Pentecost Sunday has finally arrived. Therefore, this is a good day to wear something red or at least something that suggests the color of fire such as yellow or orange. Pentecost Sunday is one of the three holiest days in the Christian year. That’s because it celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a group of Jesus’ followers gathered in the Upper Room, giving birth to the church of Jesus Christ.
Our reading from the Gospel of John places us in that same Upper Room on the night before Jesus’ execution. According to John’s account, after dinner, Jesus offered a lengthy teaching session. He offered them a word of comfort and encouragement, telling them not to be troubled by his departure because he would send to them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14). Because there is much more to reveal to the disciples than he has time to share, this Advocate will lead them into the fullness of God’s truth. Yes, the Spirit of Truth will testify on Jesus’ behalf.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus promises to send to them the Holy Spirit so they won’t be alone after his departure. Then after his resurrection, he appeared to his disciples in the Upper Room, where they were hiding, and breathed on the gathered disciples, imparting the Holy Spirit to them, and giving them the responsibility to forgive or retain the sins of others (Jn. 20:22-23). This is in keeping with the Spirit’s role in proving the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment (Jn. 16:8-11).
Luke tells a somewhat different story about the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Luke’s version, on the day of his ascension, Jesus tells his followers to wait patiently until the Holy Spirit descends upon them before they begin their ministry of bearing witness to the good news of Jesus, beginning in Jerusalem and extending to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Finally, after a period of about ten days, as Jerusalem began to fill with pilgrims who had come to celebrate the Pentecost harvest festival, the Spirit fell upon them. The Spirit empowered them to fulfill their calling to be God’s missional people by declaring in word and deed the mighty works of God. When the pilgrims milling around down below in the street heard sounds coming from the Upper Room, giving praise to God and proclaiming the Gospel in their own languages, they were intrigued and wanted to know more. When Peter saw a crowd gathering down below, he gave an impromptu sermon that drew on the promise of the prophet Joel that spoke of the last days when the Spirit would come upon all people, so that everyone, male and female, young and old, would be empowered to dream dreams and speak with wisdom and insight about the things of God. Peter told the crowd that this promise had been fulfilled with the coming of the Spirit upon that gathered group of Jesus’ followers (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:14-21).
Here is the good news for us this morning as we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, that promise that Peter shared on the day the church was born, continues to this day. Whether we are young or old, male or female, we can dream dreams and bear witness to the promises of God, because God’s realm, that Peter spoke of, has already begun to take root in our midst because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
While John’s version of the Pentecost story is quite different, his version enriches our understanding of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. John uses an interesting Greek word to describe the Holy Spirit. That word is parakaletos, which can be translated in a number of ways. In the NRSV, we find the word Advocate, but it can also be translated as Comforter, Helper, Companion, and even Friend. Each translation picks up a different nuance of this word that literally means: “to come along side of.” While his followers might grieve when Jesus begins to speak of his departure, something we might understand, since it’s always difficult to talk about death, he offers them a word of comfort. That word of comfort includes the promise of the Holy Spirit, who will offer them comfort, wisdom, and companionship so they can fulfill their mission to be Jesus’ witnesses in the world.
While the NRSV translates the Greek word parakaletos as Advocate, the Common English Bible renders it as “Companion.” That is a helpful way to envision the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. I think we can resonate with this image of the Holy Spirit being a Companion who accompanies throughout our lives so that we needn’t feel alone or abandoned. Even the most introverted among us, feels the need for companionship of some type. In the second creation story found in Genesis 2, after God created the first human, God discovered that it’s not good that the “man should be alone,” so God created a companion for him, someone who would be like him (Gen. 2:18-25).
Over the years, I’ve had a number of companions starting with my parents, and then my brother and a growing list of friends, some of whom I got to visit during our trip west. Of course, the most important of these companions who have been added to my life is Cheryl, who has been my constant companion for more than forty years of marriage.
The Holy Spirit might be a different kind of companion, but in making that promise, Jesus wants us to know that even when we don’t feel God’s presence, God is still there with us. And, the Spirit who resides within us, as our constant companion, glorifies Jesus by revealing to us the things of God (Jn. 16:14-15).
So, if we hear in this translation of the word parakaletos the idea that the Holy Spirit is our constant Companion, who walks with us, revealing God’s truth to us, we can know that no matter what happens in life, we’re not alone. The Spirit is always there with us, offering comfort and encouragement, empowering us to fulfill our calling to be God’s witnesses. As the Pentecost story reminds us, the Spirit doesn’t come upon us simply as individuals. The Spirit is received in the context of the community. It is this community that the Holy Spirit empowers and gifts with the resources we need to bear witness to the good things of God. So, even though God sends the Spirit to be our Companion, we still need each other. As Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthian church, the gifts of the Spirit are given to us as members of the body of Christ, for the common good (1 Cor. 12).
As we contemplate this promise of God’s provision of the Spirit who is our constant Companion, empowering and gifting us so we can participate in God’s life and work, we’re told that God will, through the Spirit, reveal new truths as needed so we can fulfill our calling as members of the body of Christ. That’s because new days require new information. As Lance Pape reminds us, “True fidelity demands novelty. Sometimes fidelity to the spirit of old words may require that we even ‘push back’ against those old words at the Spirit’s urging” [Connections, p. 325].
When it comes to discovering new truths, you might remember the story of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, which led to a breakthrough in reaching out to the Gentile world. Peter discovered that God might declare things he thought to be unclean to be clean (Acts 10). Yes, the Spirit is not finished revealing new truths so that we can bear witness to the good things of God.
As we hear this promise that God sends the Spirit to be our Companion as we engage in the work of God in the world, remembering that this promise is given in the context of a community, we can ask what this means for us as the church of Jesus Christ in the twenty-first century. We are witnessing a season in which people are abandoning the institutional church and pursuing their own spirituality without the benefit of the institutional church. It’s not only the church that is feeling the pressure of skepticism and abandonment. It’s happening to institutions in general, including our democratic institutions. When it comes to the institutional church, and this congregation is part of a larger institution, it can be a stumbling block to the spiritual well-being of people who have been hurt by their churches. Nevertheless, as the promise of Pentecost reminds us, we need each other if we’re going to flourish as God’s people. From what I’ve observed, even those folks who are abandoning traditional institutions seek to experience God’s presence in relationship with others. We seem to understand what God discerned in that second creation story—it’s not good for us to be alone. While the gift of the Spirit provides a foundation for a relationship with God, that gift is given and experienced in the context of a community.
As a Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered community, we have the opportunity to support each other’s hopes and dreams, as we bear witness to the love and grace of God. When we attentively listen together as the Body of Christ for the voice of the Holy Spirit, discerning together what God has for us, then we can speak the truth of God to the communities we inhabit. In this time of confusion in our society, we have the opportunity to faithfully bear witness to God’s grace, mercy, justice, and steadfast love. The good news is that we don’t have to do this work alone, for the Spirit of Truth walks with us as our constant companion.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Acting Supply Pastor
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, Michigan
May 19, 2024
Pentecost Sunday (Year B)
| Image Attribution: Miller, Mary Jane. Pentecost (A Second Version), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59681 [retrieved May 18, 2024]. Original source: Mary Jane Miller, https://www.millericons.com/. |
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