Christ Community Lutheran Church

             Pastor’s Message

We are now in the longest season of the church year, Pentecost. The Day of Pentecost celebrates that day when the sound of a rushing wind filling the place where the Disciples were gathered.  People were being drawn in great numbers. The tongues of fire were on the heads of the disciples, soon to be called Apostles. Then the preaching in all the various languages to those who comprised the crowd that day.  Tremendously exciting stuff! People were bewildered, confused, excited. Then there was the preaching of Peter.  The sermon was short and sweet, probably the most effective sermon in human history, converting over three thousand with one short talk.  Of course, we know by our theology that it is not the sermon, but the Spirit of God that worked so powerfully through the Word.  That day was the day of the first pouring out of the Holy Spirit among us.  Pentecost is the festival and season of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's mission is to draw all people to Christ, so that Christ may bring all glory to God the Father.  We read in scripture that, “in the beginning, the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.” The Spirit appeared at the baptism of Christ, descending in the form of a dove. There are many references by Jesus to the sending of the Spirit, the Comforter upon His departure. Dismissing the personhood of the Spirit is an act of unbelief in which we dismiss the power of the Word of God itself. The Holy Spirit is not seen, which means that it has no physical body. That doesn't mean that the Spirit is not observed or observable.  It means that when we observe the Spirit, it is by observation of the effects or works of the Spirit, primarily through acts of love and forgiveness.                                                                  

I find it interesting to hear the way fundamentalist Christians of our age talk about the Spirit. They reject that the Spirit works through the means of grace - Word and Sacrament. 

They claim that they can call the Spirit down by their own devotion and emotion, claiming, as Luther puts it, that they have “swallowed the Spirit, feathers and all!”  But they refuse to believe that the Spirit works through Word and Sacrament as tools, as the very means to create faith. Paul wrestled with such people in His day.  This issue is addressed in 1 Corinthians, from chapter twelve through chapter fourteen. In chapter twelve he wrestles with the false theologies of "gifts". In Chapter thirteen he tells us about the greatest gift of the Spirit, love.  And in chapter fourteen, he addresses the false ideas about speaking in tongues.  In each case, Paul reverses the natural prideful human order of things and places humility and witness to the Gospel first and human experience and pride last. Paul dismisses speaking in tongues as a relatively undesirable gift, when he says: “I would rather speak five words with my mind, that I may instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”  He goes on to tell the Corinthians -and us - that hearing the Word of God in an unknown language is a curse - a sign for unbelievers - and not a blessing at all.                                              

We Lutherans celebrate the “gift” of the Holy Spirit, and not as something we conjure up, but something that God gives to us freely, through Word and Sacrament. We believe that the Holy Spirit is given to each of us by Grace as a free gift. And we believe that the primary work of the Holy Spirit is pointing us to the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. We don't need to look for great signs in order to reveal His presence in us, or among us, we simply take God at His Word. We see the Holy Spirit in the waters of Baptism - which is why we believe that baptism converts our infants and joins them to Christ eternally in faith. The Pentecost Season gives us time to focus on these truths, and we celebrate them each time we sing hymns, read scripture, preach, take communion, and baptize.  Where the Word of God is being taught in all its truth and purity, and where the Sacraments are being administered according to Christ's institution of them, there we see the work of the Holy Spirit.

For we know from the Bible that the Spirit works in and through the means of Grace, and creates the Church by gathering God's holy people. 

Now, there are no Pentecost Cards for sale.  There is no candy treats associated with the day.  We don't observe the custom of gift-giving, and there are no Pentecost-Carols on the radio. So Pentecost doesn't seem to be such a big deal. But Pentecost is an important season in the life of the Church.  It is the season of the Holy Spirit, and it is the anniversary of the day God kick-started the Church on earth. On Pentecost, God publically gave the Spirit to us as the creator and perfector of our faith, our comforter, and as His continual presence among His holy people. Pentecost is the “long-haul” for Christians.  It is that time when we rely on the Spirit to call, gather, enlighten and inspire us to greater faith, hope and love. Have a wonderful Pentecost Season!                             

In Christ,

Pastor Paul