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The Gospel: John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: Today we are celebrating Pentecost Sunday. So, today we are going to look at Pentecost and what it means for us. I am going to be focusing on the theme: "he makes all things new" in my message this morning and drawing on what it meant on that first Pentecost and then as it flows into our lives today. Before we go too far into this reflection I want to say that it is important for us to know and recognize that this celebration, like so many others in the Christian faith, has its roots in Jewish tradition. We use the word Pentecost to remember, celebrate and commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. But the roots of the day go back many hundreds of years in Jewish history and life. The term Pentecost comes from a Greek word meaning "fiftieth." It refers to the Jewish festival of Shavuot which was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover. It is also known as the "Feast of Weeks" and the "Feast of 50 days" in rabbinic tradition. This was a Jewish celebration day. It had various meanings at various times in Jewish history. All of them were celebrated to some degree at the time of Jesus. Originally Shavuot was the second of the three Pilgrim Festivals of the Jewish religious calendar. It was originally an agricultural festival, marking the beginning of the wheat harvest. During the Temple period, the first fruits of the harvest were brought to the Temple, and two loaves of bread made from the new wheat were offered. This aspect of the holiday is reflected in the custom of decorating the synagogue with fruits and flowers and in the names Yom ha-Bikkurim (“Day of the First Fruits”) and Ḥag ha-Qazir (“Harvest Feast.”) I would like to ask you to hold on to that image of bringing the "First Fruits" to the Lord in thanksgiving. We will return to this concept later in my Message. Now as the lives of the Hebrews and later the Jewish nation changed and evolved so did the commemoration of Shavuot. During rabbinic times the festival became associated with the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, which is recounted in the Torah readings for the holiday. It became customary during Shavuot to study the Torah and to read the Book of Ruth. Jesus' followers, his disciples, - who were Jewish - are understood to have gathered for the celebration of Shavuot on Pentecost. They have gathered, but they fear for their lives and are meeting in secret behind locked doors. Obedient to tradition but unsure of what the future holds for them when suddenly everything is changed. Jesus' appearance among them took an old situation and turned it into something new. Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally, this was Jesus' second appearance to his disciples. At Shavuot, the second festival, Jesus makes his second appearance. So, back to making things new, this ancient festival with all its various meanings and reasons for celebration now, was established for Jesus' followers, as the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The day was filled with new meaning as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This appearance of Jesus must have caused some consternation among the disciples. Jesus feels it is necessary to say twice. "Peace be with you." He says it to the disciples before he reveals his hands and his side. Then he says it again "Peace be with you" before he commissions them. "As the father has sent me, so I send you." Then he breathes on them and says "Receive the Holy Spirit." What an amazing sequence of events. If that wasn't enough Jesus then makes an astounding statement: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them." The disciples are empowered by Jesus and he makes forgiveness the top priority of their new lives and their new ministry. Not only that but they can withhold forgiveness - " if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Later in the service, during our Eucharist, we will pray the Lord's prayer together. The phrase right in the middle really stood out to me as I was writing this message: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." What an awesome opportunity and responsibility that is. To be able to forgive. But also we need to consider what the Lord says about our ability to retain "the sins of others." In some ways, I believe that is an even greater opportunity and responsibility. Can we see, looking back at Shavuot, how Jesus makes this ancient celebration of "first fruits" new? Jesus gives Pentecost a new and a fresh meaning. The "first fruits" of a Christian life is forgiveness. When Jesus comes to the disciples at Pentecost he doesn't come expecting gifts from them. He comes and gives them a gift - the Holy Spirit. The first fruit of the Holy Spirit's activity in a believer's life is forgiveness. Here is a beautiful and meaningful way in which the disciples were given to live their lives. They were to be marked and set apart by forgiveness. If we are his current-day disciples, then we also can participate with the Lord, in his work of making things new. As we go out into the world, or perhaps as we consider those sitting with us here this morning, we have the awesome opportunity and responsibility to help them step into the new life that Christ offers each and every one of us. What great joy we can experience not only in our own relationship - with the Lord - but also in being ambassadors of the love of Christ in the world. This is so well expressed in the prayer from the Daily Office: Christ Our Passover: Alleluia. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; * therefore let us keep the feast, Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, * but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia. Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; * death no longer has dominion over him. The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; * but the life he lives, he lives to God. So also consider yourselves dead to sin, * and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia. Christ has been raised from the dead, * the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, * by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, * so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia. Perhaps, as we reflect on this new life and all its opportunities, can pray The Post Communion Blessing. Can I invite you to close your eyes and I will read that prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen The Gospel: Luke 24:44-53
