Homily for Evening Prayer Pentecost Sunday

Lectionary Readings for Evening Prayer Pentecost Sunday

(for evening prayer on Sundays at St. George’s/St. John’s the Traditional version is used, taken from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, with the King James Version of the readings from Scripture)

Psalm 67

God be merciful unto us, and bless us and shew us the light of his countenance, and be merciful unto us. That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God yea, let all the people praise thee. O let the nations rejoice and be glad for thou shalt judge righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Let the people praise thee, O God let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth bring forth her increase and God, even our own God, shall give us his blessing. God shall bless us and all the ends of the world shall fear him. Psalm 133 Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his clothing. Like as the dew of Hermon which fell upon the hill of Sion. For there the Lord promised his blessing and life for evermore.

Joel 2: 21-32

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Acts 2: 14-38

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Homily for Evening Prayer

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, ignite in us your holy fire….. so begins the Collect for today, this great celebration day, of Pentecost. We have asked God for many things in this period of uncertainty and distress. I think we have mostly, persistently, asked Him for comfort and consolation. But today we ask God for His Holy Spirit to come down to us and fill us with fire. The Christian faith is full of powerful symbols: the water that is Baptism, the bread and wine that are the body and blood of Christ, the fire that is the Holy Spirit, coming down on the followers of Jesus that first Pentecost day. Fire, most often, conveys destruction: America is burning now, police stations aflame and communities alight with the burning rage of yet another injustice inflicted upon persons of color. Despair, hopelessness, and longing smoulder in the hearts of those who have been denied so much for so long. Let us pray that out of such destroying anger arises the reality of change. But the fire that is the holy fire of God’s Spirit is a purifying fire, a kindling fire, an empowering fire. If it sets us aflame, we can transform the world with the beauty and the grace of God. These are the qualities of holy fire: A holy fire purifies. We fall short of God’s intention for us. We are not noble, heroic, strong, uncompromising. We know that we fail to live up to the grand, great design of our Creator. If we allow the Holy Spirit of God to take hold of us, to shake us from our complacency and timidity, we can overcome whatever the world flings against us. Suffering purifies us; the fire of suffering love transfigures us. A holy fire kindles. The fire of the Holy Spirit can awaken in us a greater, deeper sense of how God’s love can change the selfishness and the callousness of persons, and also the seemingly immoveable structures of the world. Once our eyes are opened and our blood is fired, we become alive to what it means to throw our lives into the arena of Christ-like service. A holy fire empowers. When we are set on fire by the fierce, burning energy of the Spirit, we are propelled forward to complete all the acts of love we have been contemplating. We are given both the will and the strength to act in Christ’s name. The Faith we embrace is not about the fear of doing wrong or the guilt we feel if we think we do. It is not about obeying rules and regulations. It is not about avoiding disappointment and loss at all costs. It is about burning with the love of Christ that gives us joy and sets us free. Easter has changed everything; its power can scarcely be comprehended. David Bentley Hart, the brilliant Orthodox theologian, has this to say about the ultimate triumphant declaration that Easter makes possible: All of heaven and of hell meet in those three days—-and so now, no matter how far any soul may venture from God in all the ages, Christ has already gone further out into that ‘far country,’ has borne all the consequences of anyone’s alienation from God and neighbor, and has eternally opened the way back into the sanctuary of the Presence….the figure of Christ in the fourth gospel passes through the world as the light of eternity; he is already both judgment and salvation, disclosing hell in our hearts, but shattering it in his flesh, so that he may ‘drag’ everyone to himself….Hell appears in the shadow of the cross as what has always already been conquered, as what Easter leaves in ruins, to which we may flee from the transfiguring light of God if we so wish, but where we can never finally come to rest—-for, being only a shadow, it provides nothing to cling to.…Hell exists, so long as it exists, only as the last terrible residue of a fallen creation’s enmity to God, the lingering effects of a condition of slavery that God has conquered universally in Christ and will ultimately conquer individually in every soul. This age has passed away already, however long it lingers on in its own aftermath, and thus in the Age to come, and beyond all ages, all shall come home to the Kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. Easter has changed everything; its power can scarcely be comprehended. Pentecost is Easter’s outworking: the outpouring of Spirit that God sends upon each of us, now, as a gift. May we feel the fire of the Holy Spirit moving in us, this Pentecost Day, and always!

*David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation, pp. 128-129