June 4 (Day of Pentecost) Acts2:1-211Cor.12:3B-13Jn.20:19-23

June 4 (Day of Pentecost)Acts2:1-211Cor.12:3b-13Jn.20:19-23

Let us pray:Holy and immortal God, by the outpour of your Spirit we are filled with your power and wisdom so as to live as your church in the world. May we treasure your gifts to us through outpour of the Spirit as to be good stewardship of them to bring your love and compassion to all wherever we go!Amen.

Often we find news from the media somewhat depressing. Some of the news actually boggle our minds. Famine mainly caused by human factors (e.g. civil wars or inter-tribal wars)plagued many African or Near-east countries. Can we imagine, for example, in Southern Sudan, which became independent since year 2011, had been suffering from civil war starting two years after that, so that of a total population of 5.5 million, at least 750,000 suffer from extensive hunger so that close to 2/3 of their population needs humanitarian relief? In the mist of hunger, other wickedness flare up – murder, robberies, rapes, abuses, terrorism, fear, anxiety, migration, poverty, corruption, illegal detention, tribalism, economic break-down are just some obvious phenomenon which kept propping up.

If we have thought about famine and prayed for the victims, how about the global problem of depletion of clean water? Crisis on exhaustion of worldwide water resources has been escalating quietly. For example, Aral Sea (in Russia) had once been the fourth largest lake in the world but now has shrunk to 1/10 of its former size. The damage of the rainforest in the Amazon (and hence reduction of rain-clouds) has turned central and southern Brazil to sustain constant severe drought. Crisis of drought affects not only Africa but also India, Middle East, China and Australia. If we continue to use water at the current rate, by year 2030, the demand for water supply will increase by 55%. Many nation’s government and World Bank are seriously considering the construction of world-wide market on water resources. Human beings will then lose our privilege of stewardship over water supply when water becomes a commercial/private commodity. What sort of chaos and injustice will that create?

This is not even to mention many other prevailing problems such as violence, racism, poverty and discrimination against women and girls in many countries. At the first half of 20th century, we seem to be confident of forward-moving to put historical social injustice behind us – but is that mere dream or arrogance?

Often when we look at such big picture challenging the entire human race, we tend to lament, or at most keep them in our prayers, and then move on, thinking we can contribute nothing to eradicate such suffering on earth. Well, if we are talking about wielding our individual arms by our mere human efforts, that’s very true. Yet we forget that constant escalation of human suffering because of social injustice is not what God desires. The salvation brought by our Prince of Peace at the high cost of his self-sacrifice on the cross defeats sin and death – and all that we have been contemplating above are outcome of sin and death. Famine, water depletion, terrorism, violence, social injustice etc. are all outcome of sin and hence we see death. Yet,we shouldn’t forget a few weeks ago we heard how Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.’ (Jn. 14:12) Jesus then promised to send the Holy Spirit, to his disciples so that they together will do greater works than what they had seen Jesus doing.

Today as we celebrate Pentecost for the downpour of the Holy Spirit, let’s recall, from today’s Readings, how that promise of Jesus materialized. First and foremost, today’s Gospel Reading reminds us that on the evening of Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus came to his 11 disciples through the closed door, to greet them with peace, to send them forth as Church in the world, and to breathe upon them of the Holy Spirit. There Jesus said to them again: ‘‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any,, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sin of any, they are retained.’ Yes, that’s how Jesus fulfilled his promise, as depicted by St. John, to send the Holy Spirit as he told them( after the Last Supper), that despite the fact that he’s going away from them to the Father, to prepare a place for them with the Father (Jn.14:1-8), he will not leave them orphaned (Jn. 14:18) but will send them the Holy Spirit who will teach them everything and remind them of all that Jesus sad said to them (Jn. 14:26). Jesus also told them (Jn.16:13) that ‘when the Spirit of truth comes, he would guide them into all truth, [as] the Holy Spirit would glorify Jesus because he would take what was his and declared it to them.’ (Jn.16:14). And then Jesus in his last prayer for his disciples prayed to the Father: ‘now I am no longer in the world but they are in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one (Jn. 17:11) . . . I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one (Jn. 17:15) … Sanctify them in the truth’ (Jn. 17:17).

