A Homily for Whitsun Day
They were all filled
with the Holy
Ghost, and began to speak
with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave
them utterance.
—Acts 2:4
Today is Whitsun Day, or Pentecost,
which is called the birthday of the Church.
Scripture tells us that it was on the festival of Pentecost,
seven weeks
after Jesus’s resurrection, that the Holy Spirit descended upon the
Apostles,
fulfilling the promise Jesus had made to them on Maundy Thursday. It was on that first Whisun Day that the
Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, burst out of the room in which
they had
been hiding, as if impelled by a rushing wind and by fire; and Jews and
proselytes from all over the Mediterranean world heard the Apostles
telling in
their own languages about the wonderful works of God.
All of those Jews and proselytes
were in
In the third month after their departure
from the
Therefore, if you hearken to my voice
and keep my
covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all
other
people, though all the earth is mine.
You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That is
what you
must tell the Israelites." So Moses
went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set before them all
that
the LORD had ordered him to tell them, the people all answered
together,
"Everything the LORD has said, we will do."
It was the Law, given on Mount
Sinai, that constituted
The death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ was the new Passover, and by those events we are set free from
slavery
to sin and death. The death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ gave a new and greater meaning to the
ancient
festival. In the same way, the events
described in this morning’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles gave
a new
and greater meaning to the ancient festival of Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the Church,
and it stands in relation to the new Passover as the gift of the Law
stood in
relation to the old Passover.
It is the gift of the Holy Spirit
that enables the Church to be the mystical body of Christ, and so to
continue
the incarnation of the Word of God. That
is because the Holy Spirit does exactly what Jesus promised that he
would, in
that portion of his farewell discourse that was read as this morning’s
Gospel
lesson. Jesus had told the disciples:
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father
will send in my name, shall teach you all things, and bring all things
to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
And
this enables the Church to carry out the great commission given to it
by Jesus,
Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
“Go and teach all nations!” What
must that have sounded like to those
eleven men who stood staring up into the heavens as their Lord ascended
out of
their sight. Who were they to take on
such a task? They were fishermen,
peasants, countryfolk from
But on the day of Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit descended upon them, they found that they had the power
to do
as their Lord had instructed them, for they began to speak in other
tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance. And when
they rushed out into the streets and began to speak, all of those who
heard
them were able to understand them, each in his own language. And they all heard about the wonderful works
of God. And from that beginning the
Apostles and their successors have carried the good news from
What God commands his Church to do
he also empowers his Church to do, and this empowerment is the ministry
of the
Holy Spirit. Even as Moses said of the
people of
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a
people of his own, so that [we] may announce the praises of him who
called [us]
out of darkness into his wonderful light.
It is
the working of the Holy Spirit in the whole Christian Church and in
each
Christian. As Saint Paul wrote to the
Galatians and the Romans,
Because [we] are his children, God hath
sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into [our] hearts, crying, Abba,
Father.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the
children of God.: For [we] have not received the spirit of bondage
again to
fear; but [we] have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God.
It is the Holy Spirit, working in
us, that affirms our adoption as the children of God and enables us to
call
upon God as our Father. And this work of
the Holy Spirit began on that Pentecost morning when the Spirit came
upon the
Apostles as if by wind and fire. The
Apostles were so inspired, so enthusiastic, that those who encountered
them on
the day of Pentecost thought the must be drunk.
But Peter assured them that it was not so, rather, it was the
fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel:
You shall eat and be filled, and shall
praise the name of
the LORD, your God, Because he has dealt wondrously with you; my people
shall
nevermore be put to shame. And you shall
know that I am in the midst of
The
Holy Spirit had fallen on those timid Galileans and made them such
powerful
witnesses to the wonderful works of God that on that very first day
thousands
were converted and believed in Jesus Christ, becoming the nucleus of
the Church
that persists to our own day.
Has the Holy Spirit departed from
the Church? It cannot be, for it is by
the Holy Spirit that Jesus keeps his promise to be with the Church
always, even
unto the end of the world. The Church
may be beset by wickedness, betrayed by general conventions with their
own
agendas or by priests who use their position to abuse God’s children;
but the
Church that was born on Pentecost will
persevere to the end. The same Holy
Spirit that descended upon the Apostles is with the Church today,
enabling
us—for we are the Church—to proclaim
to all the world the wonderful works of God.
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of thy faithful people,
and kindle in us the fire of thy love.
Amen.
11 May 2008
See a list of the deacon's homilies.