Happy Birthday!\u00c2\u00a0 Today is the Birthday of your Church.\u00c2\u00a0 Because on the feast of Pentecost some 2000 years ago, God sent His Spirit to dwell within several dozen people gathered in one small room in Jerusalem, and from that humble birth, the Christian Church has spread to all the corners of the Earth to be the largest religion in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Happy Birthday to our Church!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now we usually dwell on Pentecost as the coming of the Spirit, but it is more than just that,\u00c2\u00a0 Pentecost initiated the great period of Evangelization, the conversion of the whole World- the Gentiles.\u00c2\u00a0 Just as Pentecost was used by the Jews as the commemoration of how God \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Gave Moses the Ten Commandments and made His covenant with them to be their God; so also Pentecost commemorates for Christians how God gave the Apostles the Spirit and energized by that Spirit, He sent them to spread the New Covenant promising salvation to all people. The energy of the Spirit was not used to serve their own purposes, but rather, to accomplish God’s purpose.\u00c2\u00a0 They started by preaching to the tremendous crowd that was gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, one of the three main Jewish pilgrimage feasts that brought Jews from all over the World to Jerusalem each year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scripture scholars tell us that the miracle of the tongues we heard about, that is, each foreign person hearing preaching in his own language, was a symbol that the scrambling of speech and confusion that occurred at the Tower of Babel thousands of years before that, was being reversed.\u00c2\u00a0 God used this event, the first Christian Pentecost, to broadcast a clear message:\u00c2\u00a0 He had sent His Son to the redeem all people, people of every nation and tongue, and now was the time to spread that message to all people; to unify all people in belief in the one true God.\u00c2\u00a0 And so, God’s Spirit spread like tongues of fire on His Apostles and from them to people of the many nations gathered in Jerusalem at the time- a Spirit which instilled in them God’s Love for them; and a spirit of life and enthusiasm; a spirit that promised an inheritance of everlasting life for those who believe and repent of their sins.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Church celebrates Pentecost each year to remind you and I of all this so that we too, just like Apostles, will go out and spread the good news of the New Covenant.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, in the Gospel, Jesus makes this clear.\u00c2\u00a0 There, He talks about first loving Him and then keeping His commandments.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he says that, quote, “..we will come to him and make our dwelling in him”.\u00c2\u00a0 What dwells within in us is the Paraclete, or Advocate.\u00c2\u00a0 But an Advocate of what- God’s advocate; God’s voice that will dwell in us and is ever present to remind us, through our conscience, of what God wants us to do; and to be an advocate for us in God’s behalf. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
In our second reading, we hear that:\u00c2\u00a0 “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” First, this means that these inspirations have been specially selected by God for you, whatever they are. \u00c2\u00a0Second, it means that whatever manifestation you have been given, whatever urgings, talents, energies, and inclinations that God whispers to you through His spirit, are for some benefit in His cause to unite all of us.\u00c2\u00a0 Our community of believers, our Church, consists of many diverse people with many diverse God-given gifts that are the manifestations of the Spirit of God.\u00c2\u00a0 So there is a place for all of us in God’s plan to evangelize.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like the Apostles, we are being called to use those gifts for the greater glory of God, and to build His community of believers, the Church.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most of us are not being called to drop out of the life we have been given to do something entirely new, but rather, to learn how to bloom right where we have been planted.\u00c2\u00a0 Chances are that all of you out there recognize the special abilities that God has given you.\u00c2\u00a0 These are the gifts of the Spirit that you have.\u00c2\u00a0 They are your talents; the wholesome interests that you have; and even your limitations.\u00c2\u00a0 They are the things that you love.\u00c2\u00a0 They are what makes you special.\u00c2\u00a0 God wants you to use those inclinations and gifts for the common good, and in such a way, that your actions broadcast your dedication to the values and goals of Christianity.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are a business man; be an honest and trustworthy business man.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are a caretaker- a stay at home Mom or caretaker for a sick or aging person, be a loving and giving caretaker;\u00c2\u00a0 if you are someone’s employee; be a loyal and hard working employee;\u00c2\u00a0 and if you are a teacher, or a person in a position of influence through your words and deeds,\u00c2\u00a0 then always teach and act by what is true and of value.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever you do, do it for the greater glory of God.\u00c2\u00a0 And like the miracle of tongues today, everyone will hear you, loud and clear, whether you speak their language or not.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pentecost Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Coe 12: 3b-7, 12-13; John 14: 15-16, 23b-26 Dc. Larry Brockman Happy Birthday!\u00c2\u00a0 Today is the Birthday of your Church.\u00c2\u00a0 Because on the feast of Pentecost some 2000 years ago, God sent His Spirit to dwell within several dozen people gathered in one small room in Jerusalem, and from that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}