Pentecost in 3 parts

 

            I distinctly remember the moment when I knew seminary was for me. It was the summer before my senior year of college, and Pastor Sarah took me to see Wartburg Seminary, and I got to sit in on a class
—it was focused exclusively on the Holy Spirit showing up in scripture before Pentecost
—so brooding over the chaotic waters in Genesis,
enlivening the valley of dry bones before Ezekiel,
and the like. Mind blowing, the Spirit acting in such a variety of ways, invisible even while right in front of our eyes throughout the Hebrew Bible.

            There are a wide variety of interpretations of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit does a lot.
Think of our own confessional documents, the Holy Spirit: calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us. Not only that, but the Spirit will forgive and raise us up to Eternal Life.

-Our Pentecostal siblings see the Spirit as all excitement and ecstasy.

-The Society of Friends—my wife’s faith tradition—sometimes describe themselves as “introverted Pentecostals” they simply wait on the Shy Sovereign to come among them and reveal a Word out of silence.

-We Lutherans understand the Spirit to be a Baptismal being
—wrapped up in that Identity we have in Christ,
flowing from us as we live out that identity in our day-to-day life.

            And today, I’d like us to consider the Spirit in light of some of the ministries of the Church
—actual concrete committee work…
even that is Spirit-work.
Particularly:
-Outreach and Evangelism,
-Fellowship and Pastoral Care,
-Stewardship and Caretaking.

Yes, the Spirit is among us in our outreach, our fellowship, and in our stewardship.

 

Prayer

            The Pentecost, which we find in Acts, is the most in your face example of the Spirit’s work.
It is loud and big,
fire and flame,
prophecy and portents in the sky.

            The disciples are given words that will reach the wild and wide diversity of people gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost—the Jewish Feast Day of Moses receiving the 10 Commandments. People from all around the Empire, hearing gospel in their language. Euangelion to the Greeks,
Evangelium to the Romans,
Injil to the Arabs,
Basharta in Aramaic, and so on.

            Pentecost is a proclamation that the Word of God is for everyone,
the Good news: “Jesus is Lord! In him there is salvation” is to be translated, told, enacted, and offered, in whatever form people will hear.

            Truly, the Spirit is about making the good news plain—Evangelism and reaching out—Outreach…

 

            Then there is John’s version of Pentecost, the resurrected Christ coming to the upper room to these dispirited disciples of his,
shut away out of fear and huddled together in gloom of night…
and Jesus appears, a light in the darkness, an opening for those trapped behind doors.

            He comes, quiet, intimate, personal.

            He breathes into them
—inbreathing,
comfort, order out of chaos
—like the Spirit hovering over the waters, like a pile of dry bones becoming a living people.

            The breath of Jesus, his ongoing presence with his people—the Spirit!
The Spirit is the one who accompanies us on Jesus’ behalf!
The one who gives us Peace and sends us out.

            Peace—that our griefs and fears might be overcome by comfort
—the Spirit is the Comforter!

            Sending—opening those doors, so that they might be courageous and walk in and with the Holy Spirit,
proclaiming Jesus’ forgiveness to a fallen and frightened world, even as we get to hear it again and anew ourselves!

            In our fellowship and our care for one another, I assure you the Spirit is with us!

 

            Paul speaks of the Spirit’s work as well, in his letter to the Corinthians…

The Corinthian Church, these people who frustrate him to no end, people who always brag of their spirituality, their ecstatic experiences,
to the point that Paul is pretty sure they are using spiritual things as a way to establish a pecking order…

And so he gives a formula
(we only have part of it in today’s reading)
a formula for how to know if a Christian is dealing with a Spiritual Thing, or are in relationship with the 3^rd person of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit—you hear that, right?
The Spirit is a Person;
abuse of spiritual powers is a thing.

Paul’s formula is that Abusive Spirituality will curse Christ,
the Holy Spirit will affirm Jesus as Lord.

And to undergird this point, he again makes a similar distinction between “Spiritual Things” and Spiritual Gifts. What do they empower?
If they strengthen a hierarchy in the Church, they’re a thing,
if they help us live out our roles, relationships, and responsibilities in ways that honor God and aid our neighbor
—then that’s the Holy Spirit.

All that to say, when it’s about Stewardship
—putting gifts, passions, and talents to work for the Common Good
—that’s the Spirit at work.

 

            Holy Spirit! Sanctifier! Prophetic Flame! Shy Sovereign! O Voice of Baptism! Holy Presence who hides in plain sight throughout our scriptures, Empower, we pray:
our Outreach—may it be ongoing acts of gracious translation!
our Fellowship—comfort and courage as your new world is being born.
our Stewardship—your gifts, used for the common good. Amen.

Eulogy for a Faithful Church

 

Sara Olson-Smith’s “Eulogy for a Faithful Church” is balm for the soul. It is a reflection on her first call to St. Peter’s Lutheran in North Plainfield; this ministry began as redevelopment work and became a ministry of holy closure.

              Pastor Sara’s care-filled storytelling captures a couple of linked realities well. It names the strangeness of first call—your first solo funeral, the unexpected connections created in the midst of the mundane, etc. At least to me it also lovingly remembers what ministry was like before Covid, and I hope it can maybe coax us back there in some respects. It also captures well both the grief and care of people in the throes of closing a beloved 117-year-old congregation.

              This book is girded by a powerful image and a refrain: The various depictions of biblical figures from the stain glass windows of St. Peter’s as framing for chapters and themes, and the quote: “Given this reality, how do I make the gospel known?”

              This book captures the jarring beauty in the banality of ministry; for example, the copy machine stops working and that leads to deep hospice-level pastoral conversation. The congregation makes a variety of hard and faithful choices; some of them lead to conflict, but this conflict is always depicted with the kind of grace that can only come with time and hindsight.

              Finally, the book lifts up the legacy of St. Peter’s. In closing there was new life: ongoing healthcare for folks in Chile, hunger grants, Seminarians assisted, and grants for congregations in New Jersey to experiment and start new ministries (my own congregation has received several such grants). Additionally, the physical building, stain glass windows and all, continues to be a place of worship, St. Basilios-Gregorios Orthodox Church.

              The main points Pastor Sara focuses the reader on are: Congregations matter to communities; even those who do not worship there miss them when they are gone. Because the church is more than individual congregations, closures do not mean congregants go without care. Closures aren’t failures—there is new life for us, because we are resurrection people!

              Having been the Pastor of one of the receiving congregations from St. Peter’s, St. Stephen South Plainfield, I especially appreciate the “cast of characters” lovingly described in this book. But, even if this book doesn’t hold a personal place in your heart, it is still well worth reading! I would recommend it to seminarians, or perhaps first call pastors, and to anyone who wants to know what faithful ministry can look like. Pastor Sara models well our work at its best: relational, filled with hard and fateful decisions, emotionally draining, saturated in story, catching glimpses of God doing a new thing and getting to point to it!