Pentecost – May 28, 2023

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

Who Among Us Is Without Problems?

Over my two years here I’ve shared many stories and experiences—Fr. Michael’s greatest hits! Do you remember “Jesus Sucks Girl”? She’s the one that had everything in life (at least she thought), but was still unhappy—and she couldn’t figure out why. I’ve told you about the woman that came to see me one day, crying because her husband had left her and their baby for another woman…all because he thought that, since he had strong feelings for her, he had to leave—and he was torn up about it, even though he thought he was getting what he wanted. I’ve told you about the anchorman I met on a flight to Chicago, the one who had everything he ever dreamed (fame, fortune, a woman)—and yet he was profoundly unhappy. I’ve talked even just about my own experiences of seeking to accomplish many things—and even when I accomplished them, the feeling was, “Is this it? Is this all there is?” 

The reason I share these kinds of stories is because all of them—they all come back to a very common experience: the experience of getting exactly what we want but being left with the feeling of dissatisfaction, emptiness, betrayal—the question, “Ok.  But now what?”

Show of hands (this time I actually want you to raise your hand)—show of hands: how many of us can say our lives are perfect, we lack nothing, that there is nothing at all we would change?

When it comes down to it, so much of what I preach comes back to one simple line, a line I repeat often, a line from St. Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Nothing has struck me quite like this. It’s all there. We go looking for a way to quiet our restless heart—and yet even when we get it, get everything we wanted, we’re left with the same restlessness as before…if not worse.

But it is there, precisely there that a simple proposal is given to us. Simple: Christ. Jesus Christ isn’t here to tell us to be nice. He is here to rescue; to give us access to a newness, to a fullness of life. And all he asks in return? To follow; to drop what we’re currently holding onto, to drop whatever else it was we thought would give us this newness, this fullness of life—and instead to cling to him, to entrust our lives to him, to follow him. The proposal is that is where we’re going to find this fullness of life we can’t seem to find anywhere else, no matter how hard we try.

Pentecost: The Culmination and the Beginning

Ok. This is why Pentecost is such a big deal! Like every other “big event” we’ve been celebrating, Pentecost is not just a cool thing that happened, some event with miraculous fire and speaking in different languages, no! Pentecost was the culmination and a new beginning of everything Jesus was doing. Pentecost is the day that everything is set in motion.

Pentecost is a big deal for a lot of reasons, and I could talk about those reasons for a long time—trust me! But for us, especially given the past five months, ever since January 1st when we started talking about and then began “Rerouting…”—Pentecost is everything that we’ve been driving at. Why? Because Pentecost is all about the mission, the mandate, and the Power from on high—Pentecost is about the work that is being entrusted to us, the mission entrusted to us.

And how can we sum up that mission? The mission that Jesus gives us—it’s not to change people (no, he does that). The mission is to bear witness, to be witnesses—the give testimony to what has happened to us, what we have allowed to happen to us! We are called to be witnesses to what happened to us when we encountered Jesus Christ, to give testimony about what Jesus Christ did for us. And then—and this is the key—the mission is to invite people into a life-changing encounter with Jesus as well. This is why the Holy Spirit is sent! To empower us for mission; to allow our words and our actions to not just be our own, but Christ working in us.

Peter: His Journey Is Ours

Do you remember who stands up on Pentecost day to speak? This incredible event of Pentecost happens, and one Apostle stands up to speak, to bear witness, to announce what has happened! Who is it? Peter. Peter is the first disciple Jesus calls, the first to profess faith in him, and the first to stand up.

So think for a second about the trajectory of Peter’s life. One day, Peter’s brother Andrew comes and finds him and tells him, “We’ve found the Messiah.” And so Peter meets Jesus for the first time. Later on, as Peter is just doing his job one day, Jesus comes walking along and calls him and his brother, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And still not entirely sure why, Peter drop everything and follows him. And he begins to live life with him, to listen to him, to discover what he’s all about. All the while, a certainty is growing—“Could this man really be who he says that he is?”

And then one day, after miraculously feeding 5,000 people, everyone leaves—Jesus started saying something about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and people can’t handle it, so they left. And it’s just Jesus and Peter and the other 11 disciples. And right the and there, Jesus asks an important question: “Are you going to leave me too?” Think of Peter! He doesn’t know all the right answers! He doesn’t know everything! Yeah, there is something stirring in him that tells him that this man is the answer to everything he has been searching for, but… But Jesus is asking! “Are you going to leave too?” And so Peter pipes up and says, “Lord, you’re right, we don’t fully understand you; we don’t even totally understand why we follow you! But we are sure that you are the only one who takes us seriously, takes seriously our need for complete and total fulfillment. Only you have the words of eternal life! Only you have the words which correspond to my heart. Lord, to whom else would we go?” (c.f., John 6:68). Notice: The difference between the people that left and the disciples who stayed is not that the teaching of Jesus made sense, or they understood perfectly, no. This is the difference: the disciples realized that in encountering and following Jesus Christ, everything had changed and continued to change. Peter and the twelve could not deny the fact of Jesus in their lives; the fact that being with Jesus, listening to Jesus, following Jesus changed everything. And so what does Peter do? He surrenders his life to him, he entrusts his life to him.

This doesn’t mean that Peter’s life is perfect all of a sudden, no! He continue to be imperfect. In a decisive moment, he even denies Jesus—three times. But after the resurrection, Jesus reconciles with Peter—three times he asks him, “Do you love me?” And there Jesus calls him again, just like the beginning: “Follow me.” And then, when the Spirit is sent, it is Peter that first stands up and bears witness, that announces everything that has happened. 

But notice! At the center of it all—it is Peter’s surrender, his faith, him saying, “Lord, to whom else would I go?” And he meant it! After Pentecost, Peter followed no matter what—even to the point of dying on a cross. At the heart of it is his surrender—and when the Spirit is sent, he simply does what the Spirit calls him to do. And it changed the world.

My hope is that, if someone came along and gave you a test—let’s say Bishop Kemme shows up and hands out a test to see if you know all the right answers—my hope is not that you pass the test. My hope is that if Bishop came, you could respond with the faith of Peter, “I don’t always fully understand. But to whom else would I go? He has the words that correspond to my heart. He gives a fullness to my life I can’t find anywhere else. He has the words of eternal life.” The real “test” of our faith is not a written exam. The test is, “Am I willing to lay down my life for this? Is my entire life entrusted to him?” Because when that is the case—then the Spirit can do more work through us than we could ever ask or imagine. 

You Are Sent

So back to the mission, the mission the Spirit empowers us for. What happened to Peter? Did God appear to him on a cloud? No. It all began because of his own brother, Andrew—Andrew invited him to go see this Jesus from Nazareth. And the rest is history! Peter had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, he was called by Jesus, he gave his life to Jesus, and when he received the Holy Spirit he was sent as a witness. Why? To invite people to experience the same life-changing encounter he had.

God isn’t going to appear on a cloud to everyone in Rice County. He is going to send you! You have been given the Spirit, not to try to be a really really nice person, but to be empowered for the mission! Think: how many of you have invited your neighbors to church? Each and every one of us knows Catholics in town that no longer practice the faith—have you reached out to them? We invite people to every event under the sun—but do we invite them to encounter Christ? Do we gather the lost sheep? Do we leave the 99 and go after the one?

This mission is not optional, it is essential! The Church exists to evangelize. This is the mission we need to take more seriously. Why? Because “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” You can always count on this. No matter how “good” someone may think their life is, no matter how successful someone may be—no one will ever experience the fullness they’re truly searching for until thy find it in Christ. Guaranteed. You are sent. You carry on the mission.