May 26, 2002

May 19, 2002 Acts 2: 1 11 + 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,2-13 + John 20:19-23

Luke goes for the spectacular. The Spirit for him is wild, unique, and draws a crowd. Luke goes for doves, frre, and wind. He seems to like commotion. John on the other hand goes for the simple communal experiences of a few people with the risen Christ. The Spirit in John’s Gospel cannot be understood or for that matter, received without the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ.

This brief passage from chapter twenty today is John’s Gospel in a nut-shell. All that has been promised is fulfilled:that he would come again, that he would bestow peace,that the disciples would be filled with joy,that he would send them as the Father sent him, that the Spirit would be given,and that the world would be proved wrong about sin and righteousness.

John understood that the Spirit came through the Son, through the one continuous movement of his redemptive action and love, through his death and resurrection, through his Body and Blood.

When we assemble here in faith, proclaim this Gospel, and experience the Body and Blood of the Risen Christ in Eucharist, it is Pentecost. This is not an event of history. It is not something that happened to someone else. It is not something we remember, think about, or reflect upon. It is something we are engaged in at this very moment.

If a gift of the Spirit is Understanding, and at this moment you come to understand that God’s promises are fulfilled and we are living in the Spirit filled final age; it is Pentecost.If a gift of the Spirit is Forgiveness, and in this Eucharist you experience God’s forgiving love that moves you to forgive another; it is Pentecost.If a gift of the Spirit is Peace, and in this place today you put down enough of your stress and worry to center yourself and calm yourself in the Presence of God, it is Pentecost.

What we proclaim today is that our redemption did not conclude  with the Resurrection, but that this Christ, risen from the dead is extended into our lives permanently. This experience of Pentecost then is more than an event. As experience, it enlarges and expands the human heart. No longer do we live with the limitations of our power to grow, to live, forgive, to heal, to comfort. Now we live with the power of Jesus Christ. It’s better than ours, it’s bigger than ours, it’s more embracing than ours.

We are talking about power here – real Power; the power to transform human lives and change the world and bring evecy creature nearer to the goal for which they were created. Through Pentecost, it is as though God said: “Power to the People.” “Power to the People of God who are in God and of God.”

This feast is about power, about the power of Life, the power of Freedom, the power of Joy    It is about the power we have been given by reason of our experience with Jesus Christ. This is the power of faithful people who are filled with life – the life of God; the power of faithful people who are filled with courage, because there is no fear; the power of faithful people who are ftlled with joy, because there is peace.

Pentecost then is not necessarily some big, wild event that involves fire, wind, and amazed crowds. It is just as really a matter of faithful love through difficult times, a parent’s sacrifice and patient love, forgiveness and understanding between friends, wisdom and faith shared by a grandparent, the courage of teacher a missionary-, or just someone willing to start life all over again after death has robbed them of a partner.

John suggests that the Spirit is passed on to us through Flesh and Blood by the presence of the Risen Christ in our midst. The Church suggests that fifty days after celebrating Easter we look around us and embrace the gifts that reveal that Spirit and empower us to become more of what we have been created to be, God’s own people, God’s chosen one’s, Holy, Peaceful, and Joyful. That is Power, and that is Pentecost.

May 5, 2002 Acts 8: 5-8,14-17 + l Peter3:15-18 + John 14:15-21

It is about us as much as it is about Jesus, the disciples to whom the words are first addressed, or the church first led and formed by John’s words.What is of concern in these verses is the status of disciples after their experience of Jesus in terms of their relation to Jesus and their relation to those who do not believe, which John calls…The World.”

It is our relationship to Jesus that matters now, and with that cleared up,our relation to “The World” awaits definition.

A life stuck on a relationship with Jesus of Nazareth that does not or has not moved through death and resurrection to a relationship with the risen, victorious Christ isn’t going to make it.This is the kind of ..faith” that fails or falters when disaster strikes. a sudden, early death, the collapse of a relationship intended for life, broken promises and dreams.This ..faith” if it is such, rests on the Jesus of Nazareth who went around fixing everything:but it hasn’t moved through the Jesus who did not come down from the cross,the Jesus who was abandoned, a victim of injustice, and helpless while those he helped did nothing for him.

The heart of John’s Gospel is the Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Everything before those verses are a series of “signs”that prepare us for what John calls: “The Hour.” Faith, formed and nurtured by John’s Gospel,is faith in the Jesus who lives today, not in the past. It is faith in a Jesus who knows by experience everything we have ever experienced.It is faith in a Jesus who has gone before us to prepare a place for us and will come back for us.It is not a Jesus who fixes every little problem, ache and pain.

Once we have settled ourselves in a relationship with the Jesus that John gives us,we are ready to figure out our relationship to “The World.”

These disciples who have been through it all, through the sadness, disappointment, scandal, guilt, and the disgrace of betrayal, injustice, and death,do not hide or withdraw from the “The World” or the “Unbelievers.”They stick together yes, but they live with a sense of Mission, with a sense that the work of Christ has now become their work. “Command” which Jesus gives,does not necessarily mean a “Rule” or a “Law.It may also mean “to go with a Mission”- “a mandate”They life in the present time to face the present challenge and anything that threatens or diminishes the Kingdom Christ has proclaimed.Whatever slows the coming of that Kingdom and it’s promise of joy and justice, peace and unity has to go,and that is the mandate we are give that shapes our relationship with the World.

“The World” is the where the Kingdom of God is established. “The World” is the place where Christ was born, where the Word took flesh, and where the Resurrection happens.. not later, not in some far off, distant, “heaven”, but now and here.

“The World” does not see Jesus. It only sees us. The only hope for the world is you and me.The only hope for the Kingdom of God rests upon the Church, you and me.The only way the work of Christ will be completei s for people like us to do justice, walk in peace, and live in love.