Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39
Fifty days after Easter the church celebrates the day of Pentecost—the name comes from the Greek word for fifty. This celebration did not originate in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God’s people celebrated the spring harvest fifty days after Passover; over time, Pentecost also came to commemorate the giving of the law and covenant on Mount Sinai. For Christians, Pentecost recalls the day when a group of Jesus’ followers, waiting in Jerusalem, were filled with the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is God’s power at work in the lives of ordinary people.
Ordinary, however, is hardly the word that comes to mind in the account of Pentecost in today’s reading from Acts. Acts is filled with vivid details: the sound of wind rocking the house; the sort of wind we experienced last week that skimmed topsoil and reduced visibility; tongues like flames of fire resting on each of the disciples; a chorus of the world’s languages speaking about God’s deeds of power. And then there are the vivid verses that Peter quotes as he tries to explain what it all means, quotes from the Old Testament prophet Joel with talk of blood, fire, and billowing smoke. It’s strange, fantastic, and not what a prayer book Episcopalian is accustomed to in worship. Ordinary is hardly the first word that comes to mind. Yet all these vivid details of the Spirit’s extraordinary work are turned toward the lives of ordinary people and all people.
In the Old Testament, there are stories about the Spirit’s work on particular people at particular places and times; the occasional charismatic leader raised up for a task: judges, kings, prophets on whom the Spirit rested. But now, Peter says, the gift of the Spirit is given to a wide range of people: sons and daughters, servants and handmaids, the young and the old together. “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Even so, after all the vivid and extraordinary events of Pentecost have come and gone, Jesus’ disciples themselves remain completely ordinary.
In the very next chapter in Acts, Peter and John encounter a man outside the Temple, a man unable to walk his entire life. The story begins in Acts 3 and continues through chapter 4. Peter speaks; the man is healed; the crowds are stunned. It’s a remarkable series of events. But Peter and John aren’t themselves remarkable. Just the opposite. Acts says that when the crowd saw the boldness of Peter and John, they were amazed because they realized that these two disciples “were uneducated and ordinary men.” Ordinary. What made the difference Acts says, and what the crowds recognize, is that Peter and John were “companions of Jesus.” Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God transforms ordinary people; through them the extraordinary life of Jesus is known. And what is true for them then is true for ordinary people like us now. The catechism of the prayer book says that the Holy Spirit is, “God at work…in the Church even now.”
And while the Holy Spirit is at work in the disciples, the Spirit doesn’t change the world into which they are sent. I suppose that’s obvious—that Jesus’ followers are sent into the world as it is and not as it’s meant to be. But sometimes one needs to be reminded of the obvious to appreciate it in fresh ways. I am grateful to the late Peter Gomes and his writing about the Holy Spirit to remind me of this.
The Holy Spirit, Gomes points out, did not change the world into which the disciples were sent. “Think of that,” he says. “The Romans still ran the show; the Greeks were difficult; life was ‘brutish, nasty, and short.’” After the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, none of those facts about the world were altered or changed. How true is that for us, too? Are you able to keep track of the ways our world is fragile, broken, angry, violent, and afraid? In our unchanged world, a line from Ecclesiastes comes to mind. “There is nothing new under the sun.”
What is new, though, and what the Holy Spirit renews, is the disciples’ lives and their faith-filled imaginations. “And by doing that,” Gomes says, “the Spirit empowered [Jesus’ followers], enabled them, to live as changed people in an unchanged world.” That is both the extraordinary work of the Spirit and Jesus’ calling in the lives of ordinary followers even now: to live as changed people in an unchanged world.
What do those changes look like?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, forgive those who hurt us, and respond to hatred with mercy. Left to ourselves, in the world as we know it, can that even be done? Our hearts cling to self-protection, revenge, resentment. But with the Holy Spirit? Listen to what God says through the prophet Ezekiel. “I will remove your stubborn hearts and give you obedient hearts. I will put my Spirit within you.”
Elsewhere, Jesus calls us to a life of holiness—not merely outward obedience, but transformed inner lives of patience, humility, and peace. This won’t be the result of willpower or sheer determination; how long did your New Year’s resolutions last? But with the Holy Spirit? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
And when our faith is beset by suffering and doubt—as it will be—“the Spirit helps us in our weakness” and speaks our deepest needs to God on our behalf when we are at a loss for words. The Holy Spirit is at work in our ordinary lives.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit that we celebrate on Pentecost, the power of God at work in us to make Jesus known through word and deed—changed people in an unchanged world.
Peter Gomes says, “Anyone can be a Christian in a Christian world. But in case you hadn’t noticed, this is not a Christian world. This is a fallen world, a secular world, a sordid world…and it happens to be the only world you and I have.” It is also the same world that the Father sent the Son to out of love, a world where we who are born anew in Baptism by water and the Spirit can live our lives dedicated to God with our imaginations renewed. This is what Pentecost celebrates: the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit transforming the lives of ordinary people.
Now life in the Spirit may, at times, be as dramatic as today’s story in Acts. But it doesn’t have to be that way; in fact, it often isn’t. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus promises the gift of the Spirit to anyone who longs to know God. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me.” There is nothing dramatic about that invitation; thirst is basic. And the invitation is not limited to particular people in particular places and times; Jesus invites all people, ordinary people in their ordinary lives to come to him; invites you. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me.”
And the water that Jesus gives to quench your thirst is more than water in a glass. When Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,” he points to the Spirit who will quench a deeper human need; a thirst for meaning, truth, and hope all summed up as thirst for God. “My soul is athirst for God, athirst the living God.” And through the living water that Jesus gives, we are changed. “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” In the Spirit, and the grace of Jesus Christ, we are changed people in an unchanged world, God at work through us.
JI Packer once said, “The Holy Spirit’s main ministry is not to give us thrills but to create in us a Christlike character.” Not to give us thrills but to create in us a Christlike character is the main work of the Spirit. On this Day of Pentecost, we give thanks that the Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus, keeps us alive in him, and strengthens us to be people of faith and good works.
Sometimes the Spirit’s change in our lives is vivid and dramatic. Other times, maybe most often, it comes in quiet, ordinary ways like the prophet Elijah encountered by God—not in wind, fire, or the earth shaking but in a still, small voice. The Spirit is at work in us, the prayer book catechism says, whenever we “confess Jesus as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors,” ordinary life renewed in God and by God.
When we leave here this morning, the world will not have changed, and it certainly won’t be the world we want it to be. But through the Holy Spirit, we are being changed, our lives and imaginations renewed; we who bear the image of God are being made into the people that God wants us to be: people who bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as the Spirit creates in us a Christlike character.
There is nothing dramatic in any of that, but it is all so important. Spiritual thrills are no substitute today for kindness, generosity, peace and more all filled with the grace of Jesus Christ. And as the life of God in us flows out through us to the people around us, maybe they will wonder, as the crowds did with Jesus’ followers in Acts, how such extraordinary things can be done by ordinary people like us: sons and daughters, servants and handmaids, young and old together.
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