{"id":6488,"date":"2020-06-15T10:11:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T00:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6488"},"modified":"2020-06-15T11:55:20","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T01:55:20","slug":"the-feast-of-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-feast-of-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feast of Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adapted from a sermon by Fr Sam Fanous<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Passage: John 15:26 – 16:15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is the beautiful Feast of Pentecost \u2013 the Feast where the apostles and disciples went out and converted the whole world. If you look at the whole history of humanity within the Bible, you can see that it is a process of God teaching humanity. In ancient civilisations, the world was pretty barbaric \u2013 humanity behaved in a way that was very depraved in many instances. In those times, they behaved in that way often in service to the gods they worshipped. Some offered up their sons and daughters, and burned them in an act of worship to their gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the Old Testament, God told these people that, though they were primitive, this was not the way to behave. So He revealed himself to them as God the Father, the one God. In those days, the concept of one God was alien to them \u2013 there were hundreds of gods. Each tribal group had their own group. He revealed himself to the Jews firstly to teach them the most important lesson: there is only one God. The other gods were idols. But the God of the Jews was the only one to be worshipped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even though he said this to Abraham and Moses, it took about a thousand years for this idea to sink in. Initially, they thought that this was their God who was stronger than all the other gods. But after thousands of years that concept became ingrained that the other gods weren\u2019t real, and were simply works of man. The God of the Jews was the only God. He revealed that He was the transcendent, unknowable, eternal God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why in the Old Testament the people would question \u201chow can I have seen God\u2019s face?\u201d<\/em>. They believed that if they saw God\u2019s face they would be immediately killed. But throughout the whole Old Testament there are snippets of revelation that somehow God is further than we could ever imagine, yet somehow close to us. We see Moses in the Burning Bush \u2013 the angel of the Lord walks on the earth. But who is the angel of the Lord? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So somehow, throughout the Old Testament, you get the indication that there may be more to the story than this one, eternal, unknowable God. And finally, when we get to the gospels, we discover a new level of truth: God, the word, the second person, became man.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the angel of the Lord. He was the one who spoke to Moses through the Burning Bush. In the fullness of time, through St Mary, He became man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this movement of revelation from God the unknowable coming towards us moves to another level now. Now, Jesus walks with us. We can listen, touch, hold and see Him. He is there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the movement of God towards us is not finished there. Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection is only the second stage. The next stage is today \u2013 Pentecost \u2013 when the disciples were gathered together in the upper room, waiting for the Holy Spirit to descend on them. This is the final revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Old Testament, we have the eternal God unknowable to us \u2013 and that is still true. God the Father cannot be known by us. We cannot put Him in our brains \u2013 He is far above us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, we know Him as Jesus Christ. He is close to us.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the final stage of the revelation is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit within us. God is not only beyond everything, He is not only someone we can see, He is someone deep within us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one theologian puts it, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod is beyond all things we could think or express, yet closer to us than our own heart\u201d. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is God\u2019s revelation to humanity \u2013 and we are the heirs of this revelation. We have received the Holy Spirit in baptism and chrismation. God has moved from His eternal throne all the way into our souls, even though we don\u2019t deserve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now God is fully revealed to the world. There is nothing left for God to teach us from an external perspective. The only thing we have to do is find him. And we cannot say \u201cyou\u2019re too far away\u201d or \u201cwe don\u2019t know you\u201d. The disciples and Jews saw Jesus walking on earth, but He is closer to us than He was to the disciples because He is within our soul through the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that works within us for our salvation. It\u2019s the Spirit within us that pushes us to pray and convicts us when we sin. And when we pray, we pray by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father. The Holy Trinity, altogether, is working for our salvation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So today we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Every action and word must be infused with the Holy Spirit. If you are not sowing the Spirit to the people around you, you are giving them emptiness. If you\u2019re a servant in the church, and are empty of the Holy Spirit, your service is futile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may do good things for people and help them. Many people help those who are sick, which is a good thing. But what are you doing to make a change eternally? You may ease their pain for a short period of time, but are you easing their eternal pain? Are you giving them eternal glory? Are you giving them anything with substance or meaning? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t have the Holy Spirit, whatever good you do will never be eternal. It will only ever be temporary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about it like a drinking vessel. You could have a drinking vessel that is beautiful and ornaments your house, but when you come to drink from it, it\u2019s empty. Or you could have an ugly jug, cracked, hardly holding itself together, and when you drink from that drinking vessel, it has an outcome. It gives you something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what we have to remember. If we are empty of the Holy Spirit, no matter how good we look, no matter how much we do, we are giving emptiness. We are giving from our own deficiency. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the Holy Spirit guiding our actions, we are like zombies. We can move and do things but there\u2019s no life within us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just in our service. Think about your actions when you raise your own children. When you raise them, you have to raise them with the Spirit. In everything you do, give them the Spirit. Every time you speak to them, when you pray together, when you discipline them, feed them the Spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spend so much time making sure we have enough food or clothing so we can provide for them materially, but that doesn\u2019t mean anything. They will only remember if you fed them the Spirit when they looked at you and saw that you had something special, eternal and transmitted it to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Seraphim of Sarov said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAcquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Just one person can acquire the Holy Spirit and thousands will be saved. With the Holy Spirit, twelve uneducated fishermen changed an entire empire without lifting a sword. With the Holy Spirit, a poor young virgin gave birth to the Saviour of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the purpose of our lives \u2013 to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Any church that is not filled with the Holy Spirit is dead. You can do all the services you want, but it is a dead church. And being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn\u2019t start with the priest or the hierarchy. If every member of the church was filled and overflowing with the Holy Spirit, then the whole country would be changed just from that church. If every single person made that their goal in life, the whole world would be changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this day of Pentecost, let\u2019s not forget our purpose on this earth \u2013 to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that it overflows. Let\u2019s follow the example of the disciples. First, they gathered together in the upper room, waiting patiently for the Spirit to descend upon them. We need to drink daily, hourly, minutely, from the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time we lift up our eyes to heaven or bow down on our knees to pray, this is us drinking daily. When we fill ourselves up and then interact with the people around us, it\u2019ll naturally be transmitted to them. Even without words, as St Francis of Assisi said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPreach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t always need to use words to preach God \u2013 we just need to be filled with the Spirit. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, in this season of Pentecost now, remember that God, who is beyond our comprehension and above anything we can begin to imagine is also deep within our souls \u2013 our whole purpose in life is to discover and find him there. Glory be to God forever Amen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Sermon Here <\/a><\/p>\n

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Adapted from a sermon by Fr Sam Fanous Passage: John 15:26 – 16:15 Today is the beautiful Feast of Pentecost \u2013 the Feast where the apostles and disciples went out and converted the whole world. If you look at the whole history of humanity within the Bible, you can see that it is a process … Continue reading “The Feast of Pentecost”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[316,56,11,337,294],"class_list":["post-6488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-blogs","tag-holy-50","tag-holy-fifty","tag-holy-spirit","tag-pentecost","tag-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6488"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6604,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488\/revisions\/6604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}