The Day of Pentecost

ACTS 2:1-11

PSALM 104:24-32

1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-13

JOHN 20:19-23

Sermon – June 8, 2003

This is the season for graduations – or commencements, as they are sometimes more aptly called. All over America, people in schools, colleges and universities are celebrating accomplishments, in some cases bidding a tearful farewell to friends who are very special to them, and preparing for the next challenges in study or career they have set before themselves. Then again, some others are still unsure that they will graduate from high school this month, others are growing discouraged with job-hunting in a difficult market, others are “settling” for what seems achievable or affordable now while their friends go on to more challenging, lucrative or glamorous opportunities.

In short, some people (and those who care about them) feel like they’re standing on an exhilarating mountaintop, others feel like they are in a valley of self-doubt and discouragement, while many more are plugging along somewhere in between.

For all those across that whole range of possibilities, and for everyone else, I have good news: today is Pentecost, the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the faithful nearly 2,000 years ago and every day since.

The Holy Spirit came on that day to all those who believed in Jesus as Lord, from “valedictorians” to flunk-outs, and gave them joy, courage and energy to serve God in ways they had never expected – including, immediately and dramatically, reaching out to people from other countries who were in Jerusalem with the Good News of “God’s deeds of power” in Jesus Christ. Including witnessing in this way in public, in broad daylight, in front of the very same police and soldiers who had arrested and executed Jesus just 52 days before.

One of he key messages of Pentecost is this: everyone has unlimited spiritual potential, and God the Holy Spirit can come and inspire and guide anyone to start towards that potential. All it takes is faith – or even just the desire for faith. This is a “team” you cannot be “cut” from, a very challenging “school” you can definitely get into, a “job” which is ready and waiting for you. (There may be no pay for the job of working for the Lord, but the “benefits” – now and after this life – are incalculable.)

Now is the time of fulfillment foreseen centuries before Jesus, when Moses wistfully exclaimed (in Numbers 11:29), “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” And the Lord said through the prophet Joel (2:28), “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions."

Have you ever had someone tell you endlessly what that person or institution thought you couldn’t do? Some teachers, coaches, employers or even parents seem to take perverse pleasure in discouraging or depressing people. God knows we all have infinite spiritual potential and guides us to discover it, to use the gifts God has given us and to find the right ways to fulfill ourselves while serving others and glorifying God.

Now, because too many people have had to live with discouragement for too long, and not enough have heard the words that everyone has unlimited spiritual potential, while we’re here in the “team huddle” called a church service, let’s make sure we’ve heard this Good News. Please repeat after me: “I...(I) have...(have) unlimited...

(unlimited) spiritual...(spiritual)...potential.” Now as one phrase: “I have unlimited spiritual potential.”

Think of God the Holy Spirit as the wisest conceivable coach, teacher, guide and encourager who knows your potential better than anyone else – even better than you yourself. Whether you’re on a mountain of accomplishment or in a valley or despair or somewhere in between, the Holy Spirit is the One you should listen to most. There is no valley so deep that God cannot guide you out of it and no mountain top so high that God cannot lead you to still higher and more wonderful challenges.

Pentecost is the day for all the faithful; ordained people like me are just a tiny percentage of that vast multitude to whom Jesus says “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” In living out this commission there is room neither for complacency nor despair. Our best will be asked of us, again and again in ways that will surprise, delight and maybe amaze us. We will celebrate the gifts and abilities which God has given to each other, and celebrate the wonderful synergy that emerges when we use our gifts and abilities together for the common good. A person is never too young or too old, too rich or too poor or too anything to be accepted into this longer-than-lifetime opportunity to serve God, all people, and all creatures great and small.

In the words of St. Paul, “Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church