The Day of Pentecost
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There’s no place like home. Dorothy longed for it in the Wizard of Oz. We take it for granted in our childhood. We spend the better part of our adult lives trying to create it for ourselves. And we often spend the final years of lives longing for it again. We spend a greater percentage of our time at home than anywhere else—thanks in no small part to the time we spend sleeping. And yet, despite the fact that so much of our life revolves around home, the sad fact is that a true home always seems to illude us. Maybe you have moved so frequently that you’re not quite sure where home is anymore. Maybe your kids have moved out, and so the home that you’ve always lived in feels empty and a lot less like home. Maybe aging has forced you to move out of your long-time home and into an unfamiliar place. Maybe it’s a realization that the end is near. Eventually, one way or another, the reality will hit us that the home we thought we had is only temporary. On this side of glory, a true home will always illude us.
The reason why a true home will always illude us in this life is that humanity lives in rebellion against our creator. In the Garden of Eden, man rebelled against God. They refused to heed His warning, and so they ate of the forbidden tree. As a punishment for this rebellion, the Lord God banished them from the home for which they had been made. And the cherub with a flaming sword guarded the door to paradise so that man could not return. They were forced to “make the best of it” and to make and find their own home—however temporary it might be.
And so, generations later, the peoples of the earth gathered together to make a glorious home for themselves—one of which they could be proud, as it would unite humanity together in one place in the home which they were so desperate to create for themselves. But the Lord God was displeased with man’s attempt to rid themselves of the curse and to cast aside the Lord’s command to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28; cf. also 9:1). And so, He came down and confused their language, scattering them across the face of the earth. For in their rebellion against God, humanity has been banished to a life of wandering—a life of homelessness, as it were. For apart from Him and His ways, we will never find a true home.
But God would not leave His people alone. He would not allow them to be homeless forever. For that which is missing from humans since the fall into sin is not so much a lack of a place to call home. What sinful humans are truly missing is the presence of God. For the thing that made Eden Adam and Eve’s home was the very presence of God with them there. And the reason why man’s best efforts, even at Babel, cannot yield a permanent home is because we cannot manufacture the presence of God. And without the presence of God, there is no true home.
Therefore, God determined to resolve our problem for us. He would make His home among us: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). And so it is that Christ Jesus made His home among us—as a human. God became enfleshed. Heaven has come to earth. He is Immanuel. Our God is with us. And so, Christ traveled throughout the land preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, healing diseases, casting out demons, and setting things back to the way they were supposed to be.
But even this was only temporary. The heavenly home that the disciples thought they had with their Lord and master very quickly came crashing down as the Jews plotted, infiltrated the inner circle, and put Christ to death. But Christ was not merely an innocent victim of a vicious scheme. Nor did His death spell an end to humanity’s hope for an eternal home. In fact, the death of Christ is the key to restoring humanity to God.
And as we said, humanity’s greatest lack is not the absence of a true home. In fact, humanity’s greatest lack is also not banishment from the presence of God. It’s much more fundamental than that. Humanity’s greatest lack is a broken relationship with God. Our problem is that we are not worthy to be in the presence of God on account of our sin. And so, Christ’s death was necessary to make atonement for your sins. His blood shed upon the cross quelled the wrath of God the Father so that through faith in Jesus, you are made right with God. You are cleansed to be in His presence, just as you were made to be. And so, the temporary presence of Christ on this earth was making way for something more and better. As He said concerning the believer: “We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23).
And so it is that the Day of Pentecost arrived. And the great and mighty rushing wind coupled with the tongues of fire signaled the coming of the Holy Spirit. His presence filled the apostles, and they began the preach and spread the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth. And though it doesn’t seem glamorous or spectacular, this is the answer to humanity’s lack. This is the reversal of humanity’s curse. This is the answer to the homelessness which plagues humanity’s existence on this side of glory. God has come to dwell with and in His people. He has come to make us His home.
It doesn’t seem glamorous or spectacular, and it’s not what Hollywood teaches us to dream of, but the coming of the Holy Spirit grants us the true home which otherwise illudes us. In the waters of Holy Baptism, the same Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost made His home in you. We were blessed to witness another instance of this a week ago at this very font. But the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost or at the font is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning of God making His home with us. For Christ says that when the Holy Spirit comes: “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26b). Now, these words were a promise made to the apostles. For we have nothing to remember about Christ. We were not there for His life, death, and resurrection. But Christ promised that when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles at Pentecost, He began to teach them all things and to bring to their remembrance what Christ has said to them. The Spirit then inspired these apostles to write down the things that we need to know in sacred Scripture.
And so, when we pick up the Bible and read its pages, we are reading the Spirit-inspired witness of the men who were tasked with passing on the faith to the entire Christian Church. Through the pages of sacred Scripture, God continues to bless us. He uses these ordinary words to nurture faith in our hearts, so that we might be convicted of our sins, and so that repenting of our sins we might believe the Gospel afresh and live joyfully in the presence of God even now.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is not the end. It is merely the beginning of our new home. And so, in just a few moments, Carley and Julia, you will have the opportunity to stand before this congregation and reaffirm your baptismal faith. You will confess before God and this congregation that the Holy Spirit who began to work faith in your hearts in baptism is still teaching and instructing you today to lead you into the fullness of your true and eternal home.
But that home is not fully ours yet. Christ grants us to participate in this home even now, but our participation in the home for which we were made is mediated through Christ’s Church. For it is here and here alone that the Holy Spirit offers us Christ’s gifts of Word and Sacrament. And they are the only way for us to be sustained in the faith and brought to our eternal home in the end. And so, it is imperative that we come here regularly—and by regularly I mean weekly.
For the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh are constantly seeking to draw us away from Christ. The temptations of the world are real. The promise of finding a permanent home in this world is alluring. And yet, it is an empty promise. Only Christ can grant us an eternal home. Though it does not seem glamorous or spectacular, the Church is the only place where the Holy Spirit promises to come to us. This is the only place where a true home does not illude us.
May God the Holy Spirit keep each one of us faithful in Christ’s Church. And may He keep you especially, Carley and Julia, in Christ’s Word until Christ returns and grants us our place in the true and eternal home which shall never pass away.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
