Pentecost Sunday Msgr. Chris Heller – Sunday, May 23, 2021- John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
Happy Birthday, Church of God! One of the most beloved hymns I learned during my preparation for ministry had a beautiful melody set to a profound text. It was this: “Abba! Abba Father: you are the potter; we are the clay, the work of your hands.” This quote from Isaiah in Hebrew Scriptures puts us in the right order, just as Jesus in John’s Gospel tells us He’s the vine and we’re the branches. In both cases, God and Christ Jesus are CONFIRMING the divine work that’s going to happen in us.
To be the clay in God’s hands has several dimensions to it: First, you and I have the mark of the Creator emblazoned on our body, mind, heart and souls: we are adopted sons and daughters of our loving God. But also, and just as important, this impact of God is not a static, once-and-for-all-time influence on us. Because we are called to be malleable like clay in the hands of God the Potter, God can choose 2reshape or refashion US into the person we need to become FOR GOD’S PURPOSES. After all, we are clay: we ARE the creative expression of a VERY creative God, who sees and knows very well how the whole world works.
And while we are being re-shaped according to the plan of a loving and faithful God, another word comes into use, and it’s related to the word CONFIRM, but different. The Word is CONFORMED: God shapes us at baptism with the Holy Spirit’s excellent gifts. It’s a wonderful beginning into which God invites us: a faith family of eternal life. But at OUR Confirmations, and at our sister Carolyn’s Confirmation today, we will pray that the Holy Spirit’s anointing would CONFORM Carolyn more fully to Christ Jesus, the Son of God.
I know…I know….some people consider the word CONFORM 2B an unpopular word or a bad word; that it somehow denigrates the uniqueness of a person, or puts them in a box, like commercially-produced cookies that are identical in each box! That is RIDICULOUS! St. Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, says that each of us is UNIQUELY shaped by the potter, according to Christ: EACH of us has been called to re-shape our thoughts, words, actions, and habits to be more like our Shepherd Jesus. And yes, EACH of us has been called to serve the Lord and his people, so what does the Holy Spirit do for us?
Let me suggest two ways the Holy Spirit can energize us to overcome our previous limitations in life: the first begins before the feast of Pentecost. Mary and Christ’s disciples were afraid, LOCKED in the upper room. Why? They TRULY feared those who tortured and killed the Savior would torture and kill them as loyalists. But when the Holy Spirit came, becoming CONFORMED to Christ meant surrendering their fears, letting go of their immobility and paralysis, and resuming their Christ-Mission: to spread to the ends of the earth the Good News of God’s kingdom and reign.
Second, becoming CONFORMED to Christ means serving beyond our family and friends and what’s familiar. You all remember the Good Samaritan story in St. Luke. A Jewish man has been beat up, and left for dead on the side of the road; a Jewish priest and a lawyer see him, and both keep going. But a Samaritan, a man from an ethno-religious group that Jewish people HATED, takes the Jewish man left for dead to an innkeeper, and pays him to take care of the man. The Good Samaritan also promised to reimburse the innkeeper any other expenses incurred. See what Jesus did? He taught us to go beyond the borders of family and kin, to correspond to the Scriptural call given us as Christians: “go out to all the world, and tell the good news.”
On this Happy Birthday of the Church, we certainly need a Holy Spirit B-12 shot of invigoration and rejuvenation. Let us be the ready and receptive CLAY of God our Abba’s love, and not miss a single opportunity to be stretched and shaped by the One who said to God, “thy will be done.”
