Happy Birthday everyone! Pentecost is often seen as when the Christian Church was born. The apostle Peter says in today’s reading from Acts 2 (v.17), quoting the prophet Joel, “in the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” In the New Testament, the phrase ‘last days’ refers to the time between when Jesus ascended to the Father and when he returns in the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. All flesh, that is all human beings, now have access to the Holy Spirit. God pours the Holy Spirit into us when we come to faith and are baptised, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So thus, the Church was born at Pentecost.
That does not mean that the Holy Spirit was inactive in the Old Testament. Not at all. All Godly activity ever is a product of the Holy Spirit, but it was not freely available. God put his Spirit into whomsoever he chose to fulfill his purposes. In fact, the word Pentecost (which just means 50th) comes from an Old Testament festival inaugurated by God through Moses – called the Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost. Fifty days after the Passover Sabbath, they were to sacrifice the first-fruits of the new grain to God. Like a deposit of that which is to come. In the Jewish faith it is still called the Festival of Pentecost or Weeks.
So it was no accident that it was exactly fifty days after Passover (which was yesterday, 7 weeks ago) that the Holy Spirit descended on all the disciples, numbering 120. For the Holy Spirit is also our deposit, or guarantee, of an abundant crop of life in both this world and the next. In the Anglican Church in places it is still called Whitsunday, coming from the Anglo-Saxon word whit (or wit) meaning understanding. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us understanding and enables us to declare that “Jesus is Lord.”
So this morning, we are going to take a closer look at the Holy Spirit as it follows on perfectly from what we spoke about last week when Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. It speaks of using all our gifts for the common good in full unity. In is fitting too, that when we see new possibilities open up in our parishes, we see how they all come to be through the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This reading brings us full circle and back to the Trinity – how we are to be one in all our diversity of gifts in the same way that God is one.
When I was a ten and eleven, I played the trombone for two years. I’d practice simple pieces of music, but the trombone never really followed the melody line, so I didn’t really think much of the music I was given! Still, it was a fun instrument I thought. Then, once a week we’d have band practice and all those things I’d practiced by myself, I’d get to play with all the other instruments. Suddenly I’d hear what the trumpets were playing and hear the melody. In fact I heard what everyone was playing, and it sounded fantastic.
You can see where I’m going with this. The unity of sound created by everyone together was vastly better than all the individual sounds made by the different instruments. But within this little brass band, the trumpets and cornets thought they were pretty superior as they carried the melody. They looked down on we trombone and tuba players. We, in turn looked down only on the triangle player.
All of this was done in good fun I have to say! But it is a useful way to look at the point Jesus is saying about the Holy Spirit; “he will lead you into all truth.” That’s the plural “you.” Paul writes to the church on Corinth that there were some who considered themselves spiritually superior to others and the whole orchestra, so to speak, risked being out of balance and worse, out of tune. This created discord which meant they literally couldn’t play together.
I’ll continue to stretch the music example a bit further if I may. He writes to the Corinthians ‘yes, there are different instruments, but all require the same musicianship. There are different styles of playing, but all need to follow the same conductor or bandleader. There are different tones and volumes of playing, but it’s the same composer who wrote the piece and whose music must come through in the performance.’
And Paul expresses this essential unity in a Trinitarian way. The Spirit gives gifts to the various member of the community (v.4); Jesus, as the Lord and as the one whose body is constituted by the Church is served (v.5); and God the Father activates the gifts (v.6).
Every single believer has a gift. Every single believer has been given this gift for a purpose. In v.7 Paul describes all of these gifts coming together as the “manifestation of the Spirit”. And the reason for the manifestation of these gifts is “for the common good.”
This is the heart of today’s reading. We are all given these gifts not to puff us up as being “more spiritual” than others, or to think God must think more highly of us because we happen to think our gift is more “spiritually spectacular.” I can assure you it’s not! The trumpet by itself soon becomes very tedious to listen to!
The Kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. In the eyes of the world, Christ was crucified in absolute weakness – yet is King of Kings over absolutely everything that is. All of Jesus’ teaching reveals that true greatness is only found in true humility. It is found in seeking the common good. Blessed are the meek, the poor in Spirit, those who mourn, the merciful, and the pure in heart. Not the boastful, the arrogant and the superior.
Our readings this Pentecost address a problem that stems from the confusion in people’s minds between something that is spiritual, and something that is Christian. Our culture is so staved of anything spiritual, that when we see something spiritual or supernatural, we think it must be from God. The new age religions are very spiritual but have at their heart, the individual. “All power is actually in you,” they say.
But the fact is that God has given us spiritual gifts to serve the common good. First the Church, so we can then seek the common good of the community, nation and the whole world. The fact that the Holy Spirit has given us these gifts, is a confirmation that all power is actually in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and not in us, no matter how spectacular a gift may appear on the surface.
The Spirit works through the preaching of the gospel to bring people to faith and baptism. So the receipt of these gifts isn’t to be seen as an area of personal growth or experience as such, but an equipping for a life of service in love for the Kingdom of God. We will shortly say that together when we firm our faith. We are equipped to advance God’s Kingdom in the face of the powers and principalities of the world that we have spoken of previously.
There are some passages of music where the triangle is the most important instrument, without which, the whole composition would fall flat on its face. There is no role for the trumpet at all. If the trumpet tried to hit itself with a little steel rod, it would sound tinny and horrible. If you want true resonance, you need a triangle. If the Holy Spirit gave you the gift of being a triangle, God will continually put before you music that desperately needs a triangle. People to whom only you can minister.
Let me pray…