O God the Holy Ghost
Who art light unto thine elect
Evermore enlighten us.
Thou who art fire of love
Evermore enkindle us.
Thou who art Lord and Giver of Life,
Evermore live in us.
Thou who bestowest sevenfold grace,
Evermore replenish us.
As the wind is thy symbol,
So forward our goings.
As the dove, so launch us heavenwards.
As water, so purify our spirits.
As a cloud, so abate our temptations.
As dew, so revive our languor.
As fire, so purge our dross
Christina Rossetti (AD 1830-1894)
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Pentecost.htm#ixzz1OuaDzu2R
Some Thoughts on John 20:19-31
"What is more, he keeps showing up. As he came back a week later for Thomas, Jesus keeps coming back week after week among his gathered disciples -- in the word, the water, the bread, and the wine -- not wanting any to miss out on the life and peace he gives."
Commentary, Elisabeth Johnson, John 20:19-31, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.
"Sometimes I think we have more faith in our fears than we do in God, in the Risen Christ. Have you ever been locked in by your fears?"
"Locked In And Locked Out," Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2013.
"What is more, he keeps showing up. As he came back a week later for Thomas, Jesus keeps coming back week after week among his gathered disciples -- in the word, the water, the bread, and the wine -- not wanting any to miss out on the life and peace he gives."
Commentary, Elisabeth Johnson, John 20:19-31, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.
"Sometimes I think we have more faith in our fears than we do in God, in the Risen Christ. Have you ever been locked in by your fears?"
"Locked In And Locked Out," Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2013.
Our passage begins on the evening of the first day. Ignatius believed this was the moment when Christians began to associate Sunday morning worship with the resurrected Lord over and against the sabbath. That the first day of the week was a day of work, to begin with, the work God has given us through the Holy Spirit.
Certainly, this is indeed what happens. Jesus comes and is in their midst.
Raymond Brown points out that this is typical of the Johannine resurrection pieces:
1. A bereft situation
2. The appearance
3. Greeting
4. Recognition
5. Command (John, Anchor Bible, 1028)
He tells his followers that he is sending them out and that they are to receive the Holy Spirit. The passing of the Holy Spirit over to the disciples is a giving of authority. They are representatives of the family of God in their proclamation, mission, and service to others.
We spent time on this passage previously the Sunday following Easter, so I don't want to spend time on the resurrection appearance. I would rather focus on the powers given over to the disciples.
The Holy Spirit has been given to them directly from God.
Throughout the whole of John's Gospel, he has refrained from talking about the disciples as apostles; in this passage, he does this for the first time. (Brown, John, 1036)
We see that the grounding, the theology of the trinitarian community ad extra, serves as the grounding for the disciples being sent by Jesus.
They are holy. They are consecrated by the Spirit to bear the Gospel forward. This breathing on them echoes the first breaths given to man in Genesis 2.7. This is a new creation that is being made.
We might remember our Holy Saturday Great Vigil and the words spoken in Ezekiel's prophecy (ch 37). In it the "Son of Man" is told to prophesy to the dry bones: "Hear the word of the Lord...I will cause breath [spirit] to enter you, and you shall live." (1037)
I very much like how Raymond Brown speaks of this moment:
Now, another Son of Man, himself fresh from the tomb, speaks as the risen Lord and causes the breath of eternal life to enter those who hear his word. In the secondary, baptismal symbolism of John 3.5 the readers of the Gospel are told that by water and Spirit they are begotten as God's children; the present scene serves as the Baptism of Jesus' immediate disciples and a pledge of divine begetting to all believers of a future period represented by the disciples. (Small wonder that the custom of breathing upon the subject to be baptized found its way into the baptismal ceremonial.) Now they are truly Jesus' brothers and can call his Father their Father (20.17) The gift of the Spirit is the "ultimate climax of the personal relations between Jesus and his disciples. (1037ff)This Sunday, we will all celebrate the great gift of the Holy Spirit. Some will call this the birthday of the church, and many will wear read. It will be a festive and exciting time.
We must not lose sight, though, that the gift of the spirit is a missionary gift. The recreation of humanity is not for the church alone but for the whole body of God's people around the world.
We should have a glorious celebration of the Church's new creation, but as the first fruits of the great community of God, the reign of God yet to be fulfilled, and the mission of God in which we have the privilege to participate.
Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 12:3-13
"I would have fit in well in Corinth. The Corinthian Christians' struggles, which Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 14, resemble my own: jealousy, striving, arrogance, and a propensity to measure one's worth through comparisons with other people."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, Matt Skinner, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.
