Day of Pentecost Yr A

This Feast of Pentecost that we celebrate is the occasion at which the story tells us that the Holy Spirit came from Heaven like the rush of a violent wind and tongues like fire appeared among them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and were able to speak and understand one another as the Spirit gave them ability. And then in the gospel of John, Jesus breathes on the disciples and teaches them about forgiveness.

Language and communication are essential as we imagine our lives as social beings. We can hardly even conceive of life without verbal communication. Not only do we share time and space with one another, we share ideas, concepts, we put our feelings into words. My favorite author, Madeleine L’engle says, “maintaining the richness of language is a constant concern. We think because we have words, not the other way around.” Also, hearing well and listening well is so very important for us. I am always mindful of my diction and delivery when I am speaking in public. It is very important to me that my words are heard clearly, if you can clearly hear what I say, I’m most of the way there to you understanding what I say.

Language, words and sounds crafted into ideas that may be shared between and among humans, is the way we concieve of our God, it is the way we imagine the world and the universe around us. Language is amazing; it is how we know we are human. We use the language of poetry and metaphor to try to experience reality, the language of prose to describe our reality, technical language to teach our reality to others. It is why we describe God as author; God has spoken the Word and has authored our lives and our salvation. In acknowledging the wonder of language, we must also acknowledge how woefully inadequate language is to communicate with God. We try so hard to use the proper words, we try so hard to use symbol and sign, but we fail miserably in our attempt. We are so tied to language and words, that it is hard to realize that sometimes it is not even words in which the Holy Spirit communicates, it is something much deeper.

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to communicate with God and to hear one another. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to hear one another in the language of our land, in the language of our life, in the language of our heart. In the Acts passage we heard, it is evident that the people were from all sorts and kinds of places, some from Minnesota, and others from Texas, even from Alabama and Arkansas I would imagine, and yet they could understand one another. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to hear one another at all, and to hear God at all.

At the first Pentecost, when each heard the other speaking in their native language, those gathered were amazed and astonished. They were amazed and astonished by the presence of the Spirit. I am amazed and astonished by the presence of the Holy Spirit today.

I believe we know the presence of the Holy Spirit and we experience the presence of the Holy Spirit when we really hear one another, when we really hear God, not just with our minds and our intellect, but when we hear with our hearts, when we hear with our spirits, and when we speak with our hearts and our spirits. I think that is frightening for many because it is so intimate, it is so real, and it is so truthful. Often, the truth is hard and scary to hear.

The language of music, sometimes sacred, sometimes secular, helps me make the deep connection of spirit and truth. Corporate prayer helps me make the deep connection of spirit and truth. Sometimes that is in the beautiful language of our prayer book, sometimes that is in the spontaneous language of people gathered lifting to God all that blesses us and all that concerns us.

We also know the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Wind. We are quite familiar with the wind here in South Dakota, the harshness of the wind. The wind is always transforming, it blows and blows and leaves nothing the way it was originally. Even the rocks eventually change shape; you and I are shaped by the Wind of the Spirit. We are formed and shaped by that transforming Wind that is relentless in it’s work to shape us into the image of our creator, the image of God.

In Acts we hear the presence of the Holy Spirit in the breath that gives forgiveness. Then Jesus took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?" In addition to the deeper language that the Holy Spirit gives, and the forming and shaping the Holy Spirit gives, the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to forgive one another. It is in forgiving one another that we truly find peace and healing.

Lastly, we know the presence of the Holy Spirit in the sending. I do think that this is the most powerful part of this passage. We are sent, transformed by Spirit, with instructions to forgive one another, out into the world, into the public square, into the marketplace, with this power. It isn’t enough to sit in our beautiful sanctuary, listen to wonderful music, and greet our friends. We are sent into the places where God’s Good News must be proclaimed by word and example. We are sent to forgive, as we have been forgiven.

It seems to me there’s a lot of forgiveness that is needed out in the public square. I think as a culture we look to reward and revenge as goods to be exchanged. But the Spirit sends us to forgive. Forgiveness leads to reconciliation, to right relationship.

Our prayer book teaches that we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation. It is this that we are sent out to do, to take God’s love out into the world and bring that love and harmony, which are the fruits of forgiveness, to our neighbors, and all of creation.

Listen and hear, the words, the wind, and the breath of the Spirit, and bring forgiveness into the world,

Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord renews the face of the earth: Come let us adore him. Alleluia.