similar sermon, the people, “when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do.’” 

This was the greatest miracle, dear friends: the conversion of sinners to confessors of Jesus by means of the Holy Spirit delivered through preaching the Word of God.  Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”  Peter preaches to them and to us: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

That very day, three thousand were baptized, having “received the Word.”  They immediately did what the church does: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  And this we continue to do in the Divine Service to this very day, dear friends.

The greatest miracle of the Holy Spirit is giving us the gift of faith, and drawing us into the church, to receive God’s gifts and to worship the God who provides for us each and every day: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Let us give thanks and praise to God the Holy Spirit, thanking Him for calling us through water and the Word, and keeping us in the one true faith by the preaching of the Gospel.  For indeed, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Amen

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.