WHY PENTECOST MATTERS!

Whitsunday

31 May, AD 2009

TEXT:  Acts 2:1 and St. John 14:15.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (St. John 14:25-26).

Of the three most important holidays of the Christian Church; Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday or Pentecost; it is today, the Feast of Whitsunday, or the celebration of the coming of the Holy Ghost to the Church, that is the least well-known, which corresponds, roughly, in the light of Christmas and Easter, to whom this day is “about”, especially if we associate them with one of the “persons” of the Holy Trinity.  Jesus the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity was born at Christmas.  He was raised from the Dead by the power of God the Father at Easter.  And, today, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Holy Trinity, to the Church, the Body of Christ.  Along with associating these holidays with the persons of the Holy Trinity, it would be helpful also for us to answer a questions surrounding each of them in order to see their inter-relatedness and help us come to see the importance of why Whitsunday matters so crucially to us as Christians.  

Christmas answers the question, “Does God care?” To which the definite answer is, “Yes”.  He cared enough to send His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in the likeness of our mortal flesh to be God with us – Emmanuel, and to restore the relationship of humanity with its Creator, which was lost as a result of humanity’s first disobedience.

Easter, consequently, answers the question, “If God cared, then what did He do?”  God raised His Son, Jesus Christ, from the Dead and confronted Sin, Death, and Hell, and, more importantly, overcame them, and showed all who would see within that miracle of Resurrection Life, that the power of the world is not the ultimate power, but that God is and that He has made us in His own image and likeness and wants us to spend all eternity with Him in His Kingdom in Heaven.

So, then, we arrive at Pentecost and the ultimate question here is “What does it matter?”  Two thousand years is a long time to wait for Our Lord’s second coming.  Many of the books of the New Testament attest to that.  In fact, most of the commentators point out the fact that after Our Lord’s Crucifixion and Death, the Apostles and other men and women who followed Jesus, went back to their earlier routines of life.  Even after that first Easter morning, all of the Apostles didn’t have it all figured out.  That’s why they huddled together in the Upper Room with the doors locked, because they didn’t know what to expect.  Ultimately, they were told by the Resurrected Jesus to go back to Jerusalem and await the power which would come to them from on high (that is, the Holy Ghost) and only then would it all begin to make sense.  

As the Rev. John Hartnett wrote, who gave the inspiration for these words,

“Christmas and Easter are wonderful celebrations, but they are preliminary.  God first came to us in the person of Jesus, and then went to the cross for us, died, and was raised, not to show off, but to give us what we needed to be transformed.  Until that transformation happens, the story is unfinished and the true meaning of those holidays is unfulfilled. . . . But at Pentecost we claim what we can of that transformation here and now, for ourselves and for our world.”

The key to  Pentecost or Whitsunday lies in the transformative power of God the Holy Ghost who made everyone on that first Pentecost, different.  Different in heart and mind, different in outlook and eternal destination.  Acts records that the people at Jerusalem flocked to hear the Apostles speak, but it was not because of their eloquence or brilliance of speech – all of those people heard about the marvelous works of God in their own language.  It was as if the Holy Ghost had become for them a type of universal translator so that they could understand the plan for eternal salvation wrought for them, personally, by God the Father from the beginning.  So we begin to see that on this celebration of the real birthday of the Church that it is God the Holy Ghost, sent to us by God the Father and on His Son’s promise, who is still at work in each of us and in the world as the presence of God among us; leading us into all remembrance, understanding, and transformation, just as Jesus had promised that He would.  Each new day we are called to enter into a new, more intimate, personal relationship with God our Creator by the transformative power of the Holy Ghost, as we get closer and closer to the time of Our Lord’s second coming.  That’s why the celebration of Pentecost matters!  Because the Holy Ghost is continually active within us today!  May He continue to lead you and us all into new and unending life in the Kingdom of God both now and forever!  

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+