Sunday, May 19, 2024

The Day of Pentecost
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 139:1-12 (13-16)
Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

‘I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. Then I will place you in your own land; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it and performed it,’ says Yahweh.

The festival of Pentecost for the Jews had several purposes. First of all it was the Feast of Weeks, a celebration of the first fruits. The people went to the temple to offer the first grain from their fields. The timing of the festival mattered because it was also connected to the Law given at Sinai. They believed that it took Moses and the Hebrews fifty days to get to Mount Sinai from Egypt, so the festival occurred fifty days following the Passover. Pentecost was an agricultural festival, but it was also a festival about God’s Word. The Hebrew legend of the giving of the Law was probably repeated by storytellers at the Pentecost celebration as the Hebrew people remembered that they were the only ones who honor God with their righteous obedience to His Law. Jews from all over the world were in Jerusalem to worship at the temple, to thank God for the abundance of His creation, and to give Him a portion of the first fruits of their harvest.

Pentecost for modern Christians is not an agricultural celebration or a remembrance of the giving of the Divine Law at Sinai, but it is about first fruits and words. It is about God giving His Holy Spirit to His chosen people and laying His Word upon their hearts. It is about renewing a people who were dying in their own sin, giving them new life, and calling them to take that life into the world so that others might see God glorified and believe. Sharing the Gospel is not easy, especially when it seems no one is willing to listen.

I come from a tradition that isn’t known for vocal responses to the sermons. We listen, we learn, we are transformed by the words, but we do not respond. In one sense that is not a bad thing. It becomes difficult to hear what the pastor is saying when everyone around is yelling “Amen” and “Alleluia. However, it is impossible for the pastor to know if they’ve had an impact. The people often seem asleep, or dead, by the end of the sermon. I once heard a pastor make a significant point in a sermon and said, “Can I get an Amen!” The congregation was not comfortable and looked at one another with confusion, but someone finally quietly muttered, “Amen.” A few others joined but the response was pretty pathetic. The preacher was unwilling to let it pass, so said again, “Can I get an Amen!” This time we were not caught unaware, and we responded with a resounding “AMEN!” The pastor thanked the congregation, understanding that it was really hard for us to do it. It was a humorous moment that had us laughing well into the Hymn of the Day.

I know how hard it is to speak in public, even in smaller groups. You can be confident of your words, but there are times you never quite know if anyone is listening or whether there will be an impact. I worked as a mobile disc jockey and worked one particularly bad wedding. It was an impossible party because the bride and the bride’s mother had different opinions about music. They wanted me to cater to the musical taste of their generation. “It is my party,” said the bride. “I’m paying for this party,” said the mother. I would get a complaint from the bride every time I played an older song and from the mother when I played something more current. I moved back and forth, trying to make them both happy, but I was constantly attacked for my choices. The guests became frustrated and were unwilling to get up and dance. I wasn’t able to do my job because my clients tried to control my work.

An impossible party was not always the client’s fault, however. There were times when no one was interested in what I was doing. I became frustrated, and desperate, because I couldn’t get anyone involved despite playing good dance music, leading party games, and begging. None of my training or talent made a difference. At one party the people requested songs but never got up to dance. When I said I’d be glad to play the song, but would they please get up and dance. The guest answered, “Oh, we just like to listen to music. You are doing a terrific job, but we just aren’t dancers. We are enjoying the time spent visiting with people we rarely get to see.”

I learned that I couldn’t always tell my success by the number of people on the dance floor. A preacher can’t always judge the success of a sermon by the responses of the congregation. The real test is whether or not the music or the sermon makes a difference in the life of the person listening. If the crowd is happy and having a good time, then the disc jockey is doing a good job. If the congregation is glorifying God with their lives, then the preacher is speaking God’s Word in a transforming and life-giving manner.

