Bible Text: John 16:4-15, Acts 2:1-21 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
In 1924, the Edison Phonograph was looking for a new slogan. Following the Great War there was a need to create a buzz around this sound machine. It had existed since 1877 but didn’t really hit the domestic market until the 1920s. It was the roaring twenties after all and people had money to spend. Edison’s phonograph was the first machine with the ability to not only record the sound but then also able to reproduce the sound that was recorded. The original phonograph recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet but as technology changed and other inventors got a hold of the idea the sound was produced on wax and then vinyl. But in 1924 the availability of these machines became easier to the average consumer and a few minor competitors came on the market. As a result a marketing company was hired to create a slogan for Edison’s phonograph. The new catchphrase was “The gift that keeps on giving”. It was the first time this phrase was used. Three years later the slogan was trademarked for Edison’s phonographs. This is one rare occasion when the slogan has outlasted the product. In fact it was later adopted by a much less trivial company as the slogan for becoming an organ donor in the US. One quick google search and we can discover that it is a phrase used for all kinds of products from magazine subscriptions to soaps. But in reality there are only a few gifts that truly have the capacity to keep on giving.
I often treat Pentecost as if it is something that happened- focusing on the story from Acts of these Galileans who were all of a sudden capable of speaking to everyone through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The English version of the story losses something in the translation from Greek in that it was truly a fear-inducing, adrenaline-pumping, wind-tossed, fired-singed, smoke-filled moment in the life of the church. But this year I began to think about the Gospel passage and how Jesus takes time to explain the purpose of the Spirit and I realized that too often Pentecost is the focus of something that happened rather than something that is happening. The passage from the Gospel of John actually guides us in a way that makes Pentecost an event that is, not was, relevant for the present. Of course, it is hard to pin down an event in the church that is similar to Pentecost, as I mentioned it was a frightening event but if we begin to think of it less as an event and more of a change, we see how permanent and relevant it is to our life as a community of faith. This shift in thinking, however, means we must look more at the function of the Spirit rather than the role of the Spirit. Jesus did not limit his promise of the Spirit as a gift only for the first century Christians. The truth is that Pentecost happens every day. It is a gift that keeps on giving.
We have spent quite a bit of time together looking at the Farewell Discourse between Jesus and his disciples. The Gospel writer is capturing these last intimate teaching moments and we’ve come to the part where Jesus needs to explain what they are supposed to when he is no longer with him. For the time being Jesus has descended to earth but as his ascension fast approaches something new will descend, the Spirit. This makes the Spirit no less mysterious, however, because the Spirit, rather than Christ is the one who is going to bridge two realms. The Spirit will flow through both the world and the community. Meaning that the power and presence of the Spirit is not limited to the believing community but creates an accessibility of faith for the world.
At the beginning of this section, Jesus says that the Spirit will encounter the world. This is often interpreted as people who do not know or who will never know Jesus in person. The Spirit will do this by revealing three things to others. 1. the sin of the world, 2. the righteousness of Jesus, 3. the judgement of Satan. For centuries we have been trying to define and refine those three points. What it really means is that the Spirit continues Jesus’ work of exposing, through the work of the witnessing community, the love of God. It is not the Spirit’s role to issue condemnation to individuals but rather to bring about reconciliation to the community. Jesus then explains that the Spirit will bring recognition and apprehension of the truths about Jesus. Meaning that the Spirit is the intermediary, that the Spirit’s primary role is to make Jesus present to the believing community. How is this relevant to us today?
When the Spirit helps the world recognize the meaning and reality of sin, the righteousness of Jesus and the judgement, the Spirit it is an opening up the household of God. Lutheran theologian Ginger Barfield says, “The Spirit has the function of continuing to confront the world, meaning outsiders, with the presence of Jesus after his ascension. In this way, the Spirit functions as a witness to Jesus to the world, and to the community- both outsiders and insiders. For the community, the Spirit will lead them in the way of truth on matters that Jesus has not yet been able to teach them. The exciting news in this is that the Spirit will proclaim Jesus’ own teachings in the new and changing circumstances that the community will face when Jesus is gone. The Spirit will interpret what it has heard from the new contexts that the community will come to face. The Spirit will make the teachings of Jesus relevant to each new generation and to each new age.” That is why the Spirit, this Gospel lesson, and Pentecost is relevant to us.
I actually had a real sense of relief when I read Barfield’s words because the reality is, in a lot of ways, the church today is vastly different from the church of the first disciples. Of course the lines of communication are different, of course the modern conveniences are different, of course the knowledge that is out there is different. As a result, how we interact, how we live, and what we known are completely different from that of the disciples. It is often difficult to make faith and practice relevant to others- particularly younger generations-when even how we interacted, lived and what we knew 70, 50, and 20 years ago is different. But the relief is in the ever constant gift of the Holy Spirit which perpetually speaks to our contexts of the ever abiding presence of God and the eternal truths about Jesus. Things are constantly changing but the Spirit’s guidance remains the same.
As Jesus says farewell to his followers, he also readies them for the difficulties of change, orienting their attention away from the pain and sadness of his departure toward the advantages of the life with the Spirit. A very trivial comparison is that is Jesus saying, “I’ve got some bad news, and some good news.” Of course Jesus’ life was spent spreading Good News- but this is the “It Gets Better” news that the disciples need to hear in this moment. Jesus does not encourage them to build on what they have just learned or to go off boldly into the world all on their own. Rather Jesus promises that his presence will continue to accompany them and work in their midst through the reality of the Spirit. The second to last verse in our passage says, That the coming of the Spirit will commence a new, better era by actively uniting believers to glorify God, in Christ. I Know that Pentecost is not something that happened but is happening because we aren’t all unified yet, we are all still pretty confused, and the times, they are a changing. But the Spirit, is alive and at work, because the Spirit is in the moments when we are gathered together as a community, when we are serving in our world, when we are working hard and making the constant love of God known and the gift of the Spirit just keeps on giving. Amen