Sermon for the Day of Pentecost 2006
 Judith Davis©, 27th Rector, Christ Church+Washington Parish

Pentecost by Bartolomeo di Tommasso da Foligno, 15th century Umbrian 

+”Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful with the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:30)

             Today is the Day of Pentecost. You might notice things look a little different in here. We have these red and orange banners representing the flames of the Holy Spirit and we have new paraments adorning the altar and ambo. This is the day when we remember the 50th day after the Resurrection when the Holy Spirit came to the followers of Jesus on the Jewish feast day of Shavuot, or the feast of weeks when the wheat harvest came, seven weeks after the barley harvest.

            Much can be said about Pentecost, about the Jewish festival of Shavuot, about the fire of the Holy Spirit, about the followers of Jesus speaking in tongues, but today I want to talk about the “three P’s of Pentecost”—the Painting on the cover of your bulletin, the Paraments and vestments we’re using today, and the Proclamation of the Baptismal Covenant.  I’ll bet they’re not the three P’s you expected. 

Painting:

            The Painting is Pentecost by Bartolomeo di Tommasso da Foligno, an Umbrian painter in the early to mid 15th century.  The theme of Pentecost was common in Christian art after the Middle Ages since it marked the birth of the church itself.  Some images are icons and frescoes; others are tempera on wood, like today’s painting. Some are illuminated manuscripts of the 15th century.  When Pentecost was celebrated in Italy it was customary to scatter red rose petals from the ceiling of the churches to recall the miracle of the fiery tongues and red vestments were worn. Sometimes the Italian name Pascha rossa is used.  Tommasso da Foligno took his name from his native town in Umbria, but during his career, he executed large fresco cycles in other Italian cities. His style is marked by a vivid imagination, an expressionistic treatment of forms, and innovative compositions. In the painting we have on the right side of your bulletin (the Road to Emmaus is on the left side), the disciples are seated in a room after Christ’s ascension and suddenly tongues of fire descended on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, represented by the dove above them, and each began to speak in a different language. 

             The point of the languages, Scripture tells us, is that many heard the sound and gathered around hearing the disciples speak in a language those listening understood. Peter calmed the crowd down and told them that the disciples were speaking the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel who said that the Holy Spirit would come and men and women, slaves and free, old and young would experience a new salvation of God.  Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come and in the story of the Ascension, he tells them to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon them with power. And so the painting shows the Holy Spirit coming to them, and on this day, we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming to us, the Church here, as well.  Hold on to that thought until I get to Proclamation.

 The Paraments: 

            So, what are “paraments” anyway?  According to An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, they are “Cloth or tapestry hangings used to adorn the space for worship, especially those hangings at the altar, pulpit, and lectern.” The term is derived from the Latin, "to decorate" or "prepare." You may have noticed that we have new paraments today.  These are on loan to us from Nativity Episcopal Church in Camp Springs, Maryland, which held its closing service on May 21st using these paraments and vestments.  After more than 50 years in the location which now houses St. Monica’s church at 14th and Massachusetts, SE, and then almost 50 years in Camp Springs, Nativity made the decision to close due to changing demographics, people retiring and moving and various situations, including the building of the beltway.  As some of you know, Anne Gilson went there on October 1 to be their priest-in-charge through this transition.  So Nativity has loaned us these festive paraments for a time and eventually they will follow Anne to her new Church.  

            Why is “Parament” one of the three P’s for today?  Simply put, the members of Nativity were charged in their closing service to be sent out into the world to carry the message of Christ’s justice-love and saving grace to the communities in which they find themselves.  Even though the congregation will not gather on Manchester Drive near the beltway in Camp Springs, their members will join other churches and bring the loving, gentle spirit of a great community of faith to new places.  This is pretty much what the Day of Pentecost is about and what happened on that first Pentecost 50 days after the Resurrection.  When the disciples spoke in languages after having been empowered by the Holy Spirit, they went out into the world, empowered by the Spirit to proclaim Jesus’ message of the Good News of eternal life to those who believe. 

