(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 06/04/06) 

INTRODUCTION:

There are six or seven boxes in my basement marked “Christmas” – decorations of all kinds.  There is one (maybe two) marked “Easter” – more decorations.  There is not a box in my basement marked “Pentecost.”  Maybe there should be, but what would be in it?  What will happen today once Pentecost 2006 has come and gone?  The only remembrance of what looked like flames of fire on the apostles’ heads is the color red in the chancel, and that will change to white next week.  We’re not going to use the digital piano to make the sound of a rushing wind.  We’re not planning on suddenly speaking foreign languages we’ve never learned before.  Unlike Christmas and Easter, we don’t really re-create the room where the apostles were gathered or the events of Pentecost.

But we are going to celebrate the festival in line with what Jesus tells us about the Holy Spirit.  We are going to remember and review the work of the third person of the Trinity.  Even if no decorations come out and no family dinners mark this day, let’s see if the fire doesn’t still burn, if the breeze doesn’t still blow, if we’re not made ready to walk out into our world as bold witnesses for Jesus.  On what may seem to be a rather uneventful early June morning, let’s be sure not to miss...

The Quiet Power Of Pentecost

For as close to you as the Holy Spirit is, you’d think you’d have caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of your eye, or bumped him with your elbow.  You’d think you could hear him breathing – he’s that close.  The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 used the name in three hymns, but our current hymnal doesn’t use it at all, because it’s not in anyone’s vocabulary any more – the name Paraclete.  That’s what Jesus called the Holy Spirit.  He’s the cavalry coming over the hill, the bombers screeching across the sky bailing out the pinned down battalion, but much quieter.  Paraclete is “advocate” or “helper.”  He’s the invisible but powerful Spirit of God whom the Father sends to your aid, the divine friend who always stands right beside you to help you, to teach you about God and to remind you of his promises. 

Everything you’ve ever learned about God has come to you from the Spirit.  He’s taught you that God is pure, strong, good and exalted above everything.  To your great shame he has taught you the horrible, ugly, damning thing that sin is.  To your great delight he’s taught you that Jesus became your horrible, ugly, damning sin, that he came back from the dead, that, because of Christ, God no longer has any record of you ever sinning or being sinful.  What a teacher he has been for you!

When you’re in a pinch and you remember a hymn verse or a Bible passage about the Lord, it’s the Holy Spirit.  When you’ve needed comfort for grief, strength because of weakness, direction because you had no idea what to do, help because you had nowhere to turn, it was the Spirit who pointed you to the Father and the Son and gave you just what you needed.  What a reminder he’s been!

The quiet power of Pentecost is the Spirit beside you, doing what he does, opening your eyes to a Father who loves you and a Savior who paid for you with his life.  It’s a quiet kind of power because he has a plain, every-day way of doing it.  He’s been right beside you the past six months, quietly but powerfully helping you to see your Savior and your deliverance from sin as he walked you through Advent and Christmas, Epiphany and Lent, Easter and Ascension.  He’s beside you, helping, teaching and reminding as you read the Meditations and have your daily devotions.  He was quietly beside you the past five months, teaching and reminding as we went through the Bible Information Class.  He’s beside you at the communion rail, reminding you through the words you hear that you are forgiven, that you are Christ’s and Christ is yours.

The strength to endure trials, to withstand temptations, to persevere through persecution, to confess and cling to Christ in good times and bad – he’s an elbow poke away, right beside you, sent by the Father, supplying the help you need.  The Holy Spirit is your heavenly, divine friend.  He’s not yelling these days, or showing up as a dove or in flames of fire or the sound of a strong wind.  He’s beside you to help you with a Bible passage, a splash of water from your past, some bread and wine every other week – unshakeable promises that God is on your side.

So help me out and tell me this – why do we still get worked up?  There are things we hear about or things that happen and all we can do is sigh and shake our heads.  What am I supposed to do about that?  Why, if we believe that Jesus Christ is forgiveness and hope and life everlasting, do events in our homes or our church or at work have such an unsettling effect that we are left feeling downright dismal?  Is our faith that shallow?  How, if the Holy Spirit is right beside us, could we still blow up and say horrible things to people, things that cut deep and are not soon forgotten?  Are we that weak, that loveless?  The thoughts we have thought that are so far from trusting God and honoring God – how can the Holy Spirit stay close by us?

However worked up or frustrated or unsettled or agitated you have found yourself to be, it traces back to this: For what he undoubtedly sees in me, the Lord of hosts should arm his missiles and go to war against me.  Forgetting about it and trying to move on doesn’t work, does it!  Burying yourself in work doesn’t work, does it!  Bottles and pills don’t numb it, do they?!  Sulking forever as a form of personal penance doesn’t resolve it, does it?!  Peace can be so illusive. 

It’s a good thing we can come together on a rather uneventful early June morning for Pentecost.  The quiet power of Pentecost is Christ’s peace within you.  A thousand and eight reasons to go to war against you and me every day and the Father sends the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name to tell us he won’t, to tell us he never will.  Peace I leave with you.  My peace I give you.  I do no not give to you as the world gives.   Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

I’m going to say it no matter how irrational it sounds because Jesus says it.  There is nothing to get worked up about when you know that God has declared peace with you.  Christ’s body born at Christmas, Christ’s body nailed to a tree with your sins in it, Christ’s body raised to life with your sins gone – God has declared peace.  The Spirit of God comes alongside you today repeating that declaration.  Nothing voids the peace between you and your God.

By tomorrow morning Pentecost 2006 will have come and gone.  No flames of fire, no sound of wind, but the fire’s burning and the breeze is blowing because the Holy Spirit’s voice is echoing loud and clear: You belong to Christ the King and you will be his witnesses.  Steady as she goes – I am right beside you.

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