Jesus said to his disciples, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: Today we are celebrating Ascension Day. The actual day was Thursday, but I was away at Clergy Conference, and for some reason, Thursday doesn't seem to be a popular day for folks to come to church. So, the first thing we need to address this morning is what is Ascension Day. The Ascension, or Ascension Day, in our belief as Christians, commemorates the ascent of Jesus Christ into heaven on the 40th day after his Resurrection. You may feel that there is something familiar about the events that happen in the scriptures for today in the Gospel. It may not seem, so long ago, that we celebrated the events recorded in Luke 9 of the Transfiguration. At that time Jesus went up on a mountain and the disciples who were with him witnessed his conversation with Moses and Elijah. In Luke 9 verse 28 just before he talks to Moses and Elijah they see "the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." We are told that Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah about his Exodus. The disciples struggle to understand what is happening and then a cloud descends on the mountain top and out of the cloud comes the words: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” In the chapter, before all that happens, Jesus has been asking the disciples who they understood him to be and he is predicting his death and resurrection. Peter makes his statement that Jesus is "the Christ the son of the living God." Jesus also takes quite a bit of time preparing his disciples for the role of the Messiah as the sacrificial lamb rather than the conquering hero that many people expected of the Messiah. In the Gospel, we heard today, Jesus is meeting one of his many appearances after his resurrection. He has fulfilled all the predictions he made around the time leading up to and at the time of the Transfiguration. Now, at the time of his Ascension, he is again preparing the Disciples, this time, to be his witnesses in the world without him present. He says: "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." He then goes on to say: "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." "You are witnesses of these things." So, it is almost as though the Transfiguration and the Ascension are bookends to all that happens at Easter. Jesus prepares and promises in the time leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection and he continues to do that in the days, and weeks that follow. The major difference between the Transfiguration and the Ascension is that, at the end of this encounter, Jesus is "carried up into heaven" as they watch. Jesus leaves the disciples for the last time and returns before their eyes to his Heavenly Father. There are some interesting and intriguing concepts and promises included in this passage from Luke. The way that Luke records this, it is as if he is interrupting the flow of the events, leading up to the Ascension, by implanting what Luke considers to be important clarifying statements in among Jesus' directives to the disciples. "Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures" "....see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Now, I don't want to read too much into the placement of these particular sentences of Scripture, but I will say that there seems to be a "conditional" nature about the way Luke sets all this up. In a short nine-word sentence we are given a profound statement: "Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures." I don't know about you, but to me, it is almost as if Luke is, to use a scriptural metaphor, "hiding his light under a bushel" or in journalistic terms, it seems he is "burying the lead." Luke tells us Jesus "opens their minds to understand Scripture" and then Luke moves right along with the story and doesn't highlight or emphasize this amazing piece of news. So, I want to suggest this is where the conditional part of the nature of this event is involved. What do I mean by "conditional?" Well, have you ever seen one of those offers on TV, or maybe in a grocery catalog, which offers so many percent off of the price of something you would really like to have? You get excited and decide you want to purchase that item. You anticipate what it will be like to own "one of those." Only to find out that the savings only come if you are prepared to go through the process of a "mail-in rebate." You don't get your discount there and then. You have to mail the coupon in and wait for the discount or refund to be mailed back to you. Jesus does open the minds of the disciples to understand the Scriptures, but they must wait in Jerusalem for "what the Father promised them." They must wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit in a new and powerful manifestation - Pentecost. The events of Pentecost are the fulfillment of conditions Jesus has laid out for the disciples to understand the scriptures in ways that they have never been able o before. Luke shows us, in the events of chapter 9, and in this short passage, how Jesus prepares and promises. It is no wonder that Luke rounds up chapter 24 by saying in verses 52 and 53: "And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God." I want to conclude this morning by repeating words I used in my Musings in the Weekly Update two weeks ago: "As we seek to live our lives for Christ, here and now, we need to lean into the words Jesus shared with his disciples. We need to appropriate them for ourselves." How is Jesus preparing us and what promises are we waiting for and needing to be fulfilled as we seek the Holy Spirit's indwelling in our lives? Perhaps we can pray the Collect for today: Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. |
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