Homily for Pentecost Sunday
(Scriptures for today's Mass)
Audio for homily
(This homily has two endings: one for Masses at which we
celebrated First Communion and one for Masses where we
did not. The audio is from a First Communion Mass.)
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving
wind
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Every year
when I read those words on Pentecost,
I wonder
what it’s like to hear those words
or to preach
on them
in those
parts of the country where tornadoes often touch down
and threaten
peoples’ life and property.
Wind and
fire are images often found in the scriptures
as symbols
of how God’s Spirit moves in our lives.
But wind and
fire are ambiguous images:
each can be
life-giving and each can be death-dealing.
• Wind is
air on the move, the air we breathe.
But that
same wind can twist itself
into a
column of destruction and death.
• Fire gives
us warmth, light and protection, it cooks our food.
But fire can
rage, engulf, burn and consume whatever’s in its path.
In the first
scripture, the Holy Spirit comes like a strong driving wind -
not to
destroy the dwelling where the disciples were gathered
but to fill
it with the presence of God.
The Spirit
comes and settles on the believers’ heads as tongues of fire -
but they
aren’t burned – not even singed.
Rather,
their hearts are inflamed with faith.
How about
us?
When was the
last time the wind of God’s Spirit,
the breath
of the Spirit,
even a
whisper of the Holy Spirit
moved in your
heart or mine, in our thoughts, in our consciences,
urging us to
respond, to speak, to move, to do, to act
- or perhaps
urging us to sit still and keep our mouths shut?
When was the
last time you and I felt the heat of God’s presence
]burning
within us, urging us
to choose
wisely, to decide prudently, to act justly?
to do the
next right thing?
We find so
many ways to insulate ourselves from the Spirit -
as if the
Spirit of God were something to be feared.
Am I afraid
that the Spirit’s wind might knock me down?
That the
Spirit’s flame might burn me?
Are we
afraid that the Spirit might somehow change us?
Well, when
we allow the Spirit to break through, to break in,
things do
change.
WE change.
Those early
Christians were changed by the Spirit
and God’s
Spirit seeks to change you and me, too,
perhaps not
as dramatically as in the scripture here
but there’s
not a moment of any day or night
when God’s
Spirit isn’t seeking to change us, to help us grow.
And perhaps
that’s what frightens us.
We want what
is life-giving
but we fear
what we might need to let go
if the
Spirit’s life is to flourish within us.
Perhaps we
fear what we might become
if the wind
and fire of the Spirit
enveloped
our minds and our hearts - and changed us.
And what
would we become?
We’d become
nothing more and nothing less
than the
persons God created each of us to be.
In fact, we
might even become the person
each of us
would like to be!
So on this
Pentecost Sunday, pray with me.
Pray that we
not fear the breath, the flame, of the Spirit
and the life
the Spirit offers us.
Pray with me
for the Spirit to come into our lives
-- and to
change us...
and
especially to change what we know in our heart of hearts
most needs
changing.
(FIRST
COMMUNION MASS ENDING)
I suspect
that for many who are with us in prayer this morning,
the Holy
Spirit of God has come to you today -
not as wind,
not as fire –
but in the
guise of a young girl or boy
receiving
Communion for the first time.
The Holy
Spirit has many faces and 15 of them
belong to
the boys and girls I introduced to you as Mass began.
It’s also
likely that many who are with us today
haven’t been
at the Lord’s Table for some time,
perhaps for
a long time.
If that is
you:
know, for sure,
that you are welcome here;
know, for
sure, that God’s Spirit has led you here.
know, for
sure, that the Holy Spirit has brought you here today
to join
God’s people in prayer;
to hear the
Lord’s Word in the scriptures;
to open your
hearts to breath and fire of God’s grace;
to bring you
to your seat at the Lord’s
Table
as these
children take theirs for the first time.
If we are
here this morning,
we are here
by the power of God’s Spirit,
whether
we’re here every Sunday morning
or haven’t
been in a place like this in ages.
God’s Spirit
has gathered us together.
May God’s
Spirit keep these children and us together
and continue
to gather us all at the Lord’s Table.
(OTHER MASS
ENDING)
• Come, Holy
Spirit, once more fill my heart
with the
fire and power of your gifts.
• Come,
Holy Spirit, fill up wisdom's lamp,
to enlighten
my mind, my thoughts and my will.
• Come,
Holy Spirit, light the way:
help me see
and embrace all that God is revealing.
• Come, Holy
Spirit, with knowledge and truth,
brand my
mind and my heart with the Word of the Lord.
• Come, Holy
Spirit, my beacon of counsel
for
judgments both prudent and pure.
• Come, Holy
Spirit and kindle my courage
to do what
is right, to do what is fair, to do what is just.
• Come, Holy
Spirit and stoke my desire
to humble
myself before God.
• Come, Holy
Spirit, light the flame of your presence
and draw me
to reverence and prayer.
• Come, Holy
Spirit, flood my heart with your gifts
and my soul
with the breath of your peace.
• Come, Holy
Spirit, to the Father's love draw me,
through my,
Savior, my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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