The Rev. Kathi Johnson
C Pentecost – May 19, 2013
Texts: Acts 2:1-21; John 14:25-27
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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What is the big deal about
Pentecost, anyway? This day on which we remember very specifically the coming
of the Holy Spirit – what is the big deal?
I mean, the Holy Spirit’s kind
of…hazy. Kind of…undefined. Kind of…well, Spirit-ey. We have in our Christian
heritage many, many likenesses of God the Son - Jesus (art which often reflects
the ethnicity and culture of the artist), and more than a few pictures of God
the Father. For the God the Spirit, though, our artwork is limited to pictures
of doves or flames (with a few other images thrown in for good measure). Rarely
do we see a personified version of the Holy Spirit in Christian artwork.
So in our Gospel lesson for today,
from the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking with his disciples about the Holy
Spirit. Today’s reading is part of what we call his “Farewell Discourse” –
these are his final words to them before he is arrested and killed. In today’s
snippet from the Gospel of John, Jesus promises that “the Advocate, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and
remind you of all that I have said to you.”[1]
If we fast-forward from today’s
gospel reading to later, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus;
fast-forward to the ascension – the time when Jesus ascended into heaven;
fast-forward to the disciples in Jerusalem, following Jesus’ instructions to
them, waiting for whatever comes next – waiting for this Advocate to show up…I
kind of wonder what or whom they were expecting, exactly. A person? An angel?
Were they expecting this…?
“Suddenly from heaven there came a
sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where
they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a
tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”[2]
The arrival of the Holy Spirit is
not the arrival of a person or an angel - no, this is something much greater!
This is the very Spirit of Christ, arriving in dramatic fashion, and immediately giving power to these
followers of Jesus – power to proclaim the love of God in Christ Jesus without
hesitation and without fear! The story of Pentecost, then, reminds us that
sometimes the Spirit makes a dramatic entrance – and sometimes the Spirit moves
us in ways that we aren’t expecting at all.
One of the symbols commonly used to
portray the movement of the Holy Spirit is wind. That was really the
inspiration behind the kite festival this afternoon – to experience the wind
and remember the movement of the Holy Spirit. But as I’ve started flying kites
to get ready for this event, and watched others do so, too, here’s another
correlation: sometimes, the wind moves the kite in totally unexpected
directions. One minute, that kite will be up in the sky, looking great, and the
next minute, it’s plummeting to earth, dive-bombing everyone within a
fifty-foot radius.
So it is with the Spirit. The
Spirit moves us – sometimes in very challenging directions – but always for the
sake of God’s mission in the world. The Spirit moves us – sometimes way out of
our comfort zones – but always with the promise of remaining with us. Jesus
promised to be with us always, to the very end of the age – and that is the
work of the Holy Spirit: to remind us of Jesus and his teachings, but – more
than that – to be that on-going presence of Jesus-with-us.
For most of my adult life, I’ve
found it humorous that one of the most commonly-used symbols for the Holy
Spirit is…a bird – specifically, a dove. We get this image from Scripture, of
course – in the Gospel of Luke it’s found in chapter 3 – Jesus is baptized by
John and is standing there – the heavens open up, and the Holy Spirit descends
upon him like a dove.
There are images for the Holy
Spirit that come from outside Scripture, too. In Celtic Christianity, the Holy
Spirit is portrayed as a bird, but not a nice, peaceful dove, gracefully
landing on someone’s shoulder. Rather, they use the image of a wild goose –
loud, unpredictable, blustery. Even here at Our Redeemer, we’ve starting using
these little paper cranes to remind us of the Spirit’s presence with us.
I found another reminder at home
this month. A few weeks ago, we began to notice a finch hanging out more on our
back patio, under the porch roof. She seemed focused on one of our hanging
plants in particular and – sure enough – I went out to check a couple of weeks
ago and found a nest with five tiny eggs.
Every day, Mama Finch is there with
her eggs, sometimes hovering protectively around the plant, sometimes brooding
on the eggs themselves. When I go out to water the plants or do some other task,
she flies off, but never very far. She keeps an eye on things from the nearby
fence, squawking at me if I get too close to her nest. As soon as I leave the
area, she’s right back at the nest again, chirping and nestling in, making sure
that all is well.
The other day, I went out to check
the nest and found that two of the eggs had just hatched. There, nestled among
my plant, were two little fuzzy birds, just beginning to breathe in new life.
I’ve had nesting birds before.
Soon, Mama Finch will feed them. And eventually, she’ll urge them on, out of
the nest. As I have watched her over these past weeks, I’ve begun to see a new
image of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit as…a finch, of all things. Loving,
brooding, sometimes quietly present and sometimes squawking at me, but never
far away.
And that’s the deal with the
Spirit. We will probably never come up with the perfect image to suit the many
ways in which the Spirit works among us. But we can trust that the Spirit is
working among us and in us and through us. As Pope Francis said this morning (on Twitter): “The
Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us
courage and joy for mission.” May we be always
attentive to the Holy Spirit’s presence and love and work among us, as we
follow the Spirit’s leading.
Amen.
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