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As we gather, we recognize that we live, work, pray, and play
in the traditional lands
of the Cowichan Tribes and Coast Salish People.
We continue to commit ourselves
to the work of reconciliation and relationship-building
with our First Nations neighbours.
Call to Worship:
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful;
and kindle in us the fire of your love.
Psalm 104. 30
Collect:
Almighty and ever-living God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easter by sending us your Holy Spirit,
and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal,
keep us in the unity of your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Proclamation of the Gospel:
John 14. 8-17, 25-27
Sermon: The Venerable Brian Evans
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of
our hearts be ever acceptable to you, O Lord. Amen.
“What Really Happened?”
They were all together in one place.
For the past 2+ years, we have not been able to share in this literal experience of Pentecost.
Today, is the day for the birth of the church.
Today, in our own parish, is the day we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.
I know for myself, with a focus on the gathered community, possibly this would be the best Sunday of 2022, to return to your worshipping community in person.
Today, Pentecost Sunday 2022, after 2+ years of not being able to experience those Pentecost words: "they were all together in one place," is our opportunity to be all together in one place.
This phrase, all together in one place, has a greater meaning than simply being a group of people gathered in one place.
Many, on this Sunday, will have gathered for family events.
Some, for the first time in over 2 years, for anniversaries, birthdays, delayed nuptials, reserved memorials, or for political reasons. On each occasion, it is like a new birthing of family.
In as much as we celebrate today as the first birthday of the church, at the same time, we are celebrating a renewal of church. We are celebrating a gathering together, of all, for one giant purpose.
This past week, Flo and I attended a gathering of people from across the province, and the Yukon. The common phrase was: “It is so good to be together after three years of being apart”. Yes, we had seen many of our friends on ZOOM, except it is not the same as in-person.
They were all gathered together in one place.
Those 7 words, regarding a regularly scheduled gathering, leap from the reading after 3 years of hybrid, or virtual, events.
While away, I also began to read a book written by Allen Stanton, ‘Reclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations.’
In the 1st chapter, Stanton sets before us the compelling theory for the basis of rural, in the midst of 3 levels of congregations: large, mid-size, and small. Often, when we think of small, we think rural.
At one point, Stanton identifies how, in the denominational church, there is an expectation that all 3 will identify with the same metrics. He dispels this theory, drawing attention to the fact, you cannot place similar metrics of measurement for all sizes.
Then today, we read: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”
This is followed with the list of the different peoples gathered: from Parthians to visitors from Rome, and all places in between, both Jews, and proselytes, Cretans, and Arabs, speaking of God’s deeds of power.
Then, in Acts 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.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
All this brings us to the Gospel for today.
The Gospel for Pentecost calls us to look back, and take a look at what the cross was all about; WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
I am always impressed by the questions that come from the disciples. Today, it is Philip. Philip says to Jesus: “Lord show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
Then, there is Jesus’ response. I paraphrase: You mean, after all this time, and all I have been teaching you, and you still don’t get it. How can you say, ‘show us the Father?”
The world, congregations, and congregants, have not changed over the centuries, while I am sure, Jesus sits back watching, questioning, “When will they really get it? When will they really understand what the cross was all about?”
“WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?”
Theologians would say, we take this event on the cross, and reduce it to an article of doctrine.
Rather than seeing it as an article of religion, we need to move to the next level, and understand God’s action on the cross was to be our "marching orders."
What Jesus did for us on the cross was to show us: when we act out of self-sacrifice, things change.
Today, is the day for us to review all that has happened in these last 50 days, summed up in one word, Pentecost.
This is the day, we gather to celebrate what the cross is all about.
It is not about creating a belief system that satisfies me.
The illustration about what happened on that great day, as outlined for us in the Acts of the Apostles, is not so much about receiving the Holy Spirit, as it is about this spectacular gift having been given to the whole community, regardless of race, or homeland, or language.
When we pour ourselves out for others, redemption happens.
These last 50 days, the post-Easter Gospel has been not so much about making Jesus our “personal Lord and Saviour”, as a 50-day invitation to join with Jesus, in the community of Christian faith; to walk with him, as one community of faith; in living faithfully; in passing along the redemption of the cross, for others to experience.
I often am reminded of the great Hymn, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing my dear Redeemers praise”…..
In other-words, God is not done with us yet.
There is “an after-the-cross"!
On this Pentecost Sunday, not only do we celebrate our being filled with the Holy Spirit; we also celebrate fulfilling our baptismal covenant, to join in the joyful work of self-giving, self-sacrificial, love.
This is the day for us to lay down what culture tells us, or to lay down what the cultural norm of the church uses to measure our vitality as a parish, and pick up the liberating nature of the Gospel, calling us to live our lives for the sake of others.
In some ways, celebrating Pentecost is like the significant milestones of life.
Like the day you turned 16, or if you are in my age group, the day you turned 21.
Or, we could think of the milestones identified in our education systems, and how we have indoctrinated them more into a cultural norm, than the meaning.
Except, there is a difference for us today, as there is not years between each Pentecost. It happens every year--50 days after Easter.
Today, if we are to put it into cultural norms, this is graduation day, and now it is time to get to work. Time to take the gift of the cross, offering it to the countless others we encounter in our daily lives, and indeed, we will live the experience Jesus assures us: of doing greater things than he could do.
Then, as our Gradual Hymn reminds us, there will be “a wind upon the waters”, continuing to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.
Final question. What’s really happening in my life today?
Thanks be to God. Amen.