I’ve heard it said that there are dead churches, places that seem to have no life. I suppose that might seem to be true in one of those churches that don’t shout responses to the pastor’s preaching. That impression is not necessarily true, but sadly there are many Christians who look like the walking dead. They don’t have joy, and even in worship do not seem happy to be there. Do they believe the Gospel? Do they realize that the forgiveness won by Jesus is worth celebrating? Yet, if God can bring life to the valley of dry bones, then He can bring life to the deadest of Christians and congregations. We are called to speak the Gospel into the lives of those we meet, whether we are a preacher or teacher or a neighbor, and we can be like Ezekiel, speaking God’s word of promise into their lives. We might even see the bones rise up and dance.

Busy businessmen often have their hands in many different interests. They might have a focus, but they also have other ways to use their finances and talents. They might be a real estate mogul, but also have interests in philanthropic, financial, educational, and other business opportunities like magazines, restaurants, clothing, sports, and utilities. These businessmen have a stake in everything, but it is impossible for them to be directly involved in every aspect of their business. They hire others that act in their stead on a day-to-day basis, advocates that support and promote the businessman’s interests.

When I hear the word advocate, I think that it refers to someone who speaks for the underdog. There are those who have no voice in this world, or have voices that cannot be heard, who need someone to speak for them: the young, the unborn, the persecuted, the dying. It is good to stand for justice and to help people who cannot help themselves. Sometimes that means giving them what they need, but sometimes it does mean being a voice that can be heard for their sake. I never thought about it in terms of advocating for someone strong and powerful.

However, in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus described the Holy Spirit as an advocate bearing witness for Him. Why does Jesus need an advocate? Who is more powerful than Jesus? Who is more able to defeat the wicked and stand against injustice? Who is able to restore and heal and transform the world? There are none more able than Jesus. Yet, He said that He would send an advocate to be His witness. Even more amazing is that He said that we would also bear witness, be advocates, for Him! What can we possibly do? We can be like a businessman’s associates. We can stand up for Jesus, to speak on His behalf. We can tell the world what He has, can, and will do. Jesus can’t be everywhere at once. He can’t take care of every minute detail of life of every person in the world. He has, however, sent an advocate, the Holy Spirit, who teaches us how to be advocates for Jesus. With His help, we can stand up not only for Jesus, but as Jesus in this world. We are His voice. We are His hands. We are His witnesses.

Our task as an advocate is two-fold. We speak about Jesus, witnessing to the world about the grace and mercy of God. We also act in Jesus’ stead, sharing our resources, time, and talents with others. This means being good stewards of what we have been given. Everything we have is Gods, and He has called us act with Him in the business of the Kingdom. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are the voice and hands of God, sent into the world to glorify Jesus by giving the world God’s grace that brings life to the dead.

Jesus said the advocate would come to bring conviction and condemnation. Those who experience the power of God are convicted of their sin and transformed into a new creation. Life is given to those dead bones. Those who reject the Gospel are condemned, not as a punishment for rejecting God but because they already stand condemned by their own sin.

We are like Ezekiel, speaking words of life to the dead. The Old Testament lesson is about God’s promise of restoration. In this strange but powerful story, God told the prophet to speak to the dry bones, to speak life into the bones, to speak God’s Spirit into the bones. The people thought they had nothing left. Even the Temple where the God of their fathers dwelled for generations was in shambles. They were looking for hope in Babylon, turning to the ways of the other gods. God sent Ezekiel to prophesy to the people, to give them hope. They would be restored to Jerusalem; the Temple would be rebuilt, and they would live once again as His people. There would be life in the nation of Israel.

This lesson is a miraculous witness of the work God can do. He gave the prophet Ezekiel the words to speak so that the dead were raised to new life. This is what God does every day, perhaps not literally, but definitely in spirit. He brings to life those who are dead in their sin through the power of His Word. He puts His Spirit into their hearts so that they will have faith and hope in God’s promises. This would come to fruition because of Jesus, but He had to leave so that he could send the Advocate.