            The Church was on the move after the disciples received the Holy Spirit. No longer could they remain in that safe upper room. The Church was intended to be on the move. It was not intended for Upper Rooms. It was intended for the street, for people, and places everywhere. The Holy Spirit wasn’t given so individuals could have a form of private “spirituality” just for themselves. The Holy Spirit was given to the Church to enable it to be the Church. In its power, the Church is enabled to put things together and to be together, to form new communities and to empower the communities that exist. 

            The conventional wisdom of our time says that we must be safe and secure to live the good life, perhaps the way the disciples must have felt. Pentecost says NO! It is when we choose to be vulnerable that the Spirit empowers us. It comes when we open our arms as Jesus did on the Cross, and welcome all in. It is comfortable to stay where we think we are protected. Yet, it is in the swirling, crowded, unfamiliar and unusual places, where we seem to collide most often with the Spirit.  The faithful members of Nativity chose to be vulnerable and now the Holy Spirit has come to them again as they were sent forth into the world at their last service with these familiar words: “Let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit, alleluia, alleluia.” And they and all of us gathered that day then said with enthusiasm (through tears), “thanks be to God, alleluia, alleluia.”          

            Then the Nativity banner was processed out by the Rector of St. Nicholas’ Church in Darnestown, MD, a new church plant in the Diocese.  St. Nick’s will use the banner at Christmas.  As hard as it was to see someone else process Nativity’s banner out, it was a symbol of all of the Nativity members being sent out into the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Good News.

 Proclamation:

            OK, that brings me to the third “P”--Proclamation of the Baptismal Covenant. In a few minutes, we will baptize Sebastian Wall Giesecke, like we baptized his brother Max and his father John and like we have been baptized.  Sometimes we wear white for baptism, and that’s where the alternate term Whitsunday derives, from the white garments worn at baptism.  So when we baptize Sebastian, the Holy Spirit will descend on him like it did on Jesus at his baptism, and like it descended on the disciples at Pentecost. We probably won’t see a dove come down and I think we would all be surprised if we saw flames of fire, (but you never know what can happen!) but we see them in our minds as we baptize Sebastian with water and the Holy Spirit. When we mark him with the oil of chrism, we say, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and marked as Christ’s own forever.”  And before the baptism, we all renew our baptismal promises. 

            One of the promises we make is to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.”  This is a tall order and each of us, like each of the members of Nativity, and like each of the disciples of the first century, has been empowered to carry out this proclamation.  So, that’s the scary part.  On this day, especially, each of us is empowered once more to go out into our world and proclaim the Gospel.   The Holy Spirit comes to us in water, in bread and wine and oil, in our prayers and in our justice-love. Above all, the Spirit drives us out of the safety and security of these walls, our own Upper Room, and pushes us beyond ourselves, our abilities, our expectations and safety levels and calls us to have a radical freedom to set out on new, uncharted roads.  In Pentecost we accept our baptism by fire to go out to witness and preach the good news.  Christian discipleship is the ultimate road trip. We have the map of faith and the GPS of courage to take on the task of being an evangelist for Christ.     

            One way we can be evangelists along with Sebastian is to carry out the imperative of the General Convention which convenes this month.  The theme is “Come and Grow,” and today’s prayer request from General Convention is to “Come and Grow in the Spirit.” What would happen if we were all at Eastern Market and found the Christ in the other people there? What if we invited them to join us here at Christ Church? What if we left the places where everyone knows our name to go “seek and serve Christ in all persons” in accordance with our Baptismal Covenant?  Well, this fall our parish will participate in a new program with the Diocese called “Come and Grow,” based on the imperatives of the General Convention 2006.  I think it will make a difference. So, much earlier in the sermon I said, that as the painting shows the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples, that on this day, we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming to us, the Church here in the 21st century, as well. 

            So let us go forth on this day to love and serve Christ in all people and let us show Sebastian the way to do that. If you need more instruction, stay tuned for “Come and Grow” in the fall and tune into General Convention this month.   My closing thought is this: at the beginning of this sermon, I prayed, “Come, Holy Spirit.” May it be so in the life of Christ Church and in Sebastian’s life too!  Amen.

 Judith Davis+, 27th Rector, Christ Church+Washington Parish