Pentecost Sunday Sermon 2008

2008-05-11 audio

Our Scripture this morning is the Gospel Lesson just read from John, chapter 14.

Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God. Through the goodness of your grace, fill up these your believing hearts and minds with resolve. Ignite in them your passionate love. Amen

Pentecost or Mother’s Day? Which is today? Or can we have both?

Pentecost is the day on the church year calendar and celebrates the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the Church 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection.

Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May and is a time when people recognize their mothers with appreciation and love for who they are and what they do.

So the preacher is sent on a suicide mission today. Preach the readings and celebrate Pentecost, or preach Mother’s day and go along with the card and floral industries.

Growing-up—and this is more meaningful if you keep in mind I am the first born child—I was always told that when I was born the doctor told my parents it’s a boy! And my mother said, “Oh, good. At least we have our pastor.”

So they named me Mark, because he was one of the evangelists, and the name would fit easily on the church sign one day.

My mother is in heaven 17 years now, but I still believe those stories. And I still remember growing up in a household that was a combination of both German and Danish Lutheranism. From the German side we got the theology. From the Danish side we got the piety.

With my German grandparents on my father’s side and my mother’s Danish Aunt Margaret living with us it could sound like Pentecost in our house. But they all read their Bibles and hymnals and prayed the table prayers in their language. And it made an impression on us four kids.

One summer, it was decided that the church needed painting. It was concrete block like this, only they went at it a little differently then our painters. For some reason there was a large vat of paint; perhaps because they still mixed colors back then.

While they were painting my brother and I got into the church and I convinced my brother to lean over to look into the paint. That’s when he fell in and was that institutional green color that was so popular in the 60s from head to toe.

He ran down the aisle and out the narthex over to the parsonage leaving paint footprints everywhere and dripping green paint the whole way.

On this Mother’s Day I would like to say that when my brother came into the parsonage my brother was met with a hug. But he wasn’t. Anyway, Mom couldn’t have hugged him—she would have gotten full of paint. Instead, my dad found an appropriate application of parental response with the appropriate tool: a wooden paint stirrer.

One of the greatest blessings God gives to his people of faith is a Christian mother. The hymnist Martin Rinckart writes,
Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom His world rejoices;
Who from our mother’s arms Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.

I am certain each of you recall with fondness the love your parents—and especially your mother’s love showed as you were cradled in her arms, brought to the font of baptismal life; raised, fed, clothed and dressed; instructed in the faith, taught the prayers and hymns of the church; costumed for Christmas programs and dressed for Sunday School and Confirmation day—all by Mom.

My mother had a Christian piety that got her and us into more dilemmas. We always had to do the right thing and be honest. Which I often felt wasn’t the most expedient solution to a problem.
I recall one time Mom was stopped for speeding on a Sunday. The officer wrote the ticket and when she protested that she was on the way to church, he told her to, “tell it to the judge.”

She went to court and when the judge asked, “guilty, or not guilty?” my mom said, “guilty with an explanation!” The judge said, “guilty!” and she had to pay the fine. No explanation.

I suppose we like to think of our parents as perfect, but we know that they are every bit a sinful as we are because we inherited our sin from them. The Psalmist David says in the 51 Psalm, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5 (ESV)

How it grieves a Christian mother when she sees her child going astray! Sometimes a child will remain disciplined while he is under his parent’s roof. But once he is away, so much that was learned at home is forgotten or abandoned.

And parents unwilling to discipline—and especially when their children are adults they keep silent as they neglect the Lord’s Word and his House, despise preaching of God’s Word, and become infrequent guests at the Lord’s Table. Then they are beside themselves when they see the grandchildren taking things to the next level.

You parents and grandparents who are unwilling to speak up about the sins of your children and grandchildren, you will be held accountable for them. I urge you to recall the way in which your grandparents and parents raised you, seeing to your physical and eternal welfare. Are you so willing to abandon the souls of your children and grandchildren for eternity in exchange for temporal peace?
When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church on Pentecost, God gave a marvelous gift to His people. They would have His Spirit dwelling in them. They would be made holy. The Apostle’s were promised that they would recall the words of Jesus’ and the church has the sacred Scriptures as a great blessing.

The young man Timothy was reminded by the Apostle Paul of the Christian instruction he received. Paul writes,
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 2 Timothy 1:5 (ESV)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:14-15 (ESV)

And then Paul says,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)

Why is it that a church that celebrates Pentecost and puts up banners that speak of the fruits of the Spirit and has a Bible in each pew is unable to have a full Bible study class?

We need to repent of our neglect of God’s Word and its study. We need to repent of the many times and ways we disregard the souls of children when we fail to instruct them and teach them the ways of God.

And we need to repent of the times when we grieve the Holy Spirit and would drive him away by our sinful attitudes especially toward the Church which has mothered us into the family and kingdom of God. When she is spoken against and ridiculed, mocked and insulted, neglected and left without support.

David repented, and pleaded that God would not take His Holy Spirit from him saying in the familiar words of the offertory,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right1 spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
And then he continues,

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. Psalm 51:10-15 (ESV)

On this Pentecost we give thanks to God for the promise kept in the generous giving of His Holy Spirit. We rejoice that God has given us His Word of Truth, especially through our parents.
We look forward to being reunited with those who have gone to heaven before us, whether a mother or perhaps a child.

And our prayer this day and always is that God’s Spirit would continue to be with us, our homes and families, and our church and community, so that we may never waver from His truth and finally reach our heavenly home.
Amen.