The Day of Pentecost and Holy Baptism, Year C, 2016 – Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:14-17; John 17:8-17
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
The disciples are a gift to us—not just because they were the ones who first told the world about Jesus, but because they are so much like us. So often, they (and we) simply don’t grasp how great the gift God gives us is. Show us the Father! Philip says. That’s all I ask; that will be enough. And by any human standard it is enough: to glimpse for a moment the glory of God; that we who are after all only human, so small in the scheme of things, against the majesty of the cosmos, and so often forgetful of God, so very much turned toward ourselves, that we who are only human might see God. That would surely be enough. That is Philip’s hope. He does not see, yet, how far God’s grace goes beyond this. God has in mind to touch in his great love not just our eyes but our souls and bodies, not just our seeing but our living, too. The gift God gives is so very concrete—much like the gift of a child.
It is something that is astonishing to parents, the concreteness of a baby. Here is this person suddenly in our lives, so much herself from the very first moment. Sarah and I have been going through baby pictures recently, because Caitlin is getting married in June and we’re doing a slide show—Philip newborn (tiny as this 6’5” giant will never be tiny again); newborn Caitlin in her Dad’s arms; Caitlin in her pumpkin costume; Philip as a cowboy…2-year-old, Caitlin sitting merrily in a sea of her Dad’s LP’s, being a frog (she tells us, after her Dad recovers from his shock) in a lily pond. She is herself from the first moment.
Jonah of the black hair and beautiful eyes; quick to smile—full no doubt of similar mischief waiting to be discovered—this child in his own life, the only Jonah, we bring to baptism today. We bring him here in the flesh. Maybe he will cry. Maybe he will get hungry. Maybe he will laugh. We pour wet water on his head. We light a fire and give it into his hand.
We are doing something in baptism that is as solid and particular as this child.
This only Jonah, God claims in this water and in this flame, body and soul.
And this is what happened to the disciples on Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost,
They were all together in the same place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance….
The Spirit comes upon the disciples in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection with the real force of a driving wind and it claims them.
This is no mere glimpse of the glory of God, after which we may carry on with our lives, satisfied. This is the power of God alive among us, the fire of the Spirit burning in our midst.
Lord, show us the Father. Philip does not know what he asks. For the God who reveals himself to us in Jesus the Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit is a burning and a shining fire, and he comes to claim and to change our lives.
The fire of God touches the disciples at Pentecost and they find themselves propelled out into the city, suddenly speaking good news to the world. From now on they are not only disciples but apostles, sent out to tell the world what has happened to them in Jesus Christ.
It is in the body, in this real life, that God loves us and calls us. In the body he walks with us in his son Jesus Christ, the feet of Jesus on the dusty roads, the hands of Jesus on the blind man’s eyes, and stretched out on the cross. It is in the body that he comes to us: to every-body, Peter and Andrew and James and John, and Mary the mother who bore him, who carried him like Jennifer carries this child Jonah in her arms.
Lord, show us the Father. He is here, Jesus says. I am here. Do you not know me? I am Emmanuel, the God who is with us, concretely, in the body and in the blood, in the crucified and risen One.
It is this God who comes to claim us in the fire of the Holy Spirit and in the water of baptism. The water we pour on Jonah’s head touches not just his head but his hands, his feet; cleanses and claims all of his life for the Lord who gave his life for him.
The disciples are propelled by the fire of the Holy Spirit that is in them out into the streets of the city and they speak there the Word of God’s salvation. Their lives, their voices, share now in God’s work, speaking hope to a whole world, starting from Jerusalem, all the way to Rome; speaking hope, speaking Christ in ways they could not have asked or imagined a few short hours before.
And this work of the Spirit in them has concrete results: from their words the church is born.
Our bishop still wears the sign of Pentecost flame on his head to mark our birth in that moment, in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and in the apostles’ witness to Christ crucified and risen, in the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
God chooses us from the first day of the world, body and soul. In the Christ he comes to us to save, in the body and the soul. And in the Spirit he claims us and sends us out for real results. It is our lives that God claims in Christ, on Pentecost and in this baptism. These particular lives, full of smiles and tantrums, first teeth and birthdays, Halloween costumes and scraped knees. The Spirit dwells among us in these our ordinary days like fire—to change our lives; to change our world.
What might this look like? It might look like a heart that slowly grows to know and to love the Lord. It might look like a life that learns to speak the love of the Lord to the world. It is in the small things that our lives are claimed. Listen to Ephesians (4:24-5:1). “Clothe yourselves with the new self, [created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.]…Let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members one of another….Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what builds people up….Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling…and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.” Lord, show us the Father. God is in the midst of us on this day, in the Son and in the HS, and he will change our lives, and he will change our world.
