Your Ordination

The Day of Pentecost

John 14:8-17

Your Ordination

     Welcome, my friends, welcome, to the celebration of the Church's birth. Welcome, welcome my friends to the day of Pentecost. Welcome, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, welcome, to your day, to the day of your ordination. Before I forget or go any further, let's pause for a second and applaud our music director, Jim Garvey and all who helped him make this special day so joyous and festive!

Indeed this is an occasion for celebration. It is considered the birthday of the Church. Being a Greek word meaning 50, Pentecost celebrates the Holy Spirit's coming 50 days after the resurrection of Christ. Forty days preparing His disciples through His various appearances and 10 days of His followers waiting after His Ascension. Yet this day also connects far back to ancient Israel, to the times of the wheat harvest, which were held 50 days after the slaying of the Passover lamb, as well as in Biblical times and in Judaism today, the celebration of the revelation of the 10 commandments following the Passover.

     Yes, this is a very special day, and in our times, we celebrate it in many ways. We wear red, the color symbolizing a Holy Day as well as the Holy Spirit itself, and the tongues of fire which descended upon the apostles. We read our Gospel lesson in different languages as a way of remembering what happened when the Holy Spirit filled the disciples on that special day. Obviously, we decorate our church and don a very festive tone. In my opinion, this is absolutely one of the most important days of remembrance for us as Christians, but at the same time, unfortunately, it is one of the most misunderstood as well.

     For it is from this day and from this very Scripture that the false idea and belief comes that if we only have enough faith, or ask in just the right way, Jesus will grant absolutely whatever we request of Him, whatever our little hearts desire. As if the reason I didn't get the power ball last night and hit the jackpot is somehow because I didn't ask in the right way or with enough faith! At the same time, and much in the same way, today's celebration, today's remembrance of the Holy Spirit filled disciples as they were given the ability to communicate God's Good News in Jesus to all walks of life, to all people, somehow gets twisted and morphed in our time into a whole worship style, even a whole separate theology, based almost solely on attempting to temporarily channel the Holy Spirit as demonstrated by dancing, laughing, crying, screaming, babbling nonsense, and writhing about. When sadly, and ironically, this all misses the entire enormously important point of this day; that the Holy Spirit is already and is always, here.

     You see friends, when you think about it, Pentecost, this very day, is both the end of the story and the beginning at the same time. In a very real sense, the entire story, the entire summary of God's attempt at having a relationship with Creation, with us, for all of these years, all leads up to this precise moment, where the deed is already done, the sacrifice is finally made, the debt is paid, and we are given the keys to the kingdom and the responsibility to continue on. But that's not what we remember is it? That's not the way that we usually think about these things. I mean, just go ahead and throw out the Old Testament, throw out the majority of God's story and just consider the New Testament and our own liturgical calendar and even there it becomes very clear.

     On a very basic level, in Advent, we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, of God into this world, and we celebrate that coming in Christmas. Then, we suffer with Christ in Lent through His sacrificial crucifixion, and immediately rejoice at the gift of our forgiveness and eternal life because of His Resurrection at Easter. Truth is, for most of us, the story stops there. In general, we are Christmas and Easter Christians, and that is a huge problem, because that means that the story ends there, and truly I believe that this is the reality for most believers today. As if somehow, God suffered, sacrificed, loved, labored, and sought, so that we could just kick back and coast because now it's all good.

     But that's not the end, is it? You see, Jesus doesn't just come back, He isn't raised from the dead just to show us that it's real and prove that it happened. No! He hangs out for 40 days and actively prepares His followers for the next step in God's story. He prepares them for Pentecost. He prepares them for the Holy Spirit. He prepares them for action, for a new way of life.

     That, Brothers and Sisters, is the real point of this day. That is what we are supposed to be celebrating. Today is about remembering that You ARE the Church. Today is about remembering that You Have the Power. Today is about remembering that Each of YOU are left with the decision of either continuing in or ending the work of God, the story of God in this world.

     That is what Jesus is really saying in today's Gospel lesson. He's saying that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, and that through His actions and His sacrifice, and through our belief in Him, we are given the same intimate relationship, and today, we are given the Holy Spirit. We don't need to try and channel the Spirit in order to demonstrate that we have it, because the truth is, that it abides in us and that is something that we cannot change. That is the reason the gift of tongues is not really about babbling and prophesying through gibberish, but rather it is about going out and bringing the light and love of Christ to all people of this world, in whatever language, to whatever race, culture, sect, people. Pentecost is about the end of Jesus's work on earth, for the time being, and the beginning of our work through the Holy Spirit for the sake of Christ.

     While, even though I love it and believe in it, I know that often times our church tradition makes this point difficult to see with our hierarchy, our collars, our dresses, and our altar rails, but today, I truly hope that you are each reminded of the reality and truth of who you are in and through Christ Jesus. Today, you must know, that everything comes down to you and your work with the Holy Spirit. Because it is about You and what you do with the gift you have been given, through your prayer, through your action, through your love, so that you might be the hands and feet of Christ in this world.

     You know I have to admit that originally all this talk of Pentecost being our ordination day truly made me want to make you all stand right now and say one of the ordination prayers or take some of the ordination promises from the BCP, but uh, then I realized that that was probably not the best idea and somewhere a Bishop would have something to say about that, and that I love this church too much to follow in the footsteps of the Wesley Brothers just yet (Besides the Methodists don't have communion often enough for me anyway!). But I still very much want that point to be heard right now. You, my friends, each ARE priests and ministers of God, ordained by the water of your Holy Baptism and marked by the Holy Spirit. We together are the priesthood of all believers. So today, I want to remind each of us to truly take the promises we all have made in our Baptismal Covenant seriously. Take your call and spiritual life seriously. For each of you truly have the Spirit in and with you always, and you have been charged with the incredible work of bringing Christ into this world through your life and love, and in turn, this world to Christ. Now, all that is left, is for all of us to go out there and do it.

Amen.