Day of Pentecost May
24, 2015
Today is Whitsunday, and probably more people were in Virtual Church on the Eve of Whitsunday than have ever actually been in church. The Eve of Whitsunday occasion was of course the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and the American actress, Meghan Markle. And with the wedding and the FA Cup on the same day, one could say that Britannia Ruled the Waves again, the air waves of world public attention. The world watched the wedding and such a wedding is what we can actually be unified about. I don't think that this wedding will bring an errant colony back into the United Kingdom, but it was an Anglican witness to the feast of Pentecost which we observe today. I'm not even referring to the fiery sermon of our Presiding Bishop Michael. I did feel sorry for the wedding guests who probably were not accustomed to such sermon energy; it's hard to keep a stiff upper lip when your jaw has fallen on the floor.
The liturgy, the music, the fiery sermon were all very special and unique but the liturgy was a distinct Anglican witness to the feast of Pentecost. How so? The liturgy was taken from the Common Worship, which has been a Book of Common Prayer Supplement for the Church of England since the year 2000. One could notice the use of more contemporary English language in liturgical forms for the Marriage Service.
The Book of Common Prayer is a historic and public event of the recovery of one of the original impulses of the Feast of Pentecost. How so?
For many years, the Western Christian Church was trapped by limiting the public prayers of the church to an uncommon language for the people of England, Latin. Latin was for the clergy and the scholars and in the church, the liturgy was "performed" on behalf of people who did not understand what was being said.
On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, a mighty statement of universality was proclaimed. What was this great statement of universality? It was demonstrated that the message of the love of God in Jesus Christ could be translated into all of the known language of the world. The message of Christ was not just for those who been born in the Hebrew language tradition; the message of Christ was to be made known and accessible to everyone in the world.
When the Book of Common Prayer came to be used in 1549, it represented a recovery of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. With Common Prayer, we celebrate that God's life accessible to everyone. The name of Jesus, Emmanuel, means God with us and if God is with us God communicates with us in ways that we can understand and in the languages of our understanding. And we today, continue in the Pentecost tradition as found in our Book of Common Prayer. But we do not use the Book of Common Prayer as a way to establish these prayers as exclusive prayers. They are model prayers in our English language to encourage us to make at all times and all places our prayers common and natural to the ways in which we've been taught to offer our very best communication with God and each other. We don't have our wonderful Book of Common Prayer as the exhaustive prayers of the church; they are model prayers for our corporate use and they are meant for us to be inspired to speak prayers in ways that are common to us when we prayer in private or when together.
Pentecost means that the love of God in Christ is translatable to everyone in this world. And it our Pentecostal ministry to live our lives in such Holy Spirit inspired ways that we translate the meaning of the love of Christ to the people whom we meet. This is our Pentecostal duty.
What else does Pentecost mean for us today? The words of Jesus in John's Gospels tells us what Pentecost means? It means that even though Jesus left this world, he would still have an endless future in this world. What did the church of the Gospel of John understand Jesus to be saying to them? "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.... it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.....I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you." Why did the Gospels get written? Why did the letters of Paul and the other New Testament writers get written? Because through the Holy Spirit, the message of Jesus Christ continued to be made known in the world. The future of God the Father and God the Son is guaranteed because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the inner personal constitution of Christ as God's Word from the Beginning and God's word from the beginning keeps being transmitted and perpetuated into every new generation of people. The Holy Spirit is the transhistorical presence and reality of Christ. God the Father and Jesus Christ have a future in our lives because of the reality of the Holy Spirit.
Today on Pentecost Sunday, you and I are invited to "get in the Spirit." And we literally can't do that, why? Because the Spirit is God's Omni-presence that we always already live in because God is the Container of all life. We "get" in Spirit by recognizing that God already contains us. Getting into the Spirit means we give up alienation from God. Letting the Spirit get into us means that we intentionally accept the apparent work of God's Spirit leading us into the fruits of love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, faith, self-control and humility.
Let us today, as we begin the season of Pentecost determine to translate the love of God in Christ into the languages of the life styles of the people who are brought into our lives. And let us accept the Holy Spirit as the future of Jesus Christ in our world and also as our continuing future with God beyond our earthly lives. Amen.
The liturgy, the music, the fiery sermon were all very special and unique but the liturgy was a distinct Anglican witness to the feast of Pentecost. How so? The liturgy was taken from the Common Worship, which has been a Book of Common Prayer Supplement for the Church of England since the year 2000. One could notice the use of more contemporary English language in liturgical forms for the Marriage Service.
The Book of Common Prayer is a historic and public event of the recovery of one of the original impulses of the Feast of Pentecost. How so?
For many years, the Western Christian Church was trapped by limiting the public prayers of the church to an uncommon language for the people of England, Latin. Latin was for the clergy and the scholars and in the church, the liturgy was "performed" on behalf of people who did not understand what was being said.
On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, a mighty statement of universality was proclaimed. What was this great statement of universality? It was demonstrated that the message of the love of God in Jesus Christ could be translated into all of the known language of the world. The message of Christ was not just for those who been born in the Hebrew language tradition; the message of Christ was to be made known and accessible to everyone in the world.
When the Book of Common Prayer came to be used in 1549, it represented a recovery of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. With Common Prayer, we celebrate that God's life accessible to everyone. The name of Jesus, Emmanuel, means God with us and if God is with us God communicates with us in ways that we can understand and in the languages of our understanding. And we today, continue in the Pentecost tradition as found in our Book of Common Prayer. But we do not use the Book of Common Prayer as a way to establish these prayers as exclusive prayers. They are model prayers in our English language to encourage us to make at all times and all places our prayers common and natural to the ways in which we've been taught to offer our very best communication with God and each other. We don't have our wonderful Book of Common Prayer as the exhaustive prayers of the church; they are model prayers for our corporate use and they are meant for us to be inspired to speak prayers in ways that are common to us when we prayer in private or when together.
Pentecost means that the love of God in Christ is translatable to everyone in this world. And it our Pentecostal ministry to live our lives in such Holy Spirit inspired ways that we translate the meaning of the love of Christ to the people whom we meet. This is our Pentecostal duty.
What else does Pentecost mean for us today? The words of Jesus in John's Gospels tells us what Pentecost means? It means that even though Jesus left this world, he would still have an endless future in this world. What did the church of the Gospel of John understand Jesus to be saying to them? "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.... it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.....I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you." Why did the Gospels get written? Why did the letters of Paul and the other New Testament writers get written? Because through the Holy Spirit, the message of Jesus Christ continued to be made known in the world. The future of God the Father and God the Son is guaranteed because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the inner personal constitution of Christ as God's Word from the Beginning and God's word from the beginning keeps being transmitted and perpetuated into every new generation of people. The Holy Spirit is the transhistorical presence and reality of Christ. God the Father and Jesus Christ have a future in our lives because of the reality of the Holy Spirit.
Today on Pentecost Sunday, you and I are invited to "get in the Spirit." And we literally can't do that, why? Because the Spirit is God's Omni-presence that we always already live in because God is the Container of all life. We "get" in Spirit by recognizing that God already contains us. Getting into the Spirit means we give up alienation from God. Letting the Spirit get into us means that we intentionally accept the apparent work of God's Spirit leading us into the fruits of love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, faith, self-control and humility.
Let us today, as we begin the season of Pentecost determine to translate the love of God in Christ into the languages of the life styles of the people who are brought into our lives. And let us accept the Holy Spirit as the future of Jesus Christ in our world and also as our continuing future with God beyond our earthly lives. Amen.