It might fairly be said that our Ascension Day homily last week touched on the front and back covers
of a momentous story. It’s a story called The Last Days. The front cover is the Ascension itself,
which marked Jesus’ bodily departure from this earth. The back cover is the Second Coming of
Jesus, in which the physically resurrected Christ will return to earth to judge the living and the dead.
The subject matter for Pentecost Sunday is the great story between those two covers. It’s a story
about that time between the departure of Jesus and his return. This is the time that we refer to as
the last days. Really, it’s a story about us—the Church. And the plot of The Last Days revolves
around the work of the Holy Spirit, whose entry onto the scene we celebrate today, the Day of
Pentecost.
In St. Luke’s dramatic account in Acts, he says that, shortly after Christ’s ascension, a group of
believers was gathered in one place. Luke says that “suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues,
as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
He goes on to say that soon a crowd gathered, and many from other nations were hearing stories of
God’s deeds of power in their own languages. They were amazed and befuddled (or ‘flummoxed’ as
they might say on some patches of the auld sod), and a few began to speculate that the merry band
had been hitting the sauce at an unusually early hour of the day. There was a Celtic folk group in
Northern California called “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” which I think captures the onlookers’
suspicions well.
So catching wind of this, Peter stands up and says, “Hey, give us a break! It’s nine o’clock in the
morning for crying out loud. Even if we were inclined to tip a couple we certainly wouldn’t be doing it
at this hour.”
And here’s where Peter fills them in on the Holy Spirit’s new work in the last days. Interestingly, he
does so by quoting the Old Testament prophet Joel, who says, “In the last days it will be, God
declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” OK? Peter
says, “You’ve heard the prophets read in synagogue talking about God’s Spirit soaking his people
like rain from the heavens. Well, you’re seeing it and hearing it now!”
You see, Peter was able by the same Holy Spirit to discern that, since Jesus had been resurrected
and ascended to the right hand of the Father, a new era had begun—the era of the Holy Spirit. And
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the faithful in Jerusalem certainly wasn’t intended as
entertainment or as some new kind of spiritual high, but as a new equipping for the work to be done
on this earth in establishing the kingdom of God.
Jesus himself referred to this. He talked about how first the Holy Spirit will convince us of the truth,
then empower us to spread that truth, both in word and in deed. In today’s Gospel reading from
John Jesus says, “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.”
And in the prelude to today‘s Acts reading, Jesus tells the gathered faithful that they’ll be baptized
with the Holy Spirit in a few days. And they respond by asking, “Lord, is this the time when you’ll
restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus replies, “It’s not for you to know the times or periods that
the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you; and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.” These were Jesus’ final words before he ascended into heaven. Do you suppose they might
have been important?
These same words have been passed from generation to generation in Christ’s church, and have
come down to us today. The work of the Holy Spirit over the past 1980 or so years has been
continuous, although the Spirit seems to provide a special push at certain times in history and in
certain geographic regions. From the few hundred believers in Jerusalem at the time of the
Ascension, people have indeed been witnesses to Judea, Samaria, and then to the ends of the
earth. Now there are over two billion Christians worldwide, and many, many more coming into the
fold each and every day.
We in our skeptical, materialist Western culture have seen some dislodging of our Christian faith
over the past couple of generations. In our insulated environment it’s easy for us to miss that the
Holy Spirit is alive and well, and moving in amazing ways around the globe. When Rob got back
from Maryland last week he brought with him a book by journalist David Aikman called Jesus in
Beijing. It chronicles the followers of Jesus in China from the first fledgling missionary efforts in the
first millennium to the present time.
The upshot is that, in a country in which atheism has been the official stance since the Communist
Revolution, in which the unofficial, non-state sponsored church has been ruthlessly persecuted,
including widespread arrests, torture and murder, and in which the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s
and ‘70’s resulted in purges that killed hundreds of thousands of people and the wholesale
destruction of churches, the underground church in China now claims about 80 million people. By
some reliable estimates the number of seminaries in the underground church is around a thousand,
and they’re sending missionaries all over China. They reportedly are focusing a strong missionary
effort to the Muslims living in the west. There’ve been many reports of miraculous healings. In fact,
in one province the physicians and pharmacists complained to the government that their
professional work was being undermined by the sheer number of healings taking place.
On the troubled continent of Africa the Christian faith is exploding. In Nigeria alone, in the Anglican
Church alone, there are over twelve times as many people attending church as there are in the UK,
and over twelve times as many members as in the Episcopal Church here in the US. My former
rector in Maryland visited Africa shortly before we came to Hope. He said that it’s not uncommon for
a single baptismal service in Tanzania or Uganda to include hundreds of candidates.
