Pentecost Sunday

Lectionary: 63

"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."

After the sad history of sin, from Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, to the Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages, the Book of Genesis recalls the History of Salvation. The first eleven chapters showed that the human race had been, up to that point, an unmitigated catastrophe.

Clearly God’s remaining a distant ruler in the heavens while expecting human beings just to be good, had not worked out; nor had drowning everyone in the world except Noah and his family. The darkness of sin lay hidden in the human heart. No flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, forest fire, prairie fire, blizzard, famine, or plague could wipe it out. After the Flood the history of evil resumed with Noah getting drunk and scandalizing his family. Depravity, perversions, and violence continued as if there had been no interruption. Beginning with a single family, God would personally direct human history. And so, in chapter twelve, we read how he chose Abraham and told him, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you." That was the beginning of our salvation. Today, with the Feast of Pentecost, we remember the final touch of God’s plan. “All the families of the earth” will find blessings as Jesus Christ’s disciples receive his Holy Spirit; and are sent to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ “to the ends of the earth.” Eighteen centuries of Abraham’s descendants from Isaac to Mary and Joseph; and the Lord’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension: led to this moment in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in the form of tongues; and they began to announce the Good News in Jerusalem. They would soon go to Samaria, as St. Luke tells us and as the Lord had said. Eventually they must go to the ends of the earth. Wherever they went, they brought the Name of Jesus, the vitality of the Holy Spirit, and the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.

On that Pentecost Day, Saint Peter first reminded the Holy City of what had happened fifty days before; and how the city, in a paroxysm of religious insanity, had demanded the crucifixion of an innocent, holy man. And then, when they remembered with horror that terrible day, and asked what should we do, he told them:

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel begins with a reminder of our sin, but we should not need much reminder. There is something profoundly, seriously wrong with the world, and with ourselves. And common sense tells us a reasonable God would not create an evil world – what would be the sense of that? – nor can we believe human beings were created to be evil. That makes no sense at all; but we know that something has gone terribly wrong. We know that we need salvation. God must save us for we cannot save ourselves. Nor can we, for that matter, just stop doing wickedness. “Just say no!” doesn’t work and never will. We say no, and do it anyway. Time after time, generation after generation. If God does not do something for us, we have no hope. If the Holy Spirit of Jesus does not take charge of our desires and decisions, our myths, dreams, and fantasies we are lost. As the Lord’s disciples, we know about sin; our experience is personal. One of the Lord’s inner circle had betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. Every one of his apostles had sworn they would never abandon the Lord; and everyone of them had fled into the night when he was arrested. Only one had silently followed him to Calvary to see what would happen. Only his Mother had remained faithful even as he died. But he had told us that would happen. “You will all be scattered like sheep!” he said; and his apostles – to a man – swore that would never happen. Peter had loudly thrown everyone else under the bus when he said, “Although they all desert you, I will never desert you.” But when a little girl noticed his Galilean accent and said he must have come with Jesus, he swore he’d never met the man. Not only had Jesus predicted it, but he also – on that Easter Sunday – went clear out to Emmaus to collect two of his runaway disciples. Saint Luke doesn’t tell us why they were leaving town but it’s obvious they were going back home to the families, friends, and neighbors they’d left behind to follow one who, until Good Friday, seemed like the Lord’s Messiah. The disciples of Jesus know sin and we know his forgiveness of sin. And we have received the Holy Spirit. It is a spirit that reassures us, “Although you have sinned, you are mine; and I will never lose you. I will never forget you. And I have work for you to do. You now have a mission and responsibility and I will not let you forget it.” And so we know what we are talking about – as, twenty centuries later – we say, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Unlike Noah’s neighbors, we have been drowned in the waters of Baptism, and risen to new life with Jesus. And unlike Noah and his dysfunctional family, we have been purged by the Holy Spirit of our fascination with evil. Pentecost reminds us of our restored innocence in God’s sight, and our mission to announce the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth, for “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

As Saint Paul said,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…. For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”

With the words “faith to faith,” the Apostle remembered the mutual fidelity of Abraham and God who sacrificed their beloved sons – Isaac and Jesus – to prove their love to one another. We are not ashamed to live, work, play, and pray in the Holy Spirit; nor are we ashamed to let our neighbors, friends, family, and enemies know that our fidelity belongs to God; our obedience is to God; and we look to God Our Savior for our identity, mission, and purpose.