God’s grace, peace and mercy be with
you. My sermon is entitled is The 3 Ps of
Pentecost: Pneumatology, Passage, Practical Application. My focus is Acts
2. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we
rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds
and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most
Holy Trinity. Amen.
This is my third Pentecost at Mt. Olive, and
so, it is appropriate that for Pentecost, I focus on three points:
pneumatology, passage and a practical application.
First, pneumatology. Pneumatology refers to a particular discipline within Christian theology that
focuses on the study of the Holy Spirit. We
derive the term from the Greek word pneuma meaning breath or spirit that symbolically describes a
non-material being or influence; and logos meaning teaching about. Pneumatology includes study of the
person and works of the Holy Spirit. Works of the Holy Spirit includes
teachings on new birth, spiritual gifts, sanctification, the inspiration of prophets, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
The early Church engaged in debates over the divinity of Jesus which led to similar arguments about the Holy Spirit.
Later, during the Medieval period, a debate ensued regarding the relationship
between Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Church situated in Constantinople asserted that
the Holy Spirit ‘proceeds’ from the Father alone, as stated in the
original Nicene Creed,
while the Western Church added to the Creed the clause filioque meaning that
the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
During the
Reformation and Counter-reformation the relationship
between the Spirit and the Scriptures was re-examined. Martin Luther and John Calvin held that the Spirit has a certain ‘interpretive
authority’ to ‘illuminate’ scripture, while Counter-reformation theologians
responded that the Spirit authorized the Church to serve as authoritative
interpreter of Scripture.
Contemporary
pneumatology, marked by the Pentecostal movement in various denominations,
understands a distinctive relationship between the Spirit and the Church
community. Various contemporary theologians see the Spirit as the authority that
governs the church, liberates oppressed communities and creates experiences associated
with faith.
Now, before
I move to my second point, your word for the day is pneumatology. Start a
conversation about pneumatology at Sunday dinner, while watching the Pirates or
in the break room at work. Discuss pneumatology with conviction and certainty –
like you are filled with the Holy Spirit. And so, we move from pneumatology to
passage.
In Acts 2, Luke focuses our attention on Pentecost. Pentecost was an
agricultural feast where Jews celebrated not only the harvest but also the
giving of the Torah. It was known as the Shav – u’– oth or
the Feast of Weeks. This festival was celebrated 7 weeks or 50 days after
Passover. It brought farmers from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Asia, Egypt, Libya
and Rome to Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot. They came to thank God for
the harvest and for the Law.
The
original agricultural feast later became a commemoration of God giving the
Covenant and Law on Mt Sinai. For Christians, the celebration of the gift of
the Law embraced the giving of the new law in the spirit, the writing of the
law on the heart.[1]
We read in Jeremiah, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah
… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I
will be their God, and they shall be my people.”[2]
Paul echoed the Second Letter to the
Corinthians, “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on
our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you
are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the
Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”[3]
The coming of the Holy Spirit fulfilled
this meaning of Pentecost. The opening verses introduce the festival of
Pentecost. Acts declares a salvation event of highest importance, the actual
turning point when Israel begins to separate itself from unbelievers to become
the Church.[4] To illustrate this Luke
assembled a vast representation of all Israel to hear the apostles.
The signs that manifested the Spirit,
the loud noise like a strong wind and the tongues of fire, evoked divine appearances
on Mount Sinai to Moses and Elijah.[5] Yet, the sign that Luke most
emphasized that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit was their speaking
in different tongues or languages.[6]
The fact that many Jews from
different nations heard the apostles speaking in their own tongues of the
mighty acts of God signified that the ancient tragedy of Babel was reversed.[7] And the apostles’ “drunken
state” symbolized joy and abundant blessings. Yet, the onlookers’ reaction was
astonishment and bewilderment. At Pentecost it was clear that the new wine of
the Holy Spirit, the gift of God’s love, was poured into human hearts, as Paul reminded
Christians in Rome.[8]
Again, we move from passage to a practical
application. In many churches today, pastors confirm young people. We did so
last year with seven teenage girls. Lutheran confirmation is a public
profession of faith prepared for by long and careful instruction. This mature
and public profession of the faith marks the completion of the congregation's
program of confirmation ministry.
Since young people study Luther’s
Small Catechism for several years, a bit of catechesis for the rest of you. As
Lutherans, we do not treat confirmation as a sacrament of the Gospel in the way
we do Baptism and the Eucharist. Yet, we lack a universally accepted definition
of confirmation and a consistent approach to it.[9] It’s the Lutheran way.