In fact, the Christian faith seems to be blossoming all over the Southern Hemisphere. Something’s
going on out there! And that something, in my view and in the view of many, many other Christians,
is a clear and massive movement of the Holy Spirit in using witnesses, one by one, to spread God’s
kingdom on this earth. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will
be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”
And what is a witness? Well, interestingly, the Greek word we translate as “witness” is martureo,
from which we get the word “martyr.” One Greek-English dictionary defines martureo this way: “to
be a witness, to bear witness, i.e., to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or
that he knows it because it was taught by divine revelation or inspiration.”
I hope you don’t mind if I bring this down to the local level. Do you know any witnesses here at Hope-
in-the-Desert? Any who’ve seen or heard or experienced something important about Jesus and his
work? Someone who’s been given a vision perhaps? I do. This beautiful place filled with its
beautiful people began as a literal vision about a decade ago. In this vision it was seen that a new
outpost of God’s kingdom would be established in the far Northeast Heights of Albuquerque, New
Mexico to draw people, many of them unchurched people, to Jesus. This vision contained
persistent, vibrant images of healing—physical, emotional, and spiritual healing—to be the sign, the
witness to God’s love for humanity in Jesus Christ. And since that time we’ve had a pretty steady
stream of events and occurrences that have assured us of God’s continued blessing through the
Holy Spirit on this body of people who are striving to faithfully obey his commission.
I think it’s safe to say that we live in a troubled culture. We belong to a troubled denomination.
Even our wonderful Diocese is showing some reasons for concern. Jesus never promised us an
easy time of it. He said, “In this world you will have trouble.” But we’ve said before what bears
repeating now. The next words out of Jesus’ mouth were, “But take courage, for I have overcome
the world.” We still fight some battles, but the war has already been won through Jesus. So if the
church in China can do what it has done considering the things they’ve had to face, I’m confident
that the Spirit will give us the truth and the power to be a force for God’s kingdom now and well into
the future.
It’s a matter of doing what the core people of this church have done faithfully over the past ten
years. And that is to continue to apply our time, talent and treasure to fulfill God’s vision, to
continue to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, and to rely on the Holy Spirit’s power to do what he has
appointed us to do. The Holy Spirit is alive and well here at Hope & around the world. The front and
back covers of that book called The Last Days are in place. But the book is still being written, and
you and I have the privilege of being written right into the story. May the chapter called “Hope-in-the-
Desert” be true to its name, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, may we keep leading thirsty
people to the Living Water. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
of a momentous story. It’s a story called The Last Days. The front cover is the Ascension itself,
which marked Jesus’ bodily departure from this earth. The back cover is the Second Coming of
Jesus, in which the physically resurrected Christ will return to earth to judge the living and the dead.
The subject matter for Pentecost Sunday is the great story between those two covers. It’s a story
about that time between the departure of Jesus and his return. This is the time that we refer to as
the last days. Really, it’s a story about us—the Church. And the plot of The Last Days revolves
around the work of the Holy Spirit, whose entry onto the scene we celebrate today, the Day of
Pentecost.
In St. Luke’s dramatic account in Acts, he says that, shortly after Christ’s ascension, a group of
believers was gathered in one place. Luke says that “suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues,
as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
He goes on to say that soon a crowd gathered, and many from other nations were hearing stories of
God’s deeds of power in their own languages. They were amazed and befuddled (or ‘flummoxed’ as
they might say on some patches of the auld sod), and a few began to speculate that the merry band
had been hitting the sauce at an unusually early hour of the day. There was a Celtic folk group in
Northern California called “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” which I think captures the onlookers’
suspicions well.
So catching wind of this, Peter stands up and says, “Hey, give us a break! It’s nine o’clock in the
morning for crying out loud. Even if we were inclined to tip a couple we certainly wouldn’t be doing it
at this hour.”
And here’s where Peter fills them in on the Holy Spirit’s new work in the last days. Interestingly, he
does so by quoting the Old Testament prophet Joel, who says, “In the last days it will be, God
declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” OK? Peter
says, “You’ve heard the prophets read in synagogue talking about God’s Spirit soaking his people
like rain from the heavens. Well, you’re seeing it and hearing it now!”
You see, Peter was able by the same Holy Spirit to discern that, since Jesus had been resurrected
and ascended to the right hand of the Father, a new era had begun—the era of the Holy Spirit. And
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the faithful in Jerusalem certainly wasn’t intended as
entertainment or as some new kind of spiritual high, but as a new equipping for the work to be done
on this earth in establishing the kingdom of God.
Jesus himself referred to this. He talked about how first the Holy Spirit will convince us of the truth,
then empower us to spread that truth, both in word and in deed. In today’s Gospel reading from
John Jesus says, “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.”
