Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Feast of Pentecost - E - 2013 - Word and Spirit


The Feast of Pentecost
May 12, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline


Genesis 11:1-9            Acts 2:1-21     John 14:23-31
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today, for the Feast of Pentecost, is from the 2nd reading, especially these words, “But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them.”  Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ.  It started as a pretty average Pentecost day in Jerusalem.  The town was full with visitors to celebrate the annual harvest festival of Pentecost.  The feast not only was the celebration of a good harvest, but also the remembrance of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai.  The feast was a remembrance that you shall not murder.  That you shall not steal, commit adultery or bear false testimony.  It was the day they celebrated receiving God’s Holy Law, even as they failed to keep it. 
So the town was bristling with activity.  The people were buying their goods at the shops at the foot of the Temple Mount.  Others were taking their two loaves to into the temple to wave as an offering before the altar in the inner courts.  The daily sacrifices for sin rose up as smoke from before the temple itself.  It was by that animal’s death and burning that their sins were forgiven.  It was by Sacrifice and blood that those ancient Jews knew they were forgiven.  The day was going forward just as every Thanksgiving feast had before that day.  As the sun rose, the people went about their routines with a familiar sense of normalcy.
But then suddenly a great wind blew through town, to the upper room where those 12 followers of Jesus were staying.  A great noise arose, reminiscent of the great wind that came before God in Elijah’s day.  A wind, that blew as strong as the wind that split the Red Sea, as they escaped from Egypt, led by a pillar of cloud by day, and fire by night.  And now flames as red as our altar paraments again came to God’s people.  A fire from heaven came and landed on those 12 followers of the Resurrected one, and the Holy Spirit came to his people with His Word. 
Immediately the 12 went out into the temple mount, and began to preach, speaking in dozens of languages.  All that were gathered there for the feast could understand the words in their home land’s languages.  In Egyptian, in Parthian, in Cappadocian and Phrygian.  In all the languages, God’s Word came from the mouth of the 12.  And through those 12, The Holy Spirit began his work, of preaching a Word about Jesus.  About the true Sacrifice.  About the one who died on the cross, who shed his blood that all mankind may be forgiven. 
The people knew the story.  They had been there 50 days  earlier, when that Word Jesus had been crucified.  They had heard the rumors about his rising again, risen indeed.  But now those rumors were confirmed to them, not by miracles, not by magic shows, not by babbling and gobbledygook as in the Pentecostal churches.  But by a preaching of a sure and certain word.  By the work of the Holy Spirit, who works always through that word to point us to Jesus.  To meaningfully deliver the forgiveness of Jesus to us by Word and Sacrament.  The promise in the sermon of all 12, in all the languages, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. 
Dear friends, our text today is a historically reality.  The Holy Spirit came truly through God’s Word to God’s people.  And dear friends it does the same for you today.  You too go about your daily lives, just as those in ancient Jerusalem did.  You go to the store, you visit friends, you plant your crops, and in a few months you too will harvest them. 
And just as those people, you deal with sin.  You deal with hurt, and pain and sorrow.  You are guilty, and you see others who are guilty.  For there is none innocent.  And because of your sin, you try all sorts of ways to sacrifice your time and efforts to God.  You try to make up for what you’ve done wrong, but deep down you know the truth, that you cannot by your own reason or strength earn forgiveness for your sins. 
So God comes to you as well.  He sends his Holy Spirit to you also.  No, not with wind, not with flames that land upon your forehead.  That only happened to the 12.  But God sends the Holy Spirit to you same way it came to those people 2000 years ago.  Through preaching. 
Through the proclamation of God’s Word to you in your own language, with a slight Nebraska accent, the Holy Spirit comes to you.  And so every week, we gather together and hear about Jesus, and the Holy Spirit says, “IN Him you are forgiven.”  We read God’s Word about Jesus together, we sing hymns with God’s Word about Jesus in their verses.  We come to this place to be inundated with the Holy Spirit in God’s Word pointing us to Jesus.  And by it, you are connected to Christ on the cross who died and rose for your forgiveness. 
And the Holy Spirit calls you as well to come to the font, and be washed in Christ’s blood.  To be marked as belonging to God.  The Holy Spirit calls you to the altar to eat of Christ’s body and blood for your forgiveness, for you life, and for your salvation.  He proclaims to you in his Word, that whoever calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. 
That’s what Pentecost is all about.  Hearing God’s Word through the work of the Holy Spirit.  To be forgiven by the Word of God.  To be pointed firmly and certainly to the cross, through the Word of God.  It happened 2000 years ago on an average day in Jerusalem, and it happens today, on an average day in Hankinson, ND.  The Holy Spirit comes. His Word is proclaimed, clearly.  And faith is created in our hearts. 
Come Holy Spirit, creator blessed.  And make our hearts your place of rest.  Come in your Word.  Come in your Sacrament.  Come and connect us forever more to the blessings of Jesus.  Amen.