Pentecost 2025

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Together, Almighty God, unless whom all hearts are open, all desires know, and from whom no secrets are hidden.

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ the Lord.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, on this day you open the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit.

Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Do we have any kiddos that want to come up for the children's sermon today?

Yes.

I know you do.

I know you do.

No.

No, Petey House boys.

We got one.

Yeah, these are my friends.

They came over James as a priest who's bad all.

They came over to visit and join us today.

So I have known these boys since they were wee, wee little really bored.

So I've got children.

All got children.

Okay, so here's what I was thinking today.

How are you doing, Sarah?

How are you doing, Holmes?

I was thinking that I was wondering if I was a kid, and I wanted to know why all of a sudden wearing a bunch of red in church.

Did you notice that?

Did you notice it was red?

Yes, I noticed it too.

And I I was thinking, you know, the thing that I think is important today to remember is that, well, here's a question.

Have you ever been sitting in all of this sudden you noticed that there was somebody that maybe needed a hook or was sitting by themselves?

And you thought to yourself, oh, that person is a little lonely, or that person is a little sad.

Has that ever happened to you?

Yes, maybe.

Have you ever had a moment where maybe somebody was being treated unfairly?

And you're like, that's not fair.

Yes.

Well, in our tradition, we actually believe that God talks to us.

And that little voice that you have in your head that is saying, you know, I don't necessarily think that's fair.

Or that person over there sure could use a hook.

Or I wonder what it would be like to invite them to come over.

Or maybe it's a voice that says, I owe somebody an apology.

I made a mistake, and that's okay, but I'm going to go and say I'm sorry.

We actually believe that that little voice inside of your head that comes there is actually from God.

And that we say that that is from the Holy Spirit.

And in fact, and I'm going to talk about this later on, the name for the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives us actually means the one who speaks to us.

That's what advocate means.

And actually, you know what the word vocal, like you ever heard vocal and vocal cords?

Vocare?

That means to speak.

And it means the one who speaks to us on our behalf.

And so the God that we worship, what we say today, actually talks to us.

And so the question is how do we listen to hear him?

That's it.

That's it.

That is something.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in the same place, and there came suddenly from heaven a sound like the sweeping of a mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared among them a divided tongue because of fire, and one rested on each of them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues, just as the Spirit gave to them, gave them to speak.

Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem about the Jews from every nation under heaven.

Amazed and astounded, they asked, are not all of those who are speaking Galileans?

And how do we hear that each of our own native language?

And those who live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Panteria, Egypt, and the parts of Libya adjacent to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Apostolites, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues about God's deeds of power, and all were amazed and questioning to one another, saying, What does this mean?

But others mocking said, There will be one.

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them to the Judeans and all who live in Jerusalem.

Let this be known to you all, and attend to my speech.

For these persons are not drunk as you suppose.

It is only the third hour, nine o'clock in the morning.

No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joab.

In the last days it will be, when God declares that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your daughters and your sons shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall bring reeds, even upon my slaves, both women and men.

In those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy by the word of the Lord.

Oh my soul, mother of all my God, you are very great.

She who lays on the waters of the bees of her upper chambers, she who makes the clouds her chariot.

She is the one who I is the one who makes the winds her celestial messengers.

I her messengers.

She is the one who makes springs gush forth in the forest.

They give drink to every wild animal.

By the torrents and the birds of the heavens dwell, and the branches make forest.

She is the one who waters the mountains from her high chambers, and the other satisfied the fruit of her.

She is the one who makes grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for human labor, to bring forth from air, and wine to make the human heart rejoice, and with oil to make the face shine, and bread to stay.

You give it to them, they lean it.

You hide your face, and they are dismayed.

But you have received a spirit of adoption through which we are the Father.

It is that the same spirit that bears witness with our spirit, that we are daughters and sons of God, and if we have daughters and sons, and then heirs, heirs of God and heirs with Christ.

If it is true that we suffer with Christ, so that we may also be glorified with Christ, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with evil only for the revealing of the daughters and sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of God of the daughters and sons of God.

We know that whole creation has been grown in illegal hands until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

For in hope we are saved, and hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what is seen?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as is necessary, but the very spirit intercedes besides the agility of the words, and God who searches the heart knows what is the mindset of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, the word of the Lord.

Philip said to Jesus, Rabbi, show us the Father, and we will be content.

Jesus said to him, Have I been with all of you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?

The one who has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, Show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?

The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.

But the Father who dwells in me does the works of God.

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if not, then believe because of the works themselves.

