The Feast of Pentecost Year B May 20, 2018
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Acts 2: 1-21 + Romans 8: 22-27 + John 15: 26-27; 16: 4b-15
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
How many of you went through Lutheran confirmation classes? At the risk of sounding very much like a crotchety old person, BACK IN MY DAY, I went to confirmation class on Saturday mornings from 9-noon AND on Wednesday afternoons after school. For three years. I had to memorize the small catechism, which includes the 10 commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostle’s Creed and Luther’s explanations to them all. On the night before I was confirmed, my classmates and I had to read an essay we’d written, explaining our faith and then we were questioned by our pastor in front of the congregation.
It’s a wonder any of us stuck with the church.
For far too long the Church saw confirmation as a sort of graduation. Which was why, after confirmation, most students disappeared in a trail of dust never to be seen again. It was seen as a culmination of finally understanding what it means to believe in and follow Jesus. Of having all of the answers. Of finally “getting it.”
But that’s not what it is at all, and Payton and Gavin have heard this from me for the past two years. Today they will say, here, that they are willing to take on the joy and the journey of their faith lives fully understanding that it’s never really complete and that we never really have all of the answers. That our wrestling with our faith and our coming toward it and running away from it and our figuring it out happens from now until we draw our last breath. But today, Payton and Gavin will say to us…in fact they will promise us that they are willing to keep trying. And in return, we will promise them that we will continue to pray for them.
What I’d like to be able to do, with Payton and Gavin and with every confirmation class, is to hand them all of the answers. To tell them, that if they just write this essay and memorize this book it will all make sense and it will all go smoothly from here on out.
But here’s what I know about them: they are too smart for that. They’ve seen too much. They live and move in a world that I hardly recognize anymore. I don’t even write sermons or prayers before the end of the week because, well, we never know when we’ll have to light more memorial candles and say more victim’s names.
Friends, I have run out of words for these days. As Paul said, we don’t know how to pray as we should in the midst of them. And so the Spirit expresses our plea with groanings too deep for words.
Ah the Spirit. She is a feisty one. Known by many names and signs and symbols, almost as if it is hard to pin her down. The divine ruach, breath of God. The Paraclete, the Spirit of truth. Tongues of flame. Dove.
David named Spirit in his seasonal newsletter to you yesterday: Courage, essence, breath, wind, energy, vapor, resolve, dauntlessness,
sparkle, tenor, life force, frame of mind, fire, flame, mood, heart…
Spirit is hard to pin down. Spirit does not announce her intentions, but you can be sure they are God’s will. Spirit is a truth teller. Spirit is a holy roller. Spirit is a game changer. And you can be sure that Spirit is present with us. Not just today, when it is so, well….obvious. But every single day.
On some days the Spirit will come as comforter. As balm for bruised spirits.
On some days the Spirit will come as the grandmother who says get off of your behind and get out there and fight against the evils and perils in this world. Which will never be easy.
On some days, the Spirit will come as truth teller. Holding before us the truth of our action or inaction.
On some days, even if we have “graduated” from Confirmation, which isn’t a thing at all….but….on some days, the Spirit will come as reminder. Reminder that this faith journey…faith walk…life of faith…however we describe it. We don’t do it alone. Ever. No matter what is going on in our lives, from the days filled with joy and hope when everything seems possible to the days we are worn down by the cares of the world and our lives and our own selves…we do not do faith alone. Faith is a team sport. Faith is lived out in community.
The Spirit calls us together in faith….draws us together as the Body of Christ….encourages us to come together with one another for the sake of one another and for the sake of the hope that lives within us. The Spirit calls us to a holy bath and a meal of wide welcome that restores our souls. The Spirit reminds us that the holy is with us even when all evidence points to the contrary.
Payton and Gavin, the Church needs you. Your Church needs you. We need you to show us how the Spirit is at work. We need you to walk beside us so that when we lose hope, and we will, you can remind us that in hope we were saved. And that we can be patient along the way. In turn, we will offer you the same.
The most relevant and important work of the Church, though, is not splashy and sexy. It is slow and little celebrated. We form people who work for justice and peace, who share and show love in the world, and who do so because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church at its best is a place where people of all ages learn to think beyond ourselves. We learn to value one another and God’s whole Creation, not for what we can gain from it, but for the simple reason that they are God’s beloveds. We learn that power is shown best in humility. We learn that violence and bigotry are never the answer.
Week after week, when the Church gathers we remind one another that our lives are gifts to be handled with great care, and that we must learn patience and forgiveness along the way.
Because of who Jesus is, and because of his love, we gather as the Church for the sake of the world.
And beloved community, if you have been hurt by the Church along the way…if it has rejected you or disappointed you or just made you mad…well….me too. Remember, the Church is not God. The Church exists because of Jesus, whose message of love guides our days and our lives. And it manages to pick itself up again and again by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, who stirs us up to new life, new hope, new joy.
For the gifts of the Spirit, for the gifts of communities of faith, for the gifts of our shared life together, we give thanks. And let the Church say…Amen.