“Happy Birthday to Us!”
The Sermon Notes of Father S. Peter Donatelli
(Pentecost; 2009 – All Biblical quotes from the New King James Version)
JOKE:
I keep getting these birthday cards from Sherman, Maine in Aroostook County so I think it’s from Jesse. I read this card recently; forget about the past, you can’t change it. Forget about the future, you can’t predict it. Forget about the present, I didn’t get you one.
INTRO:
So we made it! Seven years ago this feast the Church of Christ Jesus Victor began its first official Sunday Mass. Back then I had a word that I thought was for the entire CEC but recently I have been thinking it was specifically for this church that we would experience seven years of famine followed by seven years of feast. Well now the word is in print and here we go. Today is also Pentecost and what a great day to celebrate our anniversary as Pentecost Sunday nearly two thousand years ago was the birthday of God’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. So, Happy Birthday Church and Happy Birthday CJV. What’s next? Why should God-fearing, Spirit-filled, joyfully obedient Christians need to experience famine, trials, or tribulations?
POINT ONE:
Christ’s departure was necessary to the Comforter’s coming. Sending the Spirit was to be the fruit of Christ’s death, which was his going away. Imagine that? Jesus had to die in order for the Church to bear the fruit of Holy Spirit. Sometimes we do not think of death and suffering and misery when we think of the abundant joy that the Scriptures promise us (c.f. John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.) We have been reading Dennis Bennett’s book “Nine O’clock in the Morning.” Last Tuesday we ended in the ominous chapter fourteen. That’s right for thirteen chapters we have been reading about predominantly cheerful stuff like people being healed, church resources coming in plentifully, and lives being changed for the betterment of the faithful, but then comes chapter fourteen and quite frankly I did not expect it. Father Dennis’s wife, Elberta, was diagnosed with cancer. The chapter takes us through her courageous battle and final acceptance of the inevitable. By the end of the chapter Elberta dies just three years after Dennis receives what he called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. What a loop? I was not expecting that. Also, I have been reading about Jim Cymbala. I have been reading Jim Cymbala’s book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, also and this story involves a happily married couple who took a handful of people and built them into a church of ten thousand and the famous Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir! But was it all roses and song? Chapter four tells us of their daughter Chrissy who started falling into a sinful life at the age of sixteen, ran away at eighteen, and the parents spent months in utter desolation. Finally one evening at a prayer meeting both Pastor Cymbala and his daughter Chrissy heard the Lord together and they were reunited as God brought them out of despair into a fertile Christian life. Imagine that; famine before the feast. Jesus left the world bodily after His crucifixion and Resurrection but that is when things really started getting divine. His bodily presence could be only in one place at one time, but his Spirit is every where, in all places, at all times, wherever two or three are gathered together in his name. Today’s Gospel reaffirms this. John 15:26-27 and 16:12-15: 26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
POINT TWO:
Though we participate in Christ’s divinity at times, we also fall at times. We are not perfect nor is the world we live in. So that is why we face trials and tribulations. The enemy is still in the world and the devil and demons can certainly make life difficult for us. God gives us life. Satan gives us death. God gives us a journey to the Kingdom. Satan wants us to slip into hell. We have the choice and the freedom to be faithful, obedient, and fruitful; or to be adulterous, rebellious, and barren. What makes the United States a great country is that because our founding forefathers were all Christian thinkers insistent on basing our ethos, our laws, and our government on Biblical principles, is our freedoms. We certainly see this work successfully in the commercial world we live in. I am not sure why, but every time I go to McDonald’s I am programmed to stare at their “menu” for several minutes before making a choice. Give me a break folks! The “menu” has not really changed in thirty years so we still celebrate freedom as we walk into a fast food “restaurant.” I have never ordered the same Subway sandwich ever. These lesser choices make way for more significant choices in life. Britney Spears and Jaci Velasquez are both great singers but who is doing the will of God. They both have been given a great spiritual gift but there is no comparison as to who glorifies God and who glorifies worldly hedonism. Jaci Velasquez, a successful award winning singer/songwriter is currently partnering with both Compassion and Feed the Children in an effort to put her words into action and “Love Out Loud.” God as a most beneficent Father gives His children choices and free will. This only works for our enrichment when we follow these Biblical principles. It works to our deterioration when we choose otherwise. This morning’s second reading illustrates this. Galatians 5: 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
POINT THREE:
When we make the right choices in life then no matter what the world throws at us, no matter what the devil tries to do to us, no matter how bad things seem to appear, the Spirit brings order out of chaos. Over four thousand years ago the people of God had a choice to dedicate a tower for the greater Glory of God or to the arrogant glory of man. Men chose division and confusion over unity and clarity. God had to punish this attempt to destroy His works by causing these people to speak in different languages until such a time as the unity of the Body of Christ would be made manifest to the entire world. Today we celebrate the reversal of Babel as the Church shows the most culturally diverse, giftedness diverse, and language diverse people to ever exist. Our two billion people have affected the world in the most positive way and though the devil still seeks to divide and destroy, we are the Church militant, the Church with infinite resources, the Church with the greatest talents, and we will be victorious. God gave us the marching orders to make the world a better place. His tower is perfect as He is the Great Architect who designs all things from moral issues like our sexuality, to faith issues like our spirituality, God’s plan is perfect and none else can compare. We seek perfection while others seek self-destruction. We are order amidst chaos. As the story goes; Acts 2: 1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
CONCLUSION:
We have the ability to use our spiritual gifts to bring order to our lives, the lives of those closest to us, and to heal this country as many seek to build towers for their own egocentric glory. There is a sense of renewal when people feel that wind blowing through them and percolating amongst the faithful. We need to constantly be feeling that wind. I have this cool feature in my car called “swing.” When I turn it on the fan circulates to the passenger and back to the driver. When the AC is on during the muggy days of summer, this feature is rather cool. However there is a special coolness when the fan actually hits me and then it moves and then I wait for it to come back around. Sometimes I feel that Christians behave the same way as the Spirit moves through them like a mighty rushing wind only to fluctuate away as we observe others doing the things we should be doing. People are constantly searching for that cool breeze to come back again when the reality is that the fresh Wind has never gone away. At baptism we are sacramentally filled with the Holy Spirit, and not even Satan himself can snatch us out of God’s hand once we have been washed in the water of regeneration. We do not lose the Holy Spirit once we have been born again in Christ. However, the Spirit can lie dormant inside us, if we make no effort to release Him. Now is the time of our seven years of feast. Though I am an eternal optimist and have always worked for the betterment of CJV, never losing hope or zeal, I feel that now we are ready to work harder as God will bless us with more time, more talent, and more treasures. The Spirit is a-movin’ and let’s get on that bandwagon to make our lives more abundant and God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. Come Holy Spirit and feel our hearts with Your holy gifts.
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