Pentecost C 2016

Pentecost C 2016
1. In the Gospel, Philip said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.
Jesus answered, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. In other words, if you see me, you see
the Father. Describing God is always tricky: God is a spirit, we can see and hear and feel material
things, so when we try to describe God, who is spirit, and infinite, and eternal. We use metaphors
and images to describe God, but we know that they are always inadequate
In Jesus, God took on the form of a human being. However, because he looked like a regular guy,
his disciples didnt realize that Jesus was God. After Jesus death, resurrection and ascension, God
came back again to support Jesus disciples as the Holy Spirit.
So, what does God the Holy Spirit look like? The Bible uses different images to describe the Holy
Spirit: the breath (wind) of God over the waters of creation, Gods wisdom managing the universe,
the dove that descended on Jesus at his Baptism, the fire that descended on the Apostles at
Pentecost. These images are ways of describing how people experienced and still experience the
presence of God.
At Pentecost, the disciples were taken over by the Holy Spirit and were transformed. The first
manifestation of this transformation was the fact that they started speaking in tongues.
Nowadays people who speak in tongues make unrecognizable sounds and then someone provides
an interpretation of what was said. But in the reading from Acts, the disciples spoke in recognizable
foreign languages, and the people from different countries who were visiting Jerusalem, heard their
message in their native tongues.
Other spectators who did not understand foreign languages assumed that they were drunk.

3. In the Bible in general, but in the New Testament in particular uses very often
metaphorical language, like parables, to convey an idea, or to make people think and
reflect.
I read this passage in Acts about the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues
as a metaphor for the churchs rapid growth throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean
world: in a few short years Christianity spread into all the major metropolitan areas of the
Roman Empire: the disciples of Jesus literally spoke every language of the ancient world.

Pentecost C 2016
3. This was accomplished against great odds. Think about it:
a. The Christians were the followers of a guy who had been executed as a common criminal
b. Their leaders were uneducated fishermen and farmers. They were Jews, a despised minority from the
backwaters of the empire
c. Up to this point, the disciples had not distinguished themselves by being particularly smart, brave, or
dedicated. They kept misunderstanding Jesus and, when he was crucified, they had all run away .
d. They had no funding, no organization, no army, no powerful supporters
e. They were persecuted right from the start, first by the other Jews, and then by the Romans
f. In the Roman Empire, where might was right, they preached a message of love and forgiveness. They
worshiped a leader who had been crucified as a criminal, and di not resist violence.
. Everything was stacked up against them. They didnt have a snowballs chance in hell. Yet, they were
spectacularly successful. How do you explain that?

4. To me, their improbable success against all odds is the proof that the Holy Spirit was
present among them, guided them, and supported them
.The Holy Spirit was indeed like a fire that fired them up and got them going. , His impact on the
disciples was real. The Spirit transformed them, and made them very effective.
.In some ways they were completely changed, in other ways they were not. They still had their character
flaws and their limitations. But in a mysterious and miraculous way, God worked with their good qualities
and with their shortcomings. That is what makes God God. God uses everything for his purpose, even
events, people and things that look totally unsuitable to us.

5. The same Holy Spirit who transformed the Apostles is still active in our Church and in the
life of each one of us
.Usually we dont experience the Holy Spirit as fire inside us, and yet, when we think about all the
twists and turns of our life, and how they all lead to us being here today, we can see the hand of God,
of the Holy Spirit in the events of our life.
.How did I get here? When I look back at my life I realize that nothing in my early years was pointing
me in this direction

Pentecost C 2016
I was born in a different country, brought up in a different church altogether. I was a member of a Roman
Catholic Missionary Society and hoped to be sent to the Amazons in Brazil. However, in that Missionary
Society, one could not even express a preference. It would have been taken as a sign of insubordination
and unwillingness to obey Gods will.
Much to my surprise, after college I was sent to the United States to study Theology. I had no say in the
matter. I became a priest, taught in a Seminary for a couple of years, then served in a parish for another 2
years. But I became so disenchanted with the direction of the Roman Catholic Church, that I quit. I just
walked away and didnt want anything to do with religion for over 20 years.
I worked at AT&T and then moved to Bellcore to move up the corporate ladder. There I met Joe Q. who had
just transferred over from New York Tel. and we became friends. Joe invited me to St. James. I accepted
reluctantly, just because I did not want to hurt his feelings. Barbara and I were made to feel welcome here.
We liked the message we heard and started attending services occasionally at first, but then we decided to
join And here I am serving as your priest.
And the weirdest thing is that I am now learning Portuguese and ministering even to Brazilians. God has a
strange sense of humor: I never made it to Brazil, but the Brazilians are coming here!
The odds of my life turning out this way must be a million to one. I am pretty sure that the Holy Spirit had to
roll up his sleeves and really work on my case. But that is why I believe in God. There is no way that my life
could have turned out like this without a major intervention by the Holy Spirit.

5. Pentecost marks the birth of the Church: a human institution made up of flawed people like us
who are guided and supported by the Holy Spirit, each freely moving in a different direction,
and somehow we eventually end up where God wants us to be.
Jesus disciples were far from perfect. But the Holy Spirit descended on them and transformed them. In
spite of the fact that they stumbled all over the place, they managed to bring the good news of the Gospel
to every land in every language.
We are just like them, equally unqualified. We are like them in our weakness, in our sins, our betrayals. But
we are like them also in the fact that the Same Holy Spirit they received is among us today and every day of
our life.
Left to our own devices, we could not even find God and call him Father. But, as Paul reminds us in his letter
to the Romans, when we pray, it is the Holy Spirit who prays in us, and enables us to call God our Father: a
father who loves us and is eager to hear from us.