Day of Pentecost, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Day of Pentecost, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Acts 2:1-21 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
For the disciples the day of Pentecost started just like any other day.
They had gathered together in one place as a community,
and then SUDDENLY,
suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind,
and it filled the entire house.
Divided tongues,
as of fire,
appeared and rested on each of them.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began talking in other languages.
Good heavens!
Where did all this come from?!
I mean,
Jesus had said that he had to go away so that the Advocate could come,
but he didn’t mention any of this:
violent winds and tongues of fire!
And then Peter starts quoting the prophet Joel:
“I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…
“Your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams…”
There will be portents in the heavens above
and blood, fire, and smoky mist below.
The sun will turn to darkness
and the moon to blood….
Hey, Peter, slow down…
we didn’t sign up for this!
Peter very well could have answered the disciples,
Well, you remember when Philip asked Jesus to show us the Father…
that we would then be satisfied?
Well,
here you go!
Here is the power of God…
the working of the Spirit among us…
just like you asked!
And remember what Jesus also said,
“the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do,
and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”
When the Spirit showed up on that first Pentecost day,
the disciples did things they never knew were possible!
And they kept on doing them…
preaching, teaching, healing, casting out demons, even raising the dead!
Pentecost is the day of the church year when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit…
the birth of the Church, if you will.
We can sit here and listen with rapt attention to the stories of the apostles,
but what does the arrival of the Spirit mean for us?
Clarence Jordan, a Civil Rights activist and preacher said:
“The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive
was not a vacant grave,
but a spirit-filled fellowship.
Not a rolled-away stone,
but a carried-away church.”
An empty grave does us no good without hope in the resurrection
and the coming of the Spirit!
Jesus says,
“the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do
and, in fact,
will do greater works than these.”
Do you notice the word “works?”
Talking about Jesus…
talking about Christ,
can sometimes be convicting.
But, living Christ,
embodying Christ,
does far more.
If our faith leads us into loving our neighbor,
extending whatever God-given gifts we have
to share the love and grace of God,
that is where the Spirit of God will be given birth in our midst.
In these mountains over the past year,
we have experienced both violent winds and tongues of fire,
and the Holy Spirit has guided neighbors to help neighbors.
No one asked what were one’s religious leanings
or political ideologies,
or one’s income or education or abilities…
they just responded to people in need.
The Spirit led neighbors to help neighbors…
often even strangers helping strangers.
We, at St. Andrew’s, have given away over $20,000 to help neighbors with flood relief…
thanks to folks who shared their financial gifts with us.
I read a quote this week from Rachel Held Evans that, I think,
speaks to who we are and what we’re about as a Spirit-filled fellowship.
She says of the church:
“The gospel doesn’t need a coalition devoted to keeping the wrong people out.
“It needs a family of sinners,
saved by Grace,
committed to tearing down the walls,
throwing open the doors,
and shouting,
‘Welcome!
There’s bread and wine.
Come and eat with us and talk.’
“This isn’t a kingdom for the worthy;
it’s a kingdom for the hungry.”
Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church (Nelson Books, 2015), 147–149.
And we are all hungry!
Hungry for love and Grace…
hungry for the Spirit of the one, holy, living, loving God.
On that first day of Pentecost,
those who witnessed the work of the Spirit didn’t understand.
They wanted to cast judgment:
“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?”
“They are filled with new wine.”
They were wanting to limit the work of the Spirit.
But God’s Spirit cannot be limited.
God’s Spirit is available to everyone!
And God’s Spirit can do miraculous things.
The Spirit of God is alive and well here at St. Andrew’s,
and the Spirit of God is alive and well in each one of us
as each of us go into the world and live our daily lives.
Our numbers are small,
yet the Spirit of God is alive and well among us.
I wonder what new things the Spirit of God is doing in our midst?
I wonder where the Spirit of God is leading us?
I invite us all to listen.
I invite us to listen to the voice of God in our hearts.
I invite us to listen to the voice of God in the stories of our neighbors.
I invite us to listen to the voice of God at work in this community.
We have no idea what great things God has in store for us…
the ways that we may use our hands, our hearts, our possessions, our resources
to walk alongside our neighbors.
Just as the disciples received an invitation on that first day of Pentecost,
we, too, are invited to open our hearts and minds to the working of the Spirit.
May God grant us the courage to follow wherever the Spirit may lead.
Amen.