And in the prelude to today‘s Acts reading, Jesus tells the gathered faithful that they’ll be baptized
with the Holy Spirit in a few days. And they respond by asking, “Lord, is this the time when you’ll
restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus replies, “It’s not for you to know the times or periods that
the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you; and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.” These were Jesus’ final words before he ascended into heaven. Do you suppose they might
have been important?
These same words have been passed from generation to generation in Christ’s church, and have
come down to us today. The work of the Holy Spirit over the past 1980 or so years has been
continuous, although the Spirit seems to provide a special push at certain times in history and in
certain geographic regions. From the few hundred believers in Jerusalem at the time of the
Ascension, people have indeed been witnesses to Judea, Samaria, and then to the ends of the
earth. Now there are over two billion Christians worldwide, and many, many more coming into the
fold each and every day.
We in our skeptical, materialist Western culture have seen some dislodging of our Christian faith
over the past couple of generations. In our insulated environment it’s easy for us to miss that the
Holy Spirit is alive and well, and moving in amazing ways around the globe. When Rob got back
from Maryland last week he brought with him a book by journalist David Aikman called Jesus in
Beijing. It chronicles the followers of Jesus in China from the first fledgling missionary efforts in the
first millennium to the present time.
The upshot is that, in a country in which atheism has been the official stance since the Communist
Revolution, in which the unofficial, non-state sponsored church has been ruthlessly persecuted,
including widespread arrests, torture and murder, and in which the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s
and ‘70’s resulted in purges that killed hundreds of thousands of people and the wholesale
destruction of churches, the underground church in China now claims about 80 million people. By
some reliable estimates the number of seminaries in the underground church is around a thousand,
and they’re sending missionaries all over China. They reportedly are focusing a strong missionary
effort to the Muslims living in the west. There’ve been many reports of miraculous healings. In fact,
in one province the physicians and pharmacists complained to the government that their
professional work was being undermined by the sheer number of healings taking place.
On the troubled continent of Africa the Christian faith is exploding. In Nigeria alone, in the Anglican
Church alone, there are over twelve times as many people attending church as there are in the UK,
and over twelve times as many members as in the Episcopal Church here in the US. My former
rector in Maryland visited Africa shortly before we came to Hope. He said that it’s not uncommon for
a single baptismal service in Tanzania or Uganda to include hundreds of candidates.
In fact, the Christian faith seems to be blossoming all over the Southern Hemisphere. Something’s
going on out there! And that something, in my view and in the view of many, many other Christians,
is a clear and massive movement of the Holy Spirit in using witnesses, one by one, to spread God’s
kingdom on this earth. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will
be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”
And what is a witness? Well, interestingly, the Greek word we translate as “witness” is martureo,
from which we get the word “martyr.” One Greek-English dictionary defines martureo this way: “to
be a witness, to bear witness, i.e., to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or
that he knows it because it was taught by divine revelation or inspiration.”
I hope you don’t mind if I bring this down to the local level. Do you know any witnesses here at Hope-
in-the-Desert? Any who’ve seen or heard or experienced something important about Jesus and his
work? Someone who’s been given a vision perhaps? I do. This beautiful place filled with its
beautiful people began as a literal vision about a decade ago. In this vision it was seen that a new
outpost of God’s kingdom would be established in the far Northeast Heights of Albuquerque, New
Mexico to draw people, many of them unchurched people, to Jesus. This vision contained
persistent, vibrant images of healing—physical, emotional, and spiritual healing—to be the sign, the
witness to God’s love for humanity in Jesus Christ. And since that time we’ve had a pretty steady
stream of events and occurrences that have assured us of God’s continued blessing through the
Holy Spirit on this body of people who are striving to faithfully obey his commission.
I think it’s safe to say that we live in a troubled culture. We belong to a troubled denomination.
Even our wonderful Diocese is showing some reasons for concern. Jesus never promised us an
easy time of it. He said, “In this world you will have trouble.” But we’ve said before what bears
repeating now. The next words out of Jesus’ mouth were, “But take courage, for I have overcome
the world.” We still fight some battles, but the war has already been won through Jesus. So if the
church in China can do what it has done considering the things they’ve had to face, I’m confident
that the Spirit will give us the truth and the power to be a force for God’s kingdom now and well into
the future.
It’s a matter of doing what the core people of this church have done faithfully over the past ten
years. And that is to continue to apply our time, talent and treasure to fulfill God’s vision, to
continue to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, and to rely on the Holy Spirit’s power to do what he has
appointed us to do. The Holy Spirit is alive and well here at Hope & around the world. The front and
back covers of that book called The Last Days are in place. But the book is still being written, and
you and I have the privilege of being written right into the story. May the chapter called “Hope-in-the-
Desert” be true to its name, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, may we keep leading thirsty
people to the Living Water. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A Book in Progress
Pentecost Sunday, 2009
Pentecost Sunday, 2009
May 31, 2009
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton
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