Pentecost tells the story of the roar of God’s hurricane, with a blast of fire from heaven and the unexpected transforming energy of the Holy Spirit. That first Pentecost turned the tables on the spineless apostles huddled together in an Upper Room in Jerusalem. That Spirit turned the apostles upside down, sent them out into the streets of Jerusalem and made them witnesses. The Spirit made the ones who abandoned Jesus into the ones proclaiming his presence and bringing together the scattered people of God.
The Spirit does not work among the high and mighty, among the powerful and influential, among the haughty and self assured. Notice the people whom the prophet Joel cites as the ones who will receive the Holy Spirit: “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
Not to all the people in power, to the rich and influential, to the comfortable and secure, to none of these people does the Spirit come. The Spirit comes to all on the outside: to the young both women and men, to the old and forgotten, to the slaves, the lowest on the social pecking order. If today, you feel yourself on the outside, if today you feel excluded, powerless and without influence, know that today the Spirit is looking for you, to raise you up, to strengthen your weakness, to give you power, to claim your place as God’s beloved ones.
Notice that the Spirit is working to bring together the diverse people of God. People from around the world gathered in Jerusalem for that first Pentecost. The Spirit drew together into one people the various groups. They found their new common identity as God’s children, as the ones selected by the Spirit as witnesses to Jesus, as those called into the new community of faith and love.
The Spirit continues to draw together people different and diverse, variously gifted and talented, forming a new church even among us. When we gather together every week, some common bonds unite us before we arrive. Some of us know each other as friends. We engage in social activities together, perhaps live in the same city or came here from another church.
When we answer the call of the Spirit to assemble in this place, we are invited to discover one another not as friends in a social club. We are invited to discover one another as children of God, united by bonds deeper than the links of a social club. We are invited to look into our hearts and souls and find God calling us together as a church, as God’s people, as witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection.
Today marks a very special event. Today Natalya will be baptized as a child of God, as a member of Christ’s Body, as a temple of the Holy Spirit. All through the years while you were growing up in the church, the Holy Spirit was preparing your heart for this special day. All through the years when you were training to become a teacher, the Holy Spirit was forming your heart for this time. The Holy Spirit did the unexpected for you, brought you to the Episcopal Church where you found your new home, where you found that balance between the Roman and the Evangelical churches to find yourself among this community of God’s people.
Most of us find ourselves among God’s chosen people, not singled out for the prestige of the world, but among those beloved by our God. Our God dwells on the edge and calls people from the edge to the center of God’s heart.
Natalya, you join all of us who are discovering day by day that we are among God’s beloved daughters and sons, called to experience how deeply we are loved by God, called to share that love by loving others, God’s least and God’s forgotten. Today all of us will recommit ourselves with you to the Baptismal covenant we made when most of us were children. We recommit ourselves to live in this community as God’s chosen people. That connection of mind and heart unites us to one another in ways deeper than the superficial links of a social group.
May we all discover anew that spiritual connection of mind and heart that communion of spirits in God’s Spirit, that promise God makes to us every Pentecost. May we feel that fire burn in our hearts, linking our hearts one to another in the communion of that sweet Holy Spirit.