There was a pastor who gathered up a group of volunteers to visit everyone in town and invite everyone to join the parish. One of the volunteers was especially nervous about making the visits. So the pastor encouraged her by stressing the power of prayer. “Before you go up and ring the doorbell,” he said, “just take a moment and talk to the Lord about it.” Nervously she agreed.
Later when the volunteers came back to give their report, the timid lady was bubbling with enthusiasm. “Father, what you told me about prayer really works,” she said. “As I put my finger on the doorbell, I prayed really hard that the people wouldn’t be home. And they weren’t!”
Sisters and brothers, isn’t it amazing how fear so can influence and shape our lives and actions. This poor parish volunteer was so frightened at the prospect of encountering someone she didn’t know that she prayed that it wouldn’t happen.
Our fears can indeed influence and shape our lives. The disciples gathered in the upper room as told by the Evangelist John were behind locked doors. They were there for fear of the Jews of that time who by now were beginning to lay plans to frustrate the astounding stories there were circulating about the Resurrection of Jesus. In the face of their fears, Jesus appears to them and speaks his familiar greeting of Peace as he gifts them with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit - a spirit of reconciliation, healing and forgiveness. It would be that same spirit that would continue to transform their fears into fearless courage as again the Spirit takes hold of them on that first Pentecost Sunday as told by Luke in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. From that moment on, the disciples would never be the same. They refused to let their fears determine their destiny. With the fire of God’s love in their hearts, they went forth that day and proclaimed the “mighty acts of God.” We are here this day because of them.
My friends these past years have presented our church with unprecedented challenges to our credibility. While scandal has sadly been part of the human history of our Church down through the centuries, that all too human face of the Church can make it ever more difficult for us to witness to the good news of Christ to a world that thrives on skepticism and doubt. Let us pray that our fears, our anger, our disappointment and our shame not be the final word to determine our future as a Church in this country. While we must learn from hard and painful lessons that these years have brought us, we must look to the future with hope as a Church that has been promised the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. We pray in the great sequence of this day, the Veni Sancte Spiritus - that the Spirit “heal our wounds, our strength renew - guide the steps that go astray.”
As the Body of Christ enlivened by the presence of the gift of the Spirit, let us work toward renewing the face of the earth by letting that same spirit continue to renew and purify our Church. May the Spirit that brought courage to the disciples, give us the courage and wisdom to learn the hard lessons of this moment, to drink deeply of the Spirit of Truth, as we struggle to bring the healing message of Christ to a wounded world.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.
The overwhelming opening of Fantasia Super: Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, performed by Leo van Doeselaar for All of Bach, refers almost literally to the opening lines of Acts 2 from the Bible, which say about Pentecost: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”.