Pentecost at the Church of the Holy Spirit

Initially the disciples were locked in the upper room out  of fear.  On the Day of Pentecost those locked doors were thrown open; the fear in the disciples was replaced with a Spirit-filled courage and enthusiasm.  They were now fearless proclaimers of the Word of God.
What had changed for the disciples?  They received the Holy Spirit.

The great truth of Pentecost – for the first disciples and for us as well – is that the Holy Spirit has the power to enlarge and expand the human heart if we allow the Spirit   of Jesus to grow and enliven us from within.

In today’s first Scripture reading, we hear how the Holy Spirit was given to the followers of Jesus.   Listen again:  “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.  And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled to proclaim.”

The great meaning of Pentecost is that it was time for God to be born again not in one body that was Jesus but this time in a body of believers who would receive the breath of life from their Lord and pass it to others.  We see how the growth of the Church took place with the influence of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles.  The Book of Acts is the story of the incredible growth of the first Christian communities.  The Acts of the Apostles is kind of like a Gospel of the Holy Spirit.  In the first four books  of  the New Testament we learn the Good news of what God did through Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  In the Book of Acts of the Apostles, we learn the Good News of what God did through the Holy Spirit.

The first and foremost attribute of the servant church is its daring openness to the Spirit.  It is the prayer that the Church make room for the release of the Spirit in the life of the community and the courage to act when it does.  We are not to fall back into being the safe and self-absorbed church, but rather a place of miraculous hope and extravagant hospitality.

God chose a young virgin named Mary to bear God’s Son, and Jesus chose a bunch of Galilean fisherman to share in His ministry.   God chooses you and me to hear his message of hope and promise and love in this place and in our world this day.
We seek to experience Pentecost as the feast of locked doors.  Where are the locked doors in our lives?    For me, as I read and hear about the horrific crime and sin of clergy sex abuse, there is a side of me that wants to go behind a locked door and to walk away from this crisis in the life of the Church.

For me and for all of us, it is not a time to abandon the ship, we need to trust in the grace that God provides for all of us.  With the grace of God, we need to move heaven and earth to root out sexual abuse in the Church and any attempt of cover up.  All need to be held accountable and we need to restore trust and integrity in the Church’s leadership.   Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
For us as the parish community of the Church of Holy Spirit as we consider the ways we are called to collaborate with St. Joseph’s Church, our locked door of fear may be the fear of being cobbled up by a larger parish and that we will lose our valued charisms and spirituality.  Clearly we need to acknowledge all that keeps from trusting in the grace and the blessings of collaboration.

We also to pray again and again:  Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. 

Defensive Christianity is not a Biblical idea.  The posture of Christian disciples is not hiding in fear to protect ourselves,    No, the disciples are sent to proclaim the Good News of the love of Jesus to one and all.  St. Joseph’s and Holy Spirit are called to be sister parishes who help and serve and love one another.

I was blessed to have two brothers and three sisters in my family of origin.  What a blessing my brothers and sisters have been for my life.  Are we exactly the same?  Absolutely not.  We each have our own giftedness and our own craziness.  Yes, we have argued at times.  But without any doubt we love each other and would do anything for each other.  We are family and we very blessed that we are family.

My hunch is you can say the same for your family life.  Thanks be to God.
On this day of Pentecost, as we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, can we trust in each other and in the grace of God that St. Joseph’s and Holy Spirit can be sister parishes that love and serve and support one another?

As the first disciples of the Day of Pentecost were transformed from fearful disciples who wanted to live behind locked doors to fearless proclaimers of the Word of God, can we on this Day of Pentecost welcome the opportunity of having a sister parish that will help us live according to our better angels, and equally we will help the faith community of St. Joseph’s be filled with the many gifts of the Holy Spirit that we will share.

Come Holy Spirit.  Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.