[AI translation] This promise that I have just read out, which Jesus spoke to his disciples just before the ascension, was fulfilled at Pentecost, when the promised Holy Spirit was poured out on the small army of disciples and made them apostles. Pentecost adds nothing to the redemptive work that Jesus Christ did on earth. It has been done! But the Holy Spirit makes certain all that was done by Jesus. I could say that the objective truth, that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Lord of the world, is deepened into a subjective truth. It makes the death and resurrection of Jesus a heavenly power that transforms and revolutionizes the life of man. This significance of Pentecost can best be seen in one example: the lives of the very first disciples. Ten days passed before Jesus was taken up from them into heaven. The eleven disciples are hiding in fear on the floor of a small house in Jerusalem. They miss inexpressibly Jesus' physical presence, his encouraging gaze, his strength. It was as if their lives had stopped. And then came the big twist. As they prayed in anguished whispers, there was a murmur. It was as if a wind blew through the room, and then tongues of fire leapt towards them. After a few minutes, everything changed. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. What happened to them was that Jesus Christ, who had been with them - though visibly separated from them - now became real in them all at once by the Holy Spirit.This miracle can be seen even more concretely in the life of the most famous of all, the Apostle Peter. We have seen him in many different situations. For example, when he plunged down into the whirlpool of the waves and cried out in despair, "Lord, save me!" (Mt 14:30) Or when he fled in terror from the Garden of Gethsemane, or on that dark night when he cursed and cursed, denying that he belonged to Jesus, and when he wept so bitterly afterwards. And now, all at once, he stands before a crowd gathered for a feast. Many wondering, curious and hostile faces stare at him. Such a crowd is always unpredictable and dangerous. You never know who's there and with what temperament. And Peter comes out, resolute, unflappable, like a man possessed, and speaks to them in a terrifyingly harsh way. Accusing them of murder, calling them to account for the blood of the Son of God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit! It is He, the God of the Holy Spirit, who transforms a sinking, cursing, cowardly, and sobbing man into a man who dares to stand boldly for the righteousness of Christ. Who makes a disciple, a stumbling, wavering follower of Christ, into an apostle of Christ. What happened to Peter? Exactly what Jesus promised in our Word: "Be strong, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) Take heart! It is the power of God the Holy Spirit. It is the power of the same Living God who walked among us as a man in the person of Jesus, who suffered and died for us, who did the mighty work of our redemption, the same God at work in us.
Let me try to make this clear by a very simple analogy: It happened last summer that on my desk, in a vase, there were some beautiful roses. I had a lot of joy in it. It's good to look up from work and look into the heart of one of these flowers, because it gives you peace of mind to see something beautiful. But one day trouble happened: the rose's beautiful head drooped, its petals shrivelled and wilted. I could no longer look into the heart of the rose. The life had gone out of it. It was my fault, because I hadn't given it fresh water, so the stems couldn't absorb anything. That's why the beautiful flower had to wither and its petals shriveled. Man is a far more beautiful creature of God than the rose. (If not, there is terrible trouble.) Man, too, through his eyes and voice, can see into the heart. Sometimes what we see is comforting and peaceful, because we see life, wonderful life in it. Sometimes, however, one is repulsed by what one sees. The look and the word proclaim death. Man, even more than the rose, needs water to nourish the roots of his life, to smooth the leaves, to refresh our lives. That which gives life! It gives life-giving strength! When you look into eyes that you feel are polluting, that make you feel sad, when you hear words that hurt, you know that the stalk of this flower is dry. You see a withered man-rose.
You might say to this: It is you yourself! Well, if so, know that it doesn't have to be that way any longer. For Jesus Christ is Life! From Him flows the water of eternal life, the fountain of eternal life through the Holy Spirit. Connected to Him, our hearts cannot wither, our lives cannot wither! "Lose strength," says Jesus, "when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses" - and then the eyes and the mouth will betray, the actions and the passions will reveal, what begins to live in that heart. Calm and joy, peace and happiness, love and power: in a word, Christ! God through His Holy Spirit! Yes, that's what the Holy Spirit does: through faith in Christ the Saviour, our lives become a flower that breathes the fragrance of eternal life. And not only a flower, but as the prophet Jeremiah says: "For it shall be like a tree planted by the water, which sends forth its roots toward the river, and is not afraid when it is hot, and its leaf is green; neither is it afraid in the dry season, nor does it fail from bearing fruit" (Jer 17:8).
