Sunday, May 23, 2010

a fresh start

Pentecost 2010

Come Holy Spirit and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and see through them.
Take our souls and set them on fire. Amen.

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The kingdom is within you, waiting to emerge in your mind, your heart, your words, your deeds; the kingdom is all around you, waiting to break in to this world, through your mind, your heart, your words, your deeds - and the unbridled work of the Spirit.

In the prayer that Jesus taught us, we pray both 'deliver us from evil' -praying for ourselves- and 'thy kingdom come' - praying for the world.*

We ask for our own needs - give us this day our daily bread - and for the needs of others. We ask forgiveness for ourselves, as we ourselves forgive others.

But above all, and first of all, we have the temerity to address the Holy One as 'Father' - not in our own merit but in the name of Jesus. And we, having gone so far as that, then praise his name - and ask for his will to be done.

That will, the will of God to be carried out by the action of the Spirit in the world, has implications for us both as individuals, in our experience of God, and as members of the body of Christ, who are charged to carry forward his work in the world. Love’s redeeming work is at work in each of us, transforming us into the image of holiness each of us is to bear, and it is at work in all of us, transforming our work in the world into the work of the Holy Spirit - if we let it.

In our prayers sometimes we focus on one or the other - our own need for God, our own desire for God, our own intention to live a life that is worthy of our calling to be people of God; or on the need to transform the world in his service, to reach out to others with the good news of Christ, or to work for transformation of that world into the peaceable, righteous kingdom of God.

These two elements, personal and corporate, inward and outward in focus, seem lost in tension. And yet both are present in the day we celebrate today, the day of Pentecost. For in the upper room where they stayed, and where they prayed, the disciples, men and women, the assembled multitude of brothers and sisters, gathered to await what Jesus had promised them: an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who was to lead them into all truth.

They did not know what to expect. Neither do we. But on that day, some 1980 years ago, there came upon them a noise like a great wind, filling the house, and then the apparition of tongues of fire. What came upon them then was the gift of speech in languages not their own; not their own, but known to others. For soon, these, summoned by the sound of the mighty wind, gathered.

What is going on? Are these people drunk? They cannot be! The bars are not even open yet--it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. What is going on, Peter said, is what Joel foretold. The spirit of God is being poured out upon all flesh. The old will dream dreams; the young will see visions. There will be portents of fire and blood and drifting smoke; the sun shall be blotted out.

It was a vision of apocalypse--of the end of the age. And it was the end of the age--the age of the rule of the Prince of this world. For the kingdom of God was clearly at hand.

What the people witnessed, what they experienced, when they came to investigate, was this startling phenomenon: no matter where they were from, no matter what their native language was, they heard the disciples talking in it, speaking of the great deeds God had done. The good news spoke to them in the language of their hearts.

And they heard the good news--and responded to it. Once Peter explained to them what was really going on, how the Lord had called to them through Jesus whom they had despised, they turned and repented, seeking to do what was right. Call upon the Lord, Peter said, just as the prophet told you. And be baptized in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sins.

In the upper room, in the midst of the wind and the tongues of flame, Peter called upon them to repent and be saved. And he gave them the charge of seeking baptism.

(What does baptism mean? What does it do? What does it imply? How does it empower the people of God? How does it call upon them to act?)

Baptism we so often remember is a dying to the old self, the self that lays claim to the world in its own desire. Baptism is a washing-away of the stain of sin, of self-centered living, of pride. But it is also a rising--a rising to new life in Christ, made new, reborn, in the Spirit’s power, a fresh start.

It is a fresh start--but not on the old path. For in baptism we are called to leave the old ‘me’ behind, and to seek the kingdom of God first. For we are assured that all we need will come from that.

What we need then, is to carry out the mission of our baptism, the mission given to the disciples and their hearers so long ago, that is encapsulated for us in the promises we make at Baptism, and take again as our agenda in the renewal of the baptismal covenant. Pentecost is a day for that; just as much as it is a day to welcome new converts, it is a day to renew ourselves in Christ.

Conversion can be seen as taking responsibility for our own growth and development. You can take that personally; we can take that corporately, together, as the people of God called together in this place, at this time.

The people gathered in the upper room, in that place, at that time, felt individually spoken to and corporately called, as the body of Christ, into new relationships with each other, God, and themselves. They needed to know what to do, where to start, how to make a new beginning.

And they began with taking on the new life, the life in Christ, that we are promised to. And that we, too, promise to lead, as we take on ourselves the task and the glory and the joy of Christ.

Here today we have a chance to renew our own baptismal covenant, in the words that echo the creed - the Nicene Creed - and in the promises that follow, to flesh out and make real in our own lives the words that echo the words spoken so long ago, as Christians of old, in the baptismal rite, took on the life of Christ as their own.

Let us now renew our own baptismal covenant.


The Baptismal Covenant (Book of Common Prayer, USA, 1979, p. 304-305)


May the Lord, the God of hope, the God of peace, the God of joy, and of strength, fill us with the Spirit, giving us the gifts to share that we may bear the fruits of the Father’s will in our lives. AMEN.


Come Holy Spirit and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and see through them.
Take our souls and set them on fire. Amen.


Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, (25-27)

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*Dorothee Soelle, Thinking about God: An Introduction to Theology (Trinity Press International, 1991)


John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation (Penguin, 2008). Basis of the film "Invictus" directed by Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros., 2009).

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