The Day of Pentecost
Year B
May 24, 2015
The Reverend Amelie Wilmer Minor
Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify
because you have been with me from the beginning.
"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am
going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have
said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to
your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I
go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and
righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness,
because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the
ruler of this world has been condemned.
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth
comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak
whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me,
because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this
reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." (John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)
--------------------------------------------How would you describe the wind of Pentecost? Is it a gentle wind that freshens and cools? Is it
tornado-like in its force? Does it blow down what is in its way? Does it provide sailing currents
such as for birds and butterflies as they fly along? How would you describe the wind that filled
the lungs of the church with the breath of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost?
Anyone who has ever studied the wind knows that there isn't just one wind, there are many. Each
is associated with a particular direction. One place to see all the winds together is on a wind rose,
a graphic tool used by cartographers and meteorologists. The wind rose organizes the winds
according to their direction of origin, showing as few as four or as many as 32 winds.
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[Show example]
In the classical world each of the four major winds was named, personified and given particular
attributes that made them recognizable. Eurus, the east wind, is shown as a young boy with his
cheeks puffed out, blowing a gentle breeze. Zephyrus, the west wind, is also a young person
whose face looks merry. Perhaps that is because he is bringing gentle spring breezes. Boreas, the
north wind, is shown as an old man and brings the cold north wind. He is often wrapped in a
cloak and may have an unpleasant look on his face with his beard crusted with snow and
ice. Notus is the wet south wind of late summer storms. He can look a bit disagreeable as well.
This chart shows all the winds, giving each wind its name and its own personality.1
Is one of these how you picture the wind on the day of Pentecost? Young, old, happy, grumpy,
pleasant, scouring? How would you characterize the sudden rush of wind that blew the life of
the Holy Spirit into those first Christian disciples 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection?
The word Jesus uses to describe the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel is a Greek word, Paraclete,
which we sometimes translate as “Advocate” and is often translated as “Comforter.” I like that. I
like to think of the Spirit as my comforter, like a soothing wind. But after spending some time
with our readings for today, I began to wonder about that. Because I’m not too sure that it’s
Holy Spirit’s job to simply make us feel better.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that the Holy Spirit as Comforter does serve to ease our distress,
encourage us, and come to us in times of trouble to remind us of Jesus’ presence and promises.
And it’s just that kind of comfort, I imagine, that is at the heart of Jesus’ final discourse to his
disciples during his last supper with him, the words we hear today in our reading from the
Gospel of John. The disciples were distressed, feeling orphaned and abandoned, and so needed
that kind of comfort and advocacy.
And yet, everywhere I look in today’s readings for Pentecost, the “wind” of the Holy
Spirit isn’t comforting anyone or anything but instead is shaking things up.
For instance, in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit, as Advocate, will
come to testify to the truth…and prompt the disciples to do the same thing. It is Jesus’ testimony
to the truth, however, that got him in trouble in the first place. Which means the Spirit will act
more like a rustling wind, prodding the disciples into making the kind of disturbing, disruptive,
and world-changing testimony that calls into question the values of the world.
In Acts it’s even more pronounced. I mean, there’s nothing particularly comforting about the
rush of a “violent wind,” let alone descending tongues of flame. And once the disciples take their
new multi-lingual ability into the streets of Jerusalem, pretty much everyone who witnesses their
activity is described as “bewildered,” “amazed” and “astonished.” Again, the Spirit doesn’t
comfort anyone here, but instead prompts the disciples to make a very public scene with the
troubling good news that the person the crowds had put to death is now alive through the power
of God.
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Adapted from “Suddenly a Rush of Wind” by Lynn Miller in Art & Faith Matters,
http://artandfaithmatters.blogspot.com/2015/05/wind-pentecost-art-lectionary.html
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Our reading from Romans is pretty much the same. Here, the Spirit doesn’t take away our
problems or make all things right. Instead, the Spirit helps us name the inward hopes, desires,
longings, and even misery, experienced by anyone who awaits God’s redemption. This is a
groaning wind. When the pain of creation can seem so great and the coming of God’s
redemption so far away, the Spirit intervenes, interrupts and intercedes by giving voice to our
deepest needs.
So it seems that the wind of the Holy Spirit is as much agitator as advocate, as much provocateur
as comforter. What word or phrase do we have that can capture all these dimensions of the work
of the Holy Spirit…and its windy ways. Actually, I think there is one.
Let’s take another look at that word, Paraclete, the word that I mentioned earlier. You might
remember how I questioned the adequacy of this word to describe the complex wind of the Holy
Spirit. But my concern was in our tendency to translate it as advocate or “comforter” and then to
reduce the work of the Holy Spirit to making us feel better.
But Paraclete is a compound Greek word that literally means, to call alongside, or “to come
alongside another.” In this sense, the Paraclete can be an advocate – who comes along side to
defend and counsel – or comforter – who comes along side to provide comfort and
encouragement. But the one who “comes along side” might also do that to strengthen you for
work, or to muster your courage, or to prompt or even provoke you to action. Which is why I
think the Paraclete as the one who “comes along side” of us to encourage and equip us for the
tasks of our ministries, for the challenges and opportunities of our lives, is the perfect name for
the great wind of the Holy Spirit.
But take note, as in the readings today, so also in our lives: if we heed the word and work of the
coming-along-side Holy Spirit, we will inevitably be blown beyond what we imagine and end up
stirring things up. So often, we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as the cool breeze that will
answer to a problem, but what if the Spirit’s work is to create for us a new problem? That is, that
we have a story to tell, mercy to share, love to spread, and we just can’t rest until we’ve done so!
As far as I can tell, nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus command us to go out protect our
denominational divisions or devote ourselves to crumbling institutions. No, Jesus says “go and
make disciples” and “when you care for the least of these you are caring for me” and “love one
another as I have loved you.” And this kind of work is inherently disruptive, difficult, and at
times even dangerous.
And so Jesus sends the Paraclete, the one who comes along side us like a multitude of winds that
encourage, equip, strengthen, provoke and, yes, at times comfort us so that we can get out there
and do it all again. So perhaps this Pentecost, we might substitute our traditional petition,
“Come, Holy Spirit, Come” with one more suited to the name we’ve just discussed, “Come
alongside, Holy Spirit! Come alongside!”
But I’d go one step further. I’d like to suggest that our job also is to “come along side” one
another other to encourage and equip each other, as well. In a culture that no longer has a vested
interested in encouraging people to attend church or participate in religious life, we as a
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community of faith will flourish only when we stop imagining that it is someone else’s job to
teach, preach, interpret, share faith, pray, and more for the sake of the God’s love. Instead, now
more than ever it is our job to come alongside one another with words of instruction, inspiration,
and encouragement so that we me may through our own actions bear witness to the grace and
goodness of God.
In a few minutes, we will renew our baptismal covenant, and as we do, let’s remember how we
are joined to those very first Christians whose lungs were filled by the breath of God’s spirit, by
the wind of new life. By a wind that comes alongside the likes of you and me to shake things up,
preparing and equipping each and all of us to share the disruptive, surprising, and life-giving
grace of the God who will not rest until all people breathe as one.
Amen
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