Sermon for the Day of Pentecost, May 19, 2024

Ezekiel 37:1-14+Psalm 104:25-35, 37+Acts 2:1-21+John 15:26-27. 16:4b-15

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. As we look backwards over the course of our lives, I imagine there are some decisions we made or things that we did that had unintended consequences, for good or ill. Often people on the far side of 50 will tell you that they would never go back to their 20s unless they could do with their current life experience. What fun that would be.

As we read about the beginning of the Church on this Feast of Pentecost, I can't help wondering if the disciples would have done the things they did and made the choices that they made if they had known what lay ahead. All but one of them would end up on the wrong side of an executioner. They all left behind family and friends and everything they knew to go out into the world as strangers in a strange land to tell people about an itinerant preacher and teacher who was the Son of God and who was crucified but came back to life and then rose up into the clouds right before their very eyes. It seemed like such an adventure, a lark, when he invited to them to come and follow. Would they have said "yes" if they could peer into the future?

Today is Pentecost, coming as it does every year 50 days after Easter. You may recall that back on Palm Sunday, the city of Jerusalem was crowded as pilgrims came from all over the Jewish world to prepare for the Passover. There were three festivals for which observant Jews were to come to the temple to make sacrifices - Sukkot which happens in the Fall, and the two Spring festivals, Passover and Shavuot which comes fifty days later. In Jewish tradition, what we call Pentecost is Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, the counting of seven weeks from Passover to the harvest of the first wheat. It also celebrates the giving of the Law to Moses.

All this is to say that Jerusalem is, once again, teeming with people from all over the place. They speak different languages, wear different clothing, look and smell different, and here they are, crowding into the city, the city where Jesus, as he rose into heaven, told his followers to stay until receiving power from on high (Luke 24:49).

I sincerely doubt that they had no idea what he was talking about. Oh, sure, he had promised them an Advocate, a Comforter, a Spirit of Truth, as we just read in John (John 15), but like so many other times when they clearly misunderstood the implications of Jesus's words, it is unlikely that they could have imagined what was going to happen. A mighty wind rushes over the gathered crowd, tongues of flame dance on their heads, and the combination sets off an explosion like a combustion engine. It is this explosion that literally changes the course of history, sending the apostles out into all parts of the known world sharing life-altering Good News.

And I wonder if they would have accepted the assignment when Jesus offered it so long ago had they known then what they would soon learn. Discipleship is costly. It is the most beautiful, transformative, dangerous, scary vocation in the world, then and now.

In a little while, we will baptize five children into this family we call the Church, that "holy and sacred mystery" (BCP 280) that began on this day two millennia or so ago. I wonder if they knew what lay ahead of them they would still say yes or be glad their parents and godparents said yes on their behalf? All of us will renew our own Baptismal Covenant along with them. Now that you know what it is to live a Christian life, can you still affirm those promises?

From where we sit, resting in the knowledge that we are beloved of God, that we are part of a community that nurtures and encourages and supports, that we are really bad at being an exclusive club because we let in whoever shows up - if all of this is true, then that expansive love and community care outweighs anything else that might come our way.

The Church has not been perfect throughout her history. A lot of awful things have been done in the name of Christ. And at the same time so much good has come from God's action in and through us, all who came before and all who will come after.

We at All Saints have been saying "yes" to the boundless love of God for decades right here on this corner, and as we welcome these newest members into the Body of Christ, we are assured of continuing to say "yes" long into the future, come what may.

Thanks be to God.