"... [Paul] is thinking about people who make claims that their actions flow from the Spirit. In effect it is indeed possible to curse Christ by what we do and think, even when we are claim to be acting and speaking by the inspiration of the Spirit."
"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
On this Pentecost, we attach Paul's writing on the gifts of the spirit. Of course, Paul is writing because there is an argument over whose gifts are most important and who is more important and what gifts are acceptable...blah blah blah. It is typical of Christian community to argue not only over who is in and who is out but also what the hierarchy is once you are part of the group. I think this is not unique to the Christian community but the problem with community in general.
While the community is focused on the spiritual gift of speech, Paul reorients them to understand that there are many gifts. Deep within the text is a bit of important trinitarian theology. Paul writes: “Same Spirit ... same Lord ... same God” The Spirit is a gift of the Father; Christ was to serve or minister, and the Father is the creator of all things. This is where and how the gift-giving is rooted in God. Nothing is for personal use. All of it builds up the kingdom, builds up the church, and does God's work in the world.
There is the speaking but also wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle-working, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. We each receive gifts for this work - the work of the church.
Because baptism is through the Spirit, these gifts are through the Spirit as well. Everyone, no matter what their background, family of origin, or place within the Roman social hierarchy - are given gifts for ministry.
I believe that the place where these sermons go wrong - including my own in the past - is when we narrowly define the purpose of the gifts. I think we do a good job of telling people they have gifts, that God receives them all into his kingdom, and that they are each blessed and chosen by God for his work. We fall down on this message when we so narrowly focus on the gifts so as to imply that their use is only within the four walls of a church building. When we do this, we create a separate world apart from the world that God came to save.
God does welcome us all into his family. Regardless of who we are and where we have been, he radically forgives and welcomes the prodigals. He does this so that the world may know him and be reconciled. The work takes place out in the world. The kingdom gifts are given to each and every person so that in their families, in their work, and in their life - in general - they may be a witness. God has not raised all of us up, go through this extraordinary ordeal, and sent his Holy Spirit so that we might figure out how to keep the lights on in an empty church. Our gifts are given for evangelism - spreading the Good News of Salvation through the unique witness of God in Christ Jesus, AND our gifts are given that we might serve our neighbour and, in so doing, serve the God who created and has made all things - who gives life and light and love. That is a much more important mission, and it is the mission for which these gifts have been given.
Some
Thoughts on Acts 2:1-21
In Paul’s sermon at Pisidian Antioch he says, “[Jesus is the fulfillment of] the holy and faithful things of David.” (Acts 13:13-41 as referred to in connection with this passage by Richard Hays in Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 232.) Luke is clear regardless of who is speaking, Peter or Paul, that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Isaiah prophecy that God’s reign will be victorious and that it is meant for the whole world. The Gospel authors, Luke included, read the Old Testament as the prefigured and prophetic work of the Word at work in the world.
The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples is clearly the way/manner in which this gospel message of fulfilment will be taken into the world. And, the coming of the Holy Spirit (as discussed in previous passages on Peter’s speech) is also part of the fulfilment itself. For while Jesus is the culmination of the work of the Word, it is the Holy Spirit that shall reweave and restore creation and humanity. And Jesus is to be the Lord of all.
This is all clouded in the midst of our celebrations of Pentecost Sunday. The message will be muddled by reading the story in different languages. It will be obscured by the celebrations of the “birthday of the church”. It really isn’t a story about the inside, but our celebrations tend to reinforce a stayed church institution and hermeneutic of attraction. The story is instead one of sending, of going, of being empowered with gifts for the journey and being unmoored from our appointed seats at the table to a world hoping for light in the midst of a shadow. Pentecost is NOT about the birth of a church it is about the ever-expanding reign of God and the Good News of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus outside our church boxes and upper rooms and actively spreading into the world around us.
This is all clouded in the midst of our celebrations of Pentecost Sunday. The message will be muddled by reading the story in different languages. It will be obscured by the celebrations of the “birthday of the church”. It really isn’t a story about the inside, but our celebrations tend to reinforce a stayed church institution and hermeneutic of attraction. The story is instead one of sending, of going, of being empowered with gifts for the journey and being unmoored from our appointed seats at the table to a world hoping for light in the midst of a shadow. Pentecost is NOT about the birth of a church it is about the ever-expanding reign of God and the Good News of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus outside our church boxes and upper rooms and actively spreading into the world around us.
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