June 5, 2022 – Pentecost

What is the good news of Pentecost?

I have no doubt that today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles will take center stage at most pulpits on today’s celebration of Pentecost, but I’d like to diverge from the easy path. Today’s gospel reading from John challenges us to think about how it is that we come to believe. In fact, in this excerpt from the farewell sermon of Jesus, he makes the challenge to believe four times in only three verses. Jesus challenged his disciples two millennia ago, and he challenges us today to believe in who he is, what he said, and what he did. How is it that we are able to love Jesus and keep his commandments?

Symbols and tangible items are important for us as believers. We love the image of the dove that appears on Jesus’ head following his baptism in the Jordan river by John the Baptizer. It was a clear, outward, visible sign that something important had taken place. We put the image of the cross of crucifixion front and center in our church to remind us why we’re here. When the disciples gathered in the Upper Room waiting as Jesus had commanded, there was a sound “like the rush of a violent wind… [and] divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them” (Acts 2:2-3). It was a very clear sign that something important had happened. If only WE had such clear evidence!

I was confirmed in the Roman Catholic church. My parents made me go to confirmation classes, but told me it was my decision whether I got confirmed. I remember being very nervous when the bishop came. It came time for the bishop to ask my confirmation name (as was the practice then, although it was being phased out, and I had chosen touse my middle name, Michael). The bishop made a funny quip about the archangel Michael. (Funny, but completely inappropriate to share from the pulpit! Look up Michael’s accomplishments in chapter 12 of the book of Revelation if you want to figure it out for yourself.)

I knelt before the bishop and the bishop laid his hands upon my head. “Jason Michael, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” I waited. Nothing. No doves. No flames. No feeling of anything abnormal. I kept waiting for a sign – a feeling – that something important had happened to me. I rose, and returned to my pew with the other confirmands. I was now a confirmed member of the church and yet still the same pimply teenager.

All of this to say that I understand Philip’s request. He turned to Jesus and said, “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Philip had walked with Jesus, sat at Jesus’ feet listening to his teachings, and still he didn’t feel different? He didn’t understand? And I feel like we can read into Jesus’ frustration as he turns to Philip, one of the DUHsciples, and says, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?”

You see, the good news of the gospel is that, in knowing Jesus Christ, we have come to know God. In hearing the teachings of Jesus, we have heard God’s love for each of us. All that Jesus said, all that Jesus did – all of it – he declares, is not his words or works, but rather those of the “Father who dwells in” him.

Over and over again, Jesus challenges us to believe that he is in the Father. If we believe, he tells us, we will be able to do the same works that he did but actually “greater works than these.” But how are we able to believe? How are we able to do great works in the name of a man who was crucified, died, and was buried? Christ is risen, but he has also ascended to heaven and is no longer with us. How can we, who were not with him, did not hear his teachings, did not see him, did not know him, believe? Through the power of the Advocate.

As they sat there in the Upper Room with the hatred permeating the air around them, the disciples heard Jesus assure them that he was “going to the Father” (Jn 14:12). And he offered them simple words of comfort, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (Jn 14:14). Little could the disciples know just how much they would need Jesus’ help.

Jesus challenged them to love him and to keep his commandments. I imagine this resulted in everyone seated in the room nodding their heads and thinking, “Yep, I do love you and of course I’ll keep your commandments.” But in just a few short hours, their teacher would be arrested and tried. In a few short hours, their teacher’s life would be ended and their lives would be filled with fear that the same thing would happen to them. Would they still love him? Could they keep his commandments?

They were able to love and keep the commandments – and we here today are able to love and keep the commandments – because of the Spirit, the Advocate sent to us by God. Jesus declared to them and to us that the Spirit of truth would be with us forever. The Advocate would help us to hear the words of Jesus even though he has gone to the Father. John said that the Advocate “will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). We are able to love God and others because the love of God in the gift of the Spirit will “abide with you, and he will be in you” (Jn 14:17).

Through the Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Counselor, the Sanctifier, I have come to believe that I was changed on that day 30 years ago at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in North Evans. Something important happened that day. I was filled with the love, the peace, the Spirit of God, and that Spirit continues to fill me and lead me to keep the commandments. It is the Spirit that fills all of those who believe in Jesus. THAT, my siblings in Christ, is the good news of Pentecost.