Very truly I tell you all, the one who believes in me will also do the works I do, and even will do greater works than needs, because I am going with the Father.

And whatever you all ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you all ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and God will give you another advocate to be with you forever.

This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees nor knows the Spirit.

You know the Spirit, because the Spirit abides with you, and the Spirit will be in you.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

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

Amen.

I'm gonna grab some water because I'm thirsty.

So this week I've been thinking about uh like my childhood and going to church or really not going to church.

And I mean, we were nominal Christians, like I knew the basic stories, but it dawned on me that as a kid I would always get Pentecost and Pentagram from you.

Yeah, so with that one for a bit, right?

Like, I mean, that was complicated for me.

And so I started wondering this morning, like, why did I not, as this kid who kind of went to church every now and then, understand because it's a big deal.

Like, today it's meant to be like a big day for us.

It's a big celebration.

I mean, if you start ranking them, this one's up there about how we talk about God and who we are.

And it dawned on me it's because Hallmark does not make Pentagon's cards.

And I have no memory at all of getting like a card with$5 from my.

Grandma and said, Happy Pentecost, you know?

Like then I probably would have remembered what it was.

See, the culture didn't come in and grab it and take hold of it.

And there's probably some good reasons why.

I'm not going to do a reflection on why they did it today, but that's probably worth thinking about of all the things that the culture tries to take.

Why didn't they take that?

See, the thing is, is the Christians didn't like invent Pentecost.

Did you notice in the reading it said, while they were gathering for Pentecost, this thing happened?

Like the Jewish people, the Jewish Christians were gathering for Pentecost and then this experience happened.

Because we inherit this from our Jewish brothers and sisters.

See, Pentecost just means like 50 days.

It's 50 days, and historically, 50 days after Passover is when the Jewish people would gather together to celebrate being gifted the law to Moses at Mount Sinai or Horeb, or whichever one you want to pick, one of the two.

So they were gifted the law at that time.

And so they were gathering as good Jewish people for this celebration that was about bringing together all of the disparate Jewish cultures and people in one place.

And so really what the celebration was was how God chose to organize.

See, that's how I think about this Jewish festival.

It's called Shibut.

And I thought to myself, man, you know, if I was gathering people together to form a community, or in fact, if you wanted to live somewhere and you got to pick any culture or community, I would suggest that you pick a community that looks a little bit like ones formed by the Ten Commandments.

I mean, forget any of the religious stuff.

I'm just saying, practically, a community that is gathered around a common belief in something bigger than themselves.

A community that says, yeah, we probably shouldn't kill each other.

We probably shouldn't lie to each other or bear false witness about each other.

We probably shouldn't steal from each other.

We might want to take some rest so we don't end up like Americans of the 21st century.

We should probably be a community that says it's important for us to rest and take glory in God's creation.

And you know what?

It might be a good idea not to like get with each other's spouses.

That's probably a good idea.

And in fact, maybe we don't even want to be jealous about what other people have.

Now, that sounds, does anybody want to live in that community?

Yeah, there's a reason I think that the Jewish people have sustained and lasted because they said we want to be a witness to the world about the best of humanity, and we're gonna hinge it on these ten wonderful beauty.

This is not, you know, an angry God saying, you know, I got some ego needs, so here are the rules, and if you break them, you're in trouble.

That is not what this is about.

It's a gift given to this people to say, we organize a certain way, and that brings life and life abundant.

And so you have, I think, Christian Jews, Jews early on, followers of the way, celebrating the fact that God organizes God's people for the sake of being in the world, being a community.

And while they're doing that, we say another miraculous thing happened.

And we call that Pentecost.

That God regathered in kind of a new way, God's people around something, I would argue, the most resurrection story and narrative, and then empowered them with God's spirit, that's kind of the new thing, to be God's people in the world, to be a thriving, active community.

That's why we call this day the day, the birth of the church.

The birth of the church.

Like this is the birthday of the church, the people gathered.

Friends, it's not a season, it's a day.

I mean, we've just told the story of God's love shown in the incarnation, and we talked about Easter and God's love and sacrifice and holy week, and we've been thinking about that for seven weeks, about being resurrection people, and then we say, and we're the church, so let's go be it.

And from here on out, the rest of the year is called the season after Pentecost.

It's not the season of Pentecost.

It's who are we in light of being gathered by God and powered by the Holy Spirit.

Now, empowered is an interesting word, isn't it?

Thinking about that.

Thinking about what does it mean to be empowered?

And I must admit that the first thing that came to mind again was my childhood.

