May 24, 2026 "Happy Birthday Church"

Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104:24-35b

1 Corinthians 12:3-13

John 20:19-23

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you

from the one who gathers us in and sends us out. Amen

It’s the festival of Pentecost! 

Each year at this time I’m reminded of a song from my children’s choir days

-you will not be shocked to hear that I was an avid and enthusiastic participant in children’s choir at least in my elementary years-

anyway the song went a little something like this:

Pentecost is happy birthday

Happy birthday to the church

When every single doubting Thomas

Comes alive with Jesus’ promise

That he would not leave them

In the lurch.

Definitely an ear worm…

 And with the exception of the fact

that the song continues to smear the disciple Thomas’ character 

for the sake of a rhyme 

it’s a pretty good basic interpretation of the day. 

As Christians we mark this as the day

that through the gift of the spirit

the disciples were blown out from behind locked doors

 and into the world

to proclaim Christ,

the Spirit making sure that all who were present

 were able to understand the message

regardless of the language they spoke,

 and moved by the message and the spirit

many of those present joined the community of the followers of Christ,

 a community who gathered in his name

 to pray and praise God, to live the way of Jesus together

 including care for the body as well as the soul,

and to invite more people to join the community

 by sharing the message of Jesus.

In other words, the church.

As one commentator put it: “This week's passage points toward a portrait of the church as a dynamic community of people following Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out God’s creative mission of healing, liberation, and joy for the sake of the world.” https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/5/25/understand-and-connect-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-pentecost 

Is this what you think of when you hear the phrase: “the church”?

I’m going to hazard a guess

that other things come up

both positive and negative

when you hear the phrase

 since the church as an institution

 has grown in variety and complexity

 since that first Pentecost,

 growing from one community in Jerusalem

 to very quickly spreading to other physical locations

creating the need to distinguish between the community as a whole

 and the local iteration of it,

 and then of course how those communities organized themselves

 and what they emphasized evolved,

all influenced by the needs of the world

 and the desires of people,

and yes the Spirit

 so now we add adjectives in front

when we refer to the church,

the Lutheran Church,

the Catholic Church,

the Jump Up and Down Praise Jesus church

 and even though we confess in the Apostle’s creed

 that we believe in “the holy catholic (meaning universal) church”

we struggle to picture just what this is supposed to look like,

how does that work when we’re all so different?

Part of the struggle is that when we think of unity,

 we think uniformity,

 just like us.

 Don’t worry this has been a struggle from the very beginning,

the book of Acts is full of moments

where the disciples pause and say

‘hey wait a minute, they’re not like us, how can they be included?’

 and the Spirit pushing ahead

 but it is also a great reminder

to pause once a year and really take a look

at the birthday of the church.

And when we do

 we find that diversity has been a characteristic since the beginning,

that the unity comes through the Spirit pointing us all toward Christ.

We know the story,

we hear it every year

 how through the rush of the Spirit

 people from around the world all of a sudden can communicate-

not because differences have been wiped out

 but because abilities have been expanded.

We are one because we are one in Christ

 not because we’re all the same.

This is what Paul is teaching

 when he uses the image of the body of Christ

 while teaching the Corinthians

who are clearly struggling with this idea of diversity within unity.

No, Paul says,

we are one in Christ,

just like a body is one body

but there are many different parts of a body

 and all the parts are necessary,

 the same is true with the church,

the body of Christ,

 a variety of gifts given by the spirit

 “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

 the gifts are all to work together

among the people who gather in Jesus’ name

to share God’s message of liberation and joy with the world.

 It is a community that is brought together,

comes alive in and through the Spirit of God

and is lived out through the variety of people that make up the community

which also means

that even as God originated and Spirit led as the church is,

 it is not perfect,

 because it is in the world

and made up of people,

 and the world and people in it are not perfect

even as we long for the promised day

 when Christ will return and make all things new

we live in the present

where we make mistakes,

we break expectations, we disappoint others

 and are disappointed ourselves-

 again the book of Acts

 is also full of the mistakes and hurts of the original community,

 and yet thousands of years and thousands of breaks later

we’re still here

making up the body of Christ,

and I think we’re still here,

 the community persists

because in addition to the Spirt

 Christ gave the community another gift,

the gift of the power of forgiveness.

We heard John’s version of the start of the church in the gospel,

 frightened disciples gathered into one room,

Jesus appears, offers them peace,

sends them out to share the good news

and gifts them with the Holy Spirit and the power of forgiveness.

Forgiveness that recognizes contrition and repentance,

forgiveness that means there is a path toward healing

 when the body has been injured,

 forgiveness that Christ has first offered us

in the waters of baptism

and weekly at the table,

  ‘here’ Jesus says ‘here is my body broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins,

 remember me, receive forgiveness and then go offer it,

 do this often, as often as you need’

and even when we get this wrong

still the Spirit is at work

fulfilling Jesus’ promise to be with us

 as we are sent to share in the mission

 of bringing God’s redeeming word to the world.

The Spirit has gathered us in,

just as the spirit sends us out

not leaving us in the lurch

but as members of the alive and active church. Amen