God-In-Us

Scripture: Pentecost, A.D. 2014 A

Sermon:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

Most of us are familiar with Dante’s Inferno, his vision of what Hell, what separation from God, would be like. Fewer have read Dante’s Paradise, the poet’s description of eternal heavenly bliss.

Dante imagines God as a point of infinitely bright light, surrounded by the angels and saints of Heaven. There’s no way that any one being, saint or angel, can possibly see the fullness of God’s glory. He is simply too bright, too intense. But every additional citizen of Heaven—every newly saved soul who joins in the throng—reflects in some small way the aspect of God that only he or she, and no one else, can see. Every angel and every saint acts like a little mirror offering to everyone else a vision of God, a side of God, that we cannot see on our own. When a new soul enters into Dante’s Heaven, it’s as though everyone already there meets God anew, for every single person reflects God in a way that no one else can.

Pentecost is a lot like that. At Pentecost, the 50th day following the Easter Passover of our Lord, there are devout men from every nation under heaven gathered in Jerusalem. The Virgin Mary and Twelve Apostles have gathered in the Upper Room—that same room wherein Jesus shared His Last Supper, and appeared to the disciples on the morning of His Resurrection. Then a violent wind rushes through the house, and tongues of flame alight upon the Apostles. Fire and wind remind us of when God, in days of old, descended upon Mt. Sinai to give Moses the Law; or when He appeared to Elijah, greatest of the wonderworking prophets, in fire and whirlwind and silence.

This is the descent of the Holy Spirit, Whom Christ has sent from Heaven so as not to leave His family orphaned. The Holy Spirit is none other than the Spirit of God, Who hovered over the waters of Creation, Who left the burning bush unharmed in the sight of Moses, and Who descended upon Christ as a dove in the Jordan. The Spirit is the personified love of God, the outpouring of self that the Father offers to the Son and the Son returns to the Father. This love, this Spirit, is what makes God One, an eternal family in perfect harmony.

The Holy Spirit is the continuation of God-With-Us in the world: not hidden in a Temple as in the days of Solomon; not even walking beside us as Christ walked on earth; but the Holy Spirit is the presence of God Who now dwells in us. At Pentecost, God comes to live inside of you. And He does this for one simple reason: so that you can be Jesus now. Let that sink in for a bit.

In Jesus Christ, God became one of us. He was born like us, grew like us, lived like us, laughed and loved and lost like us, and finally died like us. In Jesus, God became a human in every way but sin, all so that we might be saved in Him. He taught us, healed us, fed us, rebuked us, forgave us, and raised us up from the dead. Now it’s our turn to do the same. At the Last Supper Jesus gave to us His Body and Blood; at Pentecost He pours out upon us His Holy Spirit. And when we have the Body and Blood and Spirit of Jesus, well—what does that make us? It makes us Jesus. He has gathered us as members to make up His Body, and breathed into us the new life of God’s Spirit, just as when He made Adam. So now we are a New Creation, the new Body of Christ. Now we are the Church.

Our mission as the Church is to keep on doing what Jesus does for all the people of this world: loving them, serving them, healing them, helping them, freeing them, forgiving them, and, yes, dying for them—so that we may all enter into eternal life. This may seem daunting or frightening or simply ridiculous. After all, we’re not like Jesus, are we? We’re sinners. We’re broken. We think and say and do horrible, hateful things. Who are we to save the world, when we cannot even save ourselves? How can we offer holiness, when we are so in need of it ourselves?

And here is where we must take heart, because we are not Jesus alone. We are not called to take the weight of the world upon our individual shoulders. But when we act as one—when we realize that billions of Christians throughout the world and in every age all make up a single Body, animated by the Holy Spirit of Christ—then, as Jesus promised, we will do even greater things than He did when He walked the earth. Each one of us has something different to offer. Each one of us reflects in some small way a vision of God that no one else can see without us. Yes, we are all one in Christ Jesus, but in all becoming one we each individually become more unique.

Every Christian has a special role to play. Some will be very public and others quite secret. Some will seem miraculous, and others quite mundane. Yet it is the same Spirit Who works in all of us, Who moves us all to confess that Jesus is Lord. As Paul writes, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God Who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, and so to each of us.

Just look to the wondrous variety of the saints throughout history! The Church celebrates soldiers and peacemakers, explorers and hermits, curmudgeons and optimists, mystics and poets, scientists and philosophers, laborers and farmers, parents with enormous families and monks who live lives of celibate service. Each of these is as different from every other as are the parts of our own bodies. What has a hand in common with an eyeball, or a spleen with the hair of our heads? Yet just as each part of us serves for the health of the whole, so does each member of Christ’s Body work towards the salvation of the world in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What gifts has the Spirit given to you? Are you called to teach the next generation or write the great American novel? Are you called to build boats or machine tools? Are you called to raise children in the faith at home, or to serve your country abroad? Perhaps you can prophesy. Perhaps you can heal. Perhaps you can even work miracles. I don’t know how the Spirit moves in each. But I do know that together the Spirit will lead us in wondrous adventures and miraculous deeds. And I know that the greatest gifts of the Spirit are offered to all: the gifts of faith and hope and love; the gifts of Word and Sacrament; the gifts of grace.

After Pentecost, God lives inside of you, which is an astounding truth. And He does so that you may, in your own way, continue the work of Christ in this world—so that you may be a “little Christ” in the service of your neighbor. One Body doesn’t mean that we are all alike; what it does mean is that we all are one. Everything that we do is holy, when we remember that God is with us in it. Everyone whom we encounter is holy, when we recall that God seeks to dwell within all humankind. And every aspect of your life is holy because God has chosen to make of you His home. No one can reflect God in quite the way that you can.

I want each of us to remember this when we are toiling at work, mowing the lawn, changing diapers, traveling overseas, reading a book, fighting an illness, mourning a death, learning a skill, or sitting in prayer and contemplation. Whatever we do, let us offer it to God, for God is with us in all things. Offer to Him your joys and fears and chores and boredom and wonder and thanks and pain and doubt. He will use them for the good of His entire Body; He will use them for the salvation of His world.

Someday we will all be gathered before the Beatific Vision of our God. Someday every corner of Heaven will be that much brighter, that much more joyful, for our arrival there. Someday we will shine with the Light of Christ in a way that no other human being ever has or ever will. Until that day of clarity and truth, let us remember that we are called to live out this vision of Heaven here and now on earth.

Thanks be to Christ, Who sends His Spirit to dwell within us. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.