I can’t imagine what it was like to be one of the disciples. They lived with Jesus for three years, saw Him die and rise again. They lived with Him for forty days as He reminded them of everything He had taught them. No matter how many times He warned them that He had to leave, I am sure they hoped that He would stay with them forever. Yet, the day came when He ascended to heaven. The disciples were told to wait.

The disciples were left alone. Did they lose hope? After all, Jesus was gone and the promise had not yet come! His words were becoming distant, His voice harder to remember. They saw the feast of Pentecost celebrations that filled the city around them. Did they wonder if they could ever enjoy the feasts again? They may have even thought about abandoning the cause, joining in the feast around them, returning to their old ways.

Just as they were wondering these things, God fulfilled His promise.

God said, “I have spoken, and I will act.” This is what Pentecost is all about; it is a realization of the promise given in the story from Ezekiel. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, they took the Hebrews into exile. God’s people were far from home for a long time, living amongst people who seemed to have much more powerful gods. They felt abandoned. After all, if God were almighty, would He have allowed strangers to devastate His people? They did not see the destruction and exile as a way by which God was turning them back to Him. They lost hope and they assimilated into the culture around them. In essence they died, and they were left like dry bones in the desert. For the children that were born in exile, Jerusalem was not even a distant memory. They only knew the world in which they lived. During the exile, God’s people forgot who they were. But God would not let them go. God always has a plan, even if we don’t understand it as we wait.

The ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost were like a time of exile. The disciples did not yet have what they needed to continue the work Jesus began, but they could no longer return to world they knew before Him. They had to be patient. They had to believe the promise that Jesus made when He was praying the night before His crucifixion. Their patience was rewarded when God sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, calling them to new life and sending them into the world to speak to the dry bones, convicting those dead to sin so that they would be saved and given new life. Not everyone would listen or believe.

There is One who knows each person better than anyone, and that is God. He knows our hearts, our thoughts. He knows our wickedness. He knows our hidden sins better than we know them. We would rather not see ourselves as we are because if we did, then we would know that we are not worthy of His grace. We prefer to think that we are good, that our good deeds are enough to get us to heaven. This is why many people refuse to believe that they need Jesus. They think their blessings come from their own hands. They don’t accept the reality that God wants them to see. If they really knew how unworthy they were for God’s grace, they’d see how gracious God really is. God blesses those who believe despite our failure to be what He would have us be.

Psalm 139 is a calm reflection on God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. The psalmist finds comfort and is full of wonder. The psalmist may be ambivalent, but he is certain God has been with him from before he was born. God is intimately involved with his people. The lectionary does not include the rest of the psalm, but there is power in the words. Our text is a positive and inspiring message, but then the psalmist turns to words that seem hateful. “Kill the wicked,” he says. “I hate those who hate you.” We live in a broken world filled with sin, and it is easy for us to turn to imprecatory words in response to the rejection we experience when we try to share the Gospel.

But we are reminded that while we believe, we still live in this world and need God’s grace as much as we did the day we were saved. The psalmist says, “Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23-24, WEB) If only we would pray those words daily, asking God to show us our own wickedness and to transform us so that we will be more like He has created and redeemed us to be. See, we often see in others the very wickedness that we do not see in ourselves. We point fingers without realizing the fingers that are pointing back at us. We see what we want to see, but ignore the real image that Jesus came to reveal. When we admit our own wickedness, we realize we need Him even more than the neighbors we thought we wanted God to destroy. Then we will pray that God’s grace will renew us all in a way that truly glorifies Him.

Martin Luther said that Psalm 139 is a psalm of thanksgiving that God has provided for His people, and He reigns over all. In all our works, words, and thoughts, whether we stand, walk, sleep, wake, even in the womb, God has always been with us. He has made us advocates so that we will share the truth with our neighbors that they might be convicted of their sin and not stand condemned by their unbelief.

