Pentecost

Happy Birthday to the Church! Today we celebrate Pentecost, the birth of the Church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and on all who are called by God. We can celebrate today God’s gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But who is the Holy Spirit?

When we think of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit it is easier for us to imagine the first two persons of the Godhead. The Father as creator, as the one sitting on the throne, even His name conjures up images we can understand. The Son, Jesus Christ: we have four Gospel’s describing His life from birth to crucifixion from the miracle to the resurrection. We see Jesus as the man who walked this earth and who has that personal touch with us today.

But what about the Holy Spirit? Another name for the Holy Spirit is Holy Ghost but with the medias view of ghosts this doesn’t give us a clear or good picture of the Holy Spirit, part of the Godhead and not an apparition of a dead person haunting this earth. We do have symbols that convey the image of the Holy Spirit. All our paraments today have red in them, which represents the fire of the Holy Spirit, the flames that appeared on the heads of the Apostles on that first Pentecost. And there is the image of the dove, the form the Holy Spirit took when He descended to Jesus at His Baptism.

But I would like to take another approach today to describe the Holy Spirit for us. Martin Luther, in his explanation to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed used five words to describe the Holy Spirit: Called, Gathered, Enlightened, Sanctified and Kept. Each of these words describes how the Spirit works in our lives. Lets explore these five words.

Called

The Holy Spirit calls us to the Christian faith. It is the Holy Spirit that works in our hearts and minds to bring us to Jesus. Now when we think of call we think of either some one using a phone to call us or calling us to do something, to respond to a request. That is definitely part of the call of the Holy Spirit but it goes much deeper. The Bible is very clear that we are dead in our sin. We can do nothing spiritually to come to God or even respond to His calling. So how does the Holy Spirit’s calling work? The Holy Spirit not only calls us to believe but moves us to faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is doing all the work in our being called a child of God.

The Holy Spirit calls each and every one of us to a faith life in Jesus. He moves us to belief through His means of grace – the Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is an individual call but it is also based in a community, which leads us to the next word Luther used.

Gathered

The Holy Spirit not only calls each one of us individually but He gathers us in to the body of Christ – the Church. We are gathered here today because the Holy Spirit brought you here. It is the Holy Spirit that joins the Church together with Christ as the head. We gather together to build each other up through the Word and Sacraments as each person works for the greater good of the whole body of Christ. We are unified by the Holy Spirit that gathers us, here at Mount Olive, and also in the whole world and throughout all time as the Church.

An interesting note in our Acts text just before the reading for today. In the list of nations two unusual names come up – Medes and Elamites. Why are they unusual? Because at the time of Christ it is thought that these people groups don’t exists anymore. They are names from the past. Why are they included? Well we really don’t know for sure but it could be a way of showing the eternal

nature of God’s Word that forms His Church. While the Spirit gathers us as Mount Olive we are also connected to the gathered Church of all time and place.

Enlightened

The Spirit calls, gathers and enlightens us. Another way of stating enlighten is understanding. The Holy Spirit gives us understanding in God’s Word and in God’s way in this world. Without The Spirit there would be no understanding of God’s grace and mercy. We can’t reason our faith out alone. The Holy Spirit enlightens us.

Our Genesis passage this morning makes it very clear how confused we are. Our pride got in the way and we wanted to be like God and make a name for ourselves. God in His gracious will confused us to keep us from going down the wrong path of foolish pride. But we still live in the confusion of our sin.

Let me describe our confusion in another way. Advertisers are always trying to get the message out for a particular product in a catchy way. But often they run into trouble when they try to convey their message to a foreign audience. Here are some examples:

· When Chevrolet took the Nova to Latin America, they neglected the fact that in Spanish the name meant, “Won't go.”

· Pepsi's campaign in Taiwan translated the invitation to “Come alive with Pepsi” into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back alive from the grave.”

· Eastern Airline's slogan “We earn our wings daily” promised in Spanish that passengers would arrive at their destination as angels.[2]

If we are that confused in trying to convey simple advertising messages can you imagine how confused we are when it comes to eternal matters? But the Holy Spirit doesn’t leave us in our confusion but grants us the gift of enlightenment, and understanding of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

Sanctified

The other side of the coin to enlightenment is sanctification. That is a “church” word for obedience to God’s Word and Will. A sanctified life is one in which we follow God and obey Him. Again, by our own reason and strength we can do nothing. But the power of the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, allows us to lead a God pleasing life in Christ.

But we have another problem. We are impatient. We want results now. Why can’t I be the better person I want to be right now? Why can’t my life go smoothly? Why is it so hard for me to devote some of my life to prayer and devotion now? It is because we are still sinners and will not taste true “perfection” until we are with God in eternity. But we are on our way.

Luther said it this way, “This life is not a being holy but a becoming holy; it is not a being well but getting well; it is not inactivity but practice…As yet we are not what we ought to be, but we are getting there.”[3] We are in the process of being sanctified, of being able to follow God’s will. But it is still an incomplete process to be fulfilled in eternity. And it is all by the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.

Kept

Called, Gathered, Enlightened, Sanctified and Kept by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who keeps the Church, who preserves the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. It doesn’t take much for us to see how if it were left up to us we would have messed things up a long time ago. Just look at the history of the Christian church and you will see mistakes, tragedies and major failings. But yet the Church is still here and it is still proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Savior. Why? Not by our ability or might or even smarts; but by the Holy Spirit that keeps the Church throughout all time and place. It is the Holy Spirit that allows God’s Word to be preached and taught. It is the Holy Spirit that guides us in true wisdom and preserves the Church as a way for the message of God’s salvation in Christ to be proclaimed to the world.

When I think of “kept” I think of the popular passage our of Romans 8 where the Apostle Paul, in poetic form, tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. " (Romans 8:38-39, ESV)[4]

The Holy Spirit is a vital and important part of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit calls us, gathers us together, enlightens us through God’s Word to know Jesus, sanctifies us to live lives of love and witness to the world, and keeps us in the one true faith until life everlasting. Amen

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[1] Title taken from “Edit-O-Earl” from the LCMS website devotions based on the lectionary.

[2] Spoken by Susan Resneck Pierce, President of the University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, Washington in her inaugural address – taken from “Edit-O-Earl” devotions based on the lectionary on the LCMS website.

[3] Taken from The Lutheran, December 1999, “I'm an Advent Christian”.

[4] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.