Pentecost Sunday 2010                                                            Christ Church , York

It happened to me just the other evening. I had arrived home late and sat down to watch the last part of a television show already in progress. I was just getting into the plot of the show when those fateful words appeared on the screen – “to be continued.” I didn’t know what had happened in the beginning and now I didn’t know what would happen at the end. I was to be kept in suspense, not knowing if my schedule would even permit me to get back the following week in order to see how it ended! It really is enough to drive you crazy…but then the producers of such shows are good at maintaining our interest with these cliffhanger endings that almost require of us to tune back in for the rest of the story and to see what happens.

We cannot compare the work of the movie industry with the work of God…but we can say that we have been watching another story unfold over the past few weeks, a story centered upon the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But Christ has now ascended into heaven and the disciples are left on earth wondering what’s next. They are lost and confused and they had probably taken to wondering whether this was the end of the story or whether it would be continued in some way they cannot yet understand. So as we come to the end of this 7 week series called Easter, we find the disciples gathered in a room, waiting and watching and wondering.

From our vantage point now more than 2,000 years later, we know that the story continues, for we know that this is the Day of Pentecost when we hear the story of how God sends His Spirit among those disciples, the day when the work of proclaiming the Gospel is passed from Jesus to those same disciples. Wind and fire make great special effects, but it is not these that are so remarkable for this story. Rather it is what happens to these same disciples as a result of the Holy Spirit coming upon them. Since the death of Jesus they have lived as individuals who were lost, dazed and confused. But with the coming of the Spirit they find that they are infused with a new energy, excitement and enthusiasm so that they are able to throw caution to the wind and rush out boldly to proclaim their faith in the crucified and risen Lord. Suddenly everything falls into place for them, everything that they had seen and heard over the past few years began to make sense, everything had now been put back in order and they could forge ahead. The story was not ended but rather it was to be continued.

But as wonderful as this transformation was for the individual disciples, it is only the part of the story in this next episode. For the coming of the Spirit was also the birthday of the Church, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, that great gift to us from God with the promise that this Church would be, from that point on, our source of comfort and joy, a place for us to receive the forgiveness of sins and the promise of new life, a place where we can be sustained by God’s grace freely given to us through the power of His Word proclaimed and the grace of His holy sacraments. Or, as Blessed Martin reminds us, the Church exists wherever “the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and the sacraments administered in accordance with that pure Gospel.” Yet the birth of this Church is also only the beginning of the next episode in this continuing story, for the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was not a once and for all event. Instead it was the beginning of God’s permanent presence in the Church, a presence which has made itself felt in all corners of the world, even to us here in York. For we who are members of Christ Church, a part of Christ’s one, holy Church, we are a part of that ongoing story of salvation for this world for, as Blessed Martin also reminds us in the Catechism, it is the Holy Spirit who “calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one, true faith. We are part of this one great Church but we as a congregation, as a community of faithful believers, we could not exist as a witness to Christ with the Holy Spirit calling us together and then holding us together over the years, giving us the grace and strength to be a faithful witness to Christ and His love for us in this community of York.

And while this Spirit lives and breathes its life into the whole Church, that same Spirit does the same for each and every one of us. God calls us into a deeper personal relationship with Him and He seeks for us to share in His life. It is this invitation which kindles the fire of love in us and stirs up in us the grace of our baptismal calling. Indeed that same Spirit who came to the apostles on that first Pentecost day, comes again to each and every one of us in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, pouring on us His gifts so that we are no longer passive viewers of the story unfolding among us but rather active participants in it. We may not know how the Spirit moves us, yet we should not be surprised by its power when it drives us into action.

And it is this Spirit who comes now to Natalie, Nick, Josiah and Aubrey driving them into action, calling them toward a new direction and making them a part of this continuing story. For in the waters of baptism the gift of this Spirit was poured upon you, calling each of you into Christ’s mission of being His representative in the world. But that Baptism was not the end of the end of the story for you remain a work in progress, a work to be continued until the day you are called to be with Christ in His heavenly kingdom. In that sacrament you were called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ each and every day of your lives. Every day you have called to witness to God’s love for the world by loving those around you. Every day you have been called to seek out new ways of serving and thanking this God who has given you the promise of eternal life.

But so that you know you are not alone in this work, Christ has promised His Spirit to you, to continue His work in you, to strengthen you to do the work to which you have been called and to inspire you to seek the will of God in all things. In your lives you will yet face difficulties and trials, for life is never easy. But Christ has promised you His Holy Spirit to stir up in you the gifts given to you at baptism, so that through the power of that same Spirit you may have the strength to live in holiness all the days of your life.

So my prayer for you Natalie, Aubrey, Nick and Josiah is that you stay tuned, for just as God continues to be at work in this congregation, just as God continues to work in His whole Church, so He continues to work in each of you particularly on this day stirring you up with His promises and calling you ever more loudly into His service. God has done much with this congregation and with each of you over the years but this is only the beginning. For the story continues and will continue until the day that Christ shall come again. So stay tuned for the Holy Spirit is only just beginning to work in each of you, forming you, shaping you, molding you into disciples for the sake of the Gospel and of the Kingdom. Sometimes when that notices flashes on the screen “to be continued” it can be somewhat aggravating. But at other times it can be a moment filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Today I pray it is the latter. Today I pray it will be a moment when we can only stand in wonder and awe and give thanks to God for this wonderful story which is to be continued here before us in the lives of Nick, Aubrey, Natalie and Josiah. For the story of life and faith and promise is about to be unfolded for them as the Spirit is poured upon them, stirred up in them as promised to them so that they might go into God’s future, into that next great episode, full of life and faith and hope and promise. Thanks be to God who continues His story before us this very day. Amen