Above you'll find the audio of my Pentecost Sunday homily, based on today's first reading from the Book of Acts. (If a widget doesn't appear above, click here!) And here's the text of my homily:
Imagine…
Imagine that what happened on the first Pentecost happened here this morning.
Suppose strong driving winds began to rip through this church. And suppose that
tongues of fire began to settle on people's heads. What would you do? I think
I'd be scared. Honestly, I think I'd run... I think I'd want to get out of here
as fast as I could. I'm not sure I would have made a very good first century
Christian disciple.
The image of the Spirit in the first reading today might
seem intimidating, even frightening: driving winds, threatening to knock you
down; flames close enough to set your hair on fire (if you have any!) But
that's not what happened. The Spirit's coming doesn't bring devastation.
Rather, the coming of the Spirit fulfills a promise… realizes a dream… gathers
the scattered… unites the many… fills the empty… discloses what's hidden… reveals
the unknown… opens minds… enters hearts… brings understanding… heals what's
wounded… and men's what's broken…
Hurricane winds and open flames - but no one is harmed! And
that's because, in addition to all the special effects of the first Pentecost,
there's a phrase in the acts of the Apostles that we might easily miss, words
that fill in the whole story. These words: “They were all FILLED with the Holy
Spirit.”
We can be so mesmerized by the exterior, audibles, and
visuals that we miss the interior movement in this scene. The people gathered
there were FILLED with the Holy Spirit. More than 2,000 years later, I can't
help but think of how much each one of us needs, how much our WORLD needs, to
be filled with the Holy Spirit. • To be filled with the power and fire of God's
grace to help us gather together what's disordered and scattered in our minds,
in our hearts, in the world. • We need the Spirit's help to unite what's
splintered in our families, in our communities, in the global village of the
world's nations. • We need the Spirit to fill us, to fill and satisfy the
lonely emptiness that the culture around us so frequently fails to satisfy. •We
need the Spirit to help us uncover and disclose what we hide in the corners of
our souls. • We need the Spirit's help to reveal the truth we need to know, the
truth we must face. • We need the Spirit's help to open our minds and hearts
when they're walled in by anxiety and fear, by prejudice and bias. • We need
the Spirit's help to bring ourselves to understand the people around us: to
think as they might think, to see as they might see. • We need the Spirit's
help to heal our wounded hearts - and to mend the jagged brokenness that
fractures the peace the world so much desires.
When we received the sacrament of Confirmation we were
anointed with, we were given, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Just in case
you're a little rusty on the Spirit's gifts, here they are: wisdom…
understanding… counsel… fortune… knowledge… and the desire to reverence and
worship God. All those gifts were given us at confirmation. The question is:
did we ever open them up? Have we used them? Have we lived then? Have we shared
those gifts?
Is there anyone among us here this morning who doesn't need
all those seven gifts of the Spirit? Is there anyone among us who doesn't need
to be filled with the Holy Spirit who comes in wind and power and flame, to
touch us, to anoint us, to bless us, to move us; to inspire and energize and
heal us; to fill us with a breath of new life; and set our hearts on fire with
an enthusiasm and a zeal we once had but now may only faintly remember?
So if you're sitting there wondering, as I do: “Hmm, have I
opened the gifts I received at Confirmation?” Well, there's actually a way to
tell. St. Paul, writing to the Galatians, wrote about the FRUITS of the Holy
Spirit: the sweet fruit the Spirit brings to life when we open and share the
Spirit's gifts.
And the fruits of the Holy Spirit are these: love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness,
modesty, self- control, and purity.
If we've opened up the Spirit's gifts, those are the fruits
we should be enjoying - those are the fruits that should be the hallmarks of
our lives.
Well, just looking around, first at myself, and at others -
and the world we live in - I'd say that we ALL STILL have some work to do in
opening up the Spirit's gifts.
And I would say that the world we live in is in desperate
need of the FRUITS of the Spirit. In desperate need of: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control,
and purity.
We need those gifts, these fruits…
The descent of the Holy Spirit did come as a complete
surprise to the first disciples. 40 days after Easter, just before Jesus
ascended to heaven, he promised he'd send his SPIRIT. So they were waiting for
it. They were waiting nine days since the Ascension, in that “upper room,” the
same place that Jesus had shared his last supper with them. They were waiting
there and praying for the Spirit to come.
Well, we are gathered here in OUR upper room where we come
to celebrate the Lord's supper. So perhaps we could pray, you and I could pray
this morning - for another Pentecost, for the Spirit to come again - upon us
and upon our world.
So, I'm gonna pray here. It helps you to close your eyes -
close your eyes…
Come, Holy Spirit, and move in our lives like a strong
wind, pushing us in the right direction towards you and your grace and your
gifts.
Come, Holy Spirit, and touch our lives with healing. Heal
us of the blindness that keeps us from seeing the truth. Heal us of the
paralysis that keeps us from doing what is good and right and just.
Come, Holy Spirit, and change our hearts. Change our old ways
and show us a new way. Change our minds when they're tightly closed. Change our
thinking when our thinking stinks. Change the ways we care for one another: for
our families, our friends, our neighbors, for strangers. And for those most in
need of a share in the bounty that's ours.
Come, Holy Spirit, and transform our lives: transform our
souls with your mercy and pardon; transform our ways with your saving word;
transform our outlook with trust and hope; transform our world with the work of
justice that leads us to peace.
Come, Holy Spirit, and purify us. Purify all our thoughts
and desires; purify our ambitions and schemes; purify all our designs and
intentions; purify us in our words and our deeds; purify us from the inside
out.
Come, Holy Spirit, give voice to the goodness in each
living being. Give voice to the song that praises God's name. Give voice to our
cry for an end to war, to oppression, violence, and terror.
And here I'm going to pause for a few moments of silence: time
for each of us to search our hearts and pray for the Spirit to come into our
individual lives wherever each of us might most be in need of the gifts and the
fruits of the Spirits wind and flame.
Let's pause and pray…
In a few moments, here in our upper room, we will pray for
the Spirit to come down over our gifts of bread and wine, and to make of them,
for us, the body and blood of Christ, who is our Passover, our everlasting
peace.
May the Holy Spirit come down like a flame of fire and
settle upon each of us. And help us open the gifts we have been given so that
like bread, we might be broken and shared to nourish others. And like wine, we
might be poured out to fill and heal our neighbors' hearts.
Come, Holy Spirit. Come fill the hearts of your faithful
people, and kindle in us, in each of us, the fire of your love.
Come, Holy Spirit – come!
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