John 14:8-17, 25-27
May 27, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
This time of the year we’re running to the store at the last minute to buy a card for that “special someone.” Like three weeks ago, it wasn’t enough just to buy your mother a card, you now feel obligated to send one to your daughters who are mothers, or daughters-in-law, and every female relative who’s a mother. Let me remind you that Father’s Day is merely three weeks away!
Hallmark, American Greetings and some 3000 other card makers want you to know that they have cards for congratulating the Graduate, Grandparents’ Day and Children’s Day even after you have given your kid a blow-out birthday party once a year wasn’t enough. In the workplace, we now have “Administrative Assistant’s Day” and “Boss’s Day” which kind of cancel each other out. There’s even a “Pastor Appreciation Sunday” that happens sometimes in October. That’s about 5 months away if you are counting.
The greeting card industry has almost christened everyday in the year with multiple celebrations that we have disparagingly called “Hallmark Holidays,” after the greeting card companies seemingly invented new ways to obligate us to buy cards. But does that make these ever-increasing card-buying events “holidays” by definition? The word, “holiday” comes to us from “holy days” which imply that some kind of religious observance is involved. Other than the big holy days like Christmas and Easter, most religious holidays don’t get a slot in the rack at the card store.
Pentecost Cards
Now, you’d think a greeting card giant like Hallmark would be all over this holiday we call Pentecost. After all, we got fire, wind, speaking in other languages, the birthday of one of the great religious movements in history. It’s a holiday that makes colorful pictures on the cover of the cards. And just imagine the slogans inside: “Hope you get fired up this Pentecost!” or “More Holy Spirit power to you!” or “Happy Birthday Church!”
But the shelves of your local greeting card store are empty of Pentecost cards. On my birthday a few weeks ago, I received about ten cards—one of them from the church staff! It’s like sending yourself a card! But I didn’t receive even one Happy Pentecost Day card this year.
Just like the shelves of your local greeting card store are empty of Pentecost cards, is our church empty on the holiday itself? It’s true that this Sunday is also the long-awaited Memorial Day holiday that may have attracted people to go away for the weekend but even with our monthly joint worship today, we didn’t have to set up extra chairs like Christmas and Easter.
Should we be trying to promote another holiday for our people to come back and fill our pews? With our sanctuary parament splashed in blazing red, would this be enough of a reason to celebrate Pentecost? It’s probably true that the majority of us came to church this morning without any idea that this Sunday is the Day of Pentecost at all!
Jesus as God
Today’s Scriptures place us in John’s account of Jesus and his disciples in the upper room when he speaks about his betrayal. He washes the disciples’ feet and teaches them about the Holy Spirit and prayers for the unity among his followers. It is in this context that Philip asks the question, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is elusive, evasive, hard to figure out. Jesus shows up at a wedding and 180 gallons of water becomes wine. He goes to the temple, a place of prayer, and makes a whip and drives the clergy out. He gets into an argument with a theologian, talks doubletalk, and confuses him badly. Jesus then meets a woman at the well, and pries into her personal life. He healed a crippled man and broke religious law. He made wonder bread; he cured the blind with spit and mud, and on and on. What were we to make of it?
Like Philip, we ask him repeatedly, “Who are you?” And he replied, “I’m bread, I’m life, I’m the vine, I’m the door, the shepherd, water of life.” And with one voice with Philip, we say, “What? Lord, show us the Father! Lord, quit beating around the bush, enough of this double-talk and evasion. Show us!”
And at last, in John 14, the veil is lifted and Jesus says clearly—the father and I are one. If you have seen me, you’ve seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. It’s like the experience of someone who recently attended a funeral of a man he never met. He knew the man’s two sons, and when they spoke of their father, they spoke of similar attributes and influences. Most of all though, you could see the father in the sons: their voices, their gestures, their walk, the twinkle in their eyes, the things they loved—and hated. The man told the sons after the service that he had met their Dad through them, and was thankful for it. When we see Jesus, we have also seen God.
Spirit of Christ in Us
Jesus’ response was to remind Philip and the others that he had been doing that all along—all they needed to do was believe. Jesus’ work is on behalf of the Father and when the disciples work, they will also work on behalf of God. As God the Father dwelt in Jesus, so would the Spirit of Jesus dwell in them; so much so that the disciples would “do greater works than these.” Their belief was to translate into action, and their love for Jesus would find its foundation in obedience to his commandments and teachings.
Jesus’ words were designed to comfort the disciples, who no doubt relied on him for everything. They had been his students who rarely got the lesson. Jesus was leaving, but not leaving them hanging with only a memory of him to guide them. His departure was opening the way for another, the paraclete, to come as the one who would instruct, motivate, encourage, counsel, intercede, and be with them forever. Jesus had already been a paraclete for them through his word and example, but now his work would continue in them through the Holy Spirit.
While that would seem to be something to celebrate, Jesus was quick to remind his disciples that their association with him wouldn’t make them universally popular and revered. The Paraclete was the “Spirit of truth”—the spiritual equivalent of Jesus himself who called himself “the way, the truth, and the life.” As the world did not receive Jesus, hanging him on a cross, then the world also “cannot receive” the Spirit of truth “because it neither sees him nor knows him.” In taking the Spirit of Christ into our lives, the disciples would be making themselves subject to the same trials that Jesus faced as God’s Son. Now why would anyone want to send a Hallmark card for that?
