Pentecost, Year A, 2020

By the Revd. Dr. D. Stuart Dunnan
Saint James Chapel

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20.21-22)

This may come as a surprise to you, but I have never preached at the Baccalaureate Eucharist before.  I was saving it for my retirement.  But when I considered how challenging this “virtual Eucharist” would be for us and how difficult this past trimester has been for you as a class, I thought that I should claim the occasion to speak to you.

I also took it as a very good sign that your graduation fell on the Feast of Pentecost, as I have always thought that the messages of Pentecost fit with the themes of Commencement particularly well, and I wanted to point these out to you.

Finally, Mr. Haubenreiser generously shared with me the text of the talk he has prepared for you, and I thought that it would be the perfect Commencement Address.  I had originally asked my college friend John Cahill, who is the lead director of American Airlines and the former CEO of Pepsi Bottling, to speak at your Commencement, but he is, as you can imagine, very busy right now.

So, what is Pentecost?

Pentecost is a great feast of the Christian year, which comes eight Sundays after Easter, counting Easter as the first, and it is when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, inspiring the disciples to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ, continuing his ministry and his witness in the world.  Put another way, it is when the nouns by which Christians know God – Father and Son – become the verb:  the Spirit of God empowering and directing our lives.

In the passage we just heard read from the Book of Acts, we hear the coming of the Holy Spirit described as “a sound like the rush of a violent wind,” and also as “tongues, as of fire” appearing over each of the disciples, giving them the power to speak so that they can be understood in languages other than their own.  (Acts 2.1-12)

The Spirit is described as a force active in the world, a wind, a fire, calling those who would follow Christ after his resurrection into the purpose or the will of God, and giving them the courage to challenge the crowd and change the world.

Describing this phenomenon more deeply with his usual psychological insight, St. Paul reminds us in his First Letter to the Corinthians that the Spirit uses us, each of us individually through our own particular combination of gifts to perform the miracles of God:  “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given through the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (12.4-7)

Finally, St. John reminds us in his gospel that this is the gift of the risen Christ to all who would follow him: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit.”

We hear therefore at Pentecost a great message of unity and commissioning, a gathering of the people of God, empowering us to do his works and to perform his miracles, each of us with our own histories and personalities and our own particular combination of gifts.  And when you think about it, this is exactly what has happened for you here - to the extent that you have allowed it – during your time at Saint James.

Because you have gathered here from all over the world and all over the nation, and have been loved here, taught, challenged, and encouraged here to find your gifts and develop them, and to appreciate the gifts of others, to grow close to each other and to learn from each other, as you live in community together.

So, I ask you:

Did you make friends here with people different from yourselves?  People from other countries, cultures, or religions, or with different family or social backgrounds?  People with other interests and gifts?

And did you come to love them, and they to love you?  Did you go to their games and watch their performances, listen to their arguments and understand where they were coming from, appreciate their perspectives, their experiences and opinions?  Did you come to know them as you came to know yourself, just as Jesus commands us to do?

And did you find within yourself your own hopes and dreams, your own strengths and talents, and did you pursue these as fully as you could here?  Did you really challenge yourself beyond what you could do and even ask for help from all the teachers and coaches, teammates and classmates who were here for you?

And do you leave this place that much more empowered, inspired, encouraged to bring your gifts to the world and to perform your miracles for God?

Because the Holy Spirit was here with you every step of your journey here, challenging and directing you to grow in love:  out towards others, into the future, beyond what you know or is comfortable for you into what you do not know and where you are not comfortable - so that you can learn and improve, lead and serve.

And if you can look back and see those moments when you failed to do this, then note them and try not to make those same mistakes in college and beyond.  Lose the complacency, the laziness, the prejudice, and the fear.

But also look at those moments when you did stretch yourself here and made that new friend or found that new truth or discovered that new passion.  I am sure that you grew as a student here, as an athlete, as a musician, as an artist, or as an actor, but I hope that you grew as a person and as a disciple as well.

Because God has given each of you your own particular combination of talents and gifts, and your own journeys so far and to come, and he gives to all of you his one most important gift:  the gift of the Holy Spirit as wind and fire to bring his love for you – through you, within you, using you – as light shining in the darkness.

Amen.