Saturday, May 14, 2016
Pentecost ~ May 15, 2016
Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost
Year C ~ May 15, 2016
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
The Spirit of God fills
the whole earth,
as the waters cover the sea.
as the waters cover the sea.
+In
the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity
I probably
don’t hate slogans as much as I should. Some of them are useful, including many
associated with 12-step programs, such as FAKE
IT TILL YOU MAKE IT. In other words, pretend to something positive and it
may happen. Or, in a slightly less magical paraphrase, if you practice
something, it will become more and more of a reality.
OK. Hold that thought, as we turn to the experience of Konstantin
Petrovich Pobedonostsev, in English churches a century ago. He was one of the
most influential Russian intellectuals of the late 19th C. He is
considered in the West to be an arch-reactionary. He was, but there is more to
the story. Listen to this, for example,
In an English church, more than anywhere else, the thought occurs to the Russian, there are many good things here, yet I am thankful that I was born in Russia. In our churches all social distinctions are laid aside, we surrender our positions in the world and mingle completely in the congregation before the face of God. Our churches for the most part have been built with the money of the people; between rouble and grosh [dollar and penny] there is no distinction ; in all cases our churches are the work and the HERITAGE [appanage] of the whole people. The poorest beggar feels, with the greatest noble, that the church, at least, is his. The church is the only place (how happy are we to have one such place!) where the poorest man in rags will not be asked, "Why art thou here, and who art thou? " It is the only place where the rich may not say to the poor, "Your place is not beside me, but behind.
Pobedonostsev,
believed in the equality of human persons – not, to be sure, as actors in
political affairs, but as ikons of
God. The one place he found this sensibility in England was in the “Puseyist”
or ritualist, working-class, Anglo-Catholic churches. He described a baptism he
attended in one such parish.
In the first place it was on Sunday morning, as part of the main
liturgy, quite unusual at the time. The infant and her poor, young single
mother were met at the font by a procession of the whole choir, chanting as
they came, led by copious thurible, torches and bejeweled crucifix and clergy
arrayed in cloth-of-gold. The Russian reactionary
observed that no more pomp and solemnity could have been possible, had the
infant been a princess. Moreover, the poor woman was in no way shamed by her low
status. Indeed, she was treated with respect fit for a queen. This spirit Pobedonostsev understood, and he
applauded the theology it expressed: in the Kingdom of God there is no high or
low, rich or poor, male or female. The spirit in which the Anglo-Catholics conducted
the ceremony was, in fact, the Holy Spirit.
That is one meaning of Pentecost, I think:
the consciousness of the equal and ultimate worth of every person. In that
sense the Church is Heaven on Earth, the Kingdom come, where God’s will is done on earth as in heaven. Not only
does the liturgy reflect the beauty of heavenly realities, but in the radical, personal equality of all the communicants, the liturgy reveals an essential
aspect of the Glory of God.
It is easy enough to understand Pentecost
as the extension of the Covenant to all races and nations and peoples. That is
the clear meaning of the Tongues – the good news is for everyone equally,
without ethnic distinction. Furthermore, the Gospel is to be proclaimed in language understanded of the people, and
that means in a translation as much cultural
as linguistic. But as we congratulate ourselves on our insight that the descent
of the Holy Spirit means much more than miraculous glossolalia, let’s remember
that the Tongues of Fire also mean that the Apostles are to treat all the
various cultures equally. In the Church, there would be no degrees of
privilege, no inner circles, no higher or lower, no first or last. Catholicism implies diversity.
So far so good but there’s more. What is
true of race and culture is also true of social and economic class. Every
person is an equal participant in the Eucharistic Banquet that is the work of
the Holy Spirit. No one receives more or less than anyone else. That is also
the meaning of Pentecost.
Pentecost is the celebration of the giving of the Law. The Fire that inscribes the Commandments on the Stone Tablets on Sinai now writes the Law on our hearts at Jerusalem. We celebrate this Day as the birthday of the Church, the New Jerusalem, in which God’s Kingdom comes to earth. God’s Kingdom is a society of great diversity and perfect equality at the same time. Pentecost still celebrates the giving of the Law, and its fulfillment in the Messianic Jubilee, in which all inequality is corrected – judged in scriptural language. One might almost say that this perfecting of the Law in the Spirit is socialist!
Pentecost is the celebration of the giving of the Law. The Fire that inscribes the Commandments on the Stone Tablets on Sinai now writes the Law on our hearts at Jerusalem. We celebrate this Day as the birthday of the Church, the New Jerusalem, in which God’s Kingdom comes to earth. God’s Kingdom is a society of great diversity and perfect equality at the same time. Pentecost still celebrates the giving of the Law, and its fulfillment in the Messianic Jubilee, in which all inequality is corrected – judged in scriptural language. One might almost say that this perfecting of the Law in the Spirit is socialist!
And so, our liturgical calling is to act as if this impossibly good thing
were actually true. Fake it till you make
it. Paul had some rather unpleasant things to say to the Corinthians about those
unwilling to do so, who shamed the poor at coffee hour! He called such class consciousness
failure to recognize the Body of Christ, a rejection of the Holy Spirit akin to
blasphemy. He went so far as to say that people who received Communion
harboring this delusion courted mortal disaster.
So, in Church, we act as if – we fake it till
we make it. To think that hypocritical is a mistake. We may not be able to
treat others as well outside the liturgy. OK. Maybe not, but how will we ever
learn if we won’t even try for an
hour or two on Sunday? As the pagan Philosopher
pointed out, we can only acquire virtue by practicing it. The liturgy gives us
an opportunity to practice. Our ceremonial expressions of love and equal regard
may NOT come out of deeply felt conviction – yet – but conviction will come with practice. We
become what we pretend to be. Fake it
till you make it.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem notices that the
Holy Gospel according to St. John compares the Holy Spirit to water, nourishing
a plant. It’s a process of growth. The process is gentle and subtle:
The Spirit comes gently and makes Herself known by Her fragrance. The Spirit is felt not as a burden, for the Spirit is light – very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before Her as She approaches…The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind first of the one who receives Her, and then, through that person the minds of others as well.
As light strikes the eyes of those who come out of darkness into the sunshine and enables them to see clearly things they could not see before, so light floods the souls of those counted worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit and enables them to see things beyond the range of human vision, things hitherto undreamed of.
ALLELUIA!
THE SPIRIT OF GOD FILLS
THE WHOLE EARTH,
AS THE WATERS
COVER THE SEA.
COVER THE SEA.
ALLELUIA!
