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PENTECOST 6/5/22
by Pastor Mark Patzke
Sometimes advice columnists actually come up with pretty good advice, from newspapers, radio, or podcasts, depending on where you might come across them. This one goes back quite a way, to the days of Ann Landers and Dear Abby. I’m sure I remember it because my mother pointed it out to me, thinking I might learn something.
The letter was written by a twelve-year-old girl: Dear Abby, I have a little brother who is six and a big sister who is fifteen. My sister goes out on baby-sitting jobs and gets paid. When she’s gone I have to stay home with my little brother, and I would call this “sitting,” but I don’t get paid for it. I don’t think this is fair. Don’t you think when I stay home with my little brother I should be paid like a sitter? I would like to get what’s coming to me. Thank you, Karen.
To which Abby replied: Dear Karen, If you got “what’s coming to you,” you wouldn’t be able you sit for a week!”
You can see Abby thinks that attitude of Karen’s deserves a little “ouch,” which I believe my mother thought I should understand when I got to griping about having to care for my three little sisters.
Ponder with me for a moment what you and I have coming to us in these days — having made our confession of sin to God at the beginning of the service, we could be more specific and add up all the selfishness, the infractions, deficiencies, the deceits and defiances we commit in God’s sight — what their consequences and penalties should be under God’s judgment. Then give a sigh of relief and a deep, sincere, loving “thank you” that, instead of giving us what we’ve got coming to us, God gives us what we need — better than getting paid for sitting, God gives us something nobler, something finer, something higher than what gets dangled on a stick in front of us by the lures and temptations of this earthly life.
God gives us a portion of a different set of values than the promoters of money, style, and power offer us. God gives us a burst of genuine hope and genuine joy that makes even the most troubling day a mystery of wonder and hope that God’s hand and will should even be a part of it.
God breathes new life into our souls and gives us what we need — God gives us the Holy Spirit. God gives us Pentecost.
To a room full of disciples -- still hiding out even after experiencing the risen Christ -- desperately lacking inspiration, confused, depressed, fearful that Christ’s persecutors will crucify them as well, afraid of getting what was coming to them for their brash, illogical decision to leave everything behind and follow Jesus of Nazareth — to them the risen and ascended Lord sends his Holy Spirit. Just what they needed.
With the sound of a rushing, mighty wind, with the appearance of tongues of flame above their heads, with the clear utterance of languages capable of transforming its hearers and leading them to the true Savior, even though spoken by largely uneducated Galileans — through all of this comes the confirmation that the life joined to Christ in faith is a life well-lived, filled with purpose and directed by a loving God’s unfailing hand, a life of peace. We all become empowered by Christ’s own breath to be a living witness to our families, friends, neighbors, and even strangers of the great and mighty saving deed of God. That’s what’s coming to us. That’s what we need.
This is what Pentecost is about. It’s about having Jesus’ crushing victory over sin and death as a presence within us. It’s about having a clear vision that the purpose of the Church is to claim our community and our world for Jesus Christ and his way of life, to bring the Kingdom of Christ into individual lives by showing them Christ’s love because we are being loved personally and intimately. It’s about being excited that Christ’s promises get fulfilled in the world daily.
As we know all too well, none of this occurs without challenge and opposition from this world and its Prince of Darkness that thinks and acts all too differently and tries to ensnare us in its ways. There are illnesses and material setbacks that shake our trust. There are pastors with cancer to whom we sadly say farewell and godspeed and must hand over to another stage of life. There is danger and violence that makes us feel powerless and fear for our children’s security and future. There is waste and insanity, world hunger, crooks and scoundrels running entire nations, which gives us ample reason to lower our expectations of what faith and the Church can actually accomplish in this world. Maybe it seems you don’t get listened to and what you stand for is always ignored. Do others not care as much as you do and everyone is leaving it all up to you, and you are so tired? How do followers of Jesus keep going?
When you have a teacher in your family, like I do, you hear stories like this. Sometimes the Church seems like the high school where things were falling apart, so the mayor and superintendent met with the principal to discuss the matter. “What is your biggest problem?” the mayor asked. “Dropouts,” the principal answered. “In the past month alone, we’ve had 14 dropouts.” “That’s intolerable,” replied the mayor. “We’ve got to find out what we’re doing wrong, make the necessary changes, and get those kids back in the classroom.”
“I’m afraid you don’t understand,” said the principal. “The 14 dropouts were teachers!”
If the teachers represent the faithful believers in the Church who have been given a life-giving message to share in word and deed to a world of students who are without a link to the loving God who reaches out to them, and it is so hard to reach them, no wonder teachers drop out. I was seeing back in the 1970s and ‘80s that so many of my generation, the Baby-boomers, were leaving the Church because they couldn’t relate to it. Then they raised children with even less connection to the Church than they had, and they raised children even more distant from the faith.
It was an eye-opening and telling lesson one time when I was getting a haircut. It was a Friday afternoon, and the young woman cutting my hair was so looking forward to the weekend, getting off her feet and relaxing with her little girl. When she asked what I planned to do, she couldn’t grasp the concept that I, a Lutheran pastor, on the other hand, was going to have a very busy weekend, with a youth lock-in, and sermon preparation and leading worship on Sunday. “Oh, do you do that often?” she asked. Well, yah! Every Sunday, every Sunday — we have worship every Sunday! “Oh” was her simple, meek reply.
Thank you, Lord, for putting me in the position of opening her eyes perhaps even one little bit to a world of commitment, hope, and service. Actually, I don’t think I’ve left more church business cards in any place more than in Supercuts.
We can rejoice and be inspired that, rather than giving us what’s coming to us, we have a God who gives us what we really need, to empower us to give ourselves away for the redemption of this broken world. We can’t afford to lose teachers of true Life and Freedom in Christ when there are so many students of un-life and un-faith in the world around us.
The good news is, there was such a group of spiritual dropouts, fearful and leaderless, huddled behind locked doors in crowded Jerusalem on the Jewish festival of Pentecost so long ago. And God saw their need. With the sound of wind and sight of flame, God inspired them, creating the Church of diverse languages that transforms people’s lives and leads them to a true Savior, who brings a deep and lasting peace into their lives.
God sees our needs and sends the Holy Spirit, inviting us, urging us to apply that Spirit to our lives, to take on commitments where needed and we are the right person; to be willing to put ourselves in the places where we will grow in that Spirit — hearing the holy Word, receiving the Sacrament — finding that God has led us to just the place to be to share that Spirit of Truth. And also, so importantly, giving us times to simply rest in the Spirit, and let the strong name of Jesus uphold us when we get so very tired.
The Spirit is an Advocate — an advocate of God’s righteousness and judgment. The Spirit stands up for what is right in God’s sight and brings true fulfillment and wholeness in life, and stands against the powers that cut people off from God.
God sends us what we need, so that we stand up for righteousness, so our lives will stand up for what is true about God. It will show us where to stand and who to stand with when the privileges and power are handed out; when the food pantries are empty; when the guns blaze on the battlefield or in the classroom or grocery store; when the student or co-worker grieves or is depressed.
God sends us what we need. It is a power fueled by prayer, by caring for one another, by such simple things as holy words and sacred music and bread and wine. They are here for us now because God sees we need them.
So let the mighty tide of God rush in again. The Day of Pentecost is here! It is eager to lift us to new heights of service, devotion, and love. This is what we really need.
