You may have wondered why it was
that we began the liturgy today with the Easter salutation:
Alleluia! Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!
And here it is Pentecost.
Did you know that Pentecost is another Resurrection appearance?
Pentecost is the 50th day of Easter,
and the Risen Christ is present in a new and powerful way,
It’s Pentecost as an ultimate Resurrection event,
where resurrection becomes very personal.
Pentecost, as told in the story from Acts, chapter 2,
is at the center of the very meaning and existence of the Church.
Pentecost is the Risen Christ, invading and penetrating us
to the core of our being as Holy Spirit, as the Divine Presence.
Pentecost is the forcing of our eyes open to seeing
that God really does dwell in us.
And maybe then we might be able to see that we dwell in God.
This Pentecost event happened quite possibly in same room as the Last Supper
and where after the crucifixion the disciples were gathered in fear
when Jesus suddenly appeared with them behind locked doors.
Now 50 days later
and it’s 120 gathered instead of 12
and Jesus suddenly appears,
but in a new form:
Flames – on each, bright radiant energy.
The room was ablaze with the light of these flames
burning on the disciples
burning without the disciples being reduced to ashes.
In a way this is a replay of Exodus 3,
the story of the bush that was burning, but was not burned up.
As you may recall,
this extraordinary occurrence got the attention of Moses,
he went to investigate,
and ended up with his shoes off on holy ground,
encountering the Living God.
…and Moses would return to this place of the brilliant light
in the bush that was not burned up,
bringing with him the Hebrew People
freed from slavery in Egypt
bringing them to that very spot where Moses had encountered God.
Where else would he bring them?
And on this mountain Moses would receive from the hand of God
the Law of the Covenant,
and when Moses came down from the Mountain
from time spent in face to face encounter with the revelation of God,
his face shone,
his face was aflame with brilliant light.
He was transfigured,
a human being on fire, but not burnt up.
Human beings on fire, but not burnt up
That’s Pentecost – people on fire
The tongues of flame radiantly burning on each of them,
yet not burning them up,
become transfigured into tongues of languages.
And now, for that diverse crowd gathered in Jerusalem for the festival
the sound that is heard, that draws them,
is each one hearing in their own tongues, their own languages
words, not just sound.
The sound that attracts the crowd is the sound of intelligible words.
The fire of the Spirit, of the very Breath of God
is translated through the human person
as utterance, words, communication.
The languages expand the message, the revelation of God,
beyond ethnicity, way beyond any arbitrary human divisions.
The breath that the Resurrection Jesus breathed
on those huddled disciples on Easter Day
now comes with great force and transfigures them
in flaming tongues of light and language,
uncontainable by the room they were in.
Now I just got home from a Franciscan Pilgrimage on Friday night,
and I have been thinking about Pentecost and this pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage has been a long term spiritual practice for me over the decades,
a way of stepping out of my everyday location and experience
into a physical, tangible, touchable space of encounter
with the Holy Presence
which is the Resurrection energy and enlivenment present for me.
I do pilgrimage so that I can be healed, changed, redirected,
and made more usable as a disciple of Jesus.
Following in the footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land
and following in the footsteps of Francis in his land of the Italian countryside
can resonate with each other
because Francis sought with all his heart and strength
to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to imitate him in his own life.
I have sought to follow also, as much as I am able,
and, following in their footsteps, this pilgrimage did not disappoint,
for in various places where Francis experienced divine Presence,
I will also claim to have been brought into a present and immediate
encounter of Resurrection Presence,
what we call Holy Spirit.
It is not unlike the Resurrection appearances of Jesus,
especially like what is was for those 120 gathered in the upper room,
the purpose of which was not just for them
but for the sake of the whole hurting world.
So in each place of pilgrimage I stood in a part of St. Francis’ story
witnessing and seeing the connection between Francis and Jesus
and myself ? drawn in, superimposed in the same place and time.
Myself – the desire of my heart, the inner hunger that draws me
to the source of love, joy, peace, life in its fullest sense.
Life that is ever expansive beyond the limits of my own self identity,
my own self understanding and self-limitations.
Pentecost is this same experience multiplied by 120,
each person absorbed into the Resurrection Appearance of Jesus
and becoming, not just a flame suspended above the head
(as is so often depicted in art) but each person a burning bush,
bright, totally engulfed in flame, but not consumed.
Voices speaking words that can be understood by everyone,
no matter where you come from.
Holy Spirit present in voices connecting
with those immediately around them in Jerusalem that day
and from now on.
Holy Presence through them, speaking again like a might wind
in myriads of different places to myriads of hungry hearts
who are simply seeking
how to live the incredible life they have been given
in a world of challenge, confusion and so much suffering.
Francis had a propensity for climbing up steep hillsides
where he could have a vista point
for looking out over the beautiful countryside.
In these places
– La Foresta, Poggio Bustone, Grecchio, Fonte Columbo, the Carceri –
he would seek out a nature-given place to lay his head for the night,
a cave, a mere cleft in the rocks.
In he would crawl and sleep on the stony ground.
A retreat into Sister Mother Earth,
a womb-like space for nightly regeneration
out of which the Saint would emerge in the morning
in order to descend to the valley
where people were hungry for a Resurrection in their own lives.
Francis brought Pentecost to them, speaking to them in their own language,
and Europe was changed,
not just in the rapid and expansive growth of the Order he founded –
the Friars Minor, the Little Brothers,
not just in the women following St. Clare
boldly stepping out of her privileged life
to demand the freedom to choose a life of simplicity like Francis did,
but also in the formation and wide-spread growth of the Third Order –
all those who would go about their daily lives,
where they were in families, jobs and trades and everyday business, raising their children, caring for their elders,
ministering to the lepers and all those in need.
All Europe was changed.
Within a couple of decades feudal warfare ceased
in great part because there were
so many common people becoming Third Order Franciscans
whose Rule of Life contained the injunction not to bear arms, no weapons.
The way I see it, Pentecost is an ongoing event in the life of the Church:
in the First Century, in the 14th Century, and in the 21st Century.
Does the longing in our hearts draw us to hear
the tongues of the language of our own hearts?
Can we too dare to be engulfed in a fire of Holy Presence
that does not consume us,
but instead enlivens us
and makes us each a Resurrection appearance of Jesus?
Did it ever occur to you what that might be like
to be aware of having the Holy Spirit in such fiery presence
what potential there would be,
how that might change your life, expand it, enlarge it?
Can we get close enough in our openness to the Holy Spirit
that we actually catch fire?
As Peter told the crowd on that Day of Pentecost
for all that turned to Jesus,
“you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
That is what you are charged to consider for yourself on this Day of Pentecost.
Can you see?
You are loved to such a degree
that God knew that the only way to help you
the only way to work reconciliation in you
the only way to restore Life
is to live in you.
And God with us, the Spirit as close and as intimate as our own breath,
comes right on in and will identify for us our deepest suffering
if we would allow for that,
and then the Spirit works in us the healing process
bringing us always toward greater fullness of Life
bringing us even deeper into the Heart of God
that throbs with such love for us.
Let’s stop messing around and ask for power from the Source.
Now may God give us eyes to see
that we too may become,
are in the process of becoming
burning bushes ourselves,
burning bushes for others to catch notice of,
and turn aside in wonder to see,
and to catch fire themselves also. Amen.
