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.”
What’s your favorite Easter candy? Cadbury Cream Eggs is the correct answer. Did you know they make Cadbury Cream Eggs year round and freeze them in order to be able to meet the demand during the Easter Season? Well, now you do. What’s your favorite Christmas Candy. Candy Canes are number one in sales. But honestly, how many of those go uneaten? Chocolate Santas, I think, are really where it's at! Now for the hardest question: What is your favorite Pentecost Candy? Easter, Pentecost, then Christmas. Those are the three top Christian Feast Days in order of importance and both Easter and Christmas have candy… so it stands to reason there should be a Pentecost candy. Right? But there’s not! Why is there no Pentecost candy?
I think it’s because the Holy Spirit just refuses to be domesticated! The Holy Spirit, and her Coming Out Day of Pentecost, is something the world simply can not tame!
Everything about the Holy Spirit is impossible to even hold onto let alone tame. She’s like the sound of a violent wind or like fire… things impossible to contain. She’s like the wind but not like a cool evening breeze. Like fire but not the kind confined in a circle of stones. The Holy Spirit comes out of nowhere, with a force that breaks open locked doors. She is untamed. Powerful. Determined. She moves with a tenacious purpose. To those who seek to manipulate Scripture and use the Divine for their own hateful devices… that makes the Holy Spirit… dangerous. Because… She simply won’t have it!
Last Sunday on the National Mall there was a celebration of manipulating Scripture and using the Divine for hateful purposes that would have made the Prophet Amos sick all over again. They didn’t talk about Jesus, let alone the Holy Spirit. They misrepresented and manipulated scripture to justify working in direct, violent opposition to the Gospel’s call to heal the sick, lift up the broken, feed the hungry, calm the chaos, and raise the dead.
They celebrated a litany of ongoing blasphemies against the Holy Spirit: terrorizing the foreigner, misusing the military, demonizing peacemakers, taking away food from the hungry and health care from the sick, and gleefully condemning people to death with nonchalance and bravado.
But wait. It is actually so much worse than just that. Because this movement runs full speed into the warning of the prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” If the Holy Spirit is Wind, what they are doing is spitting right into her face! And THAT is what Jesus himself called an unforgivable, eternal sin. But here is the Good News: The Holy Spirit simply will not have it! The Holy Spirit remains uncaged, untamed, and She will simply NOT HAVE ANY OF IT! A Holy Fire is coming!
On that first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit blew Her way into this world to take over the work that Jesus began, leading and motivating the faithful to continue doing justice, continue loving kindness, and continue walking humbly with God.
On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into the world so that you and I would always have a wild, untamed, unbroken, undomesticated, riotous, ungovernable force leading us more deeply each day into this Holy Work we’ve been given.
On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world to lead us from the front by giving us the gifts and tools we need to be about God’s work in the world AND, when necessary, to lead us from behind, lighting a holy fire under our nether regions to get us moving again when we find ourselves opposed, oppressed, and overwhelmed.
On that first Pentecost the promised Holy Spirit came and that same Holy Spirit continues to blow and burn today, unfettered by frail, small men in expensive suits…
On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world and remains undaunted by tiny, tired, insecure men who erect golden statues to themselves…
On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world and remains untamed by fearful men who continue to drive our nation deeper into idolatry, heresy, and continually tell us we should just sit down and shut up because God is on their side.
On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world to lead us neither in sitting down nor in shutting up, but to lead us into the untamed, faithful work that God… Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… has given us to do… the work we have each promised to do in our Baptisms:
To renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God.
To renounce the powers of this world that would have us rebel against God.
To renounce the ways of sin that draw us from God.
To boldly go out and do God’s justice with Holy Spirit Fire.
To Love God’s Kindness launched by a Holy Spirit Wind.
To Walk Humbly with God, but unafraid in the world.
We have been CALLED to love God and love our neighbor voraciously until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness runs like an ever-flowing stream.
We have been SHOWN by Jesus what that looks like, caring for the Least, the Lost, and the Last.
And we have been GIVEN the power of the Holy Spirit to do that work with an untamed, unquenchable, holy FIRE! On THIS Pentecost, we say COME Holy Spirit COME!… and come as always… with an untamable FIRE! Amen.
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