O God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit,
Collect for Pentecost, page 227 in the Book of Common Prayer
We make much ado about Christmas. Even after stripping away all the hoopla that the secular world has piled onto our Feast of the Nativity, we celebrate the birth of Jesus in myriad ways, not least of which is giving unearned gifts to the people we love, commemorating the ultimate unearned gift to the entire world, that of Jesus himself. The Day of Pentecost, on the other hand, though listed along with Christmas as one of the Principle Feasts of the Church Year, draws much less attention. This is unfortunate, for the gift of the Holy Spirit is critical to our lives as Christians.
It was Augustine, who died a little more than sixteen hundred years ago, who is credited with referring to the persons of the Trinity as The Lover, The Beloved, and Love itself. As beloved as Jesus was by the Creator, and as critical as Jesus is to our identity as Christians, it was the Spirit, who came to the disciples only after Jesus had left them, who empowered them, and continues to empower us, to go forth and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the rest of the world. While Jesus is the protagonist in the Gospels, it is the Holy Spirit who is credited in the Acts of the Apostles with guiding and strengthening the early Church as it spread throughout the Mediterranean world. The action of the Holy Spirit did not end with Paul’s ministry, which is where the Book of Acts ends. Rather, the Spirit, Love itself, is just as active now as it was in the time described in Acts. Admittedly it may be hard to recognize Love amidst the conflict and hostility that seems ready to overwhelm us at times these days, but if we look inside - rather than outside - ourselves and others, we’ll find it. It is the Spirit, Love itself, that connects us with those we love who are alive in the world today whether they live near us or not, as well as with those who have gone before us and those who will come after. It is the Spirit that in our darkest moments gives us the strength to go on when every fiber of our being is screaming, “I just can’t do this anymore.” It is the Spirit who inspires my sermons and these columns by speaking to me in my dreams, when I’m out walking, or working in my yard.
I grew up singing, Jesus loves me, this I know…. and it is true. It is equally true that just as Jesus loves me the Holy Spirit empowers me to do the work God has given me to do and to be the person God has always intended me to be. The Spirit empowers you in these ways too.