But this time, it was childhood cartoons.

Oh yeah.

Anybody ever heard of Masters of the Universe?

He-Man and She.

She-Ra's made a comeback, y'all.

She-Ra's made a comeback with my kids.

It's great.

He-Man and She-Ra.

Boy, did I my mom save the big plastic bin of my toys.

And I got that, and I'm telling you, it's like 60% He-Man Masters of the Universe.

Boy, did I love the story of Prince Adam and Eternia?

And his scaredy little cat, Cringy.

Like he had this like terrified little cat called Cringy, and he was battling Skeletor, but through the power of Grace Bull, he would take his sword and he would be empowered to have the power to be blast as a little scaredy cat, and it would turn into battle cat.

It's like super awesome eye.

It could destroy things, and he-man came out of Prince Adam, he was a super buff guy that could do anything.

And I thought, man, do we think about the Holy Spirit in that way?

I mean, I don't know.

I think I kind of do sometimes.

I think I kind of do.

And I don't think that's a bad thing.

Like, I think individually, there are times where I feel so incredibly disempowered by the pain of life.

So like sad and weak in the midst of what feels like hopelessness.

That God shows up and empowers me.

And I need that.

I need to know that like the pain and the hurt of this world doesn't win.

And I need to feel that.

That's true.

And I'm not sure it's a great model for what it means to be church.

Because if if we're celebrating what it means to be church, if we think that it's about becoming empowered in a way, that quickly leads to perhaps imperialism and colonialism and seeing how everybody else needs to be conquered because everybody else is bad, but we need to be empowered to go out and do that?

And we need to leave here with a powerful word and voice and tell everybody else what they need to know, right?

Like, I think there's a way to be church that is full of this desire for power.

And I'm not sure that's the mystical beauty of Pentecost.

And so I started wondering, like, well, what's the other cartoon that might sort of give me some wisdom in this?

And many of you will be pleased to know that I came up with Bugs Bunny.

Like, truly, like, perhaps, like, what happens if we take He-Man and we turn that into Bugs Bunny?

Because Bug's Bunny did a lot of great stuff.

I mean, there was always this beauty, but there was this mischievous to it, right?

There was this sedition.

Things didn't happen the way that you thought.

There was perhaps a little deception, a little unknowing, a little playfulness.

Perhaps the Holy Spirit doesn't come to us in He-Man-like power, but maybe it's a little bit more like a seditious spirit of play and subversion, showing up in, you know, pregnant Mary, showing up in sinful Saul, right?

Coming in weird, distinct ways.

Perhaps the power that showed up at Pentecost with the story we had in Acts wasn't this like miraculous ability of the disciples to speak twenty-five different languages.

Perhaps the miracle was everybody else listening carefully and seeing each other differently.

Perhaps the miracle was a miracle of sight and hearing, and not necessarily out of speaking.

You know, I was looking at all the kids that that were advocate, you know, like I really did have it in that, you know, powerful friend who's gonna come by, right?

Um that word would have actually been dynamis.

I went and found out and I was like, there is a word for something like that.

It's dynamis.

Like dynamite advocate comes from Bothare.

It comes from the one who speaks to you, right?

So when we ask for the Holy Spirit to be manifest, thinking that we're gonna get a whole bunch of powerful answers, perhaps what we're gonna get is some seditious questions.

And if we want to be a community organized by that spirit, then what does it mean for us to be a community who, when people come here and they say, what are they gathering around?

They're gathering around listening deeply, seeing differently, and having curiosity to ask questions where new things get broken open.

What does it mean on this day for St.

Thomas to think critically at heart about what are the values that are gathering us together?

What is the voice that we want to have in the world, right?

When we're out there and say, come here and experience a way of being in relationship that is about love and listening and seeing beauty and asking good questions.

Doesn't mean we ignore hard things.

We ask good, hard questions.

But we respect the dignity of every human being enough that we want to get to know them.

We don't assume that we know them.

We listen first.

And that might not be a bad idea for us to do in our own personal lives.

I mean, as much, as much as I want the Holy Spirit and God to show up all the time and just give me the answers and give me the power and give me all the agency to like fight back against my helplessness in the world, I think the Holy Spirit shows up asking good questions and reminding us that we are Easter people, that we believe in a God of resurrection, a God of hope, even when things look very dark as and so today I want to I want to gather together.

I want to be church, I want to celebrate church, I want to wonder about what it means to be church, and I want to encourage us to be people who listen, people who see different, and people who are in the world, and we're gonna get a lot of people.