From generation to generation
Sermon for the Sunday of Pentecost (May 28, 2023) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of the entire worship service is available here.
What are we talking about? View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Pentecost (Year A)
Pentecost 2023 at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park: the presentation of the Candidate for Baptism!
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When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…
Acts 2:1-4
Edited Transcript
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.
In case you couldn't tell by my sparkly red shoes, I really love Pentecost. This is such a joyful day!
Why does Pentecost so capture the imagination of the Church? Through these fifty days of Easter, we hear stories about the disciples who encountered the risen Christ 2,000 years ago. And none of us is going to encounter Jesus in the same way they did, at least not in this life. None of us is going to be in a garden tomorrow and turn around and see Jesus in his risen body standing there and mistake him for the gardener, as Mary Magdalene did.
But I do think that many of us have experienced that feeling of the Spirit coming down on us and filling us! We're meant to! That feeling of joy that comes when we're all singing together. Or that feeling of peace that comes upon us, in a quiet moment sitting next to a friend. When we experience that somehow God is present: between us and surrounding us in this space.
For many of us in the Church, this is an experience we've actually gotten to have.
And so it's fitting that on the last of the Fifty Great Days of Easter, we take a moment to revel in and remember those experiences. And to re-tell this testimony of the Pentecost two thousand years ago, when the Holy Spirit comes down on the people. The Love of God comes into the world in a new way, no longer in an individual body as in Jesus, but in a Spirit that moves through the people: like a wind they can hear, that sets them on fire so that they see the flames over every head.
We may not see flames or hear wind, but perhaps we do know that feeling: My heart is burning. My life is full of God's love, and I feel it most when we are here together. It's not just two thousand years ago. It's now.
Then as now, the world is sorely in need of the love of God. Then as now, there are people who needed guidance, people who weren't sure what was next. Then as now, people struggled to understand one another. There is still a need for that loving heart of God to be poured out on us in this time. And thanks be to God, every once in a while we experience that need being met.
Today we will baptize another child of God. When the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples as they gathered in the temple for Pentecost, there were 3000 people baptized! So now, the day of Pentecost is one of the days that the Episcopal Church deems especially fitting for Baptism.
There is a connection: 2000 years ago, and now: that fire, that wind, that Love that was present then is still moving, still burning. It has passed down from generation to generation in the church.
Last week, Lillian, the grandmother of the baby who's being baptized today brought the baptismal candle that was lit at her daughter's baptism. So today, we will light this candle that was for Priscilla's mom, and we will light this new candle for Priscilla. [Laughter as Priscilla begins to speak up loudly at just this moment!]
We don't usually do this, but I want you to think about this image. I mean, most people don't still know where their daughter's baptismal candle is, so God bless you, Lillian, because it gives us this tangible way to see the Spirit of God's Love and the fire burning in our hearts being passed from one generation to the next.
This Pascal candle burns throughout Easter. It represent's the light of Christ in the world, the fire of God's love burning in our hearts. At Baptism, we light candles from this candle to give to the newly baptized. From one generation to the next.
God's love is shared in God's family. And we're responsible for sharing that love of God, not just in our own families, but in this whole family of God. As we welcome Priscilla into the family of God, we are promising to her and to her family that we will share the fire of God's love, the burning love of God that sets us on fire to understand one another, to care for one another, to comfort one another, to encourage one another, and to have hope: from one generation to the next.
The Holy Spirit is here: making us God's family. And that is our pledge to the new one in this family, that the Holy Spirit may fall upon you as it has fallen on us, and that you too will know God's love.
Amen.