Recalling all such promises of Jesus to his disciples and his prayer for them, it’s not hard for us to realize how these promises had been materialized and prayers got answered by virtue of the fact that the disciples received the Holy Spirit to guide and protect them with truth and wisdom. This is also like how we hear from our Second Reading today, the various spiritual gifts manifested in each of us are allotted to us as the Spirit chooses. Let’s hear those words again: ‘To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongue. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.’ (1 Cor. 12:7-11) Here we’ll remember that the Holy Spirit allots and activate such different individual spiritual gifts for the common good – i.e. for individual members working together as the Church in the world. That’s how they can be the church in the world to do Jesus’ work here and be protected against the evil one, as we heard from the scriptural readings, and that’s why as we put our gifts together, we can participate in the Work of the Holy Spirit to overcome evil in the world, such as those I named at the beginning of the sermon here – none of us can do that work as an individual, but we’re all called to be good stewards to fight against those horrific secular trends.

And that’s why we celebrate Pentecost as a major High Feast of the Church today. Even from our liturgical color, we have moved from using white color) to denote joy of the Easter season as Jesus overcame the power of sin and death over us so that we can be clean and joyous) to the liturgical color of red, symbolizing the coming of the Holy Spirit in fire and wind and with vibrancy and might that startled the crowd, empowering Peter to stand up and address the devout Jewish crowd to help them understand it’s the outpour of the Holy Spirit, explaining the salvation accomplished by Christ, and ended up with 3,000 people choosing to be baptised.

Without doubt the outpour of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost came with such strong signs and symbols which bewildered the crowd. Imagine the shock to the devoted Jews in Jerusalem, who were originally from nations far and near: whilst they were familiar to how building of Babel Tower turned their ancestors’ one language into numerous ones, the reverse of it this time (viz., people speaking different language could hear their native languages spoken all from the same source of the disciples’ Galilean language). As usual, some would like to find out the truth causing such phenomenon while others sneered and belittled it as words of drunkards. Yet, irrespective of their different responses, Peter’s explanation of the phenomenon as the outpour of the Holy Spirit as prophesized by the prophet Joel reminded them that it’s time to ‘call on the name of the Lord’ for salvation. This served as a good introduction for Peter to proclaim God’s salvation from ‘this corrupt generation’ through Christ’s death and resurrection. No wonder Peter’s witnessing for Christ was so well received by these devote Jews who had just seen what the prophet Joel had prophesized as ‘portents in the heaven above, and signs on the earth below’ as the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as ‘a sound lie the rush of a violent wind’ (i.e. portents in the heaven above) and ‘divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue (of fire) rested on each of them (i.e. signs on the earth). They could well relate to the sin of Babel Tower turning human into alienation from each other. What else can be better than reunification of human back to one language because of the work of the Holy Spirit and Christ’s accomplishment of overcoming human sin (including arrogance in playing God)?

And these adding of 3,000 converts to be members of the church is the beginning of the Church growing beyond the original circle of disciples to continue doing Jesus’ work on earth. And it’s the materialization of Jesus’ promise that ‘his disciples together working as one body and as members with different gifts will do greater works than that they’d seen Jesus doing’.

Thus, whilst Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit commissioned his disciples on the evening of the Day of Easter, as Jesus promised them on the Day of Ascension that ‘they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them, and they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem (and that started from the Day of Pentecost), in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8).

As we walk through this overview of why, how and when the Holy Spirit of truth, wisdom, Advocate and Councillor chose to inaugurate the historical Church on the day of Pentecost, we inevitably will find God’s accomplishment of Jesus’ promise to all believers of divine presence is a seamless plan of wisdom, which affects not only the Church’s beginning 2,000 years ago, but continues to support all believers (you and I included) to be ‘Church in the world’. So let’s not lose heart over what we see the manifestation of wickedness and evil in the world, but be all the more determined to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to let goodness prevail over evil, let love prevail over hatred, and wholeness prevail over brokenness.

Let us pray again:Holy and immortal God, by the outpour of your Spirit we are filled with your power and wisdom so as to live as your church in the world. May we treasure your gifts to us through outpour of the Spirit as to be good stewardship of them to bring your love and compassion to all wherever we go! Amen.

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