Our problem is that we have lost our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Even if we have the good will, we only want to follow Christ as our example. This will always result in a pale, colourless Christianity. The Gospel does not demand that we follow Jesus as an example, but offers us the Holy Spirit as a source of life, and then we will follow Him from within. Such Christianity will be colourful and vibrant. It will have its resources, so it will have its strength. In the lives of the apostles, the Holy Spirit was not a vague, impersonal concept, but a personal God manifested in them, who strengthened and purified them and then set them on fire. The mystery of Pentecost is the secret of bringing your soul into a personal, inner relationship with the Spirit who is called God. You can come to a common understanding with Him, you can bend your will to His, and through this inner contact your whole personality is strengthened, grows, is enlightened. God - in you! An incomprehensible miracle! No one doubts that God can plant a thought in the heart of man! For that is how all true works of art are born. Well, the miracle of Pentecost is even more than that! He plants not only a thought in the heart of man, but his very life! His life flows into your life, His will into your will, His love into your love: "Be strong, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).
1 John 1:1. "I am glad to say that I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour," said one of them. "I am glad to hear it," said the other, "but I have received something better than that! Yes, because not only peace with God, but peace with God, and more than that, a God of peace! But God does not give himself to man in vain! He gives such a gift to fulfil a task worthy of Him. Thus Jesus says in our Word: "Be strong, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses". In short, Jesus gives Himself in His Spirit for apostolic service, for missionary work. That is, to enable and empower man to represent and spread the redeeming rule of Christ on earth. That is why you are Christians, that is why God communicates Himself to you, so that through you the Gospel of Christ may penetrate the world, so that you who are in contact with the reality of modern life, with work, with the machine, with people, with offices: be witnesses of Christ the Redeemer! Apostles! Proclaimers of the reign of God, the kingdom of Christ! People whose ministry, whose meaning, whose purpose, whose task in life is to bear witness to Christ. That Jesus Christ is Lord over their lives and over the world in which they live and work!
This is what the apostles did at Pentecost: they proclaimed the mighty, redemptive acts of God in such a way that the crowds gathered - so many people of different languages, nationalities, cultures and social backgrounds - heard them all speaking in their own language. This has been the eternal task of the Church ever since: to proclaim Christ to the world in a language that modern man can understand. And to teach mankind in a language in which people of all interests can understand one another. The language in which the world, modern man, can best understand Christ is the language of love. The language in which people also understand each other is the language of love. It is for the proclamation, the teaching, the living of this that Jesus gave His Holy Spirit, through Whom He is forming His followers, His Church, into a fighting team for the Kingdom of God, to give impetus to Christianity. In our Word, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" is not only a geographical designation, but also a reference to the need to spread the gospel of Christ to every area of human life. Jesus has entrusted to us the witness of a powerful gospel that will and can heal not only our individual lives but also our social ills. One that should encompass the whole of human life, one that can put an end to poverty, to racism, to antagonism between people, one that will bring an end to war as something utterly senseless and evil. One that brings justice to the conscience of society. One which, just as Jesus confesses before Pontius Pilate, the pagan Roman governor, that Jesus is King there too, King in the communal coexistence and relations of men. And we have narrowed down this gospel, made it the means of our individual salvation, and left untouched the great problems of humanity. We have pushed the Gospel back into our churches, into the narrow confines of our individual piety, and refused to bear witness before Pontius Pilate - before the world.
No wonder the strength of our churches has withered, for Christ gives power through His Spirit to His own to witness to Him in Jerusalem as well as in Judea. Is the church, such as our church, fit for this? Surely we have every reason to humble ourselves in shame and repentance. There is so little fire of the Spirit, missionary consciousness, in our churches. Its members are introverted and so little concerned with the needs of the world. They live in outmoded forms, they do not know and speak the language of modern man, they cannot give real, definite information in the confusion of the world. They talk of faith, but so little do they live it in visible love. They are martial and summer bourgeois, lagging behind the big questions of life. Instead of the moving momentum of God's kingdom, they are stiffened into outmoded institutions, so entrenched in the earth and so lost their vision of God's future. And all the while a world in crisis is searching for a solution to human life! Only a Pentecostal outpouring can save the churches and the world. It is the fulfilment of the Word that Jesus said, "Be strong, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth".
For a church full of the Holy Spirit is to this world as salt in food, as light in the night. If only this feast of Pentecost could at least compel us now, all over the world, to pray more fervently, more longingly for the Holy Spirit of Christ! For such prayer is never unanswered! Such prayer, prayer for the Holy Spirit, is already the beginning of an answer to prayer!
No matter how fallen the state of the church of Christ, if it can truly pray for the Holy Spirit, though it has every reason to humble itself, it has no reason to despair! With this humbled yet hopeful heart, let us now pray:
Living Spirit of God, come, Blessed descend upon me,
Let your heavenly flame pass through my heart and mouth!
Untie me, send me away, fill me with fire!
God's living Spirit, come, bless me and descend upon me!
(Canticle 463, verse 1)
Amen.
Date: 20 May 1956 Pentecost
Lesson
ApCsel 2,1-17