The coming of the Holy Spirit should remind us that claiming to be followers of the historical Jesus is one thing, but allowing the Spirit of the risen Christ to fully dwell in us is another. The former can be confined to simply knowing a lot about Jesus—it’s like sending a graduation card for finishing up your degree in knowing about Jesus. But if we are to allow the Spirit of the risen Christ to fully dwell in us, it means we would represent Jesus and acting every day on his behalf according to his model of life and faith. If we were to do this, we should be sending each other sympathy cards!
If we do that, we’re likely to run into opposition from those who are comfortable with the world and its status quo. Jesus bugged people with the truth, and if we’re truly following him we’ll be doing the same. An invitation to a life of suffering and struggle isn’t exactly the kind of card you want to open and put on the mantel.
Pentecost was the catalyst for the explosive growth of the church as the Spirit moved among them. But the same Spirit would move many of those same people into dangerous and deadly situations where they were forced to rely fully on the Spirit indwelling Christ—the only “Advocate” they would have in front of mobs and murderous monarchs. While we may not be called to give up our lives in the same way as they did, if we take the Spirit seriously as the guide for our lives we may find ourselves living quite uncomfortably. Jesus promised the Spirit, but he didn’t promise that life would be easy.
A seminary professor told an incoming first-year class, “Folks, when God calls you, he’s not doing you a favor.”
Pentecost Cards
On this forgotten holy day, I can see sending Pentecost cards out to quite a few people in this church. I think about the coaches and managers of our youth sports teams who not only dedicate countless hours practicing skills and developing teamwork with the players but when they are teaching and setting an example for fair play and cooperation, they are acting on behalf of Jesus. The world always wants to win and be in first place. But we should send our coaches and managers a Pentecost card for being sports disciples.
I think about Friday Night School teachers and cooks who after a long week of working in their jobs and looking forward to that long awaited weekend of rest and being with family and friends would fit in one more commitment to spend 2-3 hours helping our new neighbors and new residents to better adapt into their new home. The world would say “TGIF, let’s party!” but these teachers and cooks should get a Pentecost card for being night school disciples.
I think about all of you and how wonderful this congregation really is. When I see how you care and love each other; how you watch over and pray for each other; how any of you would stop whatever you might be doing to respond to a cry of distress, I am so glad and happy to be counted as one of you. I know that if anything would to happen to me or to Joy, this community of disciples would always take care of us. The world tells us to always watch over “me” first but you put others ahead of yourselves. Just like the early church experienced the Day of Pentecost and how they were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need, you do this and you should receive a Pentecost card for being Christ’s disciples.
God’s Peace
When we choose to live with the challenge of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives, Jesus gives us a promise. The Holy Spirit would remind the disciples of what Jesus had taught them. They would be left with the “peace” of Jesus—not peace in terms of the absence of conflict or the false sense of security that the world gives, but peace born out of the life and love of Jesus himself.
The vision of God’s peace and justice that had long been Israel’s hope was being realized in Jesus and, in turn, through his disciples who would carry on the mission until his return. Having received that peace, the disciples were not to be afraid anymore in the face of opposition. They are not to be cowards in the world. Through their work as representatives of Jesus, God would set the world right again.
On Monday I attended a meeting with about 40 people from different religious backgrounds in San Francisco. We heard that St. Luke’s Hospital was being shut down leaving one of the poorest sections of our city with only one hospital to provide medical services, San Francisco General. Between these two hospitals, they care for 80% of the charity cases in the city. I don’t have all the facts and information about this but it seems to me that here is a situation that people of the Pentecost should care about. I can only assume that profitability has something to do with the proposed closure—that’s the world’s point of view. As representatives of Jesus, we can’t be afraid of hospital conglomerates or working with people who believe in other faith traditions to stop us from making sure medical services are available to every citizen in our city.
Given the work laid before those first disciples and their mission that we continue as their spiritual descendants, we might look at Pentecost as being a true “holy day.” I know you want to pour that tall glass of iced tea and sit with your novel on Memorial Day and kick back and reminisce about what once was. But the coming of the Spirit is present, active—one that motivates us to work, to act, to represent Jesus in the world.
You just can’t confine that to one day a year. Sure, we need to gather on Pentecost Sunday and be reminded. But then again, every day should be a new Pentecost: a fresh wind of the Spirit and firing up of our desire to serve God with our whole hearts.
Even if Hallmark made Pentecost cards for us to give to each other, they would not be able to produce enough cards to keep stocked in store racks! We would be buying them every day for each other. Let us not forget—Happy Pentecost!
Let us pray.
Eternal God, on this day of Pentecost, we confess we have not always been open and receptive of you. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit that surrounds and empowers us, yet we are so very careful and cautious. Help us now, more than ever, to open our lives to your Holy Spirit and to live courageously every day for truly each day is holy because of your everlasting presence with us. May we offer the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world. Amen.