Pentecost - 2012
The Rev. Eric LeBrocq
St. John’s, Sealy
May, 27, 2012
The Rev. Eric LeBrocq
St. John’s, Sealy
May, 27, 2012
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Let us Pray: Almighty God, we pray for your blessing on the church in this place. Here may the faithful find salvation, the careless be awakened. Here may the doubting find faith, and the anxious be encouraged. Here may the tempted find help, and the sorrowful comfort. Here may the weary find rest, and the strong be renewed. Here may the aged find consolation and the young be inspired – through Jesus Christ our Lord – Amen.
Today is the Day of Pentecost, the day the New Testament says the Holy Spirit settled upon the disciples after Christ’s resurrection. This is a day the disciples of Jesus experienced a radical change in their lives. A day they started to do things they had never done before. A day they were made new creatures, in a new way, much as we are made new creatures when we truly believe in the risen Christ, and the Holy Spirit enters us, and changes us forever. The Spirit of God creates and makes all things new; makes all that God intended for us to be. The Day of Pentecost ushered in a new age, the age of the Holy Spirit; the age of new life for all people. This was a real evolutionary change, when real progress was made, when outlooks and judgments changed. The entering of the Holy Spirit occurs when we, like the the disciples, go from believing that God would protect us to actually going from the upper room into the danger filled streets of Jerusalem and the world. It happened when the disciples went from thinking about what Jesus had said, to proclaiming what he said, and in- deed, reaching out to heal, to serve and to love. That moment is the gift from the Holy Spirit. That moment is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which now dwells in all human flesh, and seeks to bring us closer to God, and closer to one another. For the great Anglican Priest and founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley, it came when he was listening to Martin Luther’s Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and he felt his heart “strangely warmed”. For me it came when I realized my call to ministry in Christ’s Church was to share my belief in God with others as an ordained minister. There is a mysterious moment in all our lives when:
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That is the moment our empty bodies are transformed from the empty balloon to be like the balloon full of life and the Holy Spirit.
For the disciples it gave life, form and substance in the form of a hot wind and speaking in tongues. For me, it was a slow, gradual experience, without great prompt and circumstances; without a hot wind; without a great clanging noise and without speaking in tongues. And while I can stifle that power within me for a time, or even for a season; while I can turn from it and conceal it for a while, I, like so many others, can no longer escape it. Like so many others, God’s Gift took me from having belief in God to having God’s Grace in me. When we struggle expressing this sprit within ourselves; when we let go; when we let God within us work – beautiful things happen. The Spirit within us does what Jesus told us it would do. The Spirit flows in us, through us, and on to others.
This transformation brings to reality all that we have to do to enter that age – reach out and take it. Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” When we drink of the Spirit we turn to God. When we believe and seek him in prayer, in church, and in the world around us, He comes. He comes in the Spirit and he honors all his words to us. He works a new work in us, and through us he works in others. He works to establish his kingdom fully upon the earth, as it is in Heaven. Jesus quoted the Scripture, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” He makes it so through the gift of Pentecost – the Gift of His Spirit – The Holy Spirit. Rev. Eric F. LeBrocq, Jr. Pentecost Day, 2012, B |
