We speak of Pentecost as the birthday of the Church. It’s a very important event for all of us who follow Jesus. We even have a stained glass window featuring the Pentecost event; you’ll find it in the back of the church to your left. Just as the Passover event marked the birth of Judaism, so Pentecost marks the birth of Christianity. As you know, we Christians are the spiritual descendants of the Jews and so many of our important celebrations represent the fulfillment of the promises made to the ancient Jews. For example, the Jews celebrate Passover every spring, recalling the time when the angel of death passed over their homes in Egypt and then God led them through the desert as they passed over from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. They celebrate this feast by sacrificing an unblemished lamb to God and sharing it as their sacred meal in God’s presence. We speak of Jesus as the true unblemished Lamb who has been sacrificed so that we can pass over from sin and death to the eternal Promised Land: heaven. We celebrate our Passover every time we gather to share at this sacred meal when God is made present to us in the Body and Blood of Christ and we partake of the sacrificial Lamb at Holy Communion.
In the same way, Pentecost is the Christian version of the Jewish Feast of Weeks. The Jewish people celebrated Pentecost for centuries. It marked the fiftieth day of Passover, and Jewish law called every Jewish man, woman and child to come to the Temple at Jerusalem to thank God for another successful harvest season. That’s why there was such a large crowd present in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead. As they came to the Temple to offer God the best of their crops, they also used this time to commemorate the giving of the Ten Commandments of the Law to Moses on top of Mount Sinai, where God revealed himself in wind and fire – the same way God reveals his Spirit to the followers of Jesus at Pentecost.
Let’s get back to the Passover for a moment. As we hear today in John’s Gospel, Jesus appeared in the Upper Room on the third day of Passover – that first Easter night – breathing his Spirit on his Apostles and saying, “Peace be with you.” In that moment, Jesus takes away their shame for having abandoned him and their fears that his body may have been stolen. He assures them that he is risen as he appears to them in his glorified body; that’s why they struggle to recognize him at first.
This great moment that speaks of the beginning of the Church reminds us of the account in the Book of Genesis that speaks of the beginning of humanity. You will recall that God created Adam, forming him out of the clay of the earth. But Adam did not have life until God breathed his Spirit into him. You will find that depicted in our stained glass window in the back of the church to your right. In the Upper Room, we see the Apostles, whom Jesus had charged with the task of preaching and building God’s kingdom. But, they did not have the capability of fulfilling this mission until Jesus breathed his God-given power upon them.
Just as God created Adam and gave him life, so too, the risen Christ, who is God, recreates the Church and gives her new life in the Spirit. Adam was created to know, love and serve God. He disobeyed and became a mere mortal. The Church was instituted by God to help all human beings pick up where Adam left off – to make God known, loved and served by all. Inasmuch as she obeys this great commission, the Church leads us back to immortality. In our creed, we profess faith in “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” Life is what the Spirit has given to the Church, and through baptism and confirmation, this same gift is given to all who believe.
At Pentecost, God came as Spirit, calling all people to a new way of life. Hundreds of new disciples began that day to live according to the Spirit of God – living in charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faith and forgiveness. We can certainly use that same spirit in our world today, can’t we?
As Christians, we are, indeed, the fulfillment of the promises that God made to his people, the ancient Jews. And, we are called to lead everyone back to our origins – in union with our God as we were before the sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus said at Easter, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” In word, wind and fire, as in his Body and Blood, Jesus gives us his Spirit today, renewing in us that same command he once gave to his first disciples: that we go out to all the world and make disciples. Today, we say with believers throughout time, come, Holy Spirit – come into our lives, come into our parishes, come into our homes, and help us to renew the world that, as in every age, is so much in need of renewal. Come, Holy Spirt, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and we will renew the face of the earth!