Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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Today is the Feast of Pentecost, and a wonderful day it is! A great feast to celebrate, and
with a baptism, too!
The Greek word, Pentekoste, means, “fiftieth day.” It referred, originally, to a Jewish
festival that was also called the “Feast of Weeks,” meaning it marked a “week of weeks” –
seven weeks, or 49 days – and was the period of seven weeks following the Passover. The
next day – the fiftieth day – was Pentecost – and a time of celebration, 50 being one of
those special, symbolic numbers I spoke about last week!
Our Lord had risen from the tomb on a Sunday. For forty days he’d appeared to his
disciples: ate with them, talked with them, taught them, all the while telling them he
couldn’t stay with them – that he had to ascend to the Father – but that he would not leave
them bereft. He would, he said, send to them the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, who would be
with them forever, and who would lead them into all truth. And after 40 days, he did,
indeed, leave them, again, this time ascending to the Father.
But they had learned some things during those forty days. This time, being left by Jesus,
they didn’t leave as they had after the crucifixion; they didn’t head for home; they didn’t try
to go back to their earlier lives.
Rather, they did as Jesus had told them – they returned to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room,
where they spent their days and their nights in prayer – waiting.
And his promise proved good – the “comforter” the “counselor” he had promised them
came.
And what a scene that was. The description in the Book of Acts is remarkable. There they
were, doing what they had been doing – praying, conversing, reading the scriptures –
when it happened.
Exactly what happened was impossible to describe. Notice in Luke’s description he writes
that there was a sound “like” a rushing wind, and there appeared over their heads,
“tongues as of fire.”
The details Luke supplies are quite amazing, paint quite a scene! But what, Exactly,
happened that day is impossible to say. The language of the Book of Acts, here, is
imprecise, the phenomenon described, fantastic. And if those who were there couldn’t find
the words to talk about it, how should we? A lot of claims have been made for what is
called “speaking in tongues,” through the ages, but there‘s not a whole lot of hard data
available, and we just really don’t know.
But one thing we can be certain did happen that day: the Church was born!
Pentecost has been called the birthday of the Church, and it really was that.
When Jesus walked the earth, the disciples were his friends and his followers; but once he
was gone they had to become something more – they had to take on a new life;
independent, creative, courageous. They had to look inside themselves for their
continuing inspiration and, at the same time, they had to look outside themselves for the
work that lay before them. They had to take up, finally, the mission and ministry they had
been called to and given by their Lord: to spread the Good News. And it was at the moment
they took up that mission -- speaking, on the day of Pentecost, to people from all over the
world, of the wonderful works of God in Christ – that they became, finally, the Church.
The Church! Funny word.
Sometimes, when we clergy are asked what the word “church” means, and where it came
from, we talk about the “Ekklesia.” Ekklesia is a Greek word that means, “assembly,” and it
applies to those who assemble in the Lord’s name –the congregation. In the Old
Testament, it refers to the assembly of the Israelites, and in the New Testament it refers to
the assembly of Christians.
I
n the Gospels it only occurs twice, both times in Matthew: In chapter 16, when Jesus says
“you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Ekklesia,” and in chapter 18 when Jesus is
talking about disciplining a brother who has sinned against one of them and says, “…if he
refuses to listen…, tell it to the Ekklesia; and if he refuses to listen even to the Ekklesia,
let him be (excluded).”
And, of course, when we speak of “churchly” things, we use the adjective that comes from
the same word: ecclesiastical.
So “Church” certainly does refer to the “Ekklesia” or “Gathering; the assembly.” But that’s
obviously not where the word, itself, comes from!
We have lots of Scottish roots in this parish, so some of you undoubtedly are aware of the
connection of the English term “Church,” with the Scottish equivalent, “Kirk.” And, indeed,
Kirk and Church are precisely the same term – as are the German “Kirche” and the Dutch,
“Kerk”. And they all come, ultimately, from the Greek word, Kyriakon.
Now some of you may notice the similarity between that word and a Greek word that
appears in our Prayer Books, in those seasons when we do not say the Gloria, but say,
instead, “Lord have mercy,” the Greek original of which is, kyrie eleison.
The similarity is real, as kyrie means “Lord.”
And kyriakon means “belonging to the Lord.”
When Jesus walked the earth with his disciples, they were his friends, his followers, his
students. When he died, they were at loose ends, and some of them were immediately
ready to return to their old lives.
students in awe of their glorified teacher. Then he left them, again, and they waited. They’d
been on an enormous emotional roller coaster, but they waited to see what would happen
this time – if anything.
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| Previous Sermon |
| THE FEAST OF PENTECOST 15 May, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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