June 8, 2003 - Pentecost - Father Fred Myers

FIRST READING: Ezekial 37: 1-14
SECOND READING: Acts 2: 1-21
GOSPEL: John 15: 26-27; 16: 4b-15

I don't know about you, but I really like birthday parties. I love birthday parties. In my family, when I was growing up, birthdays were special days for my sister and me, and every time our birthday came around, we had a special celebration. We had a special celebration on my birthday, because it was the Fourth of July. I thought everybody was celebrating my birthday! We had fireworks, and we had everything! I even had a birthday cake that was decorated in red, white, and blue. I don't remember anything about my day of birth, but my mother used to tell us stories about our days of birth on our birthday. My mother said to me, "Well, that was a great day. You ruined two picnics - the doctor's and ours". Great! Great way to enter into the world!

But days of birth. . . . Think about your birthday - the day that you were born. It was the day that you took your first breath - that you breathed in and were able to live on your own. You were given life. You were given that precious gift of life, and you began that journey that you call your life. And, each year, you get a day to celebrate that. Each year, you get a day to give thanks to God for 365 days from the last time you celebrated your birthday. And you also are able to give thanks to God for 365 more days, perhaps, that you will be able to be on your journey - your life's journey.

Well, traditionally, in the Church, on Pentecost, we celebrate the birth of the Church, and, of course, we know that the Church existed in God's mind long before Pentecost. As Jesus was gathering His disciples and teaching them and being an example for them, the Church really began there. The Church - that entity, that thing that we call this gathering of people - the Church. On that day of Pentecost, the first Church members, if you will, were gathered together, and they were celebrating. They were celebrating a holiday - Pentecost. And, suddenly, among them, there was the wind - that gasp of air, that first gasp of air, if you will - of new life, of birth in a community of people who had come together. They were probably a little perplexed about what had taken place in their lives, because this happened after the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord. They were probably wondering, "What is going on now? What do we do now?" And, all of a sudden, it occurred to them, or they became aware that they had new life - they had new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them. In our Gospel, we heard Jesus say, "I have to go. I have taught you everything that I can teach you now - everything that you are able to understand - I have taught you, but, now, it is time for Me to go. But, be aware! There is going to be a helper for you. There is going to be an advocate." Astrengthener, a comforter, whatever you want to call it, but it is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like the wind - the breath of God - breathing on them and saying, "Go, now. You are empowered to do My work - to spread the Gospel, to spread the Good News of God's love in the world".

The Spirit of God hasn't given up. The Spirit of God is still very much within us, and each one of us has taken in that breath and have become whole, have become real, and we have been given the gift of life to spread the Gospel of God, to spread the love that God has given us. The Church - that entity of people who come together, who have been baptized, who have been given new life through their baptism in the Spirit of God - gathers together as we are gathered together here.

Very soon, our Church leaders are going to be gathering in Minneapolis for the General Convention, and we pray that the Holy Spirit will be among them, to give them new life - to re-create the Church as it goes along, as it moves along in history, as we have moved along in our own history. We pray that the Holy Spirit will be upon the delegates and our Bishops, and that they will listen, and that they will hear that wind of God that will be breathing through them.

Today, we celebrate. We celebrate the birthday of the Church, and we have a prayer in our prayer book that I like very much for those who are having birthdays. But, this time, I would like to pray for the Church, because I think that the words are meaningful and helpful and have significance. We pray: "O God, our times are in Your hands" - the time of the Church, our time right now, the time of the Church is in God's hands right now. And we pray that God "will look with favor on the servant" - the servant, the Church - look with favor on God's servant, the Church, as they begin another year. Grant the Church may grow in wisdom and may grow in grace, and we pray that God will strengthen the trust of the Church in the goodness of God, all the days of its life. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

God has given you the gift of life - the breath, the breath of God. You took it in the day of your birth. Keep breathing it. Keep breathing the breath of God. I love that hymn, "Breathe on me, O breath of God". Be the Church; spread the Gospel; spread the Good News of God's love to all the world. That is what we are called to do. That is why we have been given life. And this we do in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us celebrate. Let us come to the banquet table, and let us celebrate the birthday of that entity we call the Church.

AMEN