Luther approved the 1540 Brandenburg
Church Order and subscribed to the 1545 Wittenberg Reformation. His emphasis on
instruction, especially in preparation for the Lord's Supper, proved to be a
major contribution to a new type of confirmation associated not only with
Baptism but also with the Lord's Supper.
Where confirmation is associated with
Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as is usually the case, the three essential
elements of confirmation are: (1) a course of instruction preceding the rite;
(2) profession of faith, usually made through an examination and summarized in
formal questions in the rite; (3) and intercessory prayers by the congregation,
normally with imposition of hands. Baptism, not confirmation, normally marks
the beginning of one's membership in the church.
All this talk about confirmation now
behooves me to ask you how the Holy Spirit is active in your life today. It is
a question I ask all of you. Applying the passage practically, how is the Holy
Spirit active in your life today?
Preparing for this sermon, I sent the
passage from Acts to some friends along with this question: How is the Holy
Spirit active in my life today? My friend, David from Naperville, Illinois,
responded with this: When I think “living in the Spirit” or walking with
God, I focus on three priorities that your love and resulting time should
have: God first, family second, and all others third.
When I read the scripture in Acts that you forwarded, I am taken
to every conference or function where Christians from all over get together
that I have attended. The lack of personal or other agendas is gone. Focus
is on God first, and what he is doing, or not, in your life. It gives me
insight into what heaven will be like.
One of the first times I felt this, and I have felt it many
times since, was when I attended the first Urbana (yes, I am that old). It
had Christians from all over, and we were of one mind, and one focus. It
was a great experience.
A friend from Pittsburgh wrote this: The Holy Spirit is
probably my go to. Since I have never had an original thought in my life, when
reading Scripture, and particularly when preparing to preach I seek the
guidance of the Spirit. On a day-to-day basis I pray to the Spirit to make
me aware of and alert to opportunities to bring God's presence into every day
circumstances. Over the last 35 years, I have repeatedly trusted in and acted
upon His/Her urgings. That's how I wound up [being ordained as a deacon, and
then living] in Tennessee and now Mississippi.
My cousin’s wife in San Diego said this: My religious education is pretty slim, having
gone to public school, the only thing we got was an hour a week at CCD. I'm not
sure I can directly say how the Holy Spirit influences my life, but I know
there are times when things mysteriously work out and I say it's a “God Thing.”
So, since the Holy Spirit is part of God, I suppose I’m getting guidance and
comfort from him at those times too.
The
signs I like best are the many, I mean many, times a hummingbird has appeared
just when I needed it. The hummingbird is my connection to my mother who passed
away 30 years ago. I believe God sends a sign of her angel existence in this
form to show love and constant companionship. Is that the Holy Spirit maybe
helping? Probably.
Finally, my college friend living in St. Louis replied with
these words: I visited Rome for the first time with my daughter some years
ago. We had a tour through the Vatican, starting at the Vatican Museums. The
only part of the tour which I was interested in was The Sistine Chapel and St.
Peter's Basilica. The Chapel was magnificent; and filled with lots of
people and tour groups; yet everyone was reverent and respectful. I
noticed an Asian tour group, in St. Peter's Basilica, in a line touching the
feet of some statue. So, I joined the group at the end of the line to see
what was so special about this statue. When I touched the feet of the
statue, some powerful force came through me, then I knew something was
special. I went back to the statue to read that it was a bronze statue of
St. Peter, holding the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.
She concluded her remarks with: The Holy Spirit is definitely
dwelling among us. The Spirit may not present itself in the same manner as it
did to the Apostles on that original Pentecost, but in some manner or form, the
Spirit is present among us.
Friends, the Holy Spirit did not cease being active in the
Church with the last page of the New Testament. Rather, throughout the
centuries Scripture and the Holy Spirit have infused the lives of countless men
and women that they themselves became living gospels.[10] You are the living
gospels because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As you depart from here,
reflect on how the Holy Spirit makes you a living gospel and share that good
news with others, and when you do may the peace of God that
surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Alleluia.
[1] William
S. Kurz, Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, (2013), p. 44.
[2]
Jeremiah 31:31, 33.
[3] 2
Corinthians 3:2-3.
[4] Jerome
Biblical Commentary, p. 730
[5]
See Exodus 19:16-19; 1 Kings 19: 11-13.
[6]
Kurz, p. 45.
[7]
Kurz, p. 45. See Genesis 11:1-9.
[8]
Romans 5:5.
[9]
See Confirmation at http://cyclopedia.lcms.org.
[10]
Christopher A. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers. Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic, (1998), p. 35.
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