Conviction and condemnation are so powerfully manifest in our lessons for this week. At Pentecost the disciples became the first to receive the gift of God’s Spirit. They were not the last, because God’s promise was forever. He has continued to send forth His Spirit to those who hear the Word and believe, convicted by the Word, and transformed to become the people they are meant to be. The scoffers who saw the miracle of Pentecost but rejected that it was from God stood condemned, as do those today who refuse to believe when we share the Gospel.

The disciples received the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost, and they were the first fruits of Christ’s message and work. Jesus told them that He did not tell them everything because He was with them, but He promised that when the time was right, the Advocate would tell them everything. They could not have the whole message of Jesus when He was in their presence. Some of the things they learned from the Spirit were too hard for them to receive on their own. However, Jesus’ ascension to heaven made it possible for the Spirit to come and dwell in their hearts. If Jesus stayed, the Advocate could not come. The faith could not spread beyond the small group of people who could follow Jesus Christ in flesh. With the Spirit, the message could, and would, be taken to the four corners of the world.

Paul told the Christians in Rome that they had the first fruits of the Spirit. He wrote also to us. Even two thousand years later, we are still receiving the fruit because God isn’t done yet. We have received just a glimmer of the promise, a down payment so to speak. There is so much more waiting for us, in God’s time and in God’s way. Until that day, we haven’t been given this gift to sit around waiting. Pentecost is just the beginning. It was the first day of God’s Kingdom in action, a call to all those who believe to continue the work of Jesus. We stand between the “already” and the “not yet.” We know by experience, however, that there are still scoffers.

They might not wonder whether we have been drinking at 9:00 a.m., but they wonder about the fairy tales we tell. They stand condemned because they have rejected the Word of God, but they do not have to remain condemned. Conviction is only a heartbeat away for all people, for God desires all to be saved. It is not our task to condemn those who refuse to believe, but we are called to share God’s grace and forgiveness with them. There is always hope. We join in the groaning of creation as we wait patiently for God’s plan to be fulfilled. And as we wait, we act as advocates, watching as God’s Spirit brings new life to the old and dusty bones of those who are lost and dead in their sin.

This Sunday we recall that first Pentecost and celebrate the birth of the Church, which is the body of Christ manifest in this world. Ever since that day in Jerusalem, Jesus has continued to give the Holy Spirit to those who believe, so that we too might speak His Word so that others might be saved. In the beginning, there was some confusion. Some even thought they were drunk. Things are not much different, for there are many who consider Christians nothing more than silly storytellers. And yet, every day people hear the message and miraculously some believe. The miracle is not in our ability or in our words, but in the Holy Spirit who gives faith to those who hear with a humble heart.

The Church would not exist without Pentecost. Though Christmas and Easter are vital to the story of Jesus, Pentecost might just be the most important holy day because this is when God truly made us one with Him, filling us with Himself and giving us everything we need to continue His work in the world. The gifts we have come to us from God through the power of that same Holy Spirit that gave the disciples the words to speak on that first Pentecost. He continues to give us the power, boldness, courage, strength, talents and words to speak the Gospel to those who are nothing but dry bones. God uses us to rattle those bones so that the dead will be raised into new life.

As God’s advocates we are given everything we need to share God’s grace. We are given the words and language we need to be His voice. We are given the resources we need to be His hands. does not expect us to do it alone. He has given us all of His creation to continue the work of reconciliation that Jesus began. And all of creation longs for the day when God’s promises will be fulfilled because when we failed, we took the whole world down with us.

The story from Ezekiel is the promise of a new beginning to the exiled people of God. He promised to fill His people with His Spirit. Jesus promised a new beginning to the disciples, a new life of speaking God’s word into those who are lost and dead in their sin. Those who hear and believe are given a new beginning, a new life in Christ Jesus. These promises were fulfilled on Pentecost, when Jesus sent His Spirit to fill us with everything we need to bring life to the dead.