May 27,  2007 The Day of Pentecost also called Whitsunday Year C Acts 2:1-11 or Joel 2:28-32 Psalm 104:25-37 or Psalm 104:25-32 or Psalm 33:12-15, 18-22 1 Corinthians 12:4-13 or Acts as above John 20:19-23 or John 14:8-17 Click here for sermons from previous weeks The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf Episcopal Diocese of Central NY Today is the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles in the formation of the church. Today marks the end of Eastertide and the beginning of what some of the Protestant churches call Kingdomtide, the time when we read about the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth. Before I begin my actual sermon, I would like to call your attention to an interesting little fact. You remember that on Easter Sunday, the women went to the tomb, found that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and went to tell the apostles...who were, of course, men. They didn't believe the women, and refused to believe that Jesus was indeed living again, until they went and saw for themselves; even then, Scripture tells us the men had a pretty hard time believing it. And now comes Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. In both Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Bible, the word Spirit is feminine. Those poor apostles who refused to believe the women now had to accept the guidance of a feminine Spirit! God does have a way of balancing things out, doesn't he? Well, now, let's think about the actual consequences of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the church. The first one is pretty obvious. The apostles, who had been hiding in locked rooms because they were afraid that they, like Jesus, might be arrested and killed, all of a sudden found that they were no longer afraid to preach the Good News about Jesus, and God's great love for people. They burst out of the upper room and began preaching in the streets, not caring that Pharisees, Temple guards and the Roman government officials and soldiers might hear them. That was a complete emotional about-face for them. The Spirit does give us power. Many people who are shy, and hate to speak in public, find that when they are ordained, they are no longer afraid to preach. That's pretty much what happened with the apostles. The second outcome of the coming of the Spirit is also obvious. The faith of the Jews was pretty much a closed affair. It was basically for the people who had been born into the 12 tribes that descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and his 12 sons. It was possible to become a Jew, but it rarely happened, and was not encouraged. Even today, if a person goes to a rabbi and says he or she wants to become a Jew, the rabbi will try to discourage that person. Again and again, the rabbi will tell the person: It's not easy to be a Jew. Very few converts are accepted by Judaism, even today. And so, this coming of the Holy Spirit brought about a very shocking thing. The apostles went out and witnessed to what they had experienced and learned about Jesus and about God's redeeming love. But as they spoke, their words were translated into many other languages, so that everyone who had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost (which is a Jewish harvest feast, too) heard their witnessing and preaching in the language they understood best, the language they had grown up with. Greeks heard Greek, but the apostles were speaking Hebrew or Aramaic. Egyptians heard Arabic or Old Egyptian. People from Italy heard it in Latin, and so on. This was God's permission to preach and witness the Good News to people who were not of Jewish blood. Unfortunately, the apostles didn't understand that immediately. After Pentecost, they went back to preaching and teaching mostly to Jews. It was not until Peter had a vision that made it clear that God wanted everyone to hear the Good News that they began preaching on purpose to non-Jews. The third mind-boggling consequence of the coming of the Holy Spirit was simply that about 3,000 people who heard the apostles preach and witness that day, immediately asked to be baptized! It reminds us of something Jesus said over and over again: A tree is known by its fruit. A bad or sick tree brings forth bad fruit, or little fruit; a strong, healthy tree brings forth good fruit in abundance. God the Holy Spirit is obviously good and powerful. You see the fruit the Spirit brought forth! But there is more than that to the bringing forth of good fruit. We all know many people who have been baptized or confirmed who after awhile stop coming to church, and stop living a Christ-like life. The "fruit" that is these people seems to have spoiled or withered or dried up. So perhaps we will question as to how good the fruit was, to begin with. Perhaps we will wonder if the person really meant seriously the promises he or she made at baptism and confirmation...or were they just saying the words, without meaning to do what they promised? For many people, baptism is something that is done because Grandma wants the baby to be baptized, or because everybody in our family is baptized, or because it's the fashionable thing to do. Of course we all know those are not good reasons to be baptized! The same is true of the old custom of having all children confirmed at a certain age. Many of them do not understand what they are promising when they make their vows in front of the Bishop. They come to be confirmed because the family thinks they should be, or the Sunday School teacher says they are old enough, or their best friend is going to be confirmed so they want to be confirmed, too. And those are not good enough reasons. The people who asked on that first Pentecost to be allowed to be baptized knew it was a serious business. They had seen Jesus crucified, or they had heard about it happening there in Jerusalem. They had seen how Jesus was whipped and tortured and died a terrible death. And they knew that by asking for baptism, they might be asking for the same things to happen to them. But they believed deep down, with all their hearts, what the apostles told them. They believed that Jesus had risen again from the dead, and that God had made this happen because God loves us so much. They believed that by going into the water they were dying with Jesus and that by coming up out of the water they were being given a new life, with all their sins and weaknesses washed away. They knew they had to live that new life in a way that showed they were thankful for it, thankful to God for a new chance, thankful to Jesus for taking their sins away. They knew it was going to be part of their new life to preach and teach the Good News to others, and to help take care of the brothers and sisters they had just joined themselves to by joining the church and being baptized. And they did. The rest of the book of Acts is full of the story of how these people lived out their new life. They were good fruit, empowered by the Holy Spirit. If they had not understood and seriously intended to live the Jesus life, we would not have a church today to celebrate Pentecost in! So...let the joy of Pentecost, the surprise of the coming of God's own Spirit in full power, empower YOU to live the Jesus life and teach the world around you...your family, your co-workers, your bowling or soccer team or your club...about Jesus. Do what you can to help others in Jesus' name. And, as St. Paul reminds us in one of his letters, do all this with a thankful heart, and praise and love for the God...Father, Son and Holy Spirit...who made it all possible. Amen. 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