Sermon - 2015-05-24

Today is the Day of Pentecost.  We go from the white of Easter to fiery red of the Holy Spirit.  During the season of Easter, we are reminded of the resurrection and the new life that God has given to us through Jesus Christ.  It is during the season of Pentecost, that we are reminded of all the teachings, healings, miracles, and blessing that God was to us on Earth.  First we should note, Pentecost is not a Christian festival. It was a Jewish festival.  It is celebrated 50 days after Passover.  This is to celebrate the gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses and thus to the people.  The people are celebrating their covenant with God and God’s amazing work of forgiving and restoring them as God’s People.  However, on the day of Pentecost, our focus is not on Jesus but rather on the Holy Spirit.  The Agent, God’s Holy Spirit, The One who would lead us and guide us after Jesus is no longer among us.  It is this Holy Spirit, that we bear witness to among the disciples.

Within the account that is found in Acts, we hear of the rushing of the wind.  In North Dakota, we know what wind is.  We hear it as it rustles through the leaves of the trees, or through the stalks of corn, or upon us as we are working in our gardens or yard.   We see it as it moves large tree branches, or blowing dirt from one field to the next, or blowing over the lake and forming ripples.  There are times that we fear it. In the midst of Acts, the wind draws us into what the people were experiencing and have experienced so long ago.  

Wind has been working as an instrument of God in the world throughout much of the Old Testament.  We hear this in the beginning, the wind moved over the waters. We hear of the great breath that was blown into the nostrils of Adam.  We hear of the great wind that parted the Red Sea so the people could walk upon dry land, fleeing from their captors and masters of hundreds of years in Egypt.  The wind has been a testimony of God for countless other stories within the Old Testament, letting the people know that God is with them, leading them,  and guiding them.   

Fire has also been an instrument of God within the world.  The burning bush calling Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt and to the Promised Land of Israel. The pillar of fire that led the people in the wilderness.  We hear of the burning of animals to atone for the sins of many to be in right relationship with God.  

Wind and fire are instruments, but  many people struggle with separating who is controlling them.  There are times in which God is using them within the world and there are other times that they are also part of our world.  There are storms: hurricanes, tornadoes, tropical storms, thunder storms, and blizzards.  Each of these has wind associated with it, but that doesn’t mean that they are instruments of God.  There are fires in places of drought and houses that catch on fire, but that doesn’t mean that they are instruments of God.  

No, it is here on the Day of Pentecost that we are reminded of the whole and complete relationship with God that we experience in the Trinity.  We are reminded that God is continually with us, but in many ways.  We may use events of the past to attribute and see where God is at within our own life,  but still God may be doing something new and glorious even through us as His instruments.  

So how do we know when is God at work in the world and when something is just being itself?  Truly, it takes time and even then we may never know.  For there are moments that we see God bringing people together to share love, grace, hope, and peace among one another.  But in the same event, people begin to fight among one another and tear each other a part.  The Day of Pentecost, it is a day that causes us to stop and simply ask the question: “What in the world is going on?”   A day in which we are reminded that God is God, and we are not.  We are part of the creation that has a relationship with God.  A relationship that is constantly growing, developing, being damaged, and being restored.  

Today, may you be reminded and know that God is with you.  Working to restore the relationship that you have with Him.  Trying to get your attention so that you may know of the abundant love, grace, and mercy that God is sharing with you each and every day.  You not only know about it, but live in it.  Thanks be to God, we have our Parish of people who gather together to remind one another that God is here for